Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, May 8, 1920, Page 9

SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1920 PAGE NINE INDEPENDENCE ROCK --IT’S HISTORY AND ROMANCE Masonic History in Wyoming Linked with that of Famous Rock on Sweetwater, Where Emigrants Rested on Trail (BY A. J. MOKLER.) On the Fourth of July, 1862, there were nearly a thousand men, women and children congregated at Indepena- ence Rock, the most of whom were traveling toward the setting sun, seek- ing fame and fortune, but not a few of these thousand souls who were there were on their way back from the new and wild country, retracing their steps to the, “settlements,” where the hard- ships were not so many, where’ hostile Indians were not to be found, and where Ife was more secure. Independence Rock is in Natrona) County, about forty-nine miles southwest from the City of Casper. It was the resting place for the emigrants in the early days, and it was here they all stopped for a few days to repair their wagons, rest their horses, mutes and oxen, mend and wash their clothing, administer to the sick and weary, some- times to Dury their dead, and to do such other things that they could not do while traveling over the rough and rugged country in a “prairie schooner.”* When the travelers who were headed for the Far West, that is to say, the Oregon, country, reached Independence Rock, they estimated that they were half way between Westport, or Independ- ence, near where Kansas City is now located, and the Pacific Coast, the dis- tance being about 2,000 miles from their starting point to their destina- tion. On the particujr day mentioned, which will have been fifty-eight years ago this coming Fourth of July, among the hundreds of people who had gath- ered at this interesting and historical spot on the desert, there were about twenty men present who could and did prove themselves as Master Masons, and it was decided by these men to hold a Masonic meeting on the summit of the rock, this being the first time that a Masonic meeting was to be opened and closed in form in what is aged, except by the smell of the smoke. This highly-prized Holy Book is now in the possesion of ‘erand Secretary Joseph M. Lowndes at Lander, and no doubt always will, as it should, remain the property of the Grand Lodgé of Wyoming. The writer had occasion to yisit In- dependence Rock several times during the summer and autumn of 1919 in con- nection with sdme incidénts he is pre- paring for his ‘History of Natrona County," and he is positive that he lo- cated the recess, or depression, on the summit of the rock where this meeting of Masons was held fifty-eight years ago, and one evening while standing in this depression the thought occurred to him that to hold another Masonic meet- ing on this same spot would be one of the most impressive meetings that gould ever be held. The matter was brought before the Masonic grand lodge meeting held in Casper on Octo-! ber 8-9, 1919, and many of the mem-| bers of that body enthusiastically ap- proved the proposed meeting, declaring that they would not fail to attend, and it was their opinion that it would un- doubtedly be one of the largest gath- erings of Masons ever held in Wyo- ming. Later on, at a meeting of the local lodge, the grand master was requested to grant a special dispensation to hold a meeting on Independence Rock on July 4th, 1920. This dispensation being granted, Messrs. A. J. Mokler, L. A. Reed and J. J. Svendsen were selected as a committee to make appropriate ar- rangements for the memorable event,| and while all the details are not yet perfected, it is proposed that the occa- ,#ion shall be not only a Masonic affair, but the Fourth of July as well will be celebrated on this historical rock, and the wives and daunted of all Masons, together with the city’ and county of- ficers, will be invited to attend the cele- bration. The beautiful Sweetwater River 1+ hard by, and it is un ideal spot for camping and picnicking, and quite a number of ,people contemplate going out the day before to enjoy the outing, as well as to avoid the fatigue of a jong drive in one day, and it is pro- posed by this “advance guard!’ to take with them some fireworks and illumi- nate the rock and the sky in that vicin- ity as it was never illuminated before. ‘There are others who will go out on the morning of the Fourth and remain); over until the next day, and they will) also celebrate the day and the.evening in a ‘manner befitting the occasion. The Masonic meeting will be held promptly at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in the depression on the summit of the rock; which, of course, will be attended only by those who can prove themselves as Master Masons. The lddge will be opened, the dispensation will be’ read, the charter of the!local lodge displayed, the’ master will state the object of th meeting, and an ‘address 1 be by Hon. William A. Riner of Cheyenne, but on account of the “imited time no: other addresses will be made, but a bronze tablet, with an appropriate in- scription, will be cemented into the; rock near. the station of the worshipful master with impressive ceremonies. | Not only will prominent men and! Masons from the State