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Show 150 two years ago.-3*9' Despite the constant storm on the 29th, the company pushed ahead for twenty-two miles. Dusk found them in what Dame called Badger Valley (present-day Clover Valley) very near the site of modern Acoma, Nevada. Here they found plenty of grass and fuel, and the soil was very rich, but there was not enough water to consider irrigation. Only a few small springs were located where the men dug three holes for the water to collect in for the stock. The place was named Cane Spring Wells. April 30 proved to be a continuation of the bad weather the expedition had encountered almost from their departure. The wagons remained in camp all day as a hard rain pelted the hapless company. A reconnaissance was made by a small party of the country immediately north, hoping to locate a more practicable road; but the attempt was futile. The company pulled out of Cane Spring Wells on the 1st of May and continued its southwest march down Badger (Clover) Valley. At a place they named Cave Springs, near the future site of Barclay, Nevada, the company rested and took in water. This place was noted to have plenty of "water, good grass and wood."^1 But this valley was very small and offered only the prospects of a small settlement. It was also not in harmony with President Young's instructions of finding a place surrounded by a wide expanse of desert as a defense. The Southern Exploring Company now turned north, advancing up a canyon and over a high divide twelve miles above Cave Springs. This area was thickly covered with cedar and pinon. Colonel Dame described this trek as "a very rough pass, and through the largest patches of Pinyon Pine and cedars I ever saw in the Rocky Mountains."1*2 From the summit of the divide, the company descended a canyon running northwest for fifteen miles into Meadow Valley. Thirteen years later, this road was described by a traveler in almost poetic terms |
