Show SAN J TAN its first white man ay by iy albert R lyman senoi espejo E J 0 the spaniard Span laid founded S santa a or fe aa 29 years lears before tile mormons cormons 0 on settled in san juan county frequent F frea r bent uen are known to bave have been sentous sen tout from there to the north and west and it Is not im P probable that some of then them pene grated this region the name ot of the river and its upper would suggest they had been treaded headed with wah Span spanish lih trails east of what Is now utah I 1 11 0 it would bould bel be sate ante to guess t ho 10 lo it would be a gaass only that thell their paid lust bi ought the spaniards to blue mountain vl ilch by conventional geographers Is still given t the lo 10 u unpopular a pop name of sierra abajo when coronado and his scouts view the colorado it was no doubt west est of san juan and lF father ather ascali I 1 antes company nade made a gi eielt pat circle completely around it without cross closs ing its border bonier there may be hidden away in some obscure old monas monastery records that would throw new and on this thir three imn dred years ott pre mormon histo I 1 but its as lai far as get at able accounts gd the first europeans came into sau san juan county count after the year rear MO 1870 I 1 tills this la Is no attempt to tell which one was ilist hist 14 we have a detailed account dr livered in person by a man named drown brown who claymes to hive have gone in re fre hitter seventies across the lie south ern cm and part ot of the county to a place on the colorado Coloia do near the henry mountains ills company caf he be tile hie first white while men in ili the ip gloria aey tl ey visited mr hi goodridge claims balms to have beell prospecting on the lower loei san juan in 1877 and to have discovered tile the droppings oil toi for which lie he later slink wells well as the foie of all the ie oil drilling that lias his gone on in the county since in about 1878 a company of geologists crossed cro sied the country from Ch inalee to the mouth of recapture Recap turi end and some of them went northward north waid to the foot of the mountain on thi hunk of a big cottonwood east ol of what became bluff they carved figures showing tile the altitude to be rind they wrote the altitude on a atiee at the top ot of peters hill their leiling man Is sold said to be a mr moss and they alre reported to have live had wagon from china Chin alep lee to the river but they sen sent t it if from there into colorado and went north with a paric out fl fit t late in tile w fall ot of that year icar bi biot others liPis brought biou glit their cattle and horses hoi sea in from colorado mah ing head quai on the creek just south fouth of what Is if now monticello in a the severe winter intel that fol folce fo loe owed the cattle worked ilon down under tinder the ihna dins an and fared uell cl enough but the lie horses with ci a mania for benching leac ren liing ching higher levels died lii ili the snow next year mr mi hudson came with more moie cattle and bought out the odonnell Odon nels and in SO 80 or sl lie sold its his interests to harold carlisle some firne lemein in the lie latler ei gitles an old mormon monnon pioneer by the lie name of peter shirts left ills his home in southern utah and begin began hunting new territory i ile he had lived in kanarsh and I 1 later in escalante and lie he went to the green river country and from there into grand valley and to the dolores river he carried with him a history of the conquest of Alex mexico teo and reading it night after night by lits his five fire lie got the thrills of th stor story 7 in his blood it was this lure ot of mexico which started him south and traveling sl slowly 9 aly and in a zigzag course 1 he fancied himself enuch farther south souli and in the borders of the ter citory about which lie was reading from the dolores country beado still towards mexico he entered a I 1 ai wonderful valley which lie he called I 1 montezuma lt it Is still montezuma I 1 valley to ten thousand people who never heard of peter shirts with 1 I 1 great enthusiasm lie he told the original mormon scouts about the valley de I 1 daring claring that with water wate r from the dolores river it could support ten I 1 I 1 thousand people look at the valley today and say whether it Is too much to place shirts among the prophets I 1 1 in the rail fall of 78 or the winter of 79 he e made its his way down on to tho san juan river still enthused with i the history of tile the southern conquest i and making camp at tile the mouth of I 1 a big canyon canyon he named it at least from him fill or by him it go got t ti the ie same name he had given to the w wonderful onder rui valley to the east cast and it is still known as Alonte montezuma zuma creek or montezuma canyon from ills his headquarters att at tile the mouth of the