of Wyoming be) present on this occasion, but a number from other states will be there. Auto- mopolis, and at least 100 autos from} Casper will be there, and all the Ma- sonic brethren who come to this city provided for. The drive from Casper to Independ- ence Rock will require between three and four hours. The roads are good, flags will be stationed along the route in order that strangers or those who have never been there may not lose INDEPENDENCE ROCK, SOUTHW: address of the day, than even the most pavement. ribbonlike through the verdant prairies, amid the profusion of spring flowers, With grass so plentiful that the animals reveled in its abundance 4nd game everywhere greeted the hunter's rifle, and finally, with pure water in the streams, the traveler sped his way with a feeling of joy and exhiliratisn. “But not so when the prairies be- @ame dry and parched, the road filled with stifling dust, the stream beds mere dry ravines, or carrying only alkaline water which could not be used, the game all gone to more hospitable sec- tions, and the summer sun pouring down its heat with torrid intensity. It Was then that the trail became a high- way of desolation, strewn with aban- doned property, the skeletons of horses, mules and oxen, and alas! too often with freshly made mounds and _ head- boards that told the pitiful tale of suf- ferings too great to be endured. “If the trail was the scene of ro- mance, adventure, pleasure and excite- ment, so it was in every mile of its course by human misery, tragedy and death. Over much of its length the! trail is now abandoned, but In many! places it is not yet effaced from the soil and may not be for centuries.{ There are few more impressive sights than portions of this old highway to- day. It still lies there upon the prairie, deserted by the traveler, an everlasting memorial-of the human tide which once filled it to overflowing. Nature herself has helped to perpetuate this memorial, for the prairie winds, year by year, carve the furrow more deéply and the wild sunflower blossoms along its course, as if in silent memory of those who sank beneath its burdens. “But if the trail, as a continuous highway of travel, has ceased to exist, the time will come, we may confidently believe, when it will be reoccupied, never to be abandoned again. It is so occupied at the present time over a perfect asphalt large portion of its length. Railroads practically follow the old line from Independence to Casper, Wyoming, some fifty miles east of Independence Rock; and from Bear River on the Utah-Wyoming line to the mouth of the Columbja. The time {s not distant when the intermediate space Will he oc- cupied, and ‘possibly a continuous and unbroken movement of trains over the entire line may some day follow. In a future still more remote there may be realized a project which is even now being agitated, of building a mag- nificent national road along this line as a memorial highway which shall serve the future and commemorate the Over such roads, winding; EST OF The services, with the exception of the opening and clos‘ng of the lodge, will be open to the public and will be pre- ceded by the unveiling of an old “Oregon Trail” marker by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Those who attend the event will carry a basket dinner and will be free to join in any kind of a Fourth of July | boys follow them, the docile and saga- celebration they choose in keeping with the day. yet soft enough to be easier to the feet? ighteen miles out you pass a monu ment, which, from the inscription, would indicate that.it is on the old Oregon trail, but the Oregon trail is far tg the north, on the opposite side of the river. The Jim Bridger trafl, which was seldom traveled, and long every trace of which has been obliter- ated, was in this vicinity, The board of county comissioners some day will move this monument to Independence Rock, which is on the Oregon trail, and the proper location for the marker. After passing numerous ranches along Bates Creek you cross the Platte River on the government bridge. This bridge was built by the reclamation service in connection with the Path- finder irrigation project. Near here you can see the huge cleft in the rock at Alcova, where the rapid-running stream in gountless ages cut a canyon ‘Mthrqugh ne several ‘hundred feet deep. At Alcova, about a mile off from the road to the left, 1s the wonderful hot springs, where the hot Svater comes boiling out of the rocks as though it was heated from the flames of a fur- nace. fee Twelve miles west from Alcova and only a short distance to the south is the wonderful Pathfinder dam and res- ervoir, which required the federal gov- ernment five years to build, employing the best engineering talent obtainable, dozens of skilled mechanics and several hundred laboring men, together with machinery that cost an immense for- tune, This most wonderful piece of masonry cost more than a million and a half dollars, and ‘time should be taken to visit it. Traveling about ten miles from Path- finder dam you view Independence Rock, and to the west, to the south and the north the whole country is of wild and varied scenery, dominated by immense mountains, rearing their dis- tant