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Show 202 ..19 sires. A stranger sight has probably seldom been seen or heard in this region as the one presented here-three men, profiled against the desert sky on the pinnacle of a massive mountain peak, singing praises and praying to their God as they knelt around an altar of stones, while they were completely surrounded by a vast wilderness of mountains and deserts, many days from civilization. After this experience, the exploring company referred to this summit as Altar Peak. Despite their sublime experience on the mountain, the explorers were agreeably disapointed with the prospects of making a settlement near this range. They discovered that Gray Head (Grant Range) was "only a single narrow mountain, and does not afford any streams of water except a small one running into Wibe 20 Valley." The water from the melting snows too often sank before reaching far enough into the valley to make irrigation projects possible. Linking up again with the remainder of his reconnoitering party, Dame emerged on the west slope of the range and pressed southward a few miles. Here Martineau's map shows something that is not indicated in any of the extant chronicles of the expedition. Apparently a trail was broken from the west side of the Grant Range down into Railroad Valley to a spring near the center of the valley close to the southern edge of tbe valley's huge alkali bed. In the absence of any further explanation it is surmised that this trail may have been a reconnaissance made by their Indian guide, or perhaps only representative of information supplied by him. Soon the party turned east to recross the range. It appears likely that the explorers chose Ox Spring Wash to begin their ascent. Crossing over the summit, they descended a canyon which was almost certainly today's Cherry Creek Canyon. Martineau1 s journal states: "We descended into a kanyon (the head of 21 Wibe jcherry] Creek) and descended it to its mouth, about 12 miles." In the |
