114 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEE:N' UNITED STATES. 



m 



^lost of the villages in the valley are at the foot of the mountains 

 on either side. The settlement of an arid country depends on the 

 water suppl}^^ and as the hest and most usable water was found at the 

 mouths of mountain canyons, there the pioneers built their homes. 

 The center of the broad valley is thuily settled, largely because Bear 

 River and its tributaries have cut their channels so deep below the 

 general level that it is hard to get water from them up on the land. 



Ransom is only a railroad siding. Several miles to the northeast, 

 in the broad valley of Bear River,^ is the town of Preston, which has 



Ransom. 



Elevation 4,481 feet. 

 Ogden 61 miles. 



a population of about 3,000 and is the terminus of the 

 Cache Valley branch of the Oregon Short Line. 

 Hidden in the trees to the right of an isolated hill on 

 the east side of Bear River is the village of Franklin. 

 This hill, which is 6 miles east of the railroad, is a knob of lime- 

 stone known as Mount Smart (''Franklin Butte" in Gilbert's report 

 on Lake Bonneville; see p. 230) and was an island in Lake Bonneville. 

 The story of that lake is carved in unmistakable signs on what was the 

 windward side of this island. Cliffs cut by the waves that once beat 

 against it and beaches covered with gravel are beautifully preserved 

 on the southwest side, toward what was a broad expanse of open lake, 

 while the east or shoreward side is comparatively smooth. Lime 

 for the beet-sugar factories in this valley has been quarried in this hill. 



it Cornish the train leaves Utah and enters the State of Idaho. 



The station stands on the State line. The irrigation 

 canal seen at Cornish is 19 miles long, heads on Bear 

 River above Battle Creek, 12 miles to the north, 

 and supplies water for 20,000 acres of otherwise desert 

 land. The . irrigation systems, in this valley were 



Cornish, Utah. 



Elevation 4.522 feet, 

 ropulation 143.* 

 Ogden (32 miles- 



built and are owned by private companies. 



geogr 



small Dink block, shaped hke an easv chair faciner east 



Idaho. 



interest that this State, which in 1890 added the forty- 

 fifth star to the constellation on the flag, is nearly as 



combined 



than the six New England States with 



measure. It is divided into 33 counties, the smallest of which is half 

 as large as the State of Rhode Island and the largest greater than the 

 combined area of Massachusetts and Delaware. 



^ The mean discharge of Bear River as 

 determined by measurements of its flow 

 made at Preston, Idaho, during a period of 

 24 years, isl,290 second-feet— that is, 1,290 

 cubic feet of water passing a given point 

 each second. A maximum flow of 7,980 

 second-feet was recorded in 1894, and a 



minimum of 164 second-feet in 1905. 

 There are two hydroelectric plants on 

 Bear "River above Preston, one under con- 

 struction in Oneida Narrows^ to have an 

 installed capacity of 27,000 horsepower, 

 and one at Grace, Idaho, with 17,000 

 horsepower. 



