--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Beckwith, Frank collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 3 published: 1928-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Frank Beckwith, “Earth Rumbles in Millard,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 3 (January 1928): 222–228." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3103unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3103unse start_page: 222 end_page: 228 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3103unse publication_year: 1928 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1928, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Earth Rumbles in Millard Earth Rumbles in Millard The Wrangling of the Mountains By Frank Beckwith The Wild Story THERE'S an active volcano over west — we saw it! . Yes, saw it explode. And about eighteen minutes later we heard the earth-rumbles come bumpin' along." That was the start of the wild story. It spread like wild- fire. It echoed on everybody's lips. Excited groups in the pool rooms discussed it. Even the school teachers got it. It was flashed from person to person with that alacrity which always accom- panies the telling of important news. Nor did the story lose in the re-telling. Questioned in detail, the narrator said: "We were sitting on the edge of the precipice of Swazey Peak, lookin' beyond White Valley toward the Confusion range, when suddenly the earth right under us popped like a big cannon going off. And I'll tell you it rocked us! Say, I never was so scared in my life! The way we scampered off the edge of that precipice was nowise slow! It took the sound of the eruption eighteen minutes to reach us, it was that far off, for we timed the smoke jet with earth rumbles." That started the story in the fall of 1926. Five deer hunters from the little hamlet of Abraham had gone west to the House Mountains; they had no success hunting, so all decided to climb the nearest high point, which we locally call Swazey Peak. It breaks off abruptly on the west with a sheer precipice of many hundreds of feet — an anticline with a slip fault. They were sitting right close to the edge of that drop when suddenly — "POP!" went the mountain, giving them the scare of their lives! In their strained and highly wrought condition, they declared they felt a temblor,* Westward with straining eyes they gazed for proof of the volcanic eruption. There it was! — a column of smoke, far distant! Imagination lent wings, and that smoke column took on the appearance of puffs, a veritable eruption then in progress; and a second noise occurring after an interval, they said, "After eighteen minutes the earth rumble carried the sound to us." That's one of the ways the mysterious noise of the earth- rumbles of Millard county occurs. The procedure varies greatly. On this occasion, it was a sharp bang like a cannon going off. At ♦Western U. S. — an earthquake — Ed. EARTH RUMBLES IN MILLARD 223 other times it is a crunching, grinding noise, as of rock on rock, Again, it manifests itself as a dull underground thud, like a distant miner's blast set off. And at another time the sound is most likened to the clinking of steel shoes of heavy work-horses scrambling up hill, their sharp-shod hoofs rattling the loose shale. All these are variations of one and the same thing — the earth- rumbles of Millard county. When the rumor was at its height, catching the enthusiasm of the occasion, and not to be among the last to see so wondrous a sight, I took in hand a camera and a high-power telescope, and with two friends rode fifty miles to the House Range and climbed a peak (and a hard task it was, too, in that hurry of expectancy). Breathless, tired near to exhaustion, we lay upon the tip of the peak, waiting and watching. The high-power telescope disclosed a brush fire still raging, fifty miles away. But the silence was disappointing; for that day, the quarrelling mountains had signed a truce, and not a murmur of dissatisfaction was heard. Earth cried not aloud from any annoyance. Experience of Others Nineteen years ago, William H. Bassett. now president of the Delta Local Farm Bureau, deputy game warden, and farmer of prosperity, was then herding sheep in a nook called "The Cove," in the Confusion range, the next westward from Swazey Peak. He and his dogs were lying quietly on the leeward side of a little ledge, after a storm which had laid about a foot of fresh snow on the ground. Soon his camp-tender joined him, and Bassett put down the book he was reading to converse with his visitor. All was calm in that perfect stillness of winter. A blanket of soft snow covered the earth; a low sky hung over to hold sound, should there be any. Suddenly there was a crushing, grating sound, as of a party of horsemen scrambling hurriedly up the hill to the ledge they were on. It sounded as if the steel-shod hoofs of horses were clink- ing against the stones, and as the weight of the heavy animals dislodged the loose rocks, they crunched, one on the other. The soft blanket of snow dampened the noise; the low clouds held it oppressively on them. The noise lasted about four seconds. Bassett's companion, Frank Huggart, was speechless with fear. "Heavens! I'm for moving out of here," finally ejaculated the terror-stricken man when he found tongue; "that's Gabriel's last trump, and the world's comin' to an end!" 224 IMPROVEMENT ERA Before the noise started, Huggart's