Show Spanish Trail Left Mark on Moab Valley J a aI I ISome Some of Moab's newer residents may wonder why the Moab Valley sometimes is called Spanish Val ley Icy While no attempt was made to I colonize this area until the Billings Bill Bill- ings party came in 1855 Spaniards had passed through this region for more than a century Father Escalante Escalante Es Es- calante and his party parry searching for fora foria ia a route from Santa Fe to California Califor nia had crossed southwestern and western Colorado in 1776 They missed this area on that first expedition expedition expedition ex ex- coming into what now is Utah east of Jensen Later parties found the route south and west of the he La that came to be known as the Spanish Trail Perhaps a few trappers or moun mountain ain men followed the Spanish Trail in the last years of the eighteenth cent century y but ut it if so they left n no no i record id i'd First men men men- tan lion p pf the valley by speak English ing travelers comes in 1809 Winford Bunce now a Grand County commissioner tells the story in a history of the county written in 1936 In the spring of 1807 a party of 20 trappers under the leadership leadership leader leader- ship of Ezekiel Williams left leCt St st. StLouis StLouis Louis Bunce wrote I On the headwaters of 01 the Arkansas Arkansas Ar Ar- kansas the Commanche Indians surrounded and killed or cut off all but three of them Williams James fames Workman and Samuel Spencer Spen Williams made his way d down wn the he Arkansas and traveled overland over over- land and to St St. Louis Workman and Spencer headed for Santa Fe presumably presumably pre pre- by the drainage of 01 the thelo Rio lo Del Norte Rio Grande but buty by y mistake came down dawn d wn the Gunnison Gunni- Gunni son and then the Grand rivers the Colorado was known as the Grand at that time In the U summer of 01 1809 Workman Workman Work Work- I man and Spencer beginning to wonder why they had not reached Santa Fe evidently came to a crossing on the river that evidently evident ly Iy had been used by many horses and mules This crossing at what now is Moab was th Spanish Trail The two lost trappers followed It toward the south and east and two days later met a caravan of more than 40 Spaniards coming from the south From the Span Span- lards Workman and Spencer ed the river they had followed was the Grand and that they still were hundreds of miles from front Santa Fe The trappers Joined the caravan panted the traders to Southern California |