Speech #930273298

The City of Rocks. sometimes called the "Silent City of Rocks." owes much of its prominence to the proximity of these everchanging historic routes. The first practicable route to California. going north of the Great Salt Lake. passed directly through the City of Rocks area. During the earlier years. this route was spoken of as the "California Trail." But after 1846. it was sometimes referred to as the "Applegate Trail" due to its use by Oregonbound emigrants who wished to enter the Willamette Valley from the South. In this instance. it served as an alternate route to the Oregon Trail. In 1848. a new connection to the California trail was established from the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake to a junction with the orginal California trail. This new connection went just south of the Twin Sisters In Emigrant Canyon In the City of Rocks. This route later became the main emigrant thoroughfare and was known as the Salt Lake Cutoff. The City of Rocks area provided emigrants with a passage around the hazardous marshes of the upper Raft River. good campsites. plenty of water. and pasturage for their animals. Their arrival at City of Rocks was usually an occasion for a rest and an interesting respite from the arduous journey. As they climbed over the unusual rock formations of eroded granite. many of these rocks became covered with the names of !those who passed by on the trail. I can well imagine that the members of the wagon trains not only added their names to the roster. but searched the rocks for the names of relatives and friends who had preceded them westward. To the emigrant. the City of Rocks was the portal to a new and unpleasant adventure. a change from the comparatively easy pull through the Platte and Snake River Basins to the arid. dangerridden Great Basin. City of Rocks. with its rugged skyline. portended rough passage through Granite Pass ahead and a descent to hardship in the bleak Humboldt Valley beyond. Here. at City of Rocks. amidst the apprehensive view. was a chance for forage. rest. and merriment before embarking on a new regime of travel. City of Rocks. too. was a relief from past boredom of travel. a place for wonderment among the granite pinnacles. such a contrast from the easterly plains. It is not difficult to imagine the emigrants hardships as they crossed southern Idaho en route to Oregon and California some 120 years ago. Mute evidence of their crossing still remainsworn rock ledges and old junipers that bear scars of the ropes and handmade chains used to help loaded wagons down steep grades. the ruts of the wagon wheels. handmade oxshoes. horseshoes. and lengths of chain and various pieces of metal rusting in dry washes and on sagebrush flats. And so we have an area which is nothing less than an epilog of people. land. and events.