The Souvenir of Western Women/Dame Nature's Monument
Dame Nature's Monument
ONE of the most wonderful miracles that Nature ever wrought is to be seen in the Thunder Mountain gold region, State of Idaho. This curious freak consists of a rough shaft, composed of boulders and gravel towering seventy feet high. It tapers slightly and is crowned by a huge rock, whose weight is estimated approximately at fifty tons. This remarkable formation is undoubtedly the result of centuries of erosion, and the process is still in operation. The space of time required to erode the earth and rocks from this seventy-foot monument may be only faintly realized when it is considered that there are full grown trees near the shaft.
Nature, ever strange in mood!
Why rearest thou this noble shaft
In mountains' deep retreat?
Wouldst thou no other eyes,
Save the bright stars above,
Should thy rare monument behold?
Dost thou no other praises seek
Than that the winged warblers give,
Or rattling thunder peals aloft
In language of the gods?