OCR Text |
Show Capitol Reef Gorge cuts through the 100-mile long Waterpocket Fold within Capitol Reef National Park. Its walls soar almost 1,000 feet and for many years the gorge served as dangerous and only roadway for Utah pioneers. The gorge continues to be a favorite spot for adventurous travelers to area Capitol Reef Notes Decade as Park; History Recalled By George E. Davidson (Editor's Note: The first of a series of three features on the creation of Capitol Reef National Park in 1971. Subsequent releases will be made weekly. Writer Davidson is a park ranger responsible for the public education and information program at the park.) Ten years ago, Capitol Reef became a national park, one of the "crown jewels" of the National Park system. Few people remember that 60 years ago two local men, Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman, laid the foundation for national recognition of this "pleasuring ground." Today, Capitol Reef National Park comprises 378 square miles of colorful canyons, ridges, buttes and monoliths. About 75 miles of the long up-thrust called the "Waterpocket Fold", extending like a spine from Thousand Lake Mountain southward to Lake Powell, lies within the park boundary. "Capitol Reef" is the. name of an especially spectacular part of the Waterpocket Fold near the Fremont River. Early History Only a few decades ago, the Waterpocket Fold country was one of the remote corners of the "lower 48." Easy road access came only with the construction of a paved Utah 24 through the Fremont River canyon in 1962. The earliest traces of human activity date from the 9th century when Indian peoples oc-cupied the flood plains and high ground near the few perennial watercourses. These people called the Fremont Culture by archaeologists were related, apparently, to the pueblo-building Anasazi of the Four Corners area but were less sophisticated. In the 13th century, all Indian cultures in this area underwent sudden change; the Fremont Indian settlements and fields were abandoned. No one is sure what happened to these Fremont hunter-farmers. It appears that people did not again settle the area for centuries. When the first white explorers traveled in the vicinity of the Waterpocket Fold, both Utes and Southern Paiute nomads were encountered. Despite the fact that several expeditions passed near Capitol Reef, none of them including those of John C. Fremont explored the Waterpocket Fold. It was, as now, incredibly rugged and forbidding. Following the Civil War, Mormon church officials at Salt Lake City sought to establish "missions" in the remotest niches of the intermountain west. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of marauding Indians penetrated the high valleys to the west of Capitol Reef. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell (Thurber) and Torrey. Meanwhile, men from the expeditions of Major John Wesley Powell had begun to explore the area and the first modern era explorers saw the "reef" on May 12, 1871, from the slopes of Boulder Mountain. In the early 1880s, settlers (many of whom were polyg-amists) moved into Capitol Reef country. Tiny communities sprung up along the life sustaining Fremont River; Junction (later Fruita), Caineville, Aldridge, Giles and Hanksville were created. Fruita prospered, Caineville and Hanksville survived, Aldridge and Giles died. In Fruita, by 1920, the work was hard but the life was good. No more than 10 families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. Sheltered by the reef, the trees of Fruita became known across the state. "Fathers of Capitol Reef" Ephraim Porter Pectol was in 1875. As a child he lived in Caineville, a flood-ravaged Iborn Mormon settlement a dozen miles east of Capitol Reef. In 1910 he went into business in i Torrey and operated a store there for many years. He served as Mormon bishop of Torrey from 1911 until 1928. Pectol was sensitve to the C rugged beauty of the Capitol Reef area and was an avid Fremont Culture relic hunter. A private museum in his Torrey store was widely known. Pectol was anxious that the "outside world" should come to appreciate the beauty of the area. In 1921 he organized a "Boosters' Club" in Torrey. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories and photos to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts he (Continued on Page 8) Capitol Reef Notes Decade as Park; History Recalled was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was Wayne County High school principal. In 1924 Hickman, extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide "Wayne Wonderland Club." In 1925 the educator was elected to the Utah State Legislature. Through Hickman's efforts, 16 acres at Fruita were set aside as a state park in 1926. A 'r-ys after the dedication, ilickman was tragically killed in a boating accident. Shortly, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wavnf. Wonderland Club. The "o 'o interest a i. ' .. . uy photographer in taking a series of promotional photos. For several years, the photographer J. E. Broaddus traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland." In 1933 Pectol himself was elected to the legislature and almost immediately introduced a memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol not only guided the government investigators on numerous trips but escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect. On August 2, 1937, President Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef Naitonal Monument. (Next week: "Watch on the Fremont") |