grandeurs and originality of views, all of which fills the traveler with awe and delight. ‘ Independence Rock is an isolated mass of black granite, nearly one mile in length from north to south, more than one-half mile in width from east to west, 193 feet In helght at the north end) and 167 feet high at the south end. It resembles a large bowl turned bottom-side upg standing out on the «plain, nearsthe foothills of the Rocky Mountain range. Sweetwater River, one of the prettiest streams in the whole western country, flows im- mediately to the south of the rock. A fair estimate of the number of people who have visited this historic spot is given at 350,000. Explorers geologists, authors, naturalists, men of all professions and in all walks of past.” For greater comfort and the saving of time it is not advisable to go over. eling being the southeast side of the’ Platte River. The scenery is just as| beautiful and interesting, and there is, trail leading to some other place than your desired destination. Just outside the city Imits to the right of the road you pass the Standard) and Midwest (refineries, where 3,000) men are employed and the plants are| in operation every twenty-four hours of life, who traveled several thousand miles hy team and wagon, being on the road for months, and suffering many this route on this octasion, the better| hardships, have stopped at this spot to from L ie, eee: TRE AG theetabad "Ther. road, the shorter route and easier trav-|rest and refresh themselves. and then pressed on to the Far West to found states and povulous cities, but this spot has been left practically unchanged, desiring to make the trip will be amply|"®chance whatever of picking up a'and still holds, and no doubt will al- ways hold, its ancient solitude, except upon rare and special occasions. The Indians came to this rock more than a century ago to paint their pic- ture writing on its smooth surface. | There is no record of the exact date) of the first white men to pass this way, PER—Made famous as a resting place for emigrants on the long western trail and the scene on July 4, 1862, of first rezularly conducted Masonic lodge meeting in Wyoming, the anniversafy of which this year will be celebrated with memorial services in which hundreds of Masons from over the state and country will take part, William A. Riner of Choyenne, high Mason and prominent lawyer, will deliver the since} the surrounding country,” ‘says, “one of the trains form a line three-quarters of a mile in length; some of the teamsters ride upon the front of their wagons and some march beside their teams, scat tered along the line companies of wom- iJen are taking exercise on foot; they gather boquets of rare and beautiful} flowers that line the way; next come a band of horses; two or three men and s]cious animals scarce needing this atten- tion, for they have learned to follow in the rear of the wagons, and know gréat register of the desert; the names|that at noon that they will be allowed of all the travelers who have passed by|to graze and rest. Their dcnowledge of are here to be read, written in coarse | time seems as accurate as of the place characters; mine figures among them|they are to occupy in the line. Noth- as the first priest to visit this remote|ing of the moving panamora, smooth spot. We cut our names on the south/and orderly as it appears, has more at- side of the rock with the initials (I.|/traction for the eye than the vast |H. S), which we wish to see engraved] square column in which all colors are} everywhere.” mingled, moving here slowly and there John C. Fremont, with Kit Carson | briskly, as impelled by horsemen riding as his guide, was here on the ist of| fiercely in front and rear. But the pic- August, 1842, but remained only a few|ture in its grandeur, its wonderful hours. He continued his journey up| Mingling of colors and distinctness of the Sweetwater, crossed the Continental | detail, is forgotton in contemplation of Divide, camped on the west side of|the singular people who give it life South Pass, and in due time approached | 2nd animation. No other race of men the loftiest part of the Wind River} With the means at their command chain, and on August 15, with great} would undertake so great a journey; difficulty and danger, ascended the high-] none save these could successfully per- est pinnacle of the range, named it|form it, with no previous preparation, “Fremont Peark,” and after remaining | relying only on the fertility of thelr own on the summit of this peak for an] invention to devise the means to over- hour, returned to his camp in the eve-|come each danger and difficulty as it ning, and the next morning commenced] @rose. They have undertaken to per- to retrace his steps, and again arrived | form with slow-moving oxen a journey at Independence Rock on the evening | 2f 2,000 miles. The way lies over track- of August 22. It was on this date that| less wastes, wide and deep rivers, rug- he chiseled his name, with the emblem | sed and lofty mountains, and is beset of Christianity, on the rock, regarding] With hostile savages. Yet, whether it which he says: were a déep river with no tree on its “Here, not unmindful of the custom|>@nks a rugged