The Spanish Southwest: The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition of 1776; The Crossing of the Fathers

This is part 4 of our 4 part series over the 1776 Dominguez and Escalante Expedition. If you haven’t heard the other episodes, I do suggest you go back and start from the beginning.

We last left our intrepid explorers at the edge of America’s Great Basin with its many mountain ranges and broad hot and dry valleys as winter was rapidly approaching. As they took stock of themselves and their supplies and as they looked over the horizons at the snow topped peaks… The Dominguez and Escalante Expedition of 1776 realized, they had only two options: Continue westward towards California and Monterey through an unknown land, or head back home… also through an unknown land, at least for a while. At the end of the last episode, they drew lots and God decided it was time they head back home to Santa Fe, in New Mexico instead of continuing on, but… the decision wasn’t universally praised by our team. Let’s jump back in and follow this grand adventure through the American Southwest.

When they began heading back home in that same southerly direction on the morning of the 9th of October, the ground still wasn’t hard enough, after all that snow and awful weather, for fast or effective travel so they only made it about 15.6 miles. Still not too bad, in my opinion. On the 10th, they crested a hill, saw some further distant snow covered mountains, and they came to some sulfurous hot springs before deciding to camp with 15.6 miles under their belt yet again. The following day though, the decision to turn back and its repercussions, would finally halt the crew. It turns out, not everyone had wanted to give up on their perilous and exciting journey.

By the 11th, it became clear that a few in the party, specifically Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, Joaquin Lain the Blacksmith, and the interpreter Andres Muniz, were NOT happy that they’d just abandoned their goal of reaching California, despite the fathers explaining to them that it was God’s will. Plus, they said, look how far we’ve already travelled and look at how many people we met whose souls were willing to be saved and plus Joaquin, the young Laguna Ute guide still with us, his soul is for sure saved once we return and we can baptize him.

But ultimately, the friars were adamant that it was now god’s will that they should turn around and head home. D & E essentially said, look, we’re willing to die for this trip, trust us, we’re Franciscan Friars after all, but God told us we had to turn around. So that’s that. End of discussion.

As we know, Franciscan Friars in the American Southwest are often very willing to die, which, again, they would have no doubt done if they’d continued on that westward path. So despite explaining this to the team, they were still quite unhappy, especially those three. So D & E let them all ride ahead while they further discussed what on earth to do next… they couldn’t ignore them and just keep walking south. They also couldn’t allow a mutiny. Apparently though, while these men were riding ahead, they began scheming and bickering and riling themselves up about how to turn back was a mistake. To turn around and betray their goal was unseemly. They really wanted to keep going and explore and find people and lands and make maps and discoveries! You can’t blame em, really. But, and I can’t stress this enough, they would not have made it. They didn’t know this though and according to Escalante, the malcontents had, quote, grandiose dreams of honors and profit from solely reaching Monterey and had imparted them to the rest by building castles in the air of the loftiest. End quote. So they were weaving some exaggerated tails.

Escalante then wrote how these three were also saying that the Fathers were depriving the rest of the expedition of this prosperous future by turning around… even the servants were seeing dollar signs! He then goes on to say something kinda funny, when he explains that a few of them, just a couple days before had insisted that they get going because they had a lot of ground to cover before they reached California but now, now that they were turning around, apparently they, especially Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco was saying, oh guys, come on, we’ll surely be there in a weeks time! Let’s just go! He literally said, guys come on, it’ll only take a week to get there. Walter Briggs in Without Noise of Arms writes sarcastically about them getting there in a week, yeah, in a dune buggy… maybe.

Escalante then admonished the crew by saying, we told you guys in Santa Fe… BEFORE we left! We told you that you couldn’t come on this trip unless you are willing to follow God’s word and listen to us and do nothing for yourselves or for your own glory.. right? Remember when we told you? And you all agreed yet you STILL tried to trade with the Indians for your own personal gain! Although he does use the word infidels. He then reminds them that reaching California and Monterey so that you may have glory and riches is against not only us, the fathers, the leaders of this journey, but also against your word, and against, most importantly, God.

Instead of insisting that God’s will be followed though, and commanding the three to shut up and get in line… which, I imagine would have been tough… it would have been difficult to tell the old awesome and wise veterans any of that so instead of commanding them, D & E went up to the men, asked them to dismount, and then told them that they were going to cast lots to see if they would continue on to Monterey, or head back to Santa Fe. In doing this, Escalante wrote, they were showing that they were not despots deciding the fate of the men willy nilly, but instead this was God’s will and he would prove it by having the lot drawn that suggested they head back.

They’d drawn lots before, remember, a month and half before this, but that was just to find out what path to take out of three… this time, it was deciding the fate of the entire trip.

So the fathers put Cosnina, or essentially home, and if their’s was chosen, they’d stay the leader. And Miera y Pacheco put Monterery and if it was chosen, he would become supreme leader of this expedition since, quote, he believed it to be so close and everything started from his ideas. End quote.

The footnote of this section says how the cast lots has caused, quote unquote considerable discussion. It goes on to say:

They Probably put the two names in a hat and draw one out. Some believe they write the names on a flat stick and tossed it in the air and followed the route which came out on top. Some cynics have suggested that the two padres, leaving nothing to chance, put two slips in the hat each with the name Cosnina on it. End quote.

I doubt that last one, since Miera y Pacheco probably wrote it and put it in the hat himself. In any case, after an exhaustive amount of prayers and recitations and other Catholic stuff I don’t understand, they cast the lots and… Cosnina was drawn. Apparently, everyone did understand that this was in fact God’s will and they quote, unquote heartily accepted it, and the matter was dropped.

After the attempted mutiny, the crew actually made good mileage that day with over 26 under their belt as they traveled through woods, streams, and a quote unquote beautiful valley. The writing immediately after the casting of the lots seems to get a little more cheerier.

Later in life, Don Bernardo M&P would write to the King of Spain that not reaching Monterey was quote, to the great sorrow of my heart, end quote. He never got over it.

You know, I’ve found myself a couple times on trips that weren’t working out or adventures that were turning sour and while it sucks, it’s almost inevitable that once the decision has been to turn back home and shorten the trip or alter the plans, always, immediately after the decision, the trip becomes lighter and more fun and whatever was burdening me just… disappears. And often, the best part of the trip is that latter unexpected half after the decision to end it has been made. I imagine the same was happening with the padres. At least, for a bit. The westward journey ahead seemed unbelievably difficult and cold and imposing, and it would have been, but while the remainder of their journey won’t be roses, it feels like it was the right decision. And for men encapsulated by the holy spirit and being men of god who have immense faith, trusting in that faith would have no doubt felt relieving.

Down the southward road home and toward the Cosnina country of the Havasupai that won out with God’s blessing, the men come upon a group of women who scattered at the approaching Spanish. But, two of the team ride ahead and detain them, quote unquote, by force. Not sure what that means but hopefully nothing sinister. Escalante would write, quote, it pained us to see them frightened so much. End quote… well yeah, you just rode up on some women on giant beasts and held them with force…

Well, after this detaining and after the women composed themselves of their fright, it also took a moment for the padres to compose themselves as well. Escalante went out of his way to write of the women's appearance, who were, quote, so poorly dressed that they wore only some pieces of deerskin hanging from the waist, barely covering what one cannot gaze upon without peril. End quote…. Behave yourselves padres…

After the men had proven they came in peace, the nearly naked Indian women told the Spaniards that yes, we have some people nearby and also yes, there are some people in the Cosninas country of which you speak of. They then asked the women to please send their men to the Spanish camp that evening so they could for sure find out if the River was ahead and if they could possibly please get a guide.

But they didn’t wait for the evening and instead, Lain and Joaquin caught up with a straggling lad who was brought to their camp hind saddle of Don Lain’s horse. This ride, was no doubt this young Paiute’s first time riding such a beast. Which may have scared the living daylights out of him for back in camp he was so terror stricken that the fathers called him insane. He kept looking around skittishly and would be frightened with every movement by the Spaniards and on top of it all he didn’t really speak much… at least at first. But eventually he would calm down after being given some food and some ribbon. I can’t help but imagine some smokes were shared as well, as was the custom… or maybe he was too young.

