Monument Valley Hole in the Rock Expediton Trail San Juan Mission Pictures Maps Facts

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Hole-in-the-Rock
by
O. Ned Eddins

Hovenweep Monument Valley Handcart Companies

Utah's Hole-in-the-Rock expedition to settle the San Juan area in the four corners of the United States is a feat unparalleled in American colonization. The Hole-in-the-Rock trail passed through present-day Grand Staircase Escalante, crossed the Colorado River and Grey Mesa, and then up San Juan Hill to reach the area of present-day Bluff Utah. The roughly two hundred and fifty mile Hole in the Rock Trail took the Mormon pioneers over six months to complete. The Hole in the Rock narrative is more than men and women colonizing a new area. It is the “can do”, or as Jens Nielson would say "stickie-ta-tudy", attitude of the American pioneer. Building the Hole in the Rock trail and the settlement of Utah's San Juan country is a fitting epitaph to the determination and the perseverance of the American colonist throughout American westward expansion.

The uncompromising determination of the Hole in the Rock trail settlers was exemplified by the leader of the Cedar City group, Jens Nielson. A member of the Willey Handcart Company, the rescue party did not have big enough shoes to fit Jens' rag-bound feet. Struggling over Rocky Ridge, his feet froze to the point he could go no farther. Jens dropped in the snow and begged his wife, Elsie, to leave him. Without hesitation, the less than a hundred pound Elsie loaded Jens on the handcart and pulled him the rest of the way to Rock Creek—in history, the man is usually given all the credit, but in this case and countless others without Elsie there may not have been a Jens.

The Mormon Church wanted to settle the San Juan area in part to protect southern Utah settlements from non-Mormons, outlaws, and to create better relations with the Indians. April 13, 1879, Silas Smith and an exploratory party left Paragonah (near Cedar City, Utah) to blaze a trail to the four-corners area of the San Juan River The exploratory party consisted of twenty-six men, two women, eight children, eight wagons, eighty horses, and sixty-six head of cattle--two of the members were Jens Nielson's son Joe and his son-in-law Kumen Jones. The two families with the party intended to settle on Montezuma Creek just above where it emptied into the San Juan River.

The Smith party crossed the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry. Before reaching the Moenkopi Indian village, Smith had lost a third of the cattle. Indians informed Smith that wagons could not reach the San Juan River area—the rough terrain had little forage and water. Smith left the cattle and the Davis family at the Indian village—Mrs. Davis was expecting a baby within a few weeks.

The Three Sisters - Monument Valley

After reaching Montezuma Creek, four men went back after the Davis family and the cattle. The rest of the men built two cabins and worked on irrigation ditches for the Harrison H. Harriman and James L. Davis families. Five other families were located not far away on McElmo Creek—four of the families were non-Mormon.

Wilson Arch - Moab

The Smith party returned by way of Moab. At the edge of the La Salle Mountains, they found the old Spanish Trail and followed it back to Paragonah.

Old Spanish Trail

The Smith Expedition took five months to travel over one thousand miles—roughly five hundred miles either way. With a favorable report, the San Juan Mission was established, but it was decided to search for a more direct route. Charles Hall of Escalante was sent to find a wagon route to the Colorado River. Fifty-five miles southeast of Escalante, Hall found a narrow cleft in the canyon rim.

Charles Hall reported to Church Authorities that he had found a fissure in the canyon wall that widened into a series of steep benches to the Colorado River. He estimated the distance to the river as three quarters of a mile with a two thousand foot drop—the first forty-five feet of the cleft was virtually perpendicular.

Hole-in-the-Rock Fissure - Google Images - NPS.Gov

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Hole-in-the-Rock - Lake Powell

Andrew Schow and Rueban Collett were sent to explorer a possible trail on the other side of the Colorado River. A few miles above the Hole-in-the-Rock opening, the two men lowered a wagon box off the cliff. Using the wagon box to cross the river, the men climbed up high enough to see the San Juan and Colorado River junction. Satisfied, the two men returned to Escalante and reported it could be done.

The Cleft - BLM Photo

The canyon rim route was chosen because it was shorter than the northern alternative and safer than the southern route through Navajo Indian lands. The distance from Escalante to the San Juan was estimated at two hundred and fifty miles and would require about six weeks.

