Show I r- r HI YAUN O AB BY FAUN McCONKIE A of Moab compIled and by Miss 1 un F 1 after months of Ind nd investigation will vill be published by The I limes Independent JIl in eight installments commencing with this issue I The fIrst chapter below The TImes Independent feels for for for- m in being able to to Its readers tI this s intensely interesting I e i IS hL historically authentic This history is 15 wen well worth pre preserving ervill and we adise ad our readers to clip all installments and paste I them m in a scrap book for future reference I In southeastern Utah lIes Grand InI county a great empIre in itself In Inarea I area arel time county contains 3 square I InI miles It is one ic of the lIvestock coun- coun I ties counties of the state and the grazing grazin of cattle and sheep has been the principal princIpal I pal industry since Its settlement I Grand county was created by the t thet ninth ninth enty-ninth legislature of the tern tertiI tOlY the bIll which created it passing the legislature and being approved by I Thomas March 13 1890 The county seat of Grand county Moab has 1930 census a population of sh slightly over one thousand Moab the boundaries of which are designated ed as Beginning at the southwest comer coiner of section 1 township 26 south range 21 east Salt SaIt Lake merIdian running east one and one half miles mUes thence west one half mile mUe thence north one half mlle mile thence west one I mlle mile thence south one and one half mlles miles to place of was in- in incorporated I December 30 1902 wIth Ii H HG IiI I G Green as mayor In a moment of poetic ardor Al M MI I Rogers ers said of Moab and the nearby vicinity Vast areas of luxuriant I grasses carpet the hIllsIdes and mesas great herds of fat sleek contented cattle and sheep graze upon those al- al almost almost most limitless s natural pastures and bask in the cool cooJ shade of I pine nd nd aspen groves where the air airIS airis IS filled with the melodY of feathered songsters and redolent wIth the odor of myriads of wild flowers and the balsamic breath of the forests which gladden the heart and lull the spIrit lIke U the e perfumes of incense Irom mystic oriental altars and bring health and happiness to all who it Undoubtedly Mr Rogers lisa has 0 oer- oer er- er estimated the regIon when one con con- consIders considers sIders the red sandstone hills etc etl even though there is an element of beauty even m in them MoTh is not a paradise but it IS somewhat of an oasIs m in the desert regIon and looks good to the worn travel pilgrIm who has the desert before reach reach- reachIng reaching Ing it Moab Is situated in a valley with an elevation of about four thousand feet above sea le leel el The clImate and in- in v the of-the valley and surroundIng region are greatly affected by the Colorado rado river and the nearness of the La LaSal I Sal mountains The La Sal mountains are a few miles nules from the Utah Colorado stateline state line about half of them being in Grand and half m in San Juan county Utah From Thompsons Grand coun- coun county ty tv a daily stage run runs south for about five fIve tv-fIve miles to Moab which IS the distributing center for the western and southern sloe of the range From Cisco al alio o in Grand county a staRe stage line runs thirty eight eIght miles to RICh RICh-I Rich Rich- Richardson ardson and Castleton at the base of the north end of the range The La Sal moun mountains tams are an Irregular irregular I ular group about fifteen miles mUes long I from north to south and from four to six mIles wide The highest peak Mt Peale rises slIghtly over 13 feet hIgh The hIgher peaks rise nse from five I Ito to six thousand feet above the sur- sur smI I rounding plateau I Surrounding the central mountain mass is a plateau or mesa that in many places has not been maturely I dissected by the streams and that I forms benches sloping gently from the I mountains The drainage Is 1 from the central mass and is typical of the mountains of the I plateau country The drainage from I Ithe the west side is to the Colorado river I formerlY Grand and from the east to the Dolores and finallY to the Colorado again A short distance from the mountains the streams are m in can can- canyons irons but near the mountains an old mature surface is stIll pre pre- preserved preserved served and it is Possible to irrigate the mesas surrounding the mountains from the streams before they enter the canyons Water is scarce throughout the area which is a part of the hi highly dissected Colorado plateau Small streams some of winch persist h- h hout out the summer mainly Mill creek and Pack creek flow from the moan moun- mountains where snow lies until late in the spring The streams Irrigate the val val- BIBLIOGRAPHY Young LevI Edgar FoundIng of Utah Gottfredson Peter History ot of IndIan Depredations m in Utah Phillips Albert F Grand Coun- Coun County Coun ty Teems wIth Interest Butler W S Ore Deposits of Utah Alter J C Utah the Storied Domain DavId Lost If Coyner Trappers Jenson Andrew The The Elk Moun- Moun tam tam Mission I Bristol John Early Early PIoneer of Grand County Fred Powell I Whitney Orson F Utah Since Statehood Armstrong Burl Moab s ThIrd Awakening Revised Ordinances of Moab Times Independent Independent s-Independent Deseret News Information gamed gained from the fol- fol followIng following lowIng lowIng- early settlers J H Shafer Gee Geo F Fred Powell Neal Ray Ervin and Hymn Wilson Arthur A Taylor Addle Addie Maxwell Tom Trout J T LoverIdge Mrs Henry Grimm L Lemon J H Johnson JohnsonI I Joseph Burkholder Annie Shafer LYdia Ann Taylor W L Taylor Also dIaries of F A Hammond