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Show The Expedition j To Escaiante Released through courtesy of tht Utah Historical Landmarks Association, As-sociation, 800 Newhouse Building, Salt Lake City, Utah By Edgar ;H. Ledyard, President From the historical viewpoinr, the history of Santa Fe is very interesting. in-teresting. Its origin runs back moie than three hundred years and antedates the settlement of Plymouth Plym-outh by the English. In military, political and ecclesiastical activities, it outranked many of the early settlements set-tlements east of the Appalachians. In the new world, it was the most northern settlement of the Spanish Crown during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, also the lirst European settlement is mad'! in Arneiica with the idea o colonizing t l.i ig. section of what is now the Ui.'.ie-J Stales. It is t.'ie oldest rflaU '.apital in the Unite 'I States Notwithstanding its isolation and lh; fact that it wp.s u "poor mis-ici: mis-ici: " the Spanish hold to it tenac-Aside tenac-Aside from ah other con-si'iei con-si'iei ations, as a termiiuis of the fani us fianta Fe Trail, its iiMie would be secure in the romantic '.ore of the west. From Santa Fe, with its great historical background, Father Escaiante Es-caiante set out oti July 23, 1776 in company with another Franciscan friar, Dominquez; Cisnercs, mayor of Zuni; Captain P.icheco; Lain, a citizen of Santa Fe; Olivaie.s of El Paso del Note; Muniz, an interpreter inter-preter and guide of his brother; Aguilar of Bernalillo and Lusero, a servant of Cisneros. While this expedition is ovdhia;-ily ovdhia;-ily referred to as that of Es"alante, a more proper title might ue the Dominquez-Escalante Expedition. There was urgent need for this, expedition, which had as its ob.iect the determination of a route to California with Monteray as the objective point. Santa Fe and other oth-er settlements to the south had he-gun he-gun to feel foreign pressure from the north, east and west. The French were settling along the Mississippi river and an expedition of some fifteen hundred Spaniards, men, women and. children, set out from Santa Fe in 1716 to resist further fur-ther encroachments to the east. This expedition ended in failur j. Franciscan friars had established a chain ol missions along the west coast of what is now California but the Russians were meeting tl'is competition by reaching down from the north and establishing forts and trading posts. Communication Communica-tion so far along the 'west coast was by sea; an overland route was desired. de-sired. There are some misconceptions regarding the Old Spanish Trail. The original Old Spanish Trail van into the Great Basin. One of later lat-er date, but of primary importance commercially, led to California and due to the prominence of the later trail, the early one was forgotten. On August 12 the expedition arrived ar-rived at the Rio Dolores near the present city of. Hogg. At this point the guides were uncertain regarding the direction to be taken and a council was held to determine determ-ine the proper course. Practically everyone in the party had a different differ-ent idea of what should be done. They finally decided to follow the trail which led to Utah Indian settlements and obtain a guide there. Leaving the Dolores they crossed the San Miguel and reached the Uncompahgre Plateau. On the 26 of August they reached the river and valley of San Francisco. At a point about tnirty miles from the junction of the Uncompahgre river with the" Gunnison, they descended to within ten miles of the mouth cf the Uncompahgre, crossed over to the Gunnison and passed up the north fork of the same river. Two Laguna Indians were engaged en-gaged as guides and they set out to reach the settlements of their guides. After crossing the Grand and White rivers, they arrived on September 13 at the Green river, called by them San Buenaventure, which they crossed a little above the present site of Jensen, Utah. From there the party proceeded southwest until they arrived at the junction of the Uintah and Duchesne Du-chesne rivers. It is difficult to follow their exact ex-act route through this section but they probably proceeded up the Duchesne and Strawberry, crossed the summit and undoubtedly descended des-cended the Spanish Fork river to the settlements of the Timpanogos Indians on the eastern shore ol Utah Lake, reached on September 23, 1776. Bancroft and some other historians histor-ians have led this expedition down the Provo river but the Provo has no hot springgs along its course and lather positive inaentification of what is now Castilla Hot Springs seems to point to the Spanish Fork river as the route. Escaiante and his companions spoke favorably of rich lands along the rivers and around Utah Lake. The Indians there were described as being good featured and friendly; for starch foods they deyended upon up-on seeds, herbs and roots which were supplemented by fish, rabbit and wild fowl. Some deer were also killd by Indians as evidenced by jackets, leggins and moccasins of buckskin; rabbit skins were used for blankets; dwellings were constructed con-structed principally of willow brush. The Indians told them of a lake to the north which was very salty but they did not visit it. What is now the Jordan river was named the Rio de Santa Ana. After spending three days visiting visit-ing tribes on the eastern shore of the lake as far north as Provo river, the party resumed its march toward Monterey. On the 29 of September Septem-ber they arrived at the Sevier river which was named by them the Santa San-ta Isabel. Indians in this section Vvie also friendly and described as having "much thicker beards than the Indians living around Utah Lp.ke." Crossing the Sevier, they passed close to the present towns A Oasis and Deseret and turned scuth through Beaver River Valley along the present line of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. On October 5, as the result of a quarrel with members of the party, their Utah Lake (Laguna) guide deserted them in the vicinity of Blacrock. October 8 found them snowbound, out of provisions and without a guide. After some consultation con-sultation they decided it would be impossible to reach Monterey before be-fore the mountain passes would be closed and accordingly -set out for Santa Fe. Their route took them through Cedar Valley, down Ash Creek, a-cress a-cress the Virgin river and onto the table lands of the Colorado. Aftei struggling over rough trails for a month seeking a crossing of the Colorado, it was effected on November No-vember 7 at a point about thirij miles south of the mouth cf the San uan. On November 14 the Cosnina Indian villages were reached reach-ed and on the 16 the party arrived at the Moqui villages. The Moquis rendered them assistance, gave them provisions but declined to become be-come Christians, stating that they merely wished to be friends. Leaving the Moqui towns on November No-vember 20, Dominquez and Escal ante hurried on with three companions compan-ions to the Zuni settlements, leaving leav-ing other members of the expedition and the weaker animals to follow more slowly. After recouping at Zuni and passing through Acoma, Laguna, Iseleta, Alburque, Sandia, Santo Domingo, they reached Santa San-ta Fe on January 2, 1777. From the viewpoint of opening a road to California, the expedition was a failure. From the viewpoint f exploration and early records, it was a success and their general route was followed for years by traders. Dominquez and Escaiante promised prom-ised the Utah Lake Indians that they would return the next year and establish a mission on the eastern eas-tern shore of Utah Laice but when the Fathers reached Santa Fe they were unable to convince the authorities author-ities of the necessity for such a move. One of their reasons for not proceeding to Monterey would be that this would delay the founding found-ing of a mission on Utah Lake. Thus, because the advice of Dominquez Dom-inquez and Escaiante was not followed, fol-lowed, Utah and the Great Basin lost an historical heritage. |