Highway 257

The route between Southwest Utah and the Wasatch Front is usually traveled via Interstate 15. It wasn't until I talked with Pete Dotson that I knew there was an alternative.

Pete was a burly man with a thick brown, but graying beard, who wore bibbed overalls and long sleeves everywhere he went. He swore he would travel to Salt Lake no other way. “Just too many people,” he would say.

The route that Pete spoke of takes the backroads through the West Desert of Utah. Depending on your point of view, it can be either drab and boring, or mysterious and intriguing.

Along this route is a 67-mile stretch between the rural towns of Milford and Deseret. Utah Highway 257, as it is officially known, offers an empty landscape to the casual observer. It is common to pass fewer then ten cars on a single drive—and the biggest hazard is hitting either an antelope or cow. But to those who dig deeper, Highway 257 offers a rich blend of history and geological wonders.

Over the years I have taken Pete's advice and have found many occasions to take this lonely backroad. Although I have only scratched the surface, each time comes with new discoveries.

Remains of Fort Deseret along Highway 257

Just 4.5 miles south of the northern terminus of Highway 257 lies the crumbled remains of Fort Deseret. Thick adobe walls made of mud and straw, and supported by wooden frames and posts, still stand just off the road. A collapsing bastion exists on the northeast corner, as well as “peep holes” in the walls. The east wall is the best preserved, and in the middle is a “gate” supported by a wooden frame that the visitor can pass through to explore inside the fort. Although the interior is filled with rabbit brush and lacks most of the back walls, it is enough to give you a feel of what it must have looked like when first erected.

The town of Deseret was created in 1859 by Mormon settlers on the lower reaches of the Sevier River. The growth of new settlements began to create a strain between the Mormons and Indians, as the natives began to see much of their wildlife habitat turned into farms, thus diminishing their food supply. They also suffered from smallpox and measles, which they blamed on the white man. After initially seeing the Mormons as friends, they now began to view them as intruders.

In 1865, a Ute leader by the name of Black Hawk led a group of discontented Indians on a series of raids to secure food for their people. The raids began in Sanpete Valley in Central Utah and spread throughout the state to Deseret where the Pahvant Indians stole cattle.

As a precautionary move, Brigham Young ordered that the men from Deseret form a militia and that a fort be erected. It took just 18 days for 98 men to build the fort. The structure was 550 feet square, with corner bastions ten feet high and walls three feet thick on the bottom, tapering to a foot and a half at the top.

Although Fort Deseret was never used to protect the people, it served as a deterrent. On several occasions it was used as a corral to protect the cattle from Indians.

Left: The Great Stone Face.  Right: Painting of Joseph Smith by David White Rogers.

Less than two miles south of Fort Deseret is a graveled road that leads toward the west for over five miles and then curls around an outcropping of black rock. This site must have had significance to Native Americans of olden times as there are many petroglyphs on the rocks, including what appears to be an eye at the top of the hill. But for Mormon settlers, this was the location of The Great Stone Face.

Atop the same rocky hill is a natural stone structure that looks very much in profile as Mormon founder and Prophet, Joseph Smith. By now it had been well over a decade since the Mormon leader had been murdered in Nauvoo, Illinois. The Saints had moved and settled in the west, and as they began to explore the region around Sevier Lake, they were excited to find a stack of lava rock in the likeness of the Prophet.

Of course, the rock may also have had significance with the Paiutes, as they may have seen the likeness of a chief of a god. With the abundance of petroglyphs, there is no doubt that this site held a level of importance.

It is also interesting to note that just a few years earlier, in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published a short story entitled “The Great Stone Face,” referring to a similar stone structure. In the story, a local Native American folklore states that this stone profile would resemble someone who is “the greatest and noblest personage of his time.” This is certainly how the Saints viewed Joseph Smith, and I wonder if Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story played a role in the naming of the rock.

North face of Pahvant Butte.

The pathway of Highway 257 is roughly paralleled by the old route used by the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition of 1776. As they searched for a course to Monterey, California, they pushed forward from Santa Fe, traveling northward through southwest Colorado and into present-day Utah. From the Wasatch Front they curled southward into what is now the desert of Millard County.

