UNDERGROUND LAKES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 28

UNDERGROUND LAKES

EARLY "CLIFF DWELLERS

The underground• lakes of Kanab, visited only now and then, by the boatmen with flaming torches of pine, who daro penetrato tho dark recesses of the little known caves, have been formally withdrawn from* entry and soph, will ho the first unit of: a State park system which "will eventually tako in many of the.best scenic spots in tho State of Utah, states an American paper. Tho underground lake area in Kanab has already achieved some degree of fame. Sonio of the caves are on private land and havo not been included in the proposed park. The chief underground lake which becomes the property of the people of Utah is in Crocodile cave—a stretch of water several acres in' extent. . . . • Tho other spots contained in the withdrawal are . chiefly historic cliff dwellings, many of which are in good repair, but which are being battered down by live rock. In Cottonwood canyon is a huge cave, 150 feet across the front. It contains a spring of clear cold water. Nearby are the dwollings of an early race. In Scutumpah aro more dwellings and Borne heiroglyphics. The dwellings in Scutumpah are described as being "most interesting" by investigators who have combed the world for traces of a civilisation long since vanished. The (>lif£ dwellers in Scutumpah had reached a point of plastering tho insideof their homes. Tho rocks of the house walls are cemented with a good type of mortar. Layers of rabbit bush work, imbedded in the mortar, separate the layers of rock. Just why this type of architecture was used is not known. Tinney canyon is a picturesque place and is declared to be well worth saving for its scenic beautyl A few silent dwellings cling to the canyonside and undeeiphered hoiroglyphics cover great slabs of rock. Floyd cauyon and Willis canyon are also the scenes of tlie old-time eliS dwellers.