defile where even a of the early travelers and explorers in loose horse could not pass, % hill too our country, I engraved on the rock of | Steep for him to climb, or a threatened the Far West the symbol of the Chris-]#ttack of an enemy, they are always tian faith. Among the thickly inscribed | fund ready and equal to the occasion names, I made on the hard granite the|®"d always conquerors. May we not impression of a large cross, deeply en-|C#ll them men of destiny? They are graved, which I covered with a black People changed in no essential particu- preparation of India rubber, well calcu-j /@rs ffm their ancestors, who have fol- lated to resist the influence of wind and | followed closely on the footsteps of the rain. It stands amidst the names of|Teceding savage, from the. Atlantic sea- many who have long since found their] board to the great valley of the Missis- way to the grave, and for whom the] Sippi.” . huge rock is a giant gravestone.” While in camp four days, on the There are some people who claim to|route in 1852, Ezra Meeker says he saw have segn Fremont’s name and the|S° by them 1,600 wagons, with a com- black cross, “the symbol of Christian|P@ny of 8,000 men, women and children, faith,” (which he engraved on the|10,000 draught animals and 30,000 loose rock, but after many hours. of|Stock, and he knew by the inscribed diligent search through hundreds of|4dates on Independence Rock that there names I gave up hope of finding it,j Were wagons full 300 miles ahead of and came to the conclusion that Col.|them, and that the throng had con- Coutant was correct when he wrote in|tniued to pass the river more than a his “History of Wyoming” that ‘on|month after they had crossed, so that July 4, 1847, there was a grand celebra-|!t does not require a stretch of the tion at this rock by more than # thou-| imagination to say that the column sand people, who were on their way to] was 500 miles long, and like Sheridan's Oregon and California>- During the day,| March to the sea, 50,000 strong. the enthusiastié American citizens During the evenings the young peo- loaded old wagon hubs with powder, to! ple who ctmped there for the night which they fastened a fuse, and exploded | often’ enjoyed a dance by moonlight in them in the crevices of the rock. By] the well-beaten area fronting the rock;| this means a large plece of the granite,| others administered to the sick, whilst weighing many tons, was detached and] others performed the sad duty of lay- turned over on the ground, and I have been of the opinion that the Fremont cross is on the detached piece of rock and was thus covered from view.” Fremont's name and the cross, which he chiseled on the rock, and is undoubt- edly forever hidden from the eve of man, was destined to effect his political fortunes after he returned to the “states.” He was a candidate for the presidency in 1856, being the first can- didate the Republican party had nomi- nated for the nation’s chief executive. He was bitterly opposed by the Know Nothing party, and as religious rancor was very strong in those days, his opponents charged that he was a mem- ber of the Roman Catholic Church, and they offered as proof of their charge ing away a loved one in the lonely spot who had succumbed to the hardships, privations and disease and died because of the lack of proper nourishment and being unable to secure medical atten- tion, the mute evidence of which is even to this day discernable by the many de- pressions in Mother in close proximity to the rock. The small headhoarde however, which were always placed BY the head of the grave, witn name and ; age carved with a pocket knife, have Anniversary of First Lodge Meeting in Wyoming to Be Marked by Memorial in Which Hundreds Will Join long since decayed, and the dust has been scattered by the four winds. “The spot will always be a place of pilgrimage for some, ht to be for many,” says Dr. who hold in reverence the spirit of their pioneer forbears. For all of us it has been an ebiding interest, not only as a landmark on a route of travel, but as a monu- ment associated with a grorous epoch in our country’s development—a re- minder of the eventful years when an army of Americans; 300,000 strong, marched Westward Ho! to Oregon to make good the title of the United States to the Pacific territory, and to add to the national domain the coun- try which ¥ then Oregon and now is Oregon, Washington and Idaho. “One cannot grasp or hi an ade- quate conception of this rock out on the desert, with names carved on it and no sign of life, until one has been there, walked around it, felt of it and traced with their fingers the names that were carved there more than three score years ago and then climbed to the top of it and obtained a sweep of the coun- try along the line of the old Oregon trail.” When this meeting is held on Inde- pendence Rock on the Fourth of July, 1920, there will again be dancing in the moonlight by the young people, on the “well-beaten area” at the front of the rock, old-time songs will be sung, there will be miisic of all kinds, the old, old stories will be retold, you will walk around the rock, feel of it, trace your fingers on the letters that were chiseled there more than two