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Show f . t,. r - , '-" . . - , . : V ; v i . y x - ' i ' ' . "' J . Z 'jvv'' '"'.' ,r' .'.-v "1 K L Alexander, left, and Ted Warner stop in Payson to examine maps while tracing the Lirguez-Escalante Expedition Trail. The expedition camped on the Arroyo de San Andres Sept jj,i;?6,and the two BYU historians believe the camp was in or near present-day Payson City Park J, Peteetneet Creek. Qominguez-Escalante Trail Being Checked Out by Team '' If Dominguez and Escalante jSad returned to Utah to establish settlements after jheir famous exploration ex- ' pedition in 1776, the state probably wouldn't have a provo 'or Spanish Fork or Janarraville today. ; Instead, these respective Realities might be called San Antonio de Padua, Dulcisimo ((ombre de Jesus, and Nuestra fcnora del Pilar, according to f Brigham Young University historians who recently retraced retrac-ed a portion of the Dorain-juez-Escalante trail from Pro-IS Pro-IS south to the Utah-Arizona (order. J In fact, the whole area Join Duchesne to Provo and town to Hurricane near St. Jeorge probably would have Ken identified by a series of Ipanish names that the liplorers used for their mps, explained Dr. Ted J. Varner, chairman of the BYU pstory Department, and Dr. "nomas G. Alexander, assoc-Ite assoc-Ite director of the Charles edd Center for Western Studies. The 2 professors form 1 of 6 jams which are retracing the (tire 2,000-mile trail through lew Mexico, Colorado, Utah ad Arizona under direction of ke Dominguez - Esc a 1 a nte late-Federal Bicenten n i a 1 jommittee. Melvin T. Smith, kector of the Utah State fistorical Society is chairman, fcsults of the project will be impiled by Dr. David Miller I the University of Utah, who chairman of the trail exploration portion of the bicentennial project. A report will be published during the nation's bicentennial celebration. celebrat-ion. "Our assignment was to find, as closely as possible, the actual trail and campsites of the expedition," Dr. Warner said. The 2 BYU professors have retraced on foot and in a 4-wheel drive vehicle some 300 miles of the trail. As references they have used several different translations of the original Spanish journal kept by Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante on the 5-month, 2,000 mile expedition. The historians also had access to 2 handwritten copies of the journal produced in 1792 and 1797, and to an 1854 Spanish publication of the journal. Using the new translation by Fray Angelico Chavez of Santa Fe. N.M., the 2 professors were able to pinpoint more accurately than previously possible the location locat-ion of some 20 campsites between Provo and the Utah-Arizona Utah-Arizona border. "What we now hope to find is an unnamed hill or other prominent Utah landmark which could be named after Dominguez," Dr. Warner said. He noted that F,ray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez Domin-guez and not Escalante was the real leader of the 10-man expedition, but because Escalante Escal-ante wrote the expedition journal, he has received most of the credit for the trek. Several Utah landmarks including inclu-ding a mountain range, forest, desert, river and town have been named after him but nothing has been named after Dominguez. The explorers originally set out from Santa Fe in July 1776 to find a new route to Monterey, California, but never ne-ver got any farther west than Utah. However, they were highly impressed with some of Utah's rivers and valleys and wanted to establish settlements settle-ments in these areas. But when they returned to Santa Fe in January, 1777, manpower and funds were short and their hopes never materialized, Dr. Warner explained. ex-plained. So Utah remained unsettled until the Mormon pioneers arrived some 70 years later and applied their own names to the state's communities, commun-ities, mountains and rivers. If the Spanish explorers had returned, their names would probably be in use today and it would be hard to tell Utah from California or New Mexico. Mex-ico. Payson would have been San Andrea, Scipio would have been Ojo de Cisneros, and Levan would have been San Bernardino. Other campsite names which might have endured are San Pablo, Santa Ysabel, Las Vegas del Puerto, Senor San Jose, San Donulo and San Juan Capistrano. And who knows what Utah might have been? Maybe Tierra de Los Yutas or Timpanogos or Nueve Espana. |