Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 7

Myths And Legends of Our Own
Land, vol 7: Rockies

The Project Gutenberg EBook Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land,
v7
#7 in our series by Charles M. Skinner Copyright laws are changing all
over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country
before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project
Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print,"
and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the
bottom of this file. Included is important information about your
specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can
also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and
how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
Title: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land (Along The Rocky
Range)
Author: Charles M. Skinner
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6612] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 31,
2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
MYTHS-LEGENDS, BY SKINNER, V7 ***

This eBook was 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
Spaniards who made the earlier recorded voyages to America, lived in
the souls of Western mountaineers as late as the first half of this
century. Ample discoveries of gold in California and Colorado gave
color to the belief in this land of riches, and hunger, illness, privation,
the persecutions of savages, and death itself were braved in the effort to
reach and unlock the treasure caves of earth. Until mining became a

systematic business, prospectors were dissatisfied with the smaller
deposits of precious metal and dreamed of golden hills farther away.
The unknown regions beyond the Rocky Mountains were filled by
imagination with magnificent possibilities, and it was the hope of the
miner to penetrate the wilderness, "strike it rich," and "make his pile."
Thus, the region indicated as "over the divide" meaning the continental
water-shed-or "over the range" came to signify not a delectable land
alone, but a sum of delectable conditions, and, ultimately, the goal of
posthumous delights. Hence the phrase in use to-day: "Poor Bill! He's
gone over the divide."
The Indian's name of heaven--"the happy hunting ground"--is of similar
significance, and among many of the tribes it had a definite place in the
far Southwest, to which their souls were carried on cobweb floats. Just
before reaching it they came to a dark river that had to be crossed on a
log. If they had been good in the world of the living they suffered no
harm from the rocks and surges, but if their lives had been evil they
never reached the farther shore, for they were swept into a place of
whirlpools, where, for ever and ever, they were tossed on the torrent
amid thousands of clinging, stinging snakes and shoals of putrid fish.
From the far North and East the Milky Way was the star-path across the
divide.

THE PHANTOM TRAIN OF MARSHALL PASS
Soon after the rails were laid across Marshall Pass, Colorado, where
they go over a height of twelve thousand feet above the sea, an old
engineer named Nelson Edwards was assigned to a train. He had
travelled the road with passengers behind him for a couple of months
and met with no accident, but one night as he set off for the divide he
fancied that the silence was deeper, the canon darker, and the air
frostier than usual. A defective rail and an unsafe bridge had been
reported that morning, and he began the long ascent with some
misgivings. As he left the first line of snow-sheds he heard a whistle
echoing somewhere among the ice and