This time capsule was buried on January 19, 2005 by the city of Spanish Fork, UT in celebration of its sesquicentennial.  The marker specifies that it should be opened at the city’s bicentennial in 2055.

Two Franciscan Friars named Silvestre Valez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio de Dominguez were some of the first explorers to pass through the Spanish Fork area. The priests were in quest of a direct route from Santa Fe, NM to Monterey, CA. After traveling down Spanish Fork Canyon they camped somewhere near the present city limits on September 23, 1776. This is a monument errected in their honor.

This marker and statue were placed by the City of Spanish Fork and Utah County to commemorate the bicentennial of Dominguez and Escalante Expedition from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California.  On September 23, 1776, Spanish Padres Francisco Antanasio Dominguez and Sylvestre Valez Escalante became the first white men to come to this valley.

This expedition, and these explorers, is how the City of Spanish Fork got its name.

Old Fort

Spanish Fork had its beginning in two sites, the upper settlement in 1850-1851, located in the southeast river bottoms, the other at Palmyra, 1851. Fearful of Indian trouble settlers built an adobe fort between the two places in 1854, located two blocks south of this site, with walls two feet thick and twenty feet high. Homes were built inside the fort with portholes in each compartment. A well in the center provided water. The only entrance was a gate four feet thick and sixteen feet high.

Escalante,
A Spanish priest, the first white man
to look upon this valley, camped with
his comrades beside the Spanish Fork,
September 23, 1776.
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Placed to perpetuate the memory of that event
by the
Spirit of Liberty Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution
and
The City of Spanish Fork
1922
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“Though the Pathfinders die, the paths remain open.”