It is almost inconceivable that pioneers in the late 1800s made the journey to settle the land we now call The Four Corners Area. Some of the most desolate and challenging, and yet uniquely beautiful places in the U.S. A biographer of a former hand cart pioneer made the trip to the San Juan some forty years after crossing the plains to the great basin and recorded some of the information below.
There were about 320 men, women, and children who made the historic trek in wagons or walking from 1879 to spring 1880 via the venerable Hole in the Rock straight down to the river below. It is one of the great epic descents and engineering feats ever achieved by man, especially when all they had to construct the way were hand tools and some black powder. The trip from Escalante, Utah to Bluff was just 165 miles but it took about ten months to traverse it, twice as long as it took to cross 1300 miles of the great plains.
The biographer quoted the leader who said, "We must go through, even if we cannot." Words cannot describe the enormity of the accomplishments of these indomitable people. This painting is a tribute to those people who brought peace to three native Indian tribes and whites and drove out the thieves, cattle rustlers, and the lawless.
San Juan Country
It is almost inconceivable that pioneers in the late 1800s made the journey to settle the land we now call The Four Corners Area. Some of the most desolate and challenging, and yet uniquely beautiful places in the U.S. A biographer of a former hand cart pioneer made the trip to the San Juan some forty years after crossing the plains to the great basin and recorded some of the information below.
There were about 320 men, women, and children who made the historic trek in wagons or walking from 1879 to spring 1880 via the venerable Hole in the Rock straight down to the river below. It is one of the great epic descents and engineering feats ever achieved by man, especially when all they had to construct the way were hand tools and some black powder. The trip from Escalante, Utah to Bluff was just 165 miles but it took about ten months to traverse it, twice as long as it took to cross 1300 miles of the great plains.
The biographer quoted the leader who said, "We must go through, even if we cannot." Words cannot describe the enormity of the accomplishments of these indomitable people. This painting is a tribute to those people who brought peace to three native Indian tribes and whites and drove out the thieves, cattle rustlers, and the lawless.
Be careful and safe. Lee Anderson, Artist