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 

 oA'er 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.^^ 



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 uj) promi- 

 nently on the north (right), as shown in Plate LXXXY, 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 t)utline 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 feide 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 



" It was originally planned to locate 

 the capital of Utah at Salt Lake City, 

 but when the Territoi-y was created 

 in 1850 it was decided that the capital 

 should be more nearly in the center 

 of the Territory. The County of Mil- 

 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 



Millard Fillmore, then President of 

 the United States. A State house was 

 begun but never finished. The legis- 

 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. 



