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Show 2 - SCORCHING TIMES - AUGUST 15, 1996 HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT OF NORTHERN SAN JUAN COUNTY, UTAH —trom the writings of Frank Silvey (This continuing series is from the Silvey wn'fings which capture much of the color and feeling of the eady settlers in southeast Utah.) MORE SETTLERS ARRIVE Many white men saw this Southeastern Utah for the first time and were greatly enthused over its great possibilities. Among these was the writer's brother, Jack Silvey, who after marching Leadville, Colorado, where he had resided since 1873 (then known as Ore City), he wrote back to my parents at Warrensburg, Missouri, to sell out there and come out to the La Sal Mountains in Utah, which we did the following spring. The first settlers in Paradox Valley were the Talberts who settled at a fine large spring in the northwest prong of the valley. Tommy Goshom who had for a time stopped with the Webb family at La Sal explored the head of Paradox Valley in the summer of 1880. Here he found a number of fine springs, thirteen to be exact, on a tract of land of about 100 acres, and he determined to settle this as a homestead. In the spring of 1880 Tommy left La Sal with a team of sturdy oxen and a heavy wagon, determined to take the same down Paradox Hill. Friends said, "Don't try it, Tommy, you cannot get a wagon down the Paradox Hill," but Tommy said it could be done and he would do it. No one knows how he ever got across Two Mile Creek with his outfit but he did. Crossing Hop Creek and the small canyons, he final- ly arrived at the ridge overlooking Paradox Valley. Here was a splendid view of the valley. Running in a southeasterly and northwesterly course, the sandstone walls of the valley arose from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above the valley floor. Below the point oxen to make them hold back he started out. For several yards all was well but the hill here was so steep it was impossible to hold the wagon and after vain effort he hastily sprang aside to save his life and oxen and wagon shot down the hill past him. Running after them as fast as possible Tommy finally reached the bottom of the hill where he found the great speed of the oxen had shot the heavy tongue of the wagon up into a large pinion tree where the oxen were suspended and almost choking. Afew months after the Indian fight in June 1881, Alonzo Hatch made the first settlement at an unknown spring and meadows in the northwest end of Dry Valley. Here he lived about a year then abandoned it and moved for a time to Moab. Hatch Ranch, Hatch Rock, and Hatch Wash was soon after named in his honor. A few miles southeasterly up Dry Valley in early days this wash was known as Hudson Wash, named in honor of "Spud" Hudson. Then as the wash enters the mesa above, it was named East Canyon. Continuing in a southeasterly direction this wash heads near Piute Knolls. About 8 miles below the Hatch Ranch, Kane Spring Wash with a total length of about ten miles, puts into Hatch Wash, thence on down to the Colorado River about twelve'miles and here it is also called Kane Spring wash. As Hatch or Hudson Wash has only about ten miles where it intersects Hatch Wash, one would think it would be called Hatch Wash at its mouth on the Colorado River. Early in the year 1882, an old prospector "Doby" Brown settled at an un—named spring about five miles northwesterly of the Maxwells and McCartys who lived what was at that time called Coyote. After a few months residence here Doby Brown aban— doned this location and located near the head of Castle Creek at about the spot where Castleton Post Office now stands in Little Castle Valley. Here he . resided a number of years. The abandoned place he had left west of Coyote was named after him and called "Brown's Hole." Indian Creek was not settled until 1884. where he stood 4,000 feet above the valley floor, was a broken slope of "jump-offs" that sloped up to the La Sal Mountains. Cutting a brushy pine tree and rough locking one hind wheel, he got down the first hill without much difficulty and going on about a mile he came to the "Jumping Off Place." There was nothing in the way of a road, but an old Indian trail that was so steep that a good cow-pony had to be led up this trail as he could not carry the rider up. It looked bad, but Tommy Goshom had a stout heart, a good old reliable team of oxen, and in those days wagons were made honestly, not to sell, but for service, so he had also a good, stout wagon. Selecting two bushy cedar trees and cutting them down, he trailed them by heavy log chains behind the wagon. Also with heavy chains he rough-locked both hind wheels of the heavy wagon. Getting in front of the A number of settlers and prospectors fearing an Indian uprising during the fall and winter of 1881 and 1882 again congregated at La Sal. About twenty men put in the winter and the greater number of these lived in the two—story building that answered as a fort. No Indians showed up during this period and as spring opened up early this year nearly a1 settlers and prospectors pulled out, some to Paradox and others to prospect in the Mountains by the Tom May family and Neals Olson remained. The Mays milked from thirty-five to forty-five cows and packing the butter in whiskey barrels, they hauled it via the Three Step Hill to Durango, a dis- tance of 135 miles where they sold it at fifty cents per pound. They would then load back with supplies of all kinds to last for eight months to a year. The More Silvey, p. 3 |