Produced by David Widger
MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF OUR OWN LAND
By
Charles M. Skinner
Vol. 7.
ALONG THE ROCKY RANGE
CONTENTS:
Over the Divide
The Phantom Train of Marshall Pass
The River of Lost Souls
Riders of the Desert
The Division of Two Tribes
Besieged by Starvation
A Yellowstone Tragedy
The Broad House
The Death Waltz
The Flood at Santa Fe
Goddess of Salt
The Coming of the Navajos
The Ark on Superstition Mountains
The Pale Faced Lightning
The Weird Sentinel at Squaw Peak
Sacrifice of the Toltecs
Ta-Vwots Conquers the Sun
The Comanche Rider
Horned Toad and Giants
The Spider Tower
The Lost Trail
A Battle in the Air
ALONG THE ROCKY RANGE
OVER THE DIVIDE
The hope of finding El Dorado, that animated the adventurous Spaniardswho made the earlier recorded voyages to America, lived in the souls ofWestern mountaineers as late as the first half of this century. Amplediscoveries of gold in California and Colorado gave color to the beliefin this land of riches, and hunger, illness, privation, the persecutionsof savages, and death itself were braved in the effort to reach andunlock the treasure caves of earth. Until mining became a systematicbusiness, prospectors were dissatisfied with the smaller deposits ofprecious metal and dreamed of golden hills farther away. The unknownregions beyond the Rocky Mountains were filled by imagination withmagnificent possibilities, and it was the hope of the miner to penetratethe wilderness, "strike it rich," and "make his pile."
Thus, the region indicated as "over the divide" meaning the continentalwater-shed-or "over the range" came to signify not a delectable landalone, but a sum of delectable conditions, and, ultimately, the goal ofposthumous delights. Hence the phrase in use to-day: "Poor Bill! He'sgone over the divide."
The Indian's name of heaven—"the happy hunting ground"—is of similarsignificance, and among many of the tribes it had a definite place in thefar Southwest, to which their souls were carried on cobweb floats. Justbefore reaching it they came to a dark river that had to be crossed on alog. If they had been good in the world of the living they suffered noharm from the rocks and surges, but if their lives had been evil theynever reached the farther shore, for they were swept into a place ofwhirlpools, where, for ever and ever, they were tossed on the torrentamid thousands of clinging, stinging snakes and shoals of putrid fish.From the far North and East the Milky Way was the star-path across thedivide.
THE PHANTOM TRAIN OF MARSHALL PASS
Soon after the rails were laid across Marshall Pass, Colorado, where theygo over a height of twelve thousand feet above the sea, an old engineernamed Nelson Edwards was assigned to a train. He had travelled the roadwith passengers behind him for a couple of months and met with noaccident, but one night as he set off for the divide he fancied that thesilence was deeper, the canon darker, and the air frostier than usual. Adefective rail and an unsafe bridge had been reported that morning, andhe began the long ascent with some misgivings. As he left the first l