horse had been quietly stand- ing, reins dropped in the snow, nearly dozing. With the mysterious noise it started in alarm, threw up its head, with eyes big, nostrils dilated, and ears pricked forward. Every nerve was tense with ap- prehensive fear. Its flanks began to quiver. With no further ceremony, that horse which had been trained, and which could be trusted to stand motionless for hours, bolted the place, half sliding and half scrambling off the hill, so hurried was his going. Neither man commanded, WHOA! — for they were spellbound and speechless! The dogs that had been lying in the snow sprang to their feet snarling and growling, tails between their legs, hair on their necks bristling, in fear of the unknown. The sheep on the flat below the men moved uneasily, began to mill, and soon were in confusion. That's Bassett's experience with the earth-rumbles of Millard county. A Diary Speaks J. J. Watson of Ibex, where the House Mountains approach the Wah Wah Mountains near the far tip of Sevier Lake, toward the Beaver county line, keeps a diary. That diary shows that on Jan. 14, 1911, the noises were the loudest he had ever heard. His son, Thos. L. Watson, was with his horse in the Lost Spanish Mine canyon; again, here was another animal trained to stand motionless for long hours, whenever the reins were thrown to the ground. When the bombardment of noises began, the horse trotted out of the canyon in alarm; nor did he stop until well down on the big flat below, where he stood as long as all was quiet; but with the recurrence of the noises, he would toss his head, and try to face the direction of the noise. In this he was unsuccessful, for the noise comes from here and there and everywhere. Round and round the bewildered horse turned. Tom Watson says: "That year you could feel the tremble of them. A big stone on a shale cliff was shaken loose and crashed down, bumping and thumping. I can show you the scar the thing made as it bounded and ploughed down the hill." The Awe of the Thing Professor Orton, author of texts on geology, says: "No familiarity with earthquakes enables one to laugh during the shock, or even at the subterranean thunders, which sound like the clinking of chains in the realm of Pluto. All animated nature is terror- stricken. The horse trembles in his stall. The cows moo low in EARTH RUMBLES IN MILLARD 225 a plaintive and melancholy manner, and the dog sends forth an unearthly yell." You will neither laugh nor be flippant should you ever hear the earth-rumbles of Millard county. A Tax Collector Hears Them A. W. Phillips, of Oasis, formerly of Beaver, was deputy tax collector of that county for two terms. It was his duty to go into those west mountains, and when a sheep herd came out of south Millard, to tax the sheep in Beaver county. He tells me the noises of 1910 and 1911, and again in 1914 and 1915, were strong enough to rattle the windows of a sheep wagon. An Old Prospector Judge Jerome Tracy heard these earth-rumbles. He is a re- tired mine-prospector who has roamed all the metal-bearing hills of the West, and who drifted into Milford thirty-six years ago when that now thriving town consisted of a few tents, one central barber shop, a blacksmith shop, and a saloon, all under the one roof, and all run by the same man. Judge Tracy says he has heard the earth-rumbles when only a few miles west of Delta, near the Hot Springs, which is this side of the House Mountains, showing the extent of travel of those mysterious noises. He first thought them to be miner's blasts until his practiced and trained judgment told him there was no regularity about them. Usually the miner takes the noon hour, or after- quitting time to fire off his shots; the boom above ground, or the dull subterranean thud of those shots below, will come with regu- larity on these two occasions. But the earth-rumbles of Millard occur in no orderly manner. Judge Tracy thinks the noises are produced by large quantities of superheated water, steam, or gas, which at intervals in huge subterranean caverns throw off the superincumbent weight, and thump far under ground, much on the principle of a geyser eruption. For the great cavern of Lehman's Cave, miles in extent, is only distant a range of mountains to the west. Fish Springs Flat is a hollow, reverberating sounding-board, a crust of earth suspended over a lake of water. Run a herd of horses over that sounding board and the noise of it is almost deafening, and the sway and jiggle of the tramping herd will make a rider following behind the herd afraid that his own mount will burst a foot through. And in the Con- fusion range (justly named) there are caves, and caverns, and open- ings into the depths of earth everywhere, to the utter confusion of the onlooker. 