They then grilled this Paiute on where the Cosninas were, but no luck there. Probably because this young man and his people called the Havasupai something other than Cosninas. The Spaniards then pointed west and northwesterly and asked if any fathers like themselves, obviously Garces, but did any other religious or Spaniards live over there. The reply was a no, a lot of folks live out there, he said, but they’re like me, Indians, Paiutes. They then showed him some corn and asked if he’d seen any around and he replied that he had indeed and he would take them to the little rancheria where he knew the corn was grown. But he would do it tomorrow.

Later on down the road though, at a little rancho, they came upon an old Indian, a young man, several children, and three women. Escalante would write that they were all very good looking. Watch it, Padre! From this small band, the Spanish were given some seeds and fruits and then they presented some beads and hunting knives for anyone interested in taking them to the place where this all important maize, or corn was grown.

You see, if there are Indians who plant and grow… those Indians must be quote unquote civilized and more able to be converted because they are already one step closer to being good Citizens.

At this questioning of where the corn was grown, the old man in the group seized The Spaniards and promised to take them… but… they would soon find out this was a ruse. For, the frightened old Indian led them to the top of a large hill where at the roughest part, the earlier terrified young man who’d ridden the horse and the old man they’d just picked up, they both, vanished. Escalante writes, We admired their cleverness in having brought us through a place well-suited to the sure and free execution of their plan. End quote. That plan was seemingly to allow time for their little band to vanish behind them as well. Alas, they were guideless yet again.

David Roberts has a nice comparison to this little story in his Escalante’s Dream:

In retrospect, the padres realized that the very old Paiute had agreed to guide the team just so that his family could make their escape from these terrifying intruders. On a very small scale, the two Paiute "guides" had performed the same trick as the Turk who led Coronado out onto the plains of Kansas in his vain quest for Quivira. And unlike the Turk, strangled for his treachery, they managed to slip away as the Spaniards struggled with the obstacles of the black lava canyon. End quote.

I talked about the Turk, who was really a dark skinned Pawnee Indian that the Spaniards felt looked like a Turk, but I talked about him way back in the first episode for this series, if you’ll recall. I would like to add though, that they also pulled the same trick as had the people of the southwest on Rivera 11 years before.

These Paiutes had called themselves a name which no longer exists in Paiute so they probably long ago merged with another band or, they may have gone the way of all the earth.

The expedition then passed through white sand and black volcanic rocks. They passed green poplars by rivers, mesquite trees that don’t like the cold, and beautifully flowering plants. They reached the conclusion that the cold of winter, the cold they’d been experiencing had yet to reach them here. Maybe heading south was the right decision after all.

Briggs said of this, quote, not for nothing do Utahans boast of this region as their Dixie. End quote. Ahhh, Dixieland, how I miss thee so. While I may live in Southern California, for the moment, I am originally from the heart of Dixie, northern Georgia. Just below the old and wise Appalachian mountains.

But here in Utah’s Dixie, Briggs writes, quote, when your writer, he is referring to himself, when your writer drove through here one mid December it was like June in Santa Fe. End quote. Last time I drove through there I was chased by winter storms and biting wind with passes and roads closed all around. It was a record breaking winter, after all, when I passed through the area last, in March of ‘23.

So our crew was getting a break from the cold that had been afflicting them pretty much since western Colorado, except for their time around lake Utah. But this would indeed be their last reprieve from winter…. For the remainder of the trip.

At this moment, they were traveling through to the west of quote, a chain of very high mesas, end quote. That would be what we call today, the Hurricane Cliffs and they rise about fifteen hundred feet above the plain they were walking through. Briggs writes of this area:

One of the nation's longest and most conspicuous fault planes, the Hurricane Cliffs extend from Utah's Markagunt Plateau some two hundred miles south to flank Colorado's Uinkaret tableland. In primeval upheaval, mountain blocks displaced sedimentary beds from fifteen hundred feet to as much as eight thousand feet high along their front. End quote.

They were essentially passing by Zion National Park, at least the Kolob Canyon western side of it. I have been there with my wife where we watched the sunset on the red sandstone Colorado Plateau walls which seemed to stretch forever in both directions. It was absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite sunsets. And Kolob, if you were curious, is the the Heavenly Kingdom where God resides in the Mormon, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints religion.

In this warm area, which they are enjoying, the D&E crew begin to follow some fresh Indian tracks up some sandy mesas but were unable to reach the top so they slid back down the high, rugged, and rocky ridge. It was tough going.

Escalante at the end of that day’s post, the 15th, of October wrote rather nonchalantly, quote, tonight our provisions ran out completely, with nothing left but two little slabs of chocolate for tomorrow. End quote. Apparently that is all the worry that was awarded that frightening realization.

This camp on October 15th was the farthest west they would go throughout the entire trip. They were 450 miles west of Santa Fe as the crow flies yet they had travelled so many more miles than that to get to where they currently were.

The following day, they crossed into modern day Arizona where they were accosted by 8 Indians. Andres Muniz told these Indians not to fear though and at that, they descended their high perch and introduced themselves by holding up strings of beautiful turquoise.

I’ve talked a little about turquoise before and I may have a little episode on it one day in the future because it is so ubiquitous within the American Southwest. Examples of the beautiful stone from the region have been found as far south as the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The Maya, it seems, traded for it, possibly with Macaw feathers, or even entire Macaw birds. But alas, our crew is not there to trade or enrich themselves, remember. So no trading for turquoise would occur… but trading for a guide, absolutely would.

Unfortunately for our men, neither Joaquin the young Laguna nor Andres Muniz spoke the language of these Paiutes so they had to get by using sign language and through that sign language they discovered it was their corn they had seen up the valley, although they apparently also grew squash, as… we will discover shortly. These American Indians called themselves the Parussis.

Briggs writes of this group, quote, Parussi, ethnologists say, is Paiute for "white river," the Virgin, because it foams through a canyon at one point. With the Parussis was "one who spoke more of an Arabic tongue" whom they took to be a Mojave. (To the Spaniards "Arabic" meant any incomprehensible tongue as in 'It's Greek to me.") Perhaps he was a go-between trader in coral and seashells. End quote. He was no doubt a traveler of the region and the group may have picked up on his knowledge because they would immediately, through their sign language, ask another important question. Where on earth was the Colorado River? The answer came that it was about 2 days that away, straight south. About 50 miles if you look at the map now. Except, going straight south was not the way at all. Going south would be impossible actually because there’s no water, and also because the river that away was, according to the local quote, very much boxed in and very deep and having extremely tall rocks and cliffs along both sides, end quote. I wonder… what is he talking about? I kid, it’s the Grand Canyon, of course.

If they did indeed, just follow the Hurricane Cliffs straight south towards the Colorado River and ultimately the Grand Canyon, it would truly be a very difficult and long journey. Not far from here, near Colorado City, on the border of Utah and Arizona, my wife and I spent many bumpy and jaw shattering hours driving to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We’d stay the night at the campground that is a short walk from the dizzying Toroweap Lookout which features a sheer, straight down to the water, 3,000 foot drop. I am not exaggerating at the dizzying part. I’ll have videos up at the site. Be warned, your palms may sweat. It is one of my favorite places on earth.

The Spanish then gave these men two knives for the beta and some glass beads and then they were promised even more if they showed them the way across the chasm.

Instead they said, we will tell you the way but we cannot show you. Plus we are barefoot and again, it is rough terrain.

Despite the padres distrusting these men because they believed the treacherous hopis had gotten to them and were leading them astray, much like the Utes had with Rivera and possibly with D&E earlier, much like with these examples, Dominguez and Escalante were leery of believing them but nonetheless they accepted their guidance. But one more effort at a true guide was offered when they said they would cut leather from their saddles and make sandal bottoms for them if they needed it and if it helped.

At this, two of the men agreed to take them a good ways ahead. Although we’re not sure if they received their sandal bottoms or not.

