Show c iT t- t EARLY HISTORY HISTORY- Canyon Carries His Name Nome Rugged Early mi Resident By Maxine Newell There are bits of property In Moab Vall Valley y that now V cost as mutt much as 1000 a front foot fool But Dut it hasn't Always been that cheap Years ago a man couldn't buy the property properly for cold cash What at he paid was years of hard labor heartache and often otten times his Ws life tire It was back About that time that Bill Dill William Granstaff Gran- Gran staff S a big robust wandered In Just where he came carne from fret no one ever knew for forre shire re but he had with a little tittle Fren Frenchman and a small herd of or cattle of ot various brands The valley was vacated when hen heny they y arrived An isolated fort remained as A landmark front from past attempts to colonize the valley vaHey Bill settled in one end of ot it h and Frenchie in the oUter other Renegade that he proved tobe to tobe tobe be Bill Ul was an enterprising enterprising enterprising enter enter- one lIe He drove e his cattle tattle I up the Ute Colorado River a few miles until he came across cross a awash awash t wash of clear mountain water with grass lined banks for lor miles upstream On this he settled netted his cows Then he returned to the valley and planted the only seed he had And by the time tho the next group of ot pioneers entered the valley vaHey that fall he had piles of squash stacked up and a few bushels of corn rom hu ked The corn he wouldn't trade but the vege table starved pioneers gladly traded flour and sugar f for n the fresh squash Corn Com sugar Bill DIU was in business Back to hi his little tittle mountain wash he went and with his meager sU supplies pl s and a lot tot of ot ingenuity he soon had a still slUt of ot sorts rigged up and was turning out oot some potent corn com likker Right then pulled out He had a nose for tor trouble Just how long Bill Dill operated op crated his new business venture remained his secret but it Is a cinch he never attempted to peddle his product to the Ute pious Mormon Monnon settlers They remained his friends and the day A band of very drunk savage Indians rode through the little pioneer settlement se waving tomahawks and leaving in their wake dead pioneers and general chaos no noone noone noone one even thought of or naming Bill BUI UI as the culprit who had committed the worst crime of ot the Ute times selling times selling whiskey to the Indians Instead they formed a posse and rode off in the Ute direction direction tion of or Colorado That was as known to be A wild unscrupulous lous loos country and the pioneers felt sure the guilty parties had come from that area areal J a 1 I Bill didn't stick around for Ut the posses posse's return But ut before before be be- fore he left the he county he confessed confessed con con- his crime to a pioneer he heh h had a d previously befriended befriended- swore him to secrecy for a few days and took off Why he left is no mystery but why he confessed before he left is still a specula speculation topic among historians Perhaps they say he had a conscience after all Or perhaps he had a certain amount of pride in his project and wanted someone to know how enterprising he had been At any rate he was never seen in to this country again Evidently though t h o n g h Bills Bill's business didn't net him enough for a lifetime of it ity Years later he was seen and I recognized in Salida Colorado Colorado- an old white headed Negro shining shining shin shin- ing s shoes for a living Jiving True Well Wen who knows At any rate rote he was remembered The still is gone but the little wash remains Today it is known as at Bill Dill Wash I hear the they are going to make a side road park there theore |