DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 207 
led to southern California, turned to the south and crossed the 
Wasatch Plateau at Emery Canyon; the other branch of the trail 
turned to the north and followed practically the present line of the 
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. By crossing southern Utah 
over the old Spanish trail the early travelers gained a general 
knowledge of that country. It was soon settled by bands of Mor- 
mons sent out by Brigham Young, and its settlement led to the 
location of the first capital of the Territory of Utah in its southern 
part.®7 
The train pursues a westerly course through the barren wilderness 
of clay flats, low shale hills, and dry beds of the desert watercourses. 
Water is so scarce in this region that at each siding the railroad com- 
pany has built cisterns to which it hauls water in tank cars for long 
distances. The rainstorms here are generally violent; the water falls 
in torrents, the desert becomes a sea of mud, and the rushing streams 
cut deep channels and dissolve their banks as if they were made of 
sugar. At times even the railroad trains have been engulfed by 
streams which during more than eleven months of the year carry not 
a drop of water. 
The great south face of Beckwith Plateau, a point that runs off 
southward from the main mass of the Book Cliffs, looms up promi- 
nently on the north (right), as shown in Plate LX XXYV, but in the 
other direction there is no prominent feature to attract attention; one 
can look southwestward across the adobe plain as far as the eye can 
see and distinguish nothing but the dim outline of the Henry Moun- 
tains, far away in the hazy distance. 
Six miles west of Greenriver, at milepost 561, the railroad curves 
to the north and follows the shale valley on the west side of the Beck- 
with Plateau. As the train goes around the curve the traveler may 
get on the left an excellent view of the east side of the San Rafael 
Swell, a great uplift of the rocks that involves all the geologic forma- 
tions he has seen on his journey and even the underlying granite in 
a large area in the middle of the uplift. The sedimentary rocks on 
the east side of this elongated dome have been sharply upturned, and 
the heavy beds of sandstone between the notches cut by the streams 
Millard Fillmore, then President of 
the United States. A State house was 
begun but never finished. The legis- 
“Tt was originally planned to locate 
the capital of Utah at Salt Lake City, 
but when the Territory was created 
in 1850 it was decided that the capital 
Should be more nearly in the center 
lard was therefore created, and on 
October 29, 1851, the city of Fillmore 
Was laid out as the capital, both the 
city and the county being named for 
lature held but one full session at Fill- 
more—that of 1855-56. Several suc- 
ceeding legislatures met there in order 
to comply with the law but did no 
business except to adjourn to Salt 
Lake City, which was finally made the 
capital. 
