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Tag Archives: Spanish Trail

The Old Spanish Trail

28 Saturday Dec 2019

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

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Grand County, Historic Markers, Moab, Spanish Trail, utah

This historic marker is located in the Old City Park in Moab, Utah.

The Old Spanish Trail

About 1750 the Old Spanish Trail was formed as a means to reach Ute Indian country where New Mexican corn, tobacco, blankets, iron tools for pelts, deer skins, and slaves were traded. Immigrants and Mountain Men pushed the trail into California in 1830. A yearly trading expedition between New Mexico and California began. California miles and horses were traded for New Mexico wool and cotton woven goods. Up to 200 men with pack animals engaged in this trade which became important to the economy of New Mexico, providing miles to trade to the United States and deer hides to trade to Chihuahua, Mexico. Wagons eventually replaced the pack animals. The route avoided deep canyons and unfriendly natives to the south. Today, highways follow much of the route.

The spring located here was a major water source for the mail or south branch of the trail. The north branch through western Colorado joined the south just east of Green River.

The Old City Park

In 1934 Moab’s city fathers took advantage of federal programs and passed a bond issue to buy Westwood Spring and the land around it for $1,000. The spring became the principal water source for the town, and the land was quickly made into a park with the aid of the local Lions Club and others.

America’s Mountain Man

12 Friday May 2017

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Clear Creek Canyon, Exploring, Fremont Indian State Park, Fremont Indians, Jedediah Strong Smith, Mountain Men, Old Spanish Trail, Sevier, Sevier County, Spanish Trail, utah

2017-03-26 16.09.20

Jedediah Strong Smith

“Diah”, as his friends called him, stood 6’1″. He was a religious man and abstained from drinking, smoking or swearing. Unlike many mountain men, he was literate and carried a Bible and kept a journal. Smith is credited with blazing the western half of the Old Spanish Trail, a 1,230 mile trade route between Santa Fe and California.

See other sites in Fremont Indian State Park here and other posts related to Jedediah here.

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Trader and Explorer Trails

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Central Valley, Historic Markers, Old Spanish Trail, Sevier County, Spanish Trail, utah

2017-03-26 18.53.32

A highway historic marker in Central Valley.

The Old Spanish Trail supposedly the “largest, crookedest, most arduous pack mule route in the history of America,” passed through this valley. Launched in the late 18th century, the trail was used by caravans from New Mexico, carrying blankets to trade for horses and mules in California.

In 1826 the famous fur trader and explorer, Jedediah Smith, led a band of trappers through this region. Seeing good beaver hunting grounds and attempting to learn more about the geography of the area, the party continued west to California and made the first overland crossing of the continent from the American frontier.

This valley and much of southern Utah were explored for settlement in 1849 by a company of 50 men led by the Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt. The party made systematic observations of land, mineral and water resources. Following their recommendations, Mormon colonies were established in Juab, Pahvant, Utah. Sanpete and Little Salt Lake Valleys (sic).

2017-03-26 18.53.45

John Christopher Armstrong

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

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Tags

Historic Markers, Iron County, Spanish Trail, utah

2017-03-20 18.14.05

Three historic markers located off exit 100 of I-15 in Southern Utah:

  • John Christopher Armstrong
  • The Old Spanish Trail
  • Southern Utah Expedition of 1849 – Winter Trail in Fremont Canyon

 

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John Christopher Armstrong

1813 –

This monument is a memorial to the dedication and perseverance of John C. Armstrong and to all the brave men, see reverse side, who explored this area under the direction of Parley P. Pratt since a burial spot is not known this will serve as a burial monument for him.  He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley Sept. 1847 and settled his family in a mud dugout.  As a skilled tailor he applied his trade for many including Brigham Young.  He played in Captain Ballou’s Brass Band and accepted the call to join Pratt’s exploration party as bugler and explorer.  Later he was called to defend Fort Bridger against Indians on the war path.  He carved his name on a sandstone cliff east from this marker up Fremont Canyon on December 21, 1849.  The carving, as depicted on this monument is still plainly visible on the rock in the canyon.  His journal tells of the sacrifice, hardships and near tragedy endured by these explorers.