San Juan Mission Route

A call to fill the San Juan Mission was issued by the Mormon Church. Settlers from Iron, Washington, Millard, and Garfield counties answered the call, including several non-Mormons that wanted safe passage to the Colorado gold fields.

The people assigned to the San Juan Mission were carefully selected. The average age of the adults was twenty-eight. Wagons carried plows and seed grains—tied to the sides of the wagons were water barrels, cages of ducks, chickens, rabbits, and boxed bee hives. These settlers did not plan to return—the San Juan country was their new home.

On October 22, 1879, men, women, and children started for Escalante. The wagons were pulled primarily by horses, but a few had oxen. The first company consisted of Mormons from Cedar City, with Jens Nielsen the leader. Other groups joined the Cedar City group from Parowan and Paragonah. Wagon groups from various place met southeast of Escalante at Forty-mile Spring. A road would have to be built from Forty-mile Spring to the Colorado Rim.

By the twentieth of November, two hundred people with eighty-three wagons and well over a thousand head of horses and cattle were at Forty-mile Spring. While camped at Forty-mile Spring, dances were often held at nearby Dance Hall Rock.

Dance Hall Rock

Jens Nielson sent four men to explorer from the Colorado River to the San Juan River. Gone a week, only one of them, George C. Hobbs, thought it was possible to continue with wagons. The other three men believed wagons could not reach the San Juan area.

A meeting was held on the fourth of December, and after a long deliberation, the vote to continue was nearly unanimous. By the tenth of December, the Forty-mile camp had moved to Fifty-mile Spring.

On the seventeenth of December, a scouting party was sent to Montezuma with two horses and two pack mules. Enough food was packed for eight days. By the time the party reached present-day Bluff, the men had not eaten for four days. The men were surprised to find a Mormon family there from Colorado. The Harris family was not much better off than the weary travelers. All they had left to eat was a small sack of wheat.

The next morning, the explorers continued on to the Harriman and Davis families on Montezuma Creek—they were as bad off as the Harris family. Due to the heat and lack of water, the settlers had not been able to grow sufficient crops.

The Hole-in-the-Rock party obtained forty-eight pounds of flour for twenty dollars from Peter Shirts—an old trapper that had lived on Montezuma Creek since 1877. Leaving Montezuma Creek, the party followed an ancient Indian trail through Grand Gulch. Thirty miles beyond the Grand Gulch, they climbed onto Grey Mesa—the men marked the trail with rock cairns. The exploratory party returned on the ninth of January to report a road would be difficult, but possible.

Two camp sites were established--one at the rim and one Fifty-mile Spring. Half of the men stayed at Fifty-mile spring and the other half established a camp near the rim. The company was divided into five work groups: one to work at the crevice—one to build a road from the crevice to the river—one to build the ferry—one to cross the river and work on the Cottonwood Gulch road—another small group to herd the horses and cattle. The animals ranged up to fifty miles from the camp to find enough feed and water.

While workers were carving out the Hole-in-the-Rock road, Charles Hall was working on the ferry. Lumber for the ferry was cut in Escalante and hauled to the Rim—by this time, the opening was wide enough to carry and lower the timber to the river. Charles Hall’s workers built a ferry wide enough to carry two wagons at a time. The ferry was moved over the slow water with a pair of oars.

Part of this group also helped the Fifty-mile camp workers build the road from the river up a two hundred and fifty foot rock bank and over rock ledges into Cottonwood Canyon.

The Fifty-mile workers walked about six miles to the rim, crossed the river, worked on the road during the week and returned on Saturday. At both camps, especially the rim camp, water was always a problem, but worse was lack of firewood.

The Rim

Two blacksmith forges were established at the rim camp. The blacksmiths kept the tools sharp for drilling into the solid rock. Workers were lowered with ropes over the rim in half-barrels. While dangling in midair, they drilled holes in the cliff and filled them with blasting powder. In areas of sandstone, the holes were filled with water. When the water froze, chunks of rock broke off.