generations ago, and you will engrave your own name and the date on the hard granite; you will climb to the top of the rock and obtain & sweep of the country, a coun- try unlike no other country in this wide, wide world; a country over whic! dwells the desert silence, not the silen of the peaks and mountains in the dis- tance, nor the silence of the calm on the waters, but it is the silence of inter- stellar space. Your view covers a land of wide spaces, of simple, strongly- marked features, of color and variety, which is clearified and all the more mysterious because it is so clear. It is beautiful with a beauty that no other land has known. —SSSe " The position of the Senate. majority on the Covenant of the League of Na- {tons is a form of National Protertion Republic: / Aches, pains, nervousness, diffi- culty in urinating, often mean serious disorders. The world’s standard remedy for kidney, liver, bladder and uric acid troubles— GOLD MEDAL ramcmrs OU bring quick relief and often’ ward off idly diseases. Known as the national vemedy of Holland for more than 200 years. All druggists, in three sires but Rev. Samuel Parker, who was there their way, the scenery is beautiful and/the day during the whole year ‘round.| you pass by many intensely interesting, and historical spots. There are two} routes. If you care tu go over the old Oregon trail on the northwest side of} the river, you cross the bridge about a} mile west from the city; you pick up the old trail after traveling about three miles; Ten millions of dollars have been ex-} pended in the erection of these plants, and thousands of gallons of gasoline and other products are produced every day, and these products are distributed to nearly every state in the Union. Less than @ mile further on, to the seventeen miles out you go through|Morth, on the bank of the river, was now the State of Wyoming, and a com- ymunication from Asa L. Brown, a past grand master of Washington Territory, to Edgar P. Snow, grand master of Masons in the Territory of Wyoming in 1875, thus explains how the meeting was planned and carried out: “We had just concluded our arrange- ments for a celebration on the rock, when Capt. Kennedy's train from Oska- loosa, Ia., came in, bringing the body of a man who had been accidentally shot and killed» that morning. Of course, We all turned out to the burial, deferring our celebration until 4 p. m., at which time we were visited by one of those short, severe storms, peculiar to that locality, which, in the language of some of the boys, ‘busted the celebra- tion,” But some of us determined on having some sort of a celebration, as well as a remémbrance of the day and place, and so about the time the sun set in the. west, to\cli eatps day, about) WOMTy WHO” COTTE Vaal “and” so. to’ speak, intervouch for each other, wend:| ed their way to the summit of the rock, and soon discovered a recess, or, rather! depression, in the rock, the form and! situation of which seemed prepared by nature for eur special use. | An altar of twelve stones was im- provised, to which a more thoughtful, or patriotic traveler added the thir- teenth, emblematical of the original; colonies, and being elected to the East by acclimation, I was duly installed, i. e., led to the granite seat. The several) stations and places were filled, and the tyler, « venerable traveler, with flowing hair and beard of aimost snowy white- ness, took his place without the west- ern gate on a little pinnacle, which gaveyhim a perfect command of view for the entire summit of the rock, so he could easily guard against the ap- proach of all, either ascending or de- scending. I then informally opened In- dependence Lodge, No, 1, on the de. grees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow- craft and ‘Master Mason, when several of the brethren made snort, appropriate bddresses, and our venerable tyler gave us reminisences of his early Masonic history, extending from 1821 to 1862. It was a meeting which is no doubt re- membered by all of the participants who are yet living, and some of those who there became acquainted, have kept up fraternal intercourse ever| Emigrant Gap, going by the way of since.” Poison Spider and Poison Spring Creek, In connection with this meeting, it) traveling over the ol¢ trail, almost in} may be stated that the jewels the of-| the very tracks that were made in 1842 ficers wore were cut from tin cans, the|to 1869, nearly forty miles, and along square and compasses, as emblems of/this forty miles it is estimated that the fraternity, were cut from a paste-|there is a human grave every half mile board box, and the Holy Bible which] of the route. The clearest idea and best rested on the altar, was a volume ¢f/ description of ‘this trail that has ever the “Old and New Testaments, Tranus-|been printed is thus written by Gen. lated Out of the Original Tongues,” it] Chittenden: being published in the year 1857. The “This wonderful highway was in the volume was presented by Mrs. Jan-| broadest sense a national road, although nette Parkhurst and R. P. Parkhurst to} not surveyed or built under the auspices Edwin Bruce and Edwin Bruce in turn| of the government. It was the route of Presented it to Mr. Brown at