A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (Revised)Woodbury, Angus M. (Angus Munn)
History
A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (Revised)
Woodbury, Angus M. (Angus Munn)
National parks and reserves -- Utah -- History; Utah -- History
We found the Parunuweap Canyon impassable, so we spent the day in the
dark recesses of the Mukuntuweap, speechless with wonderment, except
for an occasional “awe” or an “absolutely wonderful.” This panorama
had a deeper, a more wonderful effect upon us than anything our eyes
had ever beheld....
Garfield, Wayne and Kane counties are sparsely settled, and until
permanent roads are constructed into them, they will remain so.
Washington and Iron counties have great natural resources and
wonderful possibilities which will blossom into realities only when
the transportation problem has been solved. Each county can do little
by itself in road building. It is a state problem and must be worked
out by our state officials.
Times, however, were rapidly changing. The automobile was displacing the
horse and the demand for good roads for auto traffic was being met by
ever larger road appropriations by the state and the nation. However,
the opening of the scenic areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona to
the touring public is largely a story of highways.
The Kaibab and North Rim
North of the Colorado River and south of the Utah line lies that
variegated country known as the Arizona Strip. To the west lie the
Parashont and Trumbull Mountains. To the east, the Kaibab Plateau,
locally known as the Buckskin Mountains, rears its summit to 10,000 feet
in a long level line that stretches southward to the north rim of the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Information concerning this region
began to seep in from outposts during the early 60’s. There is little
doubt that Whitmore and McIntyre at Pipe Springs, L. W. Roundy at Kanab,
and Peter Shurtz near Paria, all knew something about its general
characteristics, for it could be observed from all three places.
The expedition led by James Andrus in the spring of 1866 to rescue Peter
Shurtz must have explored the region south of Paria. Roundy said the
expedition started south from Paria to investigate an Indian smoke and
was gone fourteen days (February 23 to March 9), but no further record
is available, except that Nate Adams, who moved to Kanab in 1871, stated
the expedition went over the Kaibab.
Jacob Hamblin doubtless became well acquainted with the Kaibab after he
went to Kanab in 1867 to live among the Indians. John D. Lee took up a
ranch at Scutumpah (on the Andrus route of 1866) in 1869, explored the
lower Paria, and located the site for a ferry at its mouth (later Lee’s
Ferry). Lee and Hamblin must have explored a good deal of the region
together for they built a six room adobe house with sod roof at Jacob’s
Lake in north Kaibab soon after. When they divided their property a
little later, Lee took the ferry and Hamblin the pool and Kane Springs
in Houserock Valley.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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