I wonder what I would do at this point… I’ll walk a mile in their moccasins. I’m in my own territory, which I know well, and I’m with some friends, probably coming back from a recent trading mission since they had the turquoise and shells from the pacific, I’m minding my own business on a mini vacation away from the kids and wives and all of a sudden my buddies and I see some of the men we’ve heard about from our Ute, Hopi, and Mohave, trading cousins. We’ve heard the nightmare stories and we’ve heard that they’ve changed. We know they still take slaves but they also trade. We know they war with our neighbors but we know these look peaceful… would I bother going up to them? I mean, I know I would, but would some of my friends agree to also come with me or would I have to persuade my friends further… Coax them some? And then, after 3 hours of sign language, would I agree to extend my trading expedition and take them through what is no doubt the harshest and hardest terrain in the land? I think I would but obviously. Not everyone would. It’s interesting to put ourselves in their moccasins. Both the Spanish and the Indians. The Spanish, out of food, and out of ideas on where to go were no doubt desperate for some guidance. Maybe that desperation bled into their pleas for a guide. Maybe it helped these two Indians say yes… but these Indian’s patience was limited…

As the Spaniards followed the two Parussi, they traversed narrow cliff ledges barely wide enough for a horse or mule. It took em half an hour to get three of these beasts through the pass. Then the Rocky Cliff they were attempting to climb, which today is known as Rock Canyon to give you an idea of its terrain, but the canyon was so rough that they felt like they could not reach the top. It’s at this point, after this rough traveling, it was here while ascending the cliff that the two guides made it to the top, looked down and saw the pathetic progress, noticed the starvation and the weakness, and after that, they just fled. They probably sat around a few minutes, watched the struggle, and then said to heck with this, thanks for the knives, but we’re gonna head out. I don’t blame em. Or… they could be in on the master plan to confuse the Spanish into not coming back.

Unable to continue following the guides who had vanished before them, the members of the expedition retraced their steps all the way down, and made camp. Probably feeling dejected and definitely feeling hungry. They took stock of their surroundings, realized they had no water and no food, and they made the difficult decision to kill and eat a horse. But because there was no water, probably necessary for cleanly butchering and preparing the horse, they decided to postpone that killing.

The end of that day’s entry reads, quote, today, in so painful a day’s March, we only advanced one league and a half south. End quote. The Journal’s notes by Ted J Warner reads, quote, they were in such dire straits and so tired, hungry, and disappointed after this day’s travel that they neglected to honor this campsite with a name. They made less than four miles progress that day. End quote.

The next day, the 17th, they began moving south like the friars had wanted all along. They were traveling next to the Hurricane Cliffs at a spot that would later become Old Temple Road. Briggs writes of this spot, quote, They were squarely on what would become the Old Temple Road, beaten deep in the 1870s by Mormons hauling timber from Mt. Trumbull to the southeast for building their temple at St. George, Utah, to the northwest. End quote.

I’ve been on that road! I’ve also been on and travelled up the dugway carved into the side of those cliffs. Which is probably the same route the Padres would take shortly.

Now along these washes, they had water, and with the water, they had food in the form of some edible plants. Therefore, they didn’t kill the horse… yet. Although, M&P, the old man that he was, strong and wise old soldier, mind you, but old man nonetheless, because of the lack of food for over a day, and probably the seeds before that, because of his age and lack of food, he was so weak he could barely talk. It seemed the edible plants weren’t enough. The faith of the expeditions leaders, was being tested at this stretch of the journey. And like Job, it would continue to be tested… for it was here they would discover some treachery was afoot.

Since M&P was so weak and hungry they decided to search the packs for any more food. Any scraps at all… what they found along with the bread crumbs they were expecting, were squash, given to quote unquote the servants, no doubt the two stowaways, but they found squash that had been given to whomever the servants were by the previous day’s Parussi Indians. In secret. Another betrayal.

Regardless of how they were come across, the team boiled these down and shared them with those truly in need. Which was probably all of them.

During this cooking though, two servants, probably the ones who had the food hidden, snuck away without permission, hiked towards the Hurricane Cliffs, climbed the 1,000 foot side of said Cliffs, and returned with great news, and all within only a few hours. That great news was, first of all, the climb was easy, don’t worry. Secondly, at the top, the ground is level and good, and probably filled with water. And lastly, dont quote me essay but we’re pretty sure we saw the colorado River up there.

The padres were not impressed and frankly, flat out didn’t believe them. They saw right through the ruse and they remembered the other times they’d been deceived by their guides. Which means, it may have been the Muniz brothers. Maybe.

Surprisingly, everyone else wanted to change direction and head up the cliffs with them. But the padres wanted to continue south. Especially after learning that the Parussi had lied to them about the difficulties of going in that southerly direction. But… ever the diplomats, since everyone else wanted to go north and up the cliffs, they decided to agree.

As I said a minute ago, I’ve been up there on top of the Uinkaret Plateau where the padres are wandering! Although I was coming from the other direction and my wife and I went down the cliffs, not up them. We also used my Tacoma, not horses and mules and our feet. At one point I had pulled over in the cool green pine forest at the top of the world to pee and take a deep breath of the clean air. My wife and I had hiked the edge of the canyon that morning. We’d taken pictures of the sun rising through the smoky fog of the steep chasm. We’d hiked to black lava rock boulders that sport snakes and spirals carved in them by the Ancient Ones. I saw the plaque mentioning the Mormon Pioneers who cut the old forests down to build the beautiful and necessary for Mormon Salvation temples. At that time i didn’t know we were tracing the steps of these old hearty brave Spaniards.

In the end, the Parussi were correct and if they had continued south, the going would have gotten impossible. Although… the going in the direction they choose to now will seem at many times to be impossible as well.

So up they went to the top of the hurricane cliffs by way of a rough and stony wash. At camp, two of the teams members, the journal doesn’t say who and it isn’t the Muniz brothers, but two of them went in search of the water they thought they had seen from their quote unquote ascent to the top earlier. That day, they would traverse more malpais or black lava rock filled land until it was time to camp, which they did with yet again no water. To remedy this, the same scouts suggested they go on ahead and look for more water and they’ll be back.

The next morning, the 18th, they still weren’t back. So in a surprising decision, for the first time on the trip, the fathers and the rest of the team didn’t even bother looking for them. They just packed up and left the scouts out in the wilderness. Escalante muses in the journal that it didn’t matter anyways, because no doubt, they were off with the Parussi Indians from the day before eating and drinking and being merry. A prescient conclusion. The team, despite having a by now, seriously sick M & P, the team continued to push south towards the Colorado River.

While on the trail though, they came cross five Indians but four of them fled quickly. But with much pain and perseverance, Dominguez, Escalante, Muniz, and Joaquin all clamor after the lone Indian who was quote, making a thousand gestures to show he feared us very much. End quote. But eventually they catch up with him and surrounding him, they embrace him and calm him down. Then, this exchange which I will quote from Briggs occurs :

"Having now recovered his composure," the lone Indian asked: Do you want to see the others?

The friars replying yes, this brave brave laid down bow and arrows, took Muniz by the hand and together they brought out the others. Water is near, they said.

Show us where, the friars begged, holding out a swatch of woolen cloth. The Indians first turned to Joaquin: How have you dared come with them?

Joaquín, "wanting to rid them of their fears in order to relieve the privation which, greatly to our sorrow, he was suffering, answered them as best he could."

"Greatly surprised at his valor," these Indians too "quieted down."

Indeed, through travail and turmoil Joaquín appears to have been a quiet young spartan, a Kipling's Kim in his resourcefulness. End quote.

Kim is a novel by Rudyard Kipling that was published in 1901. It depicts the character Kim’s travels through India during what’s known as the Great Game between Russia and Great Britain. Kind of like their own Cold War back in the day as they vied for imperial territory. It takes place between Great Britain’s Second and Third Afghan war which is kind of like their own War in Afghanistan which, spoiler alert, they lose. Thankfully we learned from England, the Soviet Union, and honestly the many other moguls and warlords that failed before them… er… never mind.

From here the expedition was led by these Indians who questioned Joaquins allegiance to his own, but they were taken to an arroyo which held two deep pools. First drank the men until they could no longer. And then the beasts drained the rest.

After the horses had turned the watering hole dry, their new Paiute friend was quite alarmed when he learned that not only was the expedition out of water but also out of food. In this geography?! The leader of the group then offered that two of the Spaniards or their companions go to their camp where they may receive some provisions from their new Indian friends. So, off Joaquin and one of the genizaros, it is not known which one, but off the two went with these locals to grab what would ultimately be wild sheep meat, prickly pear cactus cakes, and seeds. Lots of seeds.