Platts-)a national movement—the migration of ville, Wis., August 15, 1858. a people seeking to avail dtself of op- The records kept of the meeting, the] portunities which have come but rare- officers’ jewels and the emblems that/}y in the history of the world and Were used were wrapped in a piece| which will never come again. It was of oil cloth and placed in a crevice of} route every mile of which has been the rock, there to remain for future|/the scene of hardship and suffering, “ges, and about twenty years afterward] yet of high purpose and stern determi- 4 man named Gus Lankin found them,|nation. Only on the steppes of Si- all of which were in perfectly goud|beria can so long a highway be found order and well preserved. Lankin| over which traffic has moved by a con- turned them over to Tom Sun, whose| tinuous journey from one end to the ranch home was not far distant from} other. Even in Siberia there are occa- the rock, and Mr, Sun presented thein| sional settlements along the route, but ‘o Rawlins Lodge, No. 6, A., F.’and A.|on the Oregon Trail in 1843 the traveler M., where they remained for a number] saw no evidence of civilized habitation of years. It has been said that a pro-|except four trading posts, between In- vision was in the minutes to the effect| dependence and Fort Vancouver. that the Masonic lodge nearest to the] “As a highway of travel the Oregon rock should be the custodian of th¢| Trail is the most remarkable known to records, emblems and jéwels, but/ history. Considering.the fact that it Whether this is true cannot be abso- originated with the spontaneous use of, lutely stated, but whether true or not,| travelers; that no transit ever they did not remain in the custody of|foot of it; that no level established its Rawlins lodge, tor James Rankin, al grades; that no engineer sought out the member of Rawlins lodge, without con-| fords or built any bridges or surveyed ‘ent, took them to Cheyenne, where|the mountain passes; that there was they were kept in the Masonic Temple,| no grading to speak of nor any attempt and later consumed by fire when the|at motalling the roadbed; and the gen- temple burned. The Bible evidently|eral good quality,of this 2,000 miles of Was taken by Mr. Brown to his new| highway will seem most extraordinary. home in Washington, and was later} “Father De Smet, who was born in presented by him to the Masonic grand! Belgium, the home of good roads, pro- lodge of Wyoming, as indicated by the nounced the Oregon Trail one of the writings on the fly leaf in the book.|finest highways in the world. At the The Bible wa: the fire occurred, but it was among the|doubtedly true.. Before the prairies be- few articles that were carried out of|came too dry, the natural turf formed the building, and it.was picked up in|the best roadway for horses to travel the street and returned to the custo-|on that has probably ever been known. (ian of the temple without being dam-|It was amply hard to sustain traffic, 'Lieut. Caspar Collins, in 1865, lost his located af 8 also in the Temple when| proper season of the year this was un-) located Fort Caspar in the ‘60s, where life, being killed by the Indians, while attempting to rescue a, number of sol- diers who had gone out in an attempt to save a train of emigrants from being massacred. The City of Casper was named after this brave young soldier. The ‘hills to the left of the road is where the Indians gathered in great numbers in the hope of finding the soldiers at Fort Caspar off their guard so they could swoop down and destroy the fort, drive away the stock, take the supplies and kill’ the soldiers. A great many skirmishes occurred on these hills and in the valleys, and dur- ing the years that the fort was located here hundreds of Indians were slain, and no small amount of soldiers also met their death. Twelve miles out from the city, on the north bank of the river, where Poison Spider Crdek empties. into the North Platte, is where the first cabin was built in what fs now the state of Wyoming. In the early winter of 1812 Robert Stuart, with his six men, built this cabin with the intention of spens- ing the winter there, but in less than a month after the cabin had been built and their store of meat had been gath- ered, the party was scared away by a band of marauding Indians. In “the “glade” on the south side of the road is where Stuart’s men killed the deer, elk and bear for their winter's supply. There was an abundance of buffalo on the plains north of the river, and many of these were also added to their larder. Afterg traveling about fifteen miles you apfrouch ‘the Platte River canyon, There are some places in this canyon where the river is fully 100 feet below the road and the water goes tumbling and roaring over the huge rocks in the bed of the stream in impetuous rapids and foaming cascades. To the left of the roadside great rocks are piled in ‘the most fantastic crags and precipices, rising like gigantic walls and hattle- ments to a height of hundreds of feet. ‘Passing out of the canyon, the river is jof a glassy smoothness and placidity, | on the 7th of August, 1835, says, “this rock takes its name from the circum- stance of a company of fur traders sus- pending their