Picto Diary - 19 May 2019 - Witch Rocks

Above: Greenway, Evanston, WY. 19 May 2019.

Above: Witch Rocks. Echo, Summit County, UT. 19 May 2019.
Witch Rocks.

Marks the spot near where, in 1846, California bound pioneers, including the Donner Party, crossed the Weber River to follow the Hastings Cutoff to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, 36 miles distant.

The Mormon pioneers (LDS pioneers just doesn't sound quite right to me), including Brigham Young, followed the same route, one year later, 1847.

The route west, beyond Salt Lake Valley proved too arduous. California bound travelers had to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert, 80 miles from the Cedar Mountains before reaching water at Pilot Peak.

Thereafter, most California bound travelers took a longer route, north of the Great Salt Lake via Fort Hall, Idaho, City of Rocks, Idaho, and Wells, NV at the Humboldt River.

Above: Witch Rocks lithograph by Thomas Moran.

An original of this lithograph is in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Addendum:

Steve and Margaret:

Welcome to the rarified golden circle. There are fewer of us than one might imagine. Congratulations! I suggest you try for 51. We just passed the 54th. Old “What’s Her Name” wants to take up with the doorman, but I think I can persuade her to go slowly.

Maharaja,
New York City, NY

Happy 50th. You two make so many other people happy that you deserve lots of it yourself. 50 is great…go for at least 75.

Park Avenue,
New York City, NY

Wow 50 years, that's great congratulations to you and Margaret! Contador
Congratulations on your 50th! What an accomplishment- especially for TIMDT!😉

Torquemada,
Sandy, UT

Happy 50th Anniversary
To the happy couple.

Montage

Sdt
Much happiness and a well deserved CONGRATS for the achievement of 50th wedding anniversary!
You two are a world treasure, sincerely,

The Accountant
Coral Gables, FL

Happy Anniversary to you both.
Glad you celebrated with a little bit of Ireland

Nora G

County Clare, Ireland

Hi Margaret and Steve,

Please accept our heartiest congratulations on achieving this milestone.

Look forward to having you celebrate this on your next trip to India.

Cheers.

Mohan,
Gurgaon, India

Belated Happy 50th!

Bridge,
Palm Beach, FL

Congratulations to you and Margaret for your anniversary, and to Phin for his band's award. Also would have loved to see Big Boy; have many memories of steam locomotives from my youth. We are off to Alaska for 2 weeks. Hope to see you soon after since Miami sales seem to pick up.

Espresso,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Steve and Margaret,
A very happy anniversary to
you.....
Warmest wishes,

Pat and Jean,
Connemara, Ireland

......p.s. we are in Paris this week enjoying it all....given the fact that you are now a student of 'real' Irish History, I am forwarding some stuff on Patrick MacMahon, the Irishman who was President of France.....

Congratulations on the 50th!

Great to see some a scientific process used in Mynduveroan’s Science Fair project. I’ve seen far too many model volcanoes made with paper mache and baking soda while judging science fairs over the years. The idea is supposed to be to establish a hypothesis and then test it, not to build a model or to test a theory already tested and proven by somebody else. It looks like she was spot on! (Although I’ve determined over the years that ice cream melts the fastest when put in one’s mouth.)

Those Irish crystal tumblers look great. Will they hold bourbon? Good Irish whiskey (or even good Scotch) is simply wasted on me. I think I’m just too American.

All is well in Poulsbo, WA. We should be back for a week in mid-June and I will stop by Wasatch Bagels some morning for sure.

Billy Barker,
Poulsbo, WA

Congratulations to you both ; Wonderful😎🏍

Markco,
Ojai, CA

Happy Anniversary, Steve!! Please convey our best to Margaret.
Our 47th comes up on Oct 12th...
Warm regards,

Norman and Suzanne,
Washington, CT

Comments on my book review of "Signature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer."

Steve. Thanks for recommending this book. I have been yearning to read something like this book having recently read “Brief Answers to The Big Questions” by Hawking, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry”, and Dan Brown’s “Origin”.

I tend to believe in ID just based on the wonder and complexity and the exquisiteness of human life.

I’ll be reading this book soon.

And get ready for the Roe v. Wade challenge that is soon to come to the USSCt.

Dennis the Menace
Atlanta, GA

Congratulations on a 50th wedding anniversary. Not everyone has that stamina and organized information in their DNA.

Academy,
Salt Lake City, UT

Steve, wonderful stuff you review so well. Recent editions of Ancient Aliens tele series discusses water in space, prior water/atmospheric conditions on Mars similar to Earth's, asteroid and meteor suspected function of seeding life throughout the universe. Sort of a parallel version of how life spreads to newly formed land on Earth? Darwin so obviously off-base. Further to your noted half-truth of "today's" knowledge, suppositions of multiple universes may become the new common knowledge after we are gone. "Imagine thinking they were in the only universe!?"

KAT,
Dallas, TX

Steve, I'm sorry, but please remove me from your email list.

Zookeeper,
Williamstown, MA