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Show Take a Drink from Matrimony Spring, And You'll Be Sure to Return to PAoab By Uzel Foote "If you drink out of the river spring, you'll come back to Moab". This delightful bit of whimsical advise has been passed on to several generations genera-tions of travelers and visitors to Southeastern Utah's canyon country by several generations of Moab residents. The amazing amaz-ing fact is that it is probably true, for most of the people who have stopped for a drink of cool, refreshing water, as it pours forth from a canyon wall near the Colorado river bridge, have returned to Moab, many of them again and again. The early pioneers of Moab valley discovered the spring and many of them depended on it for drinking water so that. in the evenings, the river spring was a very popular place for visiting, gossiping and social activities of all kinds as families would congregate to fill their barrels with water. These neighborly visits sometimes some-times continued on into the evening and, because of a number of romantic commitments commit-ments that were made there, the place came to be known as "Matrimony Spring".' It is said that while under the spell of the cascading spring water adding it's bit to the mighty Colorado River as it flowed on by with light from the moon and stars outlining the canyon walls and the tamarisk and willows waving gently in the breeze, many a young swain would express his undying ... . - . v .. . . ' tw - I Matrimony Springs, at the Colorado River, has a reputation that Moabites like to pass on to visitors: that if you take a drink from love and devotion to the very special girl clasped in his arms and ask her to be his wife and that, in these circumstances, she would almost always say, yes. Matrimony Spring continues to be a very popular spot and, although the water flow has diminished somewhat in recent re-cent years, it is still THE place for the hot, weary traveler to get a refreshing drink and many Moab residents still make the trek to the spring for drinking water, preferring it to the slightly chlorinated product prod-uct of the city water department. depart-ment. The invention of spray paint in handy aerosol cans has resulted in all sorts of decorations, names and graf- fiti which, in the opinion of many people, has done very little to improve the esthetic beauty of the spot button the other hand, it has probably satisfied some desires for self expression on the part of the painters and decorators (or desecrators) and filled a need for them to be known and recognized. Anyway this is now part of the scenery. When you are traveling into the Moab area from the North, turn left after you cross the Colorado River bridge and just past the Lion's Club Park and campground, you will find Matrimony Spring and a cool, refreshing drink of water, but be warned and forewarned, if you do drink you will come back, to Moab. the spring, you will surely return to Moab. Is it true? Many swear it is. |