Broken Off Rocks

Not far below the first drop was another shear wall of fifty foot. At this point, it was decided to tack a road to the cliff wall. A narrow ledge for the inside wagon wheels was chiseled out along the wall. Below this narrow ledge, holes were drilled every foot and a half parallel and about five feet below the ledge. The holes were two and a half inches in diameter and about ten inches deep. Cedar stakes were brought from Kaiparowits Plateau and pounded into holes. The stakes formed a base for logs, brush, and then rocks and gravel to build a road wide enough for a wagon. With only picks and shovels, the work was slow and tedious. This section of road was called Uncle Ben’s Dugway for a Welch miner, Benjamin Perkins.

Uncle Ben's Dugway - BLM Photo

The black arrows point at the stake holes. With a square and level, it was determined the roads angle of decent for the first two steep sections varied from forty-five to fifty degrees—the grade down the upper portion of the road dropped one foot for every two feet forward. Below Uncle Ben’s Dugway, the road to the river was on a steep talus slope.

The wagon teams had to be forced into the slot—the best team was a pair blinded by pinkeye. With the back wheels locked, and up to twenty men and boys on long ropes, the first wagon started down on the twenty-sixth of January. Kumen Jones is generally credited with driving the first wagon down.

Original wagon - Bluff Fort Historic Site

David Miller claimed a chain was tied around the blocked rear wheels so that the chain dug in the ground—Lee Reay claimed this was tried, but the chain was discontinued because the chain dragged off to much dirt. As the wagons went down dirt and gravel was pushed off the road. In places, the roadbed became like a toboggan run.

Milton Dailey, in his journal, describes what it was like going down Hole-in-the-Rock:

The first 40 feet down, the wagon stood so straight in the air it was no desirable place to ride. (The) channel was so narrow the barrels had to be removed from the sides of the wagon to (let it) pass through.

Twenty-six wagons were taken down the first day. On the steepest slopes, horses fell and were dragged, or pushed, but none were seriously injured.

When Stanford Smith went back after his wagon, no one noticed him leave and went with him to help. Smith left his children on the rim and drove the last wagon down with his wife and one horse tied on backwards to help hold back the wagon. Both his wife and the horse were dragged down the chute for about one hundred and fifty feet. Other than scrapes and bruises, neither his wife or the horse were seriously hurt.

Several people scratched their names on a prominent rock in Cottonwood Canyon. Reay stated Register Rock was a mile up the canyon. Register Rock is now covered by Lake Powell. Before the last wagons were up the dug way, the river froze and beaver and otter were seen playing on the ice.

In small bunches, the cattle and horses were forced into the steep narrow Hole-in-the-Rock road. One rider reported crossing the river twenty times before all of the cattle, oxen, and horses were across the river.

Cottonwood Canyon

By the thirtieth of January, all of the wagons had reached a level area with cottonwood trees and a good stream. This was the first opportunity for the women to wash clothes. The wagons remained in the Cottonwood Canyon camp for ten days while the road was built out of the canyon—it was still five miles to the top of Grey Mesa.

Trail out of Cottonwood Canyon - BLM Photo

By the tenth of February, the Cottonwood Hill road was ready. It took seven teams to pull wagons up the steep grade. Despite men above the road with ropes attached to the wagons, two tipped over. On one wagon, a box with a hive of bees was broken. The cold lethargic bees were gathered up and put back into the repaired box.

Top of Cottonwood Canyon to Hole in the Rock

The road out of Cottonwood Canyon followed a "relatively" flat ridge before dropping down into Wilson Canyon. The wagons waited on the road crews at what was later called Cheese Camp—supplies from Panguitch contained forty pounds of cheese along with two hundred pounds of pork. George Hobbs left Cheese Camp with a pack string to take supplies to the Harris’s at Bluff and the Harriman and Davis families on Montezuma Creek.

At Cheese Camp, the cattle owners wanted to send the cattle on ahead. This was agreed to after the herders promised to push the cattle across Grey Mesa as fast as possible—the wagon owners were afraid there would be no feed left for the draft animals.

From the bottom of Wilson Canyon, the wagons started up the Chute onto Grey Mesa. The narrow, steep chute was five hundred feet long. The smooth rock was covered with sand, so the horses had better traction on the smooth-surfaced rock.

Bottom of the Chute

Top of the Chute

At the top of the Chute, a two mile ridge was followed to Grey Mesa. The ridge was covered with a foot of snow.

