Finding Fire Place Rock

This picture has held a certain fascination for me since I first saw it in W. H. Emory's Notes of a Military Reconnoissance.  Where is this place?  How big is it?  What does it really look like?  It was on the short list of sites I had to find and photograph.  So, after locating the expedition's November 8, 1846 campsite near the Spires (on a December 2000 trip with my father and brothers), we hiked west along the tracks of the Copper Basin Railroad to find Fire Place Rock.  Emory describes this area in detail but it takes a little investigation to figure out which of the many cliffs in the area is Fire Place Rock. I'll attempt to lay out our investigations and reasoning here in a logical and clear manner.

Here is Emory's complete journal entry for the area we're examining: 

November 9. [1846] ...We started in advance of the command to explore the lower belt of mountains by which we were encompassed. The first thing we noticed in the gorge was a promontory of pitch-stone, against which the river impinged with a fearful force, for it was now descending at a rapid rate. Mounting to the top of the rock, on a beautiful table, we found sunk six or eight perfectly symmetrical and well-turned holes, about ten inches deep and six or eight wide at the top; near one, in a remote place, was a pitch-stone well turned and fashioned like a pestle. These could be nothing else than the corn-mills of long extinct races. Above this bed of pitch-stone, a butte [North Butte] of calcareous sandstone shot up to a great height, in the seams of which were imbedded beautiful crystals of quartz. Turning the sharp angle of the promontory, we discovered a high perpendicular cliff of calcareous spar and baked argillaceous rock, against which the river also butted, seamed so as to represent distinctly the flames of a volcano. On the side of the river opposite the igneous rocks, the butte [South Butte] rose in perpendicular and confused masses.

Here's an aerial photo of the area with each cliff numbered:

An analysis of the above cliffs:

1.  This cliff is the first one that Emory would have seen that morning.  As they left camp in an open valley they would have reached this cliff in less than a mile.  This matches his comment that "the first thing we noticed in the gorge was a promontory of pitch-stone, against which the river impinged with a fearful force"  This cliff is the eastern edge of a promontory that juts out from North Butte into the river's path causing the horseshoe bend.  The southern tip of this promontory is a nice little plateau or "beautiful table". Click here for pictures of the plateau.

Having identified Emory's promontory, we now turn to Fire Place Rock.  There are six other cliffs in the horseshoe after the promontory and one of them has to be our subject.  Here are photos of each one. 

2. Here's the view looking south from the railroad bridge.  Cliff # 2 is the dark low area in the middle of the picture.  Although this is a poor picture it's still obvious that this is not shaped like Emory's rock.

3.  The high cliff on the right is #3.  An impressive rock but not the fireplace.  Cliff 2 is just out of the picture at left.

4. Here's the next one downriver.  Not the right shape or rock layer bedding.

5.  I had high hopes for this one.  On the map it's a high, narrow cliff that juts out into the river.  Although the rock layering has the swirly patterns, its outline doesn't match. Also, if I have Emory's trail right, he would have seen this one edge-on and it would be visible as soon as he topped the plateau.

6.  This picture shows cliff 7 on the left and 6 in the center.  This cliff may have been created during the construction of the railroad tunnel as it's just outside the western end of the tunnel.  Number 6 is not a match-but look at number 7 below.

© Copyright 2005

Southwest

Explorations

7.  After examining all the cliffs in this area, this is the only one that fits the written description and the drawing. Click here for a complete explanation.