Campfire Tales - June, 1997

More Hole in the Rock photos

 Hole in the Rock - West Side.

by
Larry E Heck

Another of the many adventures of PASS PATROL

There have been lots of stories written about Hole in the Rock located west of Blanding in Utah, but most of those stories cover little more than a twenty mile section of the original two hundred mile journey and never even visit the actual site of Hole in the Rock.  Very few visitors realize the original name for the journey more than one hundred years ago was, “The San Juan Mission”.  Not until the mission was complete did the path left behind become referred to as the Hole in the Rock Road.  That road was used for more than a year after the San Juan Mission settled in the town now known as Bluff, and was traveled in both directions.

The story of the San Juan Mission goes back to before the existence of Utah as a state.  Under the leadership of Brigham Young, the Mormon Church, based in Salt Lake City,  had set out to colonize as much of the wild west as possible.  When he died in 1877, there was still a lot left undone.  One gaping hole in the overall plan was the area referred to as the San Juans located on the east side of the Colorado River and extending into Colorado and Arizona.  Although a few families had moved into the isolated area, there was no substantial Church presence in that remote country.  The San Juan’s of Utah were cut off from the rest of the state by the mighty Colorado River.

Most of the activity for southern Utah branched out from the towns of Cedar City, Parowan, and Paragonah.  Any expansion into the San Juans would begin from there.  The town of Escalante was the most easterly settlement dating back to 1876 and was on a direct line between Cedar City and the area where the town of Bluff would soon be established.  It was an estimated 200 miles from Escalante to Bluff but because of canyons carved by the Colorado River, no one had ever gone that way.  There was no existing wagon road, not even a footpath that connected the two points.

Scouts were sent on a southern route dipping into Arizona, but lack of water and unfriendly Indians caused Church leaders to rule out using that route for the main expedition.  An old trail originally located by Spanish explorers had been used during the 1850’s to establish the town of Moab, however, that was a short lived occupation and Moab had been quickly abandoned.  The road to the San Juans from Cedar City to Bluff passing through the abandoned townsite still existed but was more than 400 miles long.  A shorter route was needed.

Scouts were sent to find a route wagons could use between Escalante and Bluff.  The original scouting trip was not thorough.  Perhaps the scouts simply assumed a route could be found or perhaps they did not have the courage to return to the Church leaders with a “no way” answer.  The Church leaders were also too eager to accept a favorable report. Although the scouts had made no apparent attempt to find a specific route for wagons to travel, and had made no attempt to cross the baron country to prove it could be done, the San Juan Mission was called in 1878.

In those days, a mission call was a rather simple matter.  The Church decided how many families and which families it wanted and called their names during a conference.  They were expected to accept the call, sell there businesses or leave their occupations, and get into line.  Although the persons being called could refuse to go, most of them were honored to be called and looked upon the opportunity as a mission from God.  In fact, some who were not called to the mission, volunteered to go.

Consider for a moment, the implications of such a call.  The family being called might be very successful with a beautiful home, a thriving business, and surrounded by friends and family.  Suddenly one night, he and she are asked to give all that up and move to an uncharted area and to a location that had not yet been determined ... an area controlled by hostile Indians, ruthless outlaws, and loosely described as uncivilized.  They were told it would take six weeks to reach their new destination along a route where no wagon had ever gone before.

During the last weeks of October and into November of 1879, a main convoy of wagons traveled the well established wagon road between Cedar City and Escalante.  Along the way, they were joined by other wagons coming from different directions and the convoy grew to more than a mile long.  Although the road was well established, it was not easy going.  Mountain passes were already deep with snow and night temperatures fell well below freezing.

The end of the primary wagon road ended in Escalante.  From that point on, the pioneers would travel faint wagon trails that would soon become no more that cattle paths.  Although ranchers had pastured livestock into the country east of Escalante, no effort had been made to improve the trails enough for wagon travel.

Escalante was the last outpost where supplies could be obtained.  From the time they left the small community, the pioneers would be pushing their way into country farther and farther away from civilization.  The farther they went, the more difficult it would become to send riders back to Escalante for replenishment.

When the main convoy left Escalante, there were still a lot of wagons unaccounted for.  Instructions were left for lagging wagons to follow the road and meet them at Forty Mile Spring where a base camp would be established until a suitable road could be built to the Colorado River.  The wagons averaged about ten miles each day and camped at locations now called Ten Mile Spring, Twenty Mile Spring, Coyote Holes, and Forty Mile Spring.  It was at Forty Mile Spring that the first mission headquarters was established during the last week of November and from which work crews were dispatched to build a road to the River.

Along the way they passed a natural rock garden with numerous unique formations now known as Devil’s Garden, which is now within the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  A pit toilet has been added and a fee is charged to hike along the trails meandering through the passages between the formations.