Information from Church luster luster- HIstorian ian s a office ley of Moab and on the mesas small areas are Irrigated and dry farming is isI I conducted to some extent The agri- agri agricultural agricultural cultural possibilities of the re region lon seem suffIcient to supply any mining corn com that might develop and on the slopes of the mountains thele IS consIderable Umber timber The prevailing lochs of the region are sedimentary the igneous locks lOchs be- be bem m confined to the core of the moun- moun mountains The liver IS an meandering stream which has cut I through h the rock formations a great channel The nier Is very Important as an influence on the climate and industry of Moab andI I It has generally been supposed by many people that the fIrst whIte men menI mento mento I to enter the lIttle valley of Moab cere ere the members of the Elk Mountain slon sion in 1855 But now there IS con con- considerable eVIdence to substantiate the con I theory that this valley was kno nand and used by many white men long the advent of 01 the Mission in 1855 Probably the first English speaking travellers into hat IS now Utah were James Workman and Samuel Spencer last fur trappers These men found theIr way to the valley or of Moab Ac- Ac According cording to J Cecil Alter mIlls in his Utah the StorIed Domain In which he from David H Coyner The Lost Trappers these two men Workman and Spencer in the sum sum- summer summer mer of 1809 descended the present Colorado river from one of its head head- headwaters headwaters waters to the crossing of the Old Spanish Trail at Moab Utah and thence with a party of Spanish traders to southern California They had left St at Louis in the spring of 1807 with a party of twenty trap hap trappers pers under the leadership of Ezekiel WillIams and were all cut off or killed by Comanche IndIans largely in ina ina a battle on the headwater of the Ax- Ax Arkansas kansas except three men WillIams Workman and Spencer Williams made his way down the Arkansas river and thence overland to St Louis But Workman and Spencer struck for Santa Fe presumably on the drainage of the RIO del Norte Rio Grande but by mIstake came down the Gun Gun- Gunnison nison alson and the Grand now Colorado Their narrative as has been present present- preserved presented ed by David H Coyner an early day Western newspaper correspondent is briefly Quoted here after the two Continued on last page A HISTORY OF MOAB O T TI I Continued n from first page e I trappers had lost their log canoe to toI Indians while reconnoitering the Black I canyon of the Gunnison and following follow follow- ing the stream thereafter on foot for forI ling I several days I forI Having daysI descended this river for I several hundred miles mUes still believing It to be the Rio del Norte and won won- wondering derin dering why they had not reached Santa Fe they came to a place which seemed to have been used as a cross cross- crossing crossing ing Moab Mo Utah These Thele were a great many signs of horses and mules but they were el e off and all pointing an I east course Indeed the signs were all so numerous that Workman and Spen- Spen Spencer Spencer conJ conjectured there must have been several thousand Without the least hesitation the trappers ed to follow fol- fol follow low this great trail and to take e the way the sl signs s indIcated the last cara- cara caravan van v had gone They felt confident that this trail had been made Spaniards and not by bv the Indians They travelled it two days when they met a caravan of Spaniards 40 or 50 50 on the trail trall but going the opposite dl- dl direction From these travellers they I learned le that the river nver was the Colo- Colo Colorado Colorado rado and they ere ere about five hund- hund hundred hundred red miles from Santa S rl re Not 11 the tJ trading parties on the theOld theOld Old Spanish Sp from Santa Fe to Los Angeles through Utah were con con- content content tent to travel the long distance with with- without without out diverging ng from the well wom vorn pathway path through San Juan county from flom southwestern south Colorado to Moab crossing Green river at town thence to Emery and over the Wasatch mountains through S Salina lina canyon westward ard at Spry postoffice or thereabouts crossing over the Para Para- through Bear Valley and thence south south- southwesterly esterly through the Mountain Meado s and down the Santa Clara The next visit to Moab valley of English speaking people of which we have an any record seems to have been in 1854 for in the official Journal of the Elk Mountain Mission it Is no noted d that a party under the leadership of WIlliam Huntington and Jackson Stewart had been In the valley and left a chace of supplies and equipment which the Billings party of 1855 used 1 I 1 Sunday June 10 1855 1855 The off lumping place Is a perpendicular ledge twenty five feet high down which William Huntington and Jack Jack- Jackson Jackson son Stewart the year previous let the five wa wagons ons with their loads by ropes taking their heir wagons to pieces Tuesday June Here 12 v ae e found the cache of three wagons and a plow made by bv the party led by bv W D Hunt Hunt- Huntin Huntington in ington on the fall previous Monday June Brothers IB Clark ClarkA A Huntington Levi G Metcalf and Moses Draper went ent with four horses and two t yoke yoke- yoke of cattle to the caches of wagons gons tobacco lead etc made the year before They found the wagons a little tobacco and lead and ten spades but all the other property amounting in value to three hundred dollars the Indians had found and ta taken ken To be continued next t week cek |