journey and here observ- ing, in due form the anniversary of our national freedom." Capt. Bonneville was here on or about the 14th of July, 1832, but the exact date cannot be definitely stated. I judge, however, from his notes, it must have been about this date, for he says: “On the 12th of July we abandoned the main stream of the Nebraska (now the Platte), which was continually shouldered by rugged prom- ontories, and making @ bend. to the southwest for a couple of days, part of the time over the plains of loose sand, encamped on the 14th on the banks of the Sweetwater, a stream about twenty yards in breadth and 4 or 5 feet deep, flowing between low banks over » sandy soil, and forming one of the forks or up- per branches of the Nebraska. Fre- quently the plains were studded with isolated blocks, of rock, some times in the shape of a half globe, and from 300 to 400 feet high. These singular masses had occasionajly a very imposing and even sublime appearance, rising from the midst of a savage and lonely land- scape.” Capt. Bonneville was preceded by Nathaniel Wyeth, who was there during the month of May of the same year. Dr, Marcus Whitman and his bride, who were making their wedding tour a6 missionaries to the Indians on the Pacific coast,” and Rev. H, H. Spalding and his young wife, were at the rock in 1836. These were the first white women that crossed the Rocky Mountains, and, of course, were the first white women to set foot on In- dependence Rock. The wagon in which they traveled is said’ by some writers to have been thé first wheeled vehicle that crossed the continent, but this is a mistake, for Bonneville’s party in 1832, “passed the crest of the Rocky Mountains and felt some degree of ex- ultation in being the first individuals that had crossed north of the settled provinces of Mexico, from the waters of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific with wagons.” Father DeSmet was here in 1840, and finding so many names chiseled on the hard granite, he named it the ‘‘Reg- ister of the Desert.” He writes: “It is the first massive rock of that famous mountain chain which. divides North and far ahead you view delightful val- leys, carpeted with green sward, America, and which travelers call the backbone of the universe. It is the the inscription on Independence Rock, and in a campaign pamphlet entitled: ‘J. C, Fremont's Record Proof of His Romenism,” it continued: “Imitating other Roman Catholic explorers, and those alone, in his expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, he made on the Rock Independence the sign of the éross, a thing that no Protestant ex- plorer ever did or ever would do. See his own words in Congressional Docu- ment 166, of 1845." It was claimed that this Christian emblem was one of the factors that contributed toward his de- feat, and this ‘Register of the Desert,” ‘way out on the plains, became an issue in national polites. Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, secre- tary of the Oregon Trail Commission of Wyoming, made a visit to this rock in 1915, and in an article she prepared from her observations, she says: ‘When the tide of emigration set in, the rock, situated here midway of the route, be- came an important point on the Oregon trail; like a beacon eagerly looked for by the mariner at sea, the landmark was hailed by the emigrant as It loomed beyond the billowing plain. In those days Independence Rock filled a large} place in the minds of the thousands of men and women;.today it is by most of us unknown. The records of the monument belong to the history of American travel; more than that, they belong to the history of the building of the republic. The records are fragmen- tory, found only as incidental notes in the chronicles of time.” In the year 1843 the Oregon trail first became a great national highway, when a thousand homeseekers passed. over the trail with their teams, “and each year thereafter,” writes Ezra Meeker, “wagon teams passed over the whole route to the Oregon country in varying numbers, wearing the track deeper and deeper, until finally the greater exodus of 1852, when a column of 60,000 strong moved out from the Missouri River and lined the trail with the dead, 5,000 or more in number for that one yesr alone. Meanwhile, the Mormon migration had followed in the treck of the Oregon pioneers for fully a thousand miles. Fully 300,000 people crossed over what might. be termed the ‘eastern section’ before the advent of the Pacific railroad in 1869, which di- verted the later traffic, and the trail ‘again became w solitude.” Another traveler, who stood on the rock in 1852, for the “splendid view of ' MOTHERS’ DAY Do not let a single mother—no matter how far you may be from the hearthside—feel that the loved ones are not re- membering her on “Her Day”—the grandest day of the year, Sunday, May 9. A -blooming potted plant would be much appreciated and will be a lasting remembrance, too. Cut flowers in particular assortments and with the most refreshing frag- rance,. ETTTreri ier treemerer reer rercy rer RE eT perrepgraveesve nisin We take orders for telegraph delivery to any city in the United States. ORDER NOW. THE PALMS 414 East Second Phone 600 COPEL Ue aT a TES