“Sunday, 9th, This night one of the coldest… both feet froze.”

“Thursday 13th, I walked as well as I could blew the trumpet for prayers… rubbed my limbs all the time trembling with cold my teeth chattering in my head.  Truly I thought about home and a good bed.”

 “Friday 21st… We have fought with the storm and the tempest and it must have been through the divine interposition of God, who led Nephi of old that we were brouhgt over these mountains.  To look at them it would be said that no white man could do it or be rash enough to undertake it…  The Mormons are the boys for such expeditions they fear neither kanyon, mountain, snow storm, gully or river because they know that they are led by The Mighty God of Jacob.”

– Reverse side of marker –

Parley P. Pratt received a commission from Brigham Young the governor of the State of Deseret to raise fifty men with the necessary teams and outfit on an exploring tour to the southward.

First Ten

Isaac C. Haight, Captain.  Parley P. Pratt, President. William Wadsworth, Hial K. Gay, Rufus Allen, Chauncey West, Dan Jones, George B. Mabson, Samuel Gould, Wm. P. Vance.

Second Ten

Joseph Matthews, Captain.   John Brown, Nathan Tanner, Sterling G. Driggs, Homer Duncan, Wm. Matthews, Schuyler Jennings, John H. Bankhead, John D. Holiday, Robert M. Smith.

Third Ten

Joseph Horn, Captain.  David Fulmer, Counselor.  Wm. Brown, George Nebiker, Benjamin F. Stewart, Alexander Wright, Alexander Lemon, Seth B. Tanner, Henry Heath, James Farrer.

Fourth Ten

Ephraim Green, Captain. Wm. W. Phelps, Counselor.   Robert Campbell, Clerk. Charles Hopkins, Sidney Willis, Andrew Blodgett, Wm. Henry, Peter Dustin, Thomas Ricks, Isaac H. Brown.

Fifth Ten

Josiah Arnold, Captain.  Jonathan Packer, Christopher Williams, Stephen Taylor, Isaac B. Hatch, John C. Armstrong, Dimick B. Huntington.

Manti Group

Madison Hambleton, Gardner G. Potter, John Lowry, Jr., Edward Everett, Sylvester Hewlitt.

The Old Spanish Trail

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Historic Markers, Iron County, Spanish Trail, utah

2017-03-20 18.14.05

Three historic markers located off exit 100 of I-15 in Southern Utah:

  • John Christopher Armstrong
  • The Old Spanish Trail
  • Southern Utah Expedition of 1849 – Winter Trail in Fremont Canyon
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2017-03-20 18.15.25

The Old Spanish Trail

Traders, trappers and adventurers carved out the route known as the Old Spanish Trail.  New Mexican traders on their way to California in the early 1800’s left behind many Spanish place names.

The 49’ers traveled here during the gold rush into California.  One of the companies, lead by Jefferson Hunt traveled from Salt Lake City arriving here on October 27, 1849.  Impatient and quarrelsome the company broke up near Enterprise, Utah.  Some followed the Old Spanish Trail to California other drove southwesterly through remote desert regions and gave Death Valley its name.

John C. Fremont, an Army Topographer and explorer also came this way with a party in 1853-54 seeking a railroad route.  The party almost perished before Fremont got provisions from Parowan, Utah.  Fremont Canyon to the east bears his name.