They were at this moment very near a place I have been and love, near the 8,000 foot Mount Trumbull I mentioned earlier with the white lizard and spiral petroglyphs on the black lava rocks. Very near that deep and steep sheer cliff of Toroweap. That Grandest of all Canyons.

M&P would later mark this encampment of great importance to our team on the map. Also about this encampment, D&E’s hunch had been correct and the two who had ran away in the middle of the night were found there. They would eventually rejoin the group but it is not known when. Although it was probably with the 20 other Indians that eventually came to camp in order to sell seeds and cakes and more, although no meat.

When asked if they could secure a guide, they were told, yes, but you must not leave this camp until tomorrow after midday. The padres agreed. They were full. They were thankful. They were blessed. The Indians had saved their bacon. It wouldn’t be the last time. Sure enough, the following afternoon, many more Indians returned and among them, two Mescalero Apache, who were apparently friends to the Paiutes… but not necessarily the friends of the Spaniards.

Briggs writes of this encounter but he begins by quoting Escalante’s words:

Escalante says, His features were not very pleasing, and he was distinguished from the rest of the Indians by the disgust which he showed at seeing us here and by the greater display of animosity, which we noticed he was purposely showing.

Briggs then writes: After all, various Apache tribes had been at war with the Hispanos for the better part of a century and a half. Mescalero comes from mescal, a small cactus that was eaten by many Indians, the Pueblos included, over a wide semidesert region. The term Mescalero eventually would become identified with a more easterly Apache tribe; its reservation in our day is in south-central New Mexico. In our expedition's day Mescalero Apache was applied to some Western Apaches. Escalante had related, we recall, the threat of Gila and Mescalero Apaches along his return route from the Hopi mesas. A Miera map drawn earlier this year had placed Mescalero Apaches in the Hopi vicinity. End all quotes. 

That reservation is near the absolutely gorgeous mountain town of Ruidoso, under the gaze of Sierra Blanca. I love that spot and actually, my family spent my father’s 60th birthday there this year… but, that is a long way both physically and temporally from our story now.

The Spanish, ecstatic with being given food, bought all that these Indians had brought with glass beads.

These Indians called themselves the Yubuimcariris, they would later be known as Uinkarets Paiute of the Pine Sitting Place. The Yubuimcariris then claimed they lived across the Colorado River from a tribe they called the Ancamuchis but who were probably the Hualapais who to this day are neighbors of the Havasupai, aka the Cosninas. They were so close to finding these Cosninas, and by extension, Garces… If only that blasted Canyon wasn’t in the way.

Near them were also the Mojave Tribe. The place was awash in a plethora of American Indian cultures. But one culture that may have made an important impact on the crew in this moment was the Apache, those two mentioned, specifically… who may have pressured these Yubuimcariris friends into NOT giving them a guide or the proper way to reach and then ford the mighty Colorado river. At least, that was the padres take on these Paiutes flat out refusal to guide them properly. And I for one, think they were onto something. These apaches or maybe even the nearby Hopi may not have wanted anything to do with this party of foreign devil Spaniards traipsing through their land.

As I just hinted at, the Indians gave the Spaniards confusing directions and confusing hints at distances to the places they were wanting to go. And even more troubling, confusing places to ford the great river they were about to come upon.

That night, after the feast, Don Miera had a stomach ache. Maybe he ate some bad seeds or meat. Or maybe, after being so starving, he ate too much. A definite danger. One I’ve had the displeasure of feeling before.

After some twists and turns they crossed the Kanab creek about six miles south of modern day Fredonia. In March of ’23 my wife and I stayed in Kanab before traveling through Fredonia. This time, I was aware of the Padres journey and was intentionally following their path for this here episode. From Kanab’s adventure hub, we travelled Highway 89 south and then up near Jacob’s Lake, which was the route the Expedition would have been very near as they traversed the area, but that morning’s journey for my wife and I had been cold, windy, and snow filled. And bleak. It was not an area where one would easily find water or food or… anything! Unless you melted the snow that sat near the entrance to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

So I understand when on the 22nd, Escalante wrote of crossing the plateau that they had, quote, plenty of difficulty and fatigue experienced by the horse herds, because it was very rocky, besides having many gulches. End quote. It took me hours to drive up and over and through the Kaibab Plateau with the Vermillion Cliffs to my left. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for these tired and hungry and cold and thirsty men. Especially the sickly Don M & P.

While traversing the Kaibab Plateau just ever so north of the north rim of the Grand Canyon, the team sent the two interpreters ahead to maybe hopefully, find some Indians with whom they could beg for more food and knowledge from. So, when they saw some fires up ahead as night fell, they figured it was their interpreters who had not yet made it back and maybe they were making camp for them.

When the entire Spanish team and their horses snuck up on em and lumbered into their camp during the conversation, the Paiutes, or most of em, as had been happening during a good number of encounters, but the Paiutes up and scattered into the darkness with fright. What was left were three men and two brave women who were apparently begging themselves. Except they weren’t begging for food, but for Joaquin the Laguna, Ute to stay with them… and, for peace. Escalante records that they told Joaquin, quote, Little brother, you belong to our very own kind, do not let these people with whom you come kill us. End quote.

Eventually the padres usual placations of peace and love calmed down the Indians and they offered the group some roasted rabbit and some nuts before leading them to a spring where the horses could drink.

You know, when you’re out there driving or hiking or wandering, one wonders how on earth anyone survived out here, like the American Indians for so long but… it starts to make more sense how they did once you realize knowing where all the water is located certainly made life easier. And life at camp that evening was easy. Briggs writes, quote, The friars stretched out on their poncho-blankets to "the songs of an Indian”. End quote.

That night, their camp was only 25 miles north of the Grand Canyon’s north rim. They were so close, yet still so far away. They wouldn’t reach the river for four more days. That landscape truly is harsh. Well, the landscape, and occasionally, the leaders of the expedition, Dominguez and Escalante. Because, that night, the night of the 22nd of October, the religious leaders caught the very sick M&P in the midst of a blasphemous ordeal with an elderly Paiute who was quote, set about to cure him with chants and ceremonials. End quote. That singing they heard as they went to sleep, it turns out, had been a healing ceremony by the Paiute Indians on their senior companion.

This though, was the ultimate betrayal to the friars during the entire expedition. How could their companions, their good Christian Catholic companions succumbed to savage, barbarous, Indian superstition?!

Apparently, some among the crew, and probably, although it isn’t specifically stated, but probably M & P, but some of them had asked the Paiutes if there was anything they could do for their teammate who was in such bad shape and who had been for going on six days. Surely the people knew some tricks of the land that would save his life, right?

I’m sure the Paiutes knew of some herb or tincture or concoction that they could make that would cure him and maybe they gave it to him before they commenced with their idolatrous, devilish ceremonies and chantings. I kinda believe they did because, as Roberts wrote, quote, intriguingly, though Escalante never says that Miera felt better after October 22nd, there are no more entries recording the vicim’s illness. Maybe Paiute medicine, or the Placebo effect, had done the trick. End quote.

But M & P doesn’t get better right away, and this sneaking away from the Religious to seek out Native cures was absolutely the largest betrayal that anyone could have done to the leaders of the group, Dominguez and Escalante. This act absolutely caused the worst and most vitriolic outburst from the two padres on the entire expedition. Nothing else came close to the anger that D & E felt at this action on the entire trip, or at least nothing else was written in the journal that came close to it. Not the earlier betrayal that was left unwritten, not the trading of the beads, not the losing of the horses, not even the guides who abandoned them days before but had been found. Nothing made the fathers more irate or filled with righteous anger than this asking of the devil to intercede into their divine and holy expedition. Although, it does seem, in the torrent of anger that Escalante writes in the journal about this episode, it does seem he ties all the bad things that have happened to them so far with the crew mingling inappropriately with the American Indians.

Wether or not they really berated M & P and the others for hours and preached to them about the evils of allowing the devil’s influence into the camp, wether or not Dominguez & Escalante actually told them that they were, quote, extremely grieved by such harmful carelessness, end quote. Wether or not they really commenced to reprimanding and instructing them, quote, in doctrine so that they would never again lend their approval to such errors. End quote. Wether or not they wasted the time to scold these adults on the morning of the 23rd, is unknown without a time machine but… Escalante sure does document the fact that they did. But honestly, he writes that they said way more than that… they were… really mad. Apparently.

