70S EEPOET UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



tiful town, regularly laid out, with broad streets, business squares, witli 

 many brick and stone buildings. 



On tlie opposite side of the valley are, near its head, Oxford and Clifton, 

 situated respectively at the head and foot of Bound Yalley Marsh. The 

 former has about 260, the latter 200 inhabitants. Farther south, a few 

 miles northeast of the Gates of the Bear, are Clarkston and iJ^Tewton, 

 containing respectively 153 and 195 persons in 1870, and probably about 

 the same at i)resent. The remaining towns in the valley are outside of 

 my district, and will not be mentioned in this connection. 



In Malade Yalley there are four settlements. Malade City, the larg- 

 est place, is situated on Mill Creek, about 6 miles above its junction with 

 Malade Eiver. It had a population in 1870 of 591, and has increased 

 little, if any, since. Samaria is situated southwest of the latter, 8 or 10 

 miles away, on the southwest edge of the upper expansion of the valley. 

 Its population is between 100 and 200. Portage and Plymouth are two 

 small villages, situated further down the valley, the one on the west, 

 the other on the east side of the river. The total population of the vaUey 

 is about 1,000. 



In the valley of Marsh Creek and the Portneuf, the railroad has given 

 birth to two paper towns — Oneida in the former and Portneuf in the 

 latter valley. The latter town, which (1878) has just sprung into being, 

 occupies a position at the present end of the railroad, about 3 or 4 miles 

 below the mouth of Marsh Creek. These towns contain 200 or 300 people 

 each, but it is a floating population dependent upon the railroad, and 

 they may be suddenly deserted as the end of the railroad is moved 

 northward toward the plains of Snake Eiver. 



RAILEOADS. 



The Utah and l:>}^orthern is the only railway in my district. It is a 

 narrow-gauge, built originally only to Franklin, by the Mormons, to con- 

 nect their settlements. Starting from Ogden, Utah, where connection 

 is made with the Union and Central Pacific and the Utah Central, it 

 skirts the west base of the Wahsatch Eange to its northern end nearly 

 to the Gates of the Bear. Here it turns eastward, climbs the rolling 

 platePtU at the north end of the Wahsatch, and runs down into Cache 

 Yalley. Crossing this to the west side, it again turns north under the 

 west base of the Bear Eiver Eange. It passes through the towns of 

 Logan, Hyde Park, Smithfield, Eichmond, and Franklin. Here for 

 several years was the terminus, although it had been the original inten- 

 tion to x)ush it on to Soda Springs, and a road-bed was graded for sev- 

 eral miles in that direction. During the last year it got into the hands 

 of Gentiles, and it was pushed northwestward through Eed Eock Gap 

 to Marsh Creek, and thence down the Portneuf, Montana- wards. Trains 

 are now (1878) running to Portneuf station, on the lower Portneuf, and 

 the road is graded nearly or quite to the Snake Eiver. 



HISTORY OF THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF THIS REGION. 



From very early times, even back in the last century, this region has 

 been frequented by fur traders and trappers. The waters of the Green, 

 Bear, and Snake yielded valuable peltries in great abundance, and in 

 the broad valleys the fur companies had their annual meetings with the 

 trappers for trade. Naturally, here, too, took place many and bloody 

 conflicts between the red men, the lords of the soil, and the interloping 

 ti'appers. 