Southern Utah Expedition of 1849 – Winter Trail in Fremont Canyon

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Historic Markers, Iron County, Spanish Trail, utah

2017-03-20 18.14.05

Three historic markers located off exit 100 of I-15 in Southern Utah:

  • John Christopher Armstrong
  • The Old Spanish Trail
  • Southern Utah Expedition of 1849 – Winter Trail in Fremont Canyon

 

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Southern Utah Expedition of 1849

Realizing the limited resources for pioneer settlement in the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding settlements in 1849, and the potential of many more immigrants arriving in the next few years, Brigham Young began to search out possible new settlements.  Based on reports of Jefferson Hunt, who had traveled through southern Utah in 1847 and 1848, one of the regions which seemed promising was the valleys along the Spanish Trail in southern Utah Territory.  The November legislature authorized the establishment of the Southern Expedition to investigate such possibilities.  The exploring party, which eventually consisted of fifty-five men, was led by Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt.  This expedition and its subsequent report helped influence the creation of dozens of new communities in southern Utah.  Among the first were the settlements of Parowan and Cedar City in 1851, in what would become Iron County. This is one of the four monuments which tell the story of this historic expedition.  They are located at Iron Springs, Parowan Gap, Parowan, and Fremont Canyon.

Winter Trail in Fremont Canyon

Hazardous terrain and harsh winter conditions made early exploration of this area difficult.  The Southern Utah Expedition led by Parley P. Pratt began facing ominous conditions on December 15, 1849, about ten miles south of present day Circleville, Utah.  They hacked a road through snow up to two feet deep and over the mountains to the east in terrain surrounded by 9000-foot peaks and deep canyons.  John Brown, a member of the expedition recorded:

“It was a great undertaking and a very hazardous one to cross so large a mountain at this season of the year.  There was danger of being snowed under.” 

At one of the camps in the canyon, John C. Armstrong and other members of the expedition carved their names in the cliffs where they remain to this day.

On December 23, the group found the wagon tracks of the Jefferson Hunt Party, who passed through this valley in late October on their way to California.  Hunt’s party split up later and one group went on to become the infamous Death Valley Forty-niners.  The Pratt expedition explored the area south of this site for two weeks and passed this spot again on their way back to Salt Lake City to report the results of their findings.  The canyon east of this site was named “Summer’s Gate” by the Pratt expedition because of the mild snow conditions they encountered.

However, the canyon and the wash which heads south of this site bears the name of Fremont after the explorer, John C. Fremont.  The citizens of Parowan rescued the Fremont party who came though this same canyon under similar conditions in February 1854.

Snowfield Monument “Franciscan Fathers”

25 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

historic, Historic Markers, Snowfield, Spanish Explorers, Spanish Trail, SUP, utah, Washington County

2017-03-19 15.34.56

October 13, 1776: “we set out southward from the small river and campsite of Nuestra Señora del Pilar (“Our Lady of the Pillar” – Kolob Canyon of Zion Canyon National Park)…” and “We traveled a league and a half to the south, descended to the little Río del Pilar (Ash Creek) which here has a leafy cottonwood grove, crossed it, now leaving the valley of the Señor San José and entered a stony cut in form of a pass between two high sierra…” “We continued without a guide, and having traveled with great difficulty over the many stones for a league to the south, we descended a second time to the Río del Pilar and halted on its bank in a pretty cottonwood grove, naming the place San Daniel – Today five leagues south.”
Franciscan Fathers Atanasio Dominguez, Sylvestre Velez de Escalante and eight other members of a daring exploration party departed the Misión de Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 29, 1776, in an attempt to establish contact with the Franciscan mission at Monterey, California. Following previous expeditions into the Spanish borderlands they were able to cross the Colorado River near Grand Junction, Colorado, and entered the unexplored regions of the Great Basin near Spanish Fork, Utah. They then proceeded southward along the Wasatch Mountains expecting a westward flowing river that would eventually take them to the Pacific Ocean. Disappointed and facing the reality of winter snows they “cast lots” at a point near Cedar City, Utah, on October 11, 1776, and elected to return to Santa Fe by a southern route. Their encampment here at “San Daniel” represents the first recorded entry of non-native people into Washington County, Utah. The Fathers arrived back at the Santa Fe Mission on January 2, 1777, having traveled over 1800 miles and recording one of the greatest explorations in American history. Their observations and maps were instrumental in the opening of the American Southwest to further exploration and commercial use of the National Historic Old Spanish Trail.

See other historic markers in the series on this page for SUP Markers.

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