can canyon on he explored tho the country always speculating on what events ot of tile the conquest might have lave happened there finding ten miles allies to tile tho west another big canyon emptying into the viver ile ho wondered I 1 I 1 loveie not in that region legion that cortez recaptured montezuma after the latter after I 1 had escaped so he named it re Ilo capture c reek whether monte zuma effi really really saw the region or hot at it Is still recapture from the glue mountain to the san juan and probably pio bably remain remalia that way as aa steadfastly as ifft 1 it had come lione by its name ain in the summer of 79 the moimoi scouts found shirts a lone hermit at the mouth of 0 montezuma and in telling tellin them them about the be wonderful vond erful country into which they had come lle he did no not omit to tell them about the gieir events of the conquest which may have happened in is various quai we detect no element of selfish fiess ness lit in the doings of peter shirts and it Is quite possible that hard haid fought contribution conti to sin san tuan juan county 1 is not fully appreciated he thrust chis his own oa name on no place in the country not even on peters lilli ill I 1 that hill by the wiy gets its amu ami aiom a mr mi peters who came in with the hudson cattle and built a cabin it tile the top of the till hill still bear bearing lFf Ms his name the I 1 he first white non men according to our oui records as related in the ious ioui chapter to reach leach the flat top 0 of 1 elk mountain had nothing to do giving the mountain its name it has been commonly reported that the name came front some old report of elk having been seen there but tile following story given by kamen jones one of tile the last of the scouts seems much more probable pio bable 1 tile the name resulted lesul ted from a miss dundei nnie i s standing tan ding in 68 or 70 a corn cont pany of pioneers pione eis had undertaken dundei taken to colonl zo grand gland valley and on thel the mountain to tile the south east 01 ol them i somebody le ported having seen been a herd of elk they called it elk mountain and when they abandoned the undertaking tailing and returned to t i settlements in utah they reported among g other things the mount mountain aln i they had found the san sal juan pioneers absorbed this as a something which might be of interest in their under taking and when they came eastward east vard ud ll 11 ru clay hill pass and sawn a moun tain fain oft off to the not 1101 tit th eit east they took 1 it for foi tile the mountain soon seen by tile the grand gland i valley people and it lias has been elk mountain ever since tho ho tia the original has long since become known as la I 1 S sal lai mountain the original company of maimon scouts under ole hie leadership or of silas S I 1 smith ciosek san juan county fram ft cm south couth to north in tile the sunni suni nier ui 0 of f 79 tho the not the hist cilc ineil in fit flir country abey tl y me are tile he first to come officially anil and in form for foi tile definite pui poe of building up ani an I colonizing it it Is very PI probable pio bable too that tl at they were the very ey first in eniy all Y of tile the regions tile hie visited from tile the camp of peter shirts at tile the mouth of Monte Alonte zunn zurna they explored to t the lie north and west vest and onu ont of r their men by name discovered the long water course which still bears ills his nanie As they traveled the company saw no lacks or of batth till after they had crossed devil canyon the southern und and western part of the country was af walli w ith the exception of indian trails here and there a virgin wilderness with etli frequent fie quent tracks of leer deer and other w wild ild animals from tile the mountain the company looked down at the mesas to the south and where Di anding Is tile the hills were withe with the tall dry grasst pad they called it white mesa the name by which it has been known duang the 52 years since that time the tour four special scouts sent out from rom hole in cherock the rock the following winter lemuel H redd sr george morrill george hobbs and george sevle sevie are no doubt the first white men e to enter many of the remote corners to which wanderings led them coming out of a wide forest of cedars and rocks to a long valley with a great reet reef along its aas east t side standing up in ono one buggea point after another for for forty ty miles I 1 les like the teeth of IL a ponderous ponde ious comb they called it comb wash and tile the name still holds in tile the eventful years since the at ai rival of tile the plon ceis eis many a hidden region has seen its list first white men and there are plea rity of faraway far ar away aay and difficult places even yet where someone in may ay still hao lave the dieth distinction of being first to visit it |