On October 2, the group camped south and a little ways east of Deseret near a prominent hill they would call El Cerrillo. Years later this knoll became known as Pahvant Butte, an iconic mound in the middle of a desolate valley, seen from miles away on all sides. The company had difficulty pushing directly southward as they ran into the shallow lakes and marshes of Clear Lake.

Upon arriving, they recorded in their journal:

“In the afternoon we pursued our journey to the south-southeast because the marshes and lakes were not letting us go south, which was the direct route to the pass through which we were to leave the plain. After going three leagues we halted near a small bluff which stands on it. Wherefore we named the stopping point, where there were marshes with much pasturage but with brackish water, El Cerrillo. Today three leagues.”

Shallow waters of Clear Lake.

The butte was named after the Pahvant Indians, a band of Southern Paiutes, with whom the company had an encounter earlier that day. The waters of Clear Lake are home to a wide variety of fowl. A good graveled road leaves the highway and travels on a causeway over the shallow waters.

At one time there was a town built nearby with the name of Clear Lake. Unlike most of the other communities, it was settled by non-Mormons, many of them from the Midwest. Ten families lived in the town and most farmed. A canal was built from the lake to the new settlement. Nowadays there are no vestiges of the former inhabitants other than some inconspicuous piles of concrete.

The Dominguez-Escalante group moved on the following day:

“On the 3rd we left El Cerrillo, made several detours because we were surrounded by marshes, and decided to cut across by going over the east river mentioned, which appears to sink into them and the plain's other lakes—and which abounds in fish. The ford was sticky and miry, and in it the mount which Andrés the interpreter was riding fell and pitched into the water, dealing him a hard blow on one cheek.”

Union Pacific Railroad.

Pronghorn are often seen along Highway 257.

Continuing further south, the highway parallels the Union Pacific Railroad. The track runs to Milford and eventually Lund, which used to be a major transportation depot. Today the carriages are filled entirely with freight rather than people.

Anyone traveling the lonely stretch of road must not only watch for wandering cattle, but also for skittish antelope. More than once I have come frightening close to striking a darting pronghorn.

Located to the east of the highway are the barren Cricket Mountains. There are many dirt roads that take off in that direction and skirt the hillsides.

Dried hardpan of Sevier Lake in distance.

West of this mountain range, constituting a large swath from north to south are the dried remains of Sevier Lake. From a distance the ivory-colored hard-pan is reminiscent of the Bonneville Salt Flats. At the extreme northern end the Sevier River flows into the lake. I don't know if the lake was full when the Mormon Pioneers arrived in 1847, but since that time the river has been used quite extensively for irrigation, sucking volume from this long meandering waterway.

Another much smaller riverbed follows a portion of the highway. The Beaver River comes from the south and southeast, a collection of melted snow and springs from the Tushar Mountains. At its largest it is a freshwater torrent as wide as a two-laned road. As far as I can tell, the farms near the towns of Beaver and Milford suck the river completely dry by the time it reaches Highway 257.

It appears that Mother Nature depleted a portion of the Beaver River in 1776. The D&E group still found a trickle of water: “. . . we came to an arroyo which seemed to have much water, but we found only some waterholes where the horse herd might be able to drink. Nevertheless, we stopped here because there was good pasturage. All over the arroyo there was a kind of white scum, dry and thin, which looked from afar like linen spread out, for which reason we named it Arroyo de Tejedor.”

As they traveled further south, the flow of the Beaver River picked up as they found beautiful meadows and good pasturage for their horses. I would dare say that those beautiful meadows no longer exist.

Ruined structure at Black Rock.

As Father Escalante and his party moved forward, they crossed a nearly inconspicuous boundary they called South Pass, entering into what is now the Escalante Desert. Nearby are a group of ruined structures belonging to the abandoned settlement of Black Rock.

Established as a ranch in 1876, Black Rock eventually acquired a store and Post Office. When it became a depot on the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, thousands of pounds of wool were shipped from the small settlement. A small pumice quarry north of town employed many people. A schoolhouse was built and operated for 40 years.

The railroad began to consolidate operations during the 1930's, causing the town of Black Rock to wane. Only the foundations of the former buildings exist. There is, however, a modern ranch on the