Ridge to Grey Mesa

Wagons crossed the sandy Grey Mesa with little difficulty until they came to a steep sandstone cliff. Workers created a series of steps and grooves to hold sand to provide better footing for the teams. The smooth, oily, sandstone surface was referred to as the Slick Rocks—a third of the road had been carved out when road workers from Panguitch gave up and went home with the belief a road could not be built on the slick surface.

Slick Rocks - BLM Photo

Below the Slick Rocks, the wagons stopped at Lake Pagahrit. Drifting sand had blocked off Lake Canyon to form the lake. The lake was a half-mile long and about a quarter mile wide with good feed around it. The sand dam washed out in 1915.

Lake Pagahrit was a welcome resting place for the people and the livestock. The wagon train was camped there several days while some work crews went ahead to work on the Clay Hills Pass road. After leaving Lake Pagahrit, it took the wagon train several days to reach Clay Hills Pass. The thousand foot drop required just over three miles of a switchback road to reach the juniper tree covered Whirlwind Bench. Wagons going down the hill were held by men with ropes because of the slick clay surface when wet...Highway 272 from Halls Crossing to Blanding crosses the Clay Hills Pass trail. Trail posts and parts of the road can be found from the highway.

Clay Hills Road

The trail wound off of Whirlwind Bench into Comb Wash.

The Twist - Grand Gulch On Right

Whirlwind Bench to Comb Wash

Following along the wash at the foot of the Comb Cliffs was more open country—Anasazi rock dwellings and pottery shreds beneath rock overhangs were frequently seen.

Pottery Shreds

Anasazi Cliff Dwellings

Wagons traveled several miles down Comb Wash before a place was found to build a road to the top of Comb Ridge. The pioneers called it San Juan Hill.

San Juan Hill Road

Charles Redd, whose father Lemuel Redd was a member of the mission group, later wrote about the climb up San Juan Hill:

Aside from the Hole-in-the-Rock, itself, this was the steepest crossing on the journey. Here again seven span of horses were used, so that when some of the horses were on their knees, fighting to get up to find a foothold, the still-erect horses could plunge upward against the sharp grade. On the worst slopes the men were forced to beat their jaded animals into giving all they had. After several pulls, rests, and pulls, many of the horses took to spasms and near-convulsions, so exhausted were they.

By the time most of the outfits were across, the worst stretches could easily be identified by the dried blood and matted hair from the forelegs of the struggling teams.

Top of San Juan Hill

Off of Comb Ridge and across Butler Wash the settlers reached the Bluff area on April 6, 1880. Though several miles short of Montezuma Creek, the weary travelers could go no farther.

Navajo Twin Peaks - Bluff Utah

The settlers found their new homes at the current site of Bluff, Utah—a six week journey had taken six months. Remarkably, no lives were lost and two babies were born. The settlement of Bluff is just south of the Navajo Twin Peaks.

After arriving in Bluff, Platte Lyman returned to Escalante for flour and other supplies. Lyman followed the same route. Westward traffic up Hole-in-the-Rock required each wagon to have a six-horse hitch. The road created by this pioneer company served as the route in and out of the San Juan area for about one year.

Trying to irrigate cropland from the fluctuating flow of the San Juan River was always a problem, and many of the original settlers moved on to settle Blanding and Monticello, where there were better sources of water. The Jens Neilson family remained in Bluff. Jens died in 1906 and Elsie in 1914. They are buried in the tiny cemetery overlooking Bluff, Utah---these Danish immigrants exemplify the driving force behind America's western expansion..

The Charles Hall family built a cabin and remained at the Hole-in-the-Rock ferry crossing. When an easier route was found from Escalante down Harris Wash to the Colorado River, Charles Hall moved the ferry upriver to present day Hall’s Crossing on Lake Powell. Hall’s crossing is across the lake from Bullfrog Basin.

The Hole in the Rock article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Mountainsofstone.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.

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References:

Miller, David E. Hole-In-The-Rock. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City, Utah. 1966.

Reay, Lee. Incredible Passage Through in the Hole-in-the-Rock. Meadow Lanes Publication. Provo, Utah. 1980.

Personnel Communication: LaMar Helquist great grandson of Jens Nielson. First Vice-President of the Hole in the Rock Foundation.

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