A short distance from Forty Mile Spring is Dance Hall Rock.  This unique rock formation forms a natural amphitheater with a dance floor large enough for huge crowds of people.  The pioneers had several fiddle players in the group.  Such a break from the grueling work schedule was irresistible and provided many hours of entertainment for the pioneers.

As added wagons and animals arrived at Forty Mile Spring, the convoy grew to 200 men & women, 50 children, 200 horses, and 1000 head of cattle.  A small city of tents and wagons covered the desert floor on all sides of the small spring.  The task of managing such a huge crowd became a major undertaking.  Everything from the basics of handling human waste to finding enough feed for 1200 animals had to be handled quickly and efficiently.  Every one of the 200 men and women had specific duties and assigned tasks to complete.  Too much idle time was not one of the problems.

Scouts were assigned to seek out the road ahead.  Choppers were assigned to clear away trees and brush.  Road builders laid out a surface suitable for a team and wagons.  Steadily and surely a road was forming on a direct course for Hole in the Rock.

During the last week of November, a scouting party returned.  They had seen the other side of the Colorodo River and there was no way to get a wagon through it.  Work on the road halted.  Gloom and despair filled the camp and all its residents.  Would the San Juan Mission, the most important and highly publicized mission of 1879, end in failure?

Mission leaders, Smith and Lyman, decided to send another scouting party.  Lyman would lead a dozen explorers across the Colorado River and find a suitable wagon road.  They returned during the first week of December but their conclusion was the same as the first scouts.  A wagon could not cross the country beyond the river.

It looked like the San Juan Mission was doomed.  A meeting was called.  It seemed their options were few and far between.  First of all, they could not go back.  Winter snows had blocked all the routes back to the settlements from which they came and those roads would not be reopened until next spring.  Secondly, their huge herds had consumed nearly all the foliage along the way and in the present location so they could not take them back or leave where they were.  Then a man named Hobbs suggested he could find a path beyond the river despite previous conclusions that doing so was impossible.  Someone else praised him for his confidence.  Someone else pointed out they were on a mission from the church and for that mission to fail would never be forgotten.  Someone else declared nothing could stop a group of their size if they just shoved all thoughts of failure out of the way.  Within moments, they were singing their own brand of marching songs and from that moment on nothing ... absolutely nothing could stop the San Juan Mission through Hole in the Rock!

While Hobbs and three other explorers set out on December 17th.to find the phantom trail to Montezuma and Bluff, work crews set up camps at 50 Mile Spring and at the top of Hole in the Rock.  While the explorers fought ankle deep snow and freezing temperatures in their trek across uncharted territory, work crews chopped away at Hole in the Rock on the west side of the river and began building roads up the steep banks on the east side.  While the explorers faced dead end canyons, mesa tops with sheer drop-offs, and 12 days of travel with an 8 day food supply, a fresh supply of dynamite arrived from the Church and construction of a road down Hole in the Rock was proceeding with renewed enthusiasm.  By the time the explorers reached Montezuma and returned with news that a route had been found, work crews were within two weeks of sending the first wagons through the hole.  On January 26, 1880, the first wagon rolled onto the raft and sailed across the Colorado River.  It seemed like a giant leap, but was only a mall step toward completion of their mission.

A visit to the locations where all that activity took place is paradise for those with an active imagination.  I danced with the ghosts of the pioneers at Dance Hall Rock.  I sipped cold sodas and enjoyed hot soup while sitting beside a campfire at Forty Mile Spring listening to ancient echoes of 200 pioneers debating the destiny of the San Juan Mission.  I stared across the open desert between Fifty Mile Spring and Hole in the Rock imagining the hardships of a work crew that traveled that distance each way once each week in freezing temperatures, knee deep snow, and harsh winds.  I hiked down the steep walls at Hole in the Rock all the way to the water’s edge while observing grooves in the rock walls left by wagon hubs more than one hundred years ago.

Lake Powell now fills much of the Canyon where the pioneers floated their wagons across on a hand crafted raft.   Much of the road they carved into the canyon walls on both sides of the river is now far below the surface of the water.  The hike down Hole in the Rock is a lot easier if someone is waiting for you at the bottom with a boat.  Otherwise, you have to hike all the way back to the top which can take a couple hours depending on your physical condition.

We rented a boat at Bullfrog while the rates were still low in March and went down to Hole in the Rock to see what it looked like from the center of the lake.  We then crossed the lake to Register Rock where signatures of the pioneers existed before the water level of the lake got too high.

From Register Rock, we took the boat up Cottonwood Creek.  The original wagons followed the creek upstream to a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole.  Much of that canyon is now below the surface of the lake, however, the waterfall and pool of crystal clear water is still very easy to find.  Wagons camped at this spot for several days while the road was built to the top of Cottonwood Canyon, but that’s another chapter.

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