But Briggs writes of the whole ordeal and he wonders if this was more Escalante, who couldn’t stand the Hopi and their apostate ways. He wonders if maybe Dominguez wasn’t as worried. He writes, quote, One wonders if the friars' reaction was mainly the younger Escalante's. In an essay on Pueblo ceremonials, Dominguez would describe such singing as "a gabble of voices" accompanied by the "soft beating of the tombé [onomatopoetic, like tom-tom]" and the dancing as resembling "contradanses or minuets.” Taking exception only to the scalp dance as being "tainted with the idea of vengeance," Fray Francisco said other rites "do not appear to be essentially wicked' or "to conceal further malice or superstition beneath the superficial trappings." For all his rigidity in churchly matters, he seems to have accommodated himself to the compromise of the changing times with Pueblo culture. He may have joined Escalante in censure not so much out of antipathy for the Paiute curing rite as for the Hispanos' having joined it.

Whatever, Escalate here entered in the diary those comments about the long-past conduct of some companions among the Sabuaganas "the vile commerce in skins," the alleged interpolation into Domínguez' sermon on baptism, the "brutal satisfaction" of sex. "And so in every way they blaspheme the name of Christ and prevent, or rather oppose, the extension of His faith. Oh, with what severity ought such evils be met! May God in His infinite goodness inspire the best and most suitable means!"

One would hate to have faced juror Escalante at the Inquisition. End all quotes.

In reality, the Paiutes may have seen M & P and offered to help all by themselves. Even if they didn’t though, I’m sure these men of the expedition, I’m sure some of them had significant dealings with the Indians and knew that the Puebloans, at least, had ways of healing that the Friars may not approve of. So what on EARTH is the big deal?!

Well, to the friars this wasn’t about the earth. It was about eternity. And inviting the devil into the camp and into their hearts harmed not only the salvation of the expedition but also the eternal salvation of the fathers, and of the expedition as a whole. You gotta remember that the times these people were living in, while not 180° from us, thankfully, the times these Spanish and Religious were living in were… still, very different from ours. They believed that god was in everything all around them always and life was an eternal struggle against the forces of satan and darkness and one of those forces were Indian, or any native or pagan or non-Christian superstition. I spoke of the Religious fear of the kachina dances a few episodes ago and while I may have spoken about the friars reaction as callous towards these people’s culture, to these Catholics, those dances weren’t culture, it was the devil sneaking into the Spaniard’s lives through their neighbor’s quote unquote evil actions. They held a completely different and… while it seems irrational to us, they held a completely different and opposite view of how we see things today. They believed the devil was real and that only God and his son could save us. And they believed that the devil was in these pagan rituals and these Indian ceremonies. And that included this very particular healing ceremony.

So, by participating in it, they had brought great eternal damage and danger to the entire expedition which… forced the fathers into this very lengthy tirade against this apparent stupidity. Escalante eventually concluded his entry by speculating that if these men, and most other Spanish in general, but if they were left to their own devices among the Indian infidels for three of four months with no one to correct or restrain them… they’d fall into idolatry and be lost forever.

On the 23rd, the crew stayed a day at camp so that the locals could get accustomed to them. But also probably to allow the Don to heal up. But not only the Don M&P, but also a few others. It seems the grass seeds they were given was making the expedition sick instead of nourishing them. Briggs writes of this, quote, And Domínguez was so troubled by a pain in his rectum (nothing like intimate detail) that he couldn't move. In almost three months' travel, Fray Francisco and Miera now had each been felled twice while the ailing Escalate recorded not a single debilitating bodily complaint for himself. The wilderness, be it recalled, would make a whole man of a sickly Teddy Roosevelt. End quote

Also on that day, out of necessity and starvation, the expedition finally slaughtered and ate the horse they had planned to all those days ago. And what they could not eat, they cut up in preparation to carry with them in a jerked form, most likely.

I’ve said it before in a previous episode, but I’ve eaten horse, in Besancon, France and it was delicious. Like sweet beef. But I imagine killing one that you know you may need for survival later was a much tougher decision. But the food that Garces so loved according to his friend in that letter I quoted in the intro episode, but the Indian food of seeds the D&E crew had been given wasn’t doing wonders for the Spaniards.

Eventually that day, 26 more Paiute Indians would show up and hang out with these wanderers in their strange land. These Paiutes, they called themselves the Pagampachis, the Cane Spring People. Obviously, Escalante and the butt hurt Dominguez preached to the newcomers. But this time, they threw in a whole bunch of preaching against their, quote, superstitious curing of their sick. End quote. He went on to say: We made them understand that they should seek help in their troubles only from the one and true god, because his majesty alone has power over health and sickness, over life and death, and is able to help everyone. End quote.

I can’t imagine… these Paiutes made a lick a sense about any of this preaching but the fathers continued and apparently, Escalante commented that their new converts listened with pleasure. Yet again, they promised to one day return to teach and preach. Alas, it would not happen.

When not preaching, the two groups were entertaining each other. And also on this day, they finally learned where the Cosninas were! They even used that word! They also told them the best place to cross the mighty river was. In return, for the information, the expedition handed out strips of red cloth and then one brave guide agreed to take them to the ford.

Shortly afterwards, the 25 other Pagampachis disappeared. Then the expedition, along with this man, who didn’t even stay long enough to be renamed, began their journey. But the Paiute got so frightened that he quickly fled. 

Although some in the group wanted to restrain him physically, the padres disallowed it and they let him go. The Holy Ghost it seems, would be leading them to and across the Colorado River… God willing.

They soon came around the paria plateau, a place filled with wonders and magic moments in geology and geography. The wave. The coyote buttes.  Grand gulch. Edmaier’s secret. They were now following the vermillion cliffs, I place I love and cannot wait to explore some more.

The last time I was there, that dang record breaking winter storm stopped my wife and I from exploring it and its wonders, both natural and ancient man made.

As they walked, Cisneros would attempt to go ahead of them and to find the river. He would return after midnight and report that he did indeed find it but… he wasn’t sure if they could actually cross it.

They had finally reached the Colorado River.

Briggs describes the area wonderfully so I’ll use an extended quote from him:

He, meaning Cisneros, he had made his observation in Marble Canyon, to be named by Colorado River explorer John Wesley Powell in 1869 for "one great bed of marble a thousand feet in thickness." Cisneros' forbidding terrain included a crest of which Powell would say, "The echoes are so remarkable that we could call it nothing but Echo Peak. End quote. Again, I am absolutely doing an episode soon over John Wesley Powell. Briggs continues…

Mountains and ridges hereabout are sedimentary deposits of ancient seas, rich in marine fossils, and of winds that blow sands to this day. Through eons the swelling beneath the earth's surface has pushed them ever upward in the elephantine wrinkling that Escalante observed. Indeed, like the Sangre de Cristo, they are rising even now.

He continues: After a stretch in which the expedition's animals broke through surface gravel and "sank to their knees, . .. we arrived at the Rio Grande de los Cosninas." Tizón, Buena Guía, Buena Esperanza, Rio Grande de los Mártires and los Misterios and appellations more. After all these days of pointing toward the Colorado… Escalante, the sphinx.

Still Briggs: About twelve million years ago water began trickling south from Wyoming. Pushing sand and gravel, it hewed through plateau until it became a stream, through mountains until it became a river. Vagrant tributaries carved canyons until the river was honed into a Paul Bunyan ripsaw. In places the Colorado has cut six thousand feet deep to basement rock, a crust from some two billion years ago when our planet's molten surface finally hardened. As its parent land rises, the Colorado is grinding ever deeper. No river on earth runs so deep so far, which is for much of its seventeen hundred miles. If let alone again, it would overrun and destroy man's ephemeral dams in the twinkling of a geological eye. There was no Colorado mystique in our wayfarers' eyes. Like San Francisco Bay in Pórtolá's, it was simply a barrier. Unlike the Monterey colonizer's obstacle, this was one that had to be crossed. End all quotes.

