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Show 213 issuing out of i t . High up on the mountain side, they finally located a "beautiful clear spring" (probably Lion Spring) which they called Crystal Spring because of the i c i c l e s formed along the stream running from i t . They also found that tbe country had an inexhaustable supply of bunch grass in i t as well. At noon they reached the top of the pass which i s the present-day Murry Summit on U.S. Highway 6. Dame wasted l i t t l e time in descending the canyon into the valley below. Martineau recalled, the descent was through "a long, narrow and crooked kanyon, which could be easily defended if necessary." The company was obviously s t i l l mindful of the Mormon defense strategy so often ex-ponded upon at the time of t h e i r departure. They were yet to learn of the drastic changes that had occurred in the Mormon capital in recent weeks and their effect on the search for the White Mountains. Winding down Murry Canyon, the explorers named this defile Lone Rock Canyon because of tbe presence of a single, large boulder standing alone in the canyon bottom. It was estimated to be seventy-five to eighty feet long, fifteen to twenty feet thick, and forty feet t a l l . This "lone rock" is s t i l l seen today only a few yards from U.S. Highway 6 near Ely, Nevada, although i t has 16 become greatly diminished in size through the years. Below tbe rock was the head of a large creek which they naturally named Lone Rock Creek. Dame found the stream "capable of watering 1000 acres of land,"17 if good land was available. Following the creek down to i t s entrance into Steptoe Valley, the party found the tracks of Bean's northwest contingent of Iron County men led by Orson B. Adams. This company had exited the valley just a few days ahead of them. It was the same party that Dame had failed to see as he peered through the haze into Cave Valley on May 13- Dame's Lone Rock Creek was the same as South Creek on Adams's msp. It i s called Murry Creek today. Dame, l i k e Adams, had arrived on the future town-site of Ely, Nevada. |