226 IMPROVEMENT ERA I Hear Them In the fall of 1926, County Prosecuting Attorney Dudley D. Crafts took me out to Fossil Mountain, where petrified remains of primitive life, as far distant geologically as the Cambrian period, may be found. I was up on a mountain, and he in a gulch, prone on his stomach, moistening the imprint of a most delicate and tiny fossilized fern on a stone. Gently, as if just oozing into being, there came a noise. "What was that?" I called to Dudley. "Don't know. May be a wagon. Watch the road." I was up where I could see the road for miles. Not a thing in sight. So I called back: "No wagon in sight. Is that an earth- rumble?" "May be so. Listen for another." I jotted down the time, and we stood expectantly, straining every nerve to catch the next one. If we moved for ease it was noiselessly. In twenty-one minutes, by the watch, there came an- other, but a sharper noise. Then in eighteen minutes there came a loud blow, or report. The first noise just oozed into being; the second a trifle more intense; but this third one sharp and distinct. There was no telling from what direction they came. They seemed just to happen that was all. The sound didn't seem to come from here or from there, but from all around, in and about the place where we stood; — from anywhere and everywhere the noise melted around us. Very peculiar. Then later, in fifteen minutes, came a duller sound; eleven minutes after that the faintest, most delicate, slightest noise possible of perception, which was just barely wafted to the ear, scarcely audible. And that was my experience with the earth-rumbles of Millard county. Scientists Gather In 1914 Professor O. E. Meinzer, of the U. S. Geologic Survey, with headquarters at Washington. D. C, came out in a party of five, and spent nearly three weeks in that region, studying geologic con- ditions, and investigating the origin of these rumbles. He returned to the spot again in 1915. "The minor noises," he says, "referring to a knob or knoll slip- ping, definitely located as coming from a specific knoll, knob, or mountain side, may be attributable to the slipping of shale upon EARTH RUMBLES IN MILLARD 227 shale. Accumulation of winter water may percolate between layers of shale, which has a tendency to lubricate them, as it were; if they are on a dip, or incline, or in unsteady equilibrium, a slip may occur. Observation shows that land-slides and earth-slides are fre- quent in that material." Watson says that in the winter of 1910 and 1911, a mountain top slipped off and moved four hundred feet. A. H. Thiessen, former weather observer for Salt Lake City, was also once an interested visitor to the seat of the mysterious earth- rumbles. The Wrangling Mountains As to the heavier, deeper, more mysterious earth rumblings, their cause may be attributed to another origin. The altitude of Delta is 4,649 feet; westward the auto climbs steadily up the slope to Marjum Pass in the House Mountains, itself at an altitude of 6,400 feet. The elevation of Notch Peak is 9,725 feet. Then from that height of limestone there is a sheer drop to the floor level of White Valley — all at once. This is a geologic fault. The lower part of this precipitous drop is broken by the intrusion of a granite mass, which leans at an incline against Notch Peak. This is commonly spoken of by prospectors as "a granite- limestone contact." The sheer drop, the almost vertical, unbroken precipice, is nearly 3,000 feet high; against the tall mountain, in uncertain equilibrium, rests this mass of granite, which had intruded itself there. Notch Peak resents this intrusion. "Here! Rest on yourself awhile." say the limestone, nudging the granite. 228 IMPROVEMENT ERA "Tush, tush," replies the intruder; "you're always grumbling and complaining." "Well, get off anyway," says the tall one; "I'm tired of having you lean against me. Off with you, now!" And with that the tall one tries again to nudge the leaner off. And there you have the origin of the mysterious earth-rumbles of Millard county. It is the quarrelling of wrangling mountains which you hear, their talk as they bicker back and forth, together with the noise of an occasional jostle when impatience asserts itself. And wouldn't you resent an intrusive familiarity with a little talk now and then, and a nudge or two beside? Geologic Findings Geologic science concurs in the statement that "crustal move- ments in the earth's rock systems are continuing at the present time." As contraction takes place, it is accompanied by movement; the layers shift to accommodate themselves to a change in their relative position. The coasts of California show marked changes; so rapid are move- ments there, that temblors, earth cracks, and even severe quakes follow. These attest crustal movements. It is no playful flight of an uncurbed imagination to assert that the earth-rumbles of Millard county are the grumblings of two mountains — a jostle to dislodge a leaner, and the sharp words which follow. The three-thousand-foot precipice which now exists may have been brought about by earth-movements continued over vast periods of geologic time, no one of which movements was more energetic or more noisy than those now heard in that region. For as Doctor Frederick J. Pack says, "The country was lifted by great vertical forces almost as gently as a mother lifts a sleeping child. * * * The uplift, however, was accompanied by the develop- ment of great north-south fractures. Intermittent slippings of the crustal blocks adjacent to these fractures gave rise to the almost parallel series of faults which are known to exist in the State, par- ticularly in the western half. The Wasatch fault and the Hurricane fault are conspicuous examples." The precipice of Notch Peak is another north-south fault, caused by upward movements, — accompanied, obviously, by inter- mittent slippings and noises. Thus our Millard county earth-rumbles are accounted for within the ken of geologic inquiry, — deep-seated movements of rock upon rock, a continuance of crustal movement as the planet contracts, taking ages to effect a noticeable uplift, but never completely ceasing.