I love the Colorado Plateau… I’ve mentioned Portola and his Montery discovery in the intro episode. Also of note, the Colorado River has more dams than any other river in the United States with 15, in total. How many dams are in the United States? 80, four, thousand. 84,000 dams.

They actually reached the river at the confluence of the Paria and the Colorado River, a beautiful place that is named today, Lee’s Ferry. And Lee’s Ferry… has some pretty interesting history attached to it that I would be remiss to not go into just a little bit. Well, a lot of bit.

The place at the confluence of the Paria and the Colorado River is named after a man named John D Lee, who came to the site of modern day Lees Ferry in 1870 so that he could help Mormons who wanted to cross The Colorado from Utah into Arizona to spread the state of Deseret.

John D Lee was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints himself and had been essentially since the beginning of the religion. He’d been friends with Joseph Smith and he was adopted by Brigham Young, the second prophet and leader of the church after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom in prison… although, John D Lee’s last words would be spent denouncing Brigham young.

Back in Missouri though, in the 1830s, John D Lee had been a part of something called the Danites during the Mormon War of 1838... the first of three Mormon wars in that area. The Missourians really did not like the Mormons. But in this secret fraternal order, which was condemned by church leaders, but in this vigilante group, one was expected to defend the members of the church by whatever means. Including violence and murder. At the time there was a lot of tar and feathering and murdering and raping of Mormons by nonMormons. Most of these secret combination members would be excommunicated during their lives… although, brought back into the faith after death.

So John D Lee was a secret vigilante militia member who eventually ended up in Utah with the rest of the church where… he would later dress up as a Paiute Indian and attack an Arkansas party of far west California bound settlers known as the Baker-Francher Party who were camped at… Mountain Meadows. Yes, John D Lee took part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. At the time there was the whole Utah war where the United States government sent the army to invade the territory of Utah… I know, the United States invading a sovereign nation, shocking… well because of the fears of annihilation and also because of the fact that some Arkansaians had killed a Mormon Apostle a couple years before… things got out of hand and the Mountain Meadows Massacre resulted in 120 dead and 17 children taken by the church. Maybe I’ll do an episode over the incident one day… I definitely should.

John D Lee, for his part in the massacre would eventually be killed by a firing squad in 1877 at the site of the 1857 massacre. Poetic. He’d be the only one found guilty of the massacre, actually. Afterwards, one of Lee’s 19 wives took over the ferry before the Church eventually bought it. Gold was found later in the area, this area where the D & E crew were now in our story, trying to cross, and by the 1920s a giant steamboat had been brought into Marble canyon at Lees Ferry, where it promptly sank and you can still visit it today. Or I guess, you can gaze down at it from the banks. I’ll have pictures up at the site. It’s the largest vessel to have ever floated the Colorado River north of the Grand Canyon… apparently.

In March of ’23 my wife and I, as I mentioned earlier, drove Highway 89 until we reached this area. We then spent the day at the banks both above and below where the Paria River, with its melted frosty colored water meets the green and clear Colorado. In fact, at that spot, the two rivers kept their distinct colors and the merging looked quite surreal. I know the Colorado isn’t always green and clear, but it was that day. There were tons of swallows diving, fisherman trying to catch a meal, and a few boats rowed or floated by with excited & tired sun kissed passengers. It was a beautiful spot with the sheer red and orange cliff walls that tower over the river. On the other bank, across from the parking lot where we had a picnic in the truck bed were some wild looking Navajo horses grazing below Lees backbone. I wondered how on earth they got there, it was impressive.

Well, on the 26th of October, the D & E Crew finally made it to this river they’d been anticipating for what seems like, weeks, at least since they’d made the decision to turn around. That excitement at reaching though, was mitigated when they remembered that they also had to cross it. And crossing it… wasn’t going to be easy. Especially at this moment when the river was 100 yards across… Something must have been happening up river. Oh, and the lack of dams makes a difference.

The rarely mentioned hitchhikers, Felipe and Juan Domingo who they’d discovered and allowed to tag along way back in August, they were the best swimmers of the entire party. And it was now their turn to shine. 

They were tasked with finding out the best way to cross this big fast flowing river. So, they stripped down naked, stuck their clothes on their head, and attempted to ford… Here’s Escalante with the results:

It was so deep and wide that the swimmers, in spite of their prowess, were barely able to reach the other side, leaving in midstream their clothing, which they never saw again. And since they became so exhausted getting there, nude and bare foot, they were unable to walk far enough to do the said exploring, coming back across after having paused a while to catch their breath.

The two were able to make it back across the no doubt freezing and strong river where hopefully they were given some new clothes, although it isn’t mentioned in the journal. It appeared to the leaders though, that crossing it at this spot at modern day Lee’s Ferry wasn’t the best way to do it. The Indians had told them the ford was at their waist yet here it was impossible even on horses. The ford must be further up river. They’d spend the next 11 days, looking for that ford and attempting to cross it.

The second attempt to cross the beast was made on the 28th but this time they used a driftwood raft and 15 foot poles they also created out of driftwood. The crew was comprised of the quote unquote servants, and Escalante himself! He’s now a sailor! Shortly after setting, sail, in air quotes, the poles that they were using like the boats in Venice, you know, well the poles wouldn’t touch bottom of the river near the middle so they floated back to shore downstream. Three tries, three strikes, they were out. Although they kept the raft.

They then sent out the interpreter Andres Muniz and his brother Lucrecio upstream to look for a better way to cross but… if you know the area, just up stream, around the bend is the famous Horseshoe bend and that is a near vertical cliff about one thousand feet above the water… But it wasn’t like they headed upriver from camp and then came back. It took em three days to return and all the while, the group was suffering from hunger and fear.

By the 29th, they’d eaten the horse meat so they ordered another killed out of necessity. They’d also by now named the camp, instead of naming it after some saint or religious name as they always did, they named the camp San Benito de Salsipuedes. Why is that funny? I’ll let the editor of the journal, Ted J Warner, who wrote this in the footnotes, explain it:

Gazing at the multitude of sheer cliffs about them and at the menacing brown river, they named their campsite San Benito Salsipuedes. A "San Be-nito" to the New Mexican Franciscan of the eighteenth century referred to a garish white cassock with colored markings worn by errant brothers as a mark of punishment. Salsipuedes means "get out if you can.” End quote. There is no Saint Salsipuedes.

Around them were the towering, sheer, red and orange Echo and Vermillion Cliffs, not to mention marble canyon. Downstream is where today’s 89 Navajo bridge is located which allows you to walk across it while staring down at the torrent of water. Upstream is endless impenetrable sandstone canyons… clearly, they were frustrated. It’s a beautiful area, one of my favorites in a land filled with beautiful places but to these Spanish and Religious, it was simply an impediment. Plus, they really did not think of the landscape in terms of beauty as we do. For Europeans, that kind of thinking wouldn’t come around for a couple more decades for some. Centuries for others. Some people still don’t appreciate beauty in nature, honestly. Pictures of this place will be up at the site. I took em, of course. It’ll help you get a feel for what they were up against.

The 31st of October came and went with no sign of their companions, the Muniz brothers. The entry is only one sentence saying they waited.

Finally on the 1st of November, the two Muñiz brothers returned. And they returned with some good news! They’d found a way out, the same one Cisneros had seen 5 days before, but it wasn’t going to be easy and it involved going up and over the mesa, and then back to the river. The men’s hearts lightened, but their limbs stiffened as they had an exceedingly cold night. It is November on the Colorado Plateau at this point and the weather in that harsh place can be brutal in every season. Not to mention, as Briggs puts it, their encampment is essentially a wind tunnel.

On the second of November they left that camp at Lee’s Ferry, headed up the east bank of the Paria river, and headed northeast for 17 miles. It took em two days. Roberts sums up the journal entry and quotes from it quite nicely when he wrote:

Escalate's journal is a laundry list of complaints about the terrain: "extremely difficult stretches and most dangerous ledges," "cliff-lined gorges," "a stretch of red sand which was quite troublesome for the horse herds," "such terrible rock embankments that two pack animals which descended the first one could not make it back, even without the equipment." And then, when at last the team got to the promised ford, the padres judged it impossible. Escalate, so quick to criticize the "guides" and "experts" within his party, was unsparing in his contempt for the brothers Muñiz: "Here we learned that they had not found the ford either, nor in so many days made the necessary exploration of so small a space of terrain, for their having wasted the time looking for those Indians who live hereabouts, and accomplished nothing.”

