OCR Text |
Show 242 them along the present line of the Union Pacific railroad until they decided their trek through the rocky stream bed was too rough, and they cut across a steep mountain and descended into Clover Valley. After a difficult twenty-five mile march, they arrived at Hopkins's camp on Cave Spring near the present site of Barclay, Nevada. After spending the night in the camp of the Iron County explorers, Dame and party followed the old, direct t r a i l back to Meadow Valley. Traveling ten miles north, they again ascended the slopes of Mount Lookout taking more observations. The party rode into Desert Camp in Meadow Valley on the evening of the 29th after a strenuous thirty-two mile march. The men a t camp had kept themselves very busy. On the 28th work commenced on a dam to raise the water level and force i t through the ditch. Some hauled rock for the dam while others cut brush. Everyone had plenty of work to do. A forge was b u i l t , and others installed the bellows, anvil, and vice. Many thought these efforts were a l l in vain. Ross R. Rogers thought "the prospect rather doubtful" for getting the water down to the field. 14 Nevertheless, he and other men s t i l l continued to level the ground. While Dame was on Mount Lookout on the 29th, his faithful company was erecting tbe blacksmith shop i t self. It was merely an open pavilion or "shade" made from poles stuck upright in the ground, with cross-poles lashed across the top and piled with brush. Some of the men hauled wood for a charcoal p i t. When President Dame arrived that evening, he announced that "in consequence of the lateness of the season & the urgent necessity of getting in our crops... we will begin the water ditch tomorrow and also build the dam." Although the next day was Sunday, a day when v i r t u a l l y a l l work in the settlements ceased in observance of the Sabbath, the men of Desert Camp commenced their diggings in earnest. There was time for nothing e l s e . The f i r s t day a ditch four feet |