by Stephens Ann Losee SCRIBULUS CENTENNIAL GIRL Vivacious and charming Ann Losee is presented by the magazine staff as Scribulus Centennial Girl. Descended from a family of pioneers, Ann is the great-granddaughter of Dr. William L. Mclntyre, first licensed physician in Ogden (1811-1887). She is also a daughter of Mrs. Stella Losee, 2923 Fowler avenue, a graduate of Ogden high school, and is now completing her freshman year at Weber college. She expresses a liking for men, especially redheads, provided they do not grow beards. Nineteen-year-old Ann is five feet two inches tall, weighs 110 pounds, has chestnut colored hair and a tan complexion which contrasts agreeably with her ample green eyes. Page 2 By BENEDICT DEVILS GATE WEBER CANYON by Jerry Carlile The strands near the windlass twirled faster and faster, until suddenly the rope parted. For a moment the oxen held, straining at the weight of the wagon that pulled them down. Then the faithful beasts tumbled over the precipice, hurtled seventy-five feet through space, and crashed onto the rocks in the canyon bottom. Climaxing more than a week of extremely laborious progress, a period when only a mile a day was averaged, this violent accident almost broke the spirit of the courageous Harlan-Young party. Nevertheless they pushed on, and one August day in 1846, reached the western side of the Wasatch range, triumphant. To them goes credit for bringing the first wagons down Weber canyon. Prior to their coming, a number of white men, trappers and mountaineers, had been 'in the canyon. Among them was Etienne Provost, who, in 1832, descended to the Great Salt Lake almost in time to win for himself the honor that goes to Bridger, of being first to the lake. Captain John G. Weber, for whom the river and canyon were named, spent the winter of 1823-24 trapping in the vicinity. Lansford Hastings' well-known "cutoff to California" passed this way, and his partner, Hudspeth, led a party of horsemen through the gorge even before the coming of the wagons. Today, where these trail-blazers of American civilization scraped their mark on history's pages, modern autos scurry along winding pavements and long trains follow black, smoke-belching engines with little effort. Yes, highways and railroads have conquered the gorge, but imagination allows us to picture the passing pageant of a growing nation. As he drives through the upper canyons, through Weber valley with its snug farms, where alfalfa and grain fields alternate in disorder behind barbed wire fences, today's informed motorist imagines he hears again the pounding hoofbeats of the Pony Express horses, and sees the puffs of dun and red dust stirred by their passing. He might hear the creaking of the Overland stagecoach, for it once swayed past these rolling mountainsides. On the stream near Henefer, the angler, with his boots rolled high and his rod in hand, is too interested in the big Rainbow trout he is after to notice the impressions of an old wagon trail near the mountain top, but those very tracks were blazed by the ill-fated Donner-Reed party, and followed by the Mormon pioneers on their way to make an empire in the derest. A popular present-day opinion holds that had Weber canyon been passable, the Mormon party would have descended the gorge to settle on the present site of Ogden, and that city would today be the capital of Mormondom. But Weber canyon is more than a pathway of history. Here we find the rugged beauty of mountain peaks and cliffs, river and sky and trees. Here we find the unusual. In lower Weber canyon, streams, rain and wind, over long ages, have carved fantastic rock formations in the hillside. Most widely known of these is the Witches, a colorful group of natural rocks appearing to be crowned with "witches' caps." Below Henefer stands the interesting formation called Devil's Slide, two vertical limestone reefs, twenty feet apart, resembling a playground chute. The tourist quickly grasps the appropriateness of the title, for a little imagination easily conjures the picture of a red devil, complete with horns and tail, merrily sliding down the rocky incline. Just inside the canyon from the Ogden end, lies Devil's Gate, one of the most impressive and well-named points in the canyon. The Mormons turned southward rather than attempt it. Here the two-lane pavement leads the motorist under the black, heavy-looking railroad trestle, into shadow, and around the massive stone that seems to block the way. Between sheer vertical cliffs towering on one side and river water foaming and churning in the boulder and wood filled stream bed on the other, he suddenly feels in danger of being crushed to death. His breath comes quicker until again he reaches a point where the morning sunlight can dance on the canyon floor. One cannot drive through upper Weber canyon without noticing the dark columns of cottonwoods along the river banks. In winter, these trees are unimpressive, an ashy tangle of branches, but when spring touches them, they become an incredible picture of tender green loveliness. In the fall, their foliage turns to gold and resembles an amber fire in a canyon already aflame with the scarlet brilliance of scrub oak and yellow blazing aspen. (Concluded on Page 5) Page 3