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Show CHAPTER XIII THE GREAT CAVE The rendezvous of Dame and Bean i n White River Valley bad s i g n i f i c a n t consequences for the future of the White Mountain Expedition. They now combined their information and t h e i r r e s o u r c e s . In the evening a parley was held t o d i s cuss the available options. George W. Bean, Edson Barney, and John Riggs of the White Mountain Camp a l l spoke, as did William H. Dame of the Southern Exploring Company. President Barney wanted to know i f the Colonel "had found any places for farming, more than we wished t o occupy t h i s season." In response, Dame r e counted the history of t h e i r t r a v e l s , t e l l i n g Barney, "the l a s t mountain stream of water I had crossed was Coal Creek a t Cedar C i t y . " He explained that most of the streams he had found were "small spring branches, running through heavy saleratus bottoms a short d i s t a n c e , and s i n k i n g , " but, added Dame, "he could have his choice of any of them. "^ Bean a l s o informed Dame t h a t the tracks tbe colonel had discovered a t the northern terminus of h i s explorations were indeed made by his company, as he had assumed, and t h a t t h i s was "Ruby Valley or White Knife Country." In t h i s , as has already been discussed, Bean was mistaken. It was Steptoe Valley, not Ruby Valley, t h a t the explorers bad penetrated. Willow Springs, Eureka Creek, and Steptoe Valley a l l had sufficient water and land t o j u s t i f y making s e t t l e m e n t s , but they lay too far north of the area intended by President Young. These areas were a l s o considered very cold, and to plant in these areas would be r i s k y . The country t o tbe west was deemed to be a great s t e r i l e d e s e r t by both Dame, who had surveyed tbe country from " Altar Peak, and by Bean, who had r e c e n t l y taken h i s own observations in Rail- 220 |
