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June 1997 Campfire Tales
PASS PATROL
Hole in the Rock & the San Juan Mission
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!
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. (Click on picture for
full size version.)
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.
4-WHEEL DRIVE ROADS TO HOLE
IN THE ROCK Book
Note: Larry E. Heck is the founder of Pass Patrol Outback, a company
that publishes guide books and videos based the activities of Pass Patrol 4X4 Travel Club.
For more information about a guide book and video for Hole in the Rock, write to Pass
Patrol, P.O. Box 470309, Aurora, Co. 80047 or call (303)341-5705. Inquiries from potential
sponsors are welcome.
Colorado 4-Wheeling Conditions
We get several calls a week at Pass Patrol headquarters wanting to know if
a certain trail is open yet. People from the plains states find it hard to believe many of
our trails won’t be open until August.
Longwater Road is open and has been for a while already, but not much
else. Family Fun stopped some funseekers before they even got to the bolder field. We
found six feet of snow on the Geneva ghost town road long before reaching Geneva. The last
update on the San Juans was that Cinnamon Pass had been opened twice and reclosed by
mother nature both times.
Ford Expedition
For 1997, Ford
replaced its popular Bronco with the Expedition ... or did they? Well, they seem to want
us to think they did, but to most of us, it looks like the Bronco was discontinued and the
Expedition introduced. Except for a familiar power train, the two vehicles have very
little in common. The Bronco was a two door, the Expedition is four-door only. The Bronco
had a tail gate, the Expedition comes with a hatch. The Bronco steering capabilities were
smooth and easy to handle at any speed, the Expedition steering is extremely quick and
requires more attention. The Bronco wheel base enabled it to boldly go where the
Expedition is likely to get into trouble. The long wheel base means a wide turning radius
and it can be high centered in places where the Bronco wouldn’t even slow down.
Don’t rule the Expedition out though. It has lots of good points too.
The most obvious is the body style. Although there were exceptions, most people we asked,
had good things to say about it. Many of them even liked the hatch better than the
tailgate. The interior of our test truck was certainly impressive. There were air
conditioning and heating vents for all three rows of seats and the back can be adjusted
separately from the front.
There were accessory plugs in front and in back for computers, cell
phones, GPS systems, or whatever. The high bucket seats in front were very comfortable and
there are cup holders everywhere. The radio in the truck we tested came with a CD system
and there are separate adjustment controls for passengers in the front and the back seats.
In low range, the suspension on the Expedition is stiff providing a rough
ride as we meandered up the narrow trail toward the ghost town of Geneva, but the vehicle
handled rocks, creek crossings and snow up to the hubs without spinning a wheel. If you
need a vehicle that is capable of taking the soccer team to the park or the Boy Scout
troop camping, check out the Expedition.
There's a new map book in town
Shearer Publishing of Griedericksburg, Texas has introduced its new series
of map books. We took a look at the ones for Colorado and New Mexico. The first thing we
noticed was the use of color to distinguish all the features on each page. The maps are
printed in a scale of one inch equals 2.5 miles. Contour levels are set at 50 meters.
Foot trails and 4X4 trails are distinguished and different colors are used
for various land ownerships. The book has a generous assortment of symbols for landmarks
and points of interest. Overall, each page is pleasing to the eye and easy to read.
Unfortunately, the same flaws that plague other map books have found their
way into these books as well. First of all, there is no grid for GPS positioning.
Secondly, many roads that exist in reality, do not exist in this book or any other book
we’ve found.
In summary, Shearer map books are as good as any other. Whether or not
they are better will depend on individual taste.
Happy Trails!
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