So… it turns out the brothers may have told a fib, again… and instead of finding a ford and then crossing said ford, they hung out with Indians for three days… oops. It isn’t clear if they ACTUALLY hung out with the Indians or if that’s just what D&E thought they were doing for three days while failing to find this spot. Plus, when they reached the area of the ford, which again, reaching this place had been extremely dangerous with quite a few walks across rounded sandstone fins… like the kind you find in Moab or Arches. But once they reached the place of the ford they weren’t actually at the crossing spot but rather, high above it looking down at the spot they were supposed to be able to make it across. And to get down to the river… Escalante didn’t even think the animals would make it back up if they couldn’t get to the other side. Or if they got to the other side and they couldn’t get back up. They were 1,700 feet above the river… it’s hard to imagine that distance. It’s hard to properly see it even when you’re there looking at it! But, they were in a pickle and they needed to move, lest they all die right there from starvation and cold.

They needed to make a decision. So Escalante asked their best swimmer, the genizaro mixed native, Juan Domingo if he would go down and across again. He agreed, climbed down the steep slope, and, only with his shirt, he plunged into the cold water and made it across. Then, probably out of embarrassment, or maybe to apologize for this whole debacle, one of the Muñiz brothers, Lucrecio, decided he would follow, bareback on a horse, across the river with some supplies and once on the other side, he’d send up some smoke signals if it all turned out alright. This time, D & E asked him to be back by nightfall… none of this three days, garbage. The Expedition wouldn’t make it that long. Again.

Night came and went and no Lucrecio or Juan Domingo. No smoke signals. No more horse meat either. And no water for themselves or the horses. Yes, they could SEE water, the Colorado was right down there, down this steep sandstone embankment that was probably a cliffside. It’s amazing that Lucrecio made it down on a horse, but making it back up? There was severe doubt among D & E that the animals would be able to make it back up. They were out of the second horse’s meat, so they were hungry. Hungry and stuck… cold and thirsty and tired on top of a sandstone wall overlooking the Colorado River after two days of dangerous and exhausting travel, and they were too afraid to ford the river below and if they couldn’t, they were totally unsure if they’d be able to get back up with the animals… the desperation seeps through the pages at this point. But it doesn’t let up…

Having to make a tough decision, because they were not going back the way they came, D & E decided to go down the very steep nearly vertical walls of the canyon to get down to the water where the horses could drink and where they could find a way to ford. It was now the only option. Plus, they couldn't sit there and do nothing any longer. The waiting was killing them. So down they went except, as Escalante puts it, quote, with great difficulty, some of the mounts injuring themselves because, when they lost a foothold on the big rocks, they rolled down a long distance. End quote. I do not like the mental image of a horse rolling a long distance down a scree field or near vertical sandstone cliff face.

But they did make it down where they drank, slaughtered a third horse, set up camp along the bank, and began waiting for the two to return, and just before nightfall, Juan Domingo would do just that except, he wasn’t bringing good news. Escalante writes, quote, he had found no way out and that the other one, leaving the horse midway in the canyon, had kept on following some fresh Indian tracks. End quote. It was another no-go, except… Indian tracks meant a way out, right? Yes, except that way out may not have afforded horses the same salvation.

The following day they asked the other Muñiz brother, Andres, to stay there at the bank and to wait for Lucrecio and if and when he returned, to please catch up to them before nightfall. Things were getting desperate. And it ain’t like that day’s journey would help. If they couldn’t make it at this spot, they were going to follow the river up northeasterly, back into modern day Utah, and they were going to travel until they could find a spot, or better yet, THE spot that the Indians had told them about where they could cross at their waist.

Where our adventurers are traveling through now on this cold November 5th day, is mostly under lake Powell’s water. Don’t get me started on lake Powell and how ill conceived the entire endeavor was… I mean, sandstone absorbs water and you’re going to put a lake on it! In the desert?! Drowning 10s of thousands of archaeological sites and petroglyphs and caves with artifacts and then the radioactive mud against the dam from the 26,000-tons of unremediated uranium-mill tailings… Thank God this winter was a record breaking one and the lake got a reprieve from being below the spill line! Author Craig Child’s even wrote a piece about it last autumn and how if things go wrong, it ain’t going to be pretty for the Southwest… I got myself started… That’s all I’ll say of that…

On the 5th, they traveled something like 7 miles through canyons, arroyos, ridges, and gullies, and across soft white rock before making camp and Andres Muniz returned and with him, the bad news that his brother had not… as Escalante put it, quote, this news caused us plenty of worry, because he had been three days without provisions and no covering other than his shirt. End quote. So the other Muniz brother was out there Pooh Bearin’ his way through the cold rainy and snowy desert following Indian tracks with no horse and no food… By now it had rained all day and even some snow had fallen and I can’t help but think hypothermia must be creeping in on Lucrecio. He had crossed the cold river too! I’m reminded of The Revenant and how Leo’s fictional Hugh Glass is pretty much wet and cold the entire journey… I know it’s based on a true story but it’s so far removed from it that it’s fictional to me. Still a great film! About all of this Briggs writes:

A deserted Lucrecio, a lone castaway Hispano in an ocean of uncharted currents and unfathomed depths, amid peoples as bestial as Jonah’s whale. He had to be rescued. End quote. He’s such a fun writer, seriously.

After learning that Lucrecio was still out there, Juan Domingo actually volunteered to go back to the previous camp, cross the river again, and then return with the lost traveler. The fathers were no doubt relieved at this compassionate mission.

The rain stopped on the morning of the 6th after much praying, but it was replaced with a much worse storm. After traveling about 7 miles again, they were stopped for a long time and once they stopped, they began to recite litanies and say their prayers as they were attacked by a quote, strong blizzard and tempest consisting of rain and thick hailstones amid horrendous thunder claps and lightning flashes, end quote. God humbles his servants.

As anyone who spends time in canyon country knows, you do NOT go into canyons or near the rivers during storms because those all important eroding forces of flash floods are truly killer. Despite the deluge and the lightning and the hail, they sent down Don Juan Pedro Cisneros to see if they could ford it and surprisingly he said, Yes, it was really wide but not very deep. BUT… there’s a really tough canyon in between the camp and the ford spot. The padres then sent two others to inspect it and they came back saying, yeah that canyon is going to be difficult. Escalante then writes, quote, we did not give much credence to the latter’ report and so we decided to examine it ourselves next day along with Don Juan Pedro Cisneros. Before night came the genizaro arrived with the said Lucrecio. End quote.

Wait, what was that about Lucrecio?! Juan Domingo had brought him back! He was no doubt, a welcome sight, especially for Andres. But only one sentence to celebrate his return? Roberts writes of this puzzling brief mention, quote:

For three days, without trousers, Andrés Muñiz's brother- scarcely mentioned in the journal during the three months out of Santa Fe-had crossed the Colorado twice, pushed the far canyon along the track of Indian footprints to an unspecified distance, and together with Juan Domingo followed the onward track of the main expedition through 17 miles of convoluted slickrock canyons and domes. For three nights the ill-clad Lucrecio had bivouacked through rainstorms that had drenched and chilled his comrades even in their tents and around their campfires. The reconnaissance of these two scouts stands as one of the gutsiest accomplishments of the whole expedition, yet Escalate deigned it an episode not even worth enlivening with the barest details, since in the end, as a way to cross the Colorado River, the scouts attempted route failed to find an answer. End quote.

Briggs further elaborates: No word of commendation. No word of thanksgiving. And no word of what had kept Muniz these three days. End quote. However D&E, especially Escalante, felt about the Muniz brothers, they sure did earn their keep.

The following day, November 7th, would be the day they had all been waiting for, the day they no doubt feared would not come at all, but on that day, after hacking steps into rocks with their axes for the horses, after climbing down the steep canyon, and after riding along the banks of the river a bit, the two fathers and their two awesome swimmer guides, crossed, the Colorado river… They then sent the two swimmers back across and up the canyon to fetch the remaining members of the team.

Briggs writes: Thirteen days after the expedition’s coming upon the Colorado at Salsipuedes, its canyonlands had been crossed by white men for the first recorded time at what would become known in perpetuity as El Vado de los Padres. End quote. The Crossing of the Fathers.

