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Show El Gob ernador Wrongly Known As Angel's Landing, Says Secretary Alter One of the strange quirks in Utah history has been cleared up by Dr. J. K. W. Braken of Salt Lake City, who stales that the Zion National park formation known as Angel's Landing is in reality El Gobernador, having been thus named in honor of Governor Gover-nor Spry over 20 years ago, writes P. P. Patraw, park superintendent. This interesting bit of information was unearthed by J. Cec'l Alter, secretary sec-retary of the Utah Historical society, who learaed from Dr. Braken all the details of the christening of El Gobernador, Gober-nador, or Angel's Landing as it is now wrongly known. Dr. Braken states that the name was bestowed in 1913 by himself and Douglas White, former editor of the Arrowhead magazine, who were members mem-bers of Governor S pry's party that visited Zion canyon that year. He emphatically em-phatically states that the name was not given to the mountain now called Great White Throne, but to the formation for-mation across the river that has since been called Angel's Landing. This statement is corroborated by Lawrence Law-rence S. Marigar, president of the Salt Lake Transportation company, who was also a member of the party, and who was recently interviewed by Mr. Alter. Neither Mr. Marigar nor Mr. Braken can explain just how the name became switched around .so as to be applied to the Great White Throne, and since Douglas White, who might have explained it, is dead, it will probably always remain a mystery. mys-tery. Mr. Marigar states that Governor Gover-nor Spry knew of the error but modestly mo-destly refrained from saying anything any-thing about it. Hence Mr. Alter has the evidence of three men that the mountain wronglv called Angel's landing for these twenty years is in reality El Gobernador. Dr. Braken's narrative of the 1913 trip to Zion canyon, resulting in the naming of El Gobernador, brings out , the contrast between transportation then and now. Governor Spry's party spent the greater part of a day driv-ing driv-ing in buggies over sandy ror.ds and across rocky fords in order to tour the canyon, which is now easily accessible ac-cessible by paved roads extending its entire length of 8 miles.. The Governor's Gover-nor's party, accompanied by many residents of Washington, county, loaded load-ed their vehicles with melons and other Dixie delicacies, "drove up to the Temple of Sinawava in the forenoon, and then retraced their way to the foot of Cable mountain, where President Presi-dent Harding was later serenaded by the Dixie band. After dinner, Governor Gover-nor Spry, Mr. Marigar, Dr. Braken, Douglas White and others of the official party,' moved down the river to a point that commanded a fine view of the red pinnacle now called Angel's Landing. The view was especially es-pecially effective in the late afternoon after-noon light, and since the peak was then without a name Dr. Braksn suggested sug-gested it be named in honor of the governor. Members of the party spoke of its central location among other Zion features, compared it to some of Yosemite's formations, and mentioned mention-ed the name "El Capitan." Douglas White then' suggested "El Gobernador" Goberna-dor" and, although the governor modestly mo-destly demurred, Dr. Braken and others insisted on the new name. On the spur of the moment an impromptu christening ceremony was held, all standing with bared heads while Mr. White delivered a very poetic and formal dedir.t:on speech. Some time after the. departure of Governor Spry's party a sign was prepared telling visitors about the new name, but cither through accident or other unknown causes it was posted at the foot of the Great White Throne instead in-stead of near the mountain that Dr. Braken and Mr. White had named. A somewhat similar error was made in Douglas White's Arrowhead maga-i maga-i z;ne in 1917, when a photograph of Great White Throne was wrongly entitled en-titled El Gobernador. Hence the name El Gobernador has always been popularly popu-larly associated with Great White Tli rone rather than with Angel's , Landing, where it was originally beitowed. |