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Title
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Sidney, Banner County, Scotts Bluff, July 30-Aug. 9, 1911
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Date
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July 30-Aug. 9, 1911
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Sandhills Narratives
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Identifier
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27145
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Transcription
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21 being veiled in rain for some time. A peculiar feature of the storm was the presence of a strong wind from the northwest in its wake, while the storm itself moved northeast. This wind was remarkably cold, from which we inferred that it had been accompanied by hail, though it had the appearance of a rain-storm. We passed Gabe Rock, a massive detached butte set out from the south ridge, and followed the valley westward, past Long Canyon, which looked rather uninteresting, and at about two o’clock reached the entrance to Bull Canyon. The entrance was quite commonplace, and gave no indication of the things beyond – which suggests the possibility that I may have misjudged the quality of Long Canyon as well. Bull Canyon proved to be deeper, broader, more rugged, and fuller of vegetation and animal life than any other point visited in this region. There is a good stream with splendid springs, and the deciduous vegetation is luxuriant. The bull pines are present on the ridges and sparingly in the canyon, but cedar is the prevailing form of conifer. All of the branches of the canyon end in sheer walls, some of them quite high. We spent four hours visiting various portions of it, finding our way out at one point onto the high plateau, but not at the actual point of highest elevation. The birds were numerous and varied, and here we found our first new bird of the summer for the state list – the crimson- fronted finch, of which numbers were seen about a spring and in the cedars. I might enter here into grater detail regarding our Bull Canyon observations, but instead I shall depend upon the accompanying photographs to convey a fair idea of the character of the place. It is deserving of careful study, and would unquestionably yield data of great scientific interest. On the way out in the evening we had a fine view of Laramie Peak, the Bear Creek Mountains, and the Sixty- six Mountains, all in Wyoming . We reached Harrisburg at 9:30 – just in time for supper. We were constantly on the lookout in Banner County for rattlesnakes, of which we wanted photographs and specimens, but out luck was poor. The botanists found one, but after they had “collected” the rattles and fangs as souvenirs there was little desirable about the specimen for pictorial or zoological purposes. We made long trips to alleged “dens,” one of which was so notorious and dangerous that several acres had been specially fenced off for the protection of grazing stock; but not a rattler did we find. Everyone had a story to tell about rattlers killed or seen yesterday, or last week, or in 1880, but these did not enhance our gallery or our collection.
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Rights
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Is Version Of
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