At 5pm that day, after lowering their gear using ropes down the cliffs, and negotiating the animals down using those hacked steps, and then getting them across the river, by 5, they were all on the other side where they rightfully celebrated by quote, praising god our lord and firing off some muskets in demonstration of the great joy we all felt in having overcome so great a problem. End quote.

I am here to attest to the power of firing a weapon into the air in the desert in celebration. I did so on my wedding day in Grand Staircase-Escalante… fittingly. Or right outside the boundary, of course, for any NPS people listening.

Even knowing that the D & E crew make it back to Santa Fe, I was beginning to question if the crossing of the fathers to the other side of the Colorado River was ever truly going to happen! But thankfully for them and for our story, they did.

Unthankfully for our story, the famous steps they hacked into the sandstone wall, and the place that they crossed are both now under hundreds of feet of radioactive mud and water at Lake Powell.

But in 2006, while some volunteers were scrubbing graffiti from the sandstone wall in a place fittingly known as Padre’s Bay on Lake Powell, the volunteers discovered the only inscription ever found to date from the 1776 Dominguez & Escalante expedition. Instead of carving it at the base of the cliff where they made it down or near the spot they made the steps, the padres carved into the wall hundreds of feet above the river, Paso por aqui mil setecientos setenta y seis… Passed by here in 1776.

In 1829, the Spaniard Antonio Mariano Armijo would become the first merchant explorer to lead a commercial caravan from Abiquiu, that last outpost town northwest of Santa Fe, the place our D&E Expedition stayed the night in, well Antonio Armijo would be the first Spaniard to lead a caravan from Abiquiu to the San Gabriel Mission in today’s Los Angeles County. Essentially, he would successfully do what the padres could not, although a little further south than Monterey. He was the first European pioneer to complete a route from Nuevo México to Alta California. It took him 86 days and he’d arrive in January of 1830 and he’d write a day by day account of his journey, just as had our expedition done, the Dominguez and Escalante Expedition.

In that journal Armijo wrote, quote, we stopped the train and repaired the upgrade of the canyon, the same one which has been worked by the padres. End quote. 54 years later, I have no doubt this man carried a copy of the D&E journal with him as he completed the mission our padres set out but failed to accomplish.

That being said, he may have just enlarged some Moqui, or Anasazi steps and not, the steps made by the expedition. But the fact that Armijo knew of the step’s existence shows the importance of the expedition I’ve covered in this series. This expedition that barely anyone, including me until recently, knows anything about in the US, and probably beyond. There are some Americans though, that have historically known of the D&E Expedition.

One hundred and five years later, in 1935, an American, Dr. Russell G Frazier, made five trips to the area and on his fourth trip, quote, Frazier and companions implaced a copper plaque at the canyon’s entrance. It was he who named its stream Padre Creek. End quote. That quote was by Briggs and he describes Fraziers passion of using the D&E journal to find the spot where they crossed. Frazier was chief surgeon for the Utah Copper Company, not a doctor of Anthropology, or Archaeology, or History, or… anyways. Briggs further writes, quote:

Then, on the final trip in 1937, Frazier's son and a brother, quote, pointed excitedly to a sloping wall ... in which were cut six ancient steps 'three yards long or a little less' " that, though "very badly weathered and not easily seen unless the light is just right… still show traces of having been cut by some steel instrument.

He goes on to write and quoting Frazier again, To stand in the footsteps of the padres” was to Frazier, who would join the third Byrd Antarctic expedition, "the greatest thrill of my life. End Frazier quote. The plaque, rescued before the Crossing of the Fathers was drowned, is treasured by the Utah State Historical Society. End all quotes.

Despite finally being on the homeward bound side of the Colorado River, the crew weren’t out of the woods yet. Before they left their celebrated spot, on November 8th, they slaughtered their fourth horse for food. They were indeed still rather starving, not to mention, they were brutally cold. Escalante writes, quote, tonight, we were very cold, more so than on the other side of the Colorado. End quote.

They were also, for lack of a better word, lost. Very lost. And confused. You can’t blame em. Canyon country is an absolute maze. There is even an area of Canyonlands National Park, up the Colorado River from these guys, that is called The Maze District. If it had been cloudy this entire time with storms, I imagine they were completely clueless as to what directions they were even facing in those canyons, half the time.

They blamed a lot of this confusion on the fact that the Indians were refusing to help them but, the Indians had no obligation, really. And they could have been purposefully avoiding them on behalf of the nearby Hopis, anyways. You do though, have to wonder where on earth are the Navajo?! As mentioned earlier in another episode, they don’t run into any… it’s wild.

Around this time in the journal, Escalante mentions a landmark I am very fond of, although unable to visit as I am NOT a Navajo. That landmark would be what Escalante calls, Tucane. He calls it that because the Payuchi Indians, or Paiutes, call it that. In their language, that means Black Peak. For the crew, it was the only mountain they could see quote unquote close at hand. That mountain also goes by the name Cerro Prieto in Miera’s map. Also meaning black peak. In another map it goes by Cerro Azul. Today, it is known as Navajo Mountain.

Briggs writes of this beautiful landmark:

A 10,416-foot laccolith surmounting Rainbow Plateau. It dominates the northern realm of the Navajo Reservation, which chews big bites out of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Sacred to the Navajos, it is to be avoided as home of their thunder god. End quote.

David Roberts, in his book Finding Everett Ruess, says of the mountain, quote, it is one of the lordliest landmarks in the four corners region. End quote. In Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument you can view it easily from Boulder, Utah, down to the Hole-in-the-Rock Road. You can see the giant peak from Bryce Canyon National Park. It’s visible from Muley Point on Cedar Mesa in the Bears Ears Area. From Casa del Eco Mesa in the Four Corners. The Navajo Mountain is visible from so many places throughout the area that is my favorite in the world and it just… beckons me to visit. But alas, it is off limits.

Within its canyons the Navajos hid from the Spanish and the US Armies. The Anasazi hid there during their Civil War. It is one of the most remote regions in all of the Southwest. It stands next to the Henry Mountains, fairly nearby, in being one of the last places explored by Anglos. The places around the mountain are some of the most rugged in all of the United States and hidden among the many sharp canyons around it, is Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural geological span in the world. Everett Ruess will explore it so… stay tuned for that episode, which is coming after this series. Other past Americans that got to explore the region was frequent podcast guest, Theodore Roosevelt, and another man who will have his own episode in the future, western author Zane Grey. And yet ANOTHER man of history who will get his own series soon, and who I have mentioned before, John Wetherill, that great finder of Anasazi sites who would also help Everett Ruess. He blazed many a trail through the area. The First anglo to do so.

And with that, I have decided to make this a five parter. The rest of the story takes them to Hopi and then I will talk at length about the epilogue and what happens to our brave expeditionaries. Our adventurers. Our wanderers in mysterious regions.

On my last trip I saw in a bookstore a book by the American southwest podcast veteran, John Kessel titled, Miera Y Pacheco and it’s obviously about his life so I will be quoting from that a little. Plus I will need to tie up the loose ends of the Spanish in the region. The Spanish have a truly lasting impact not only on the United States but especially in the southwest which is all but ignored in the rest of the country. Well, anyways, I’ll see you again soon, in the American southwest as we wrap up the Dominguez and Escalante expedition of 1776. 

The Dominguez & Escalante Journal Edited by Ted J Warner

Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest by David Roberts

Without Noise of Arms: The 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Search for a Route from Santa Fe to Monterey by Walter Briggs

The Report of Fray Alonso de Posada in Relation to Quivira and Teguayo by S. Lyman Tyler & H. Darrel Taylor

The Myth of the Lake of Copala and the Land of Teguayo by S Lyman Tyler

http://npshistory.com/publications/kessell/kiva-cross-crown/chap6.htm Kessell- Kiva cross and crown

https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/juan-antonio-maría-de-rivera

The Phantom Pathfinder: Juan Maria Antonio de Rivera and His Expedition by G Clell Jacobs

The Rivera Expedition by Thomas G. Alexander

https://www.the-journal.com/articles/miera-y-pacheco-was-first-european-to-map-the-four-corners/