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Show of deer wandered in the hills. A vast lake-who could guess the expanse and depth °f it?-must lie under the Escalante, for everywhere a man dug 15 or more feet he struck water! Father told another wonder. By swift action he had acquired two-not one but two-townsites on the railroad that ran down this unspoiled land which must soon be inhabited by thriving communities making the rich soil yield splendidly. This was how his good fortune came about; His first morning at Nada-wasn't it a huge joke that some fellow blind to the future had named our sidetrack on the railroad with the Spanish word that meant "Nothing"?-Father had gone exploring in a buggy driven by one of the landlocaters. As they bumped along over the brush (there were no roads, only a few wheeltracks here and there), his driver sang a parody of a song then popular: Everybody's doing it! Doing what? Dry-farming it! For scientists at Utah Agricultural College had discovered a sure system to make so-called "dry" lands yield abundantly. True, some maps labeled the area "Escalante Desert." But Father had seen with his own eyes the soil dark with moisture, and covered with sage, proof of its fertility. By swift action Father had laid claim to 320 acres near Nada sidetrack and crossed, actually crossed, by the main line of the railroad. True, the land had not been government surveyed yet but it had been surveyed by employees of the company. A man had driven his team and wagon along lines directed by compass while his wife had counted revolutions of the rear wheels which were 15 feet around. By accurate count of the wheel-turns, the man had stopped his horses at every half-mile. Thus a "claim" could be designated. All you had to do was choose two adjoining quarter-sections, each 160 acres, and do some improvements to hold your claim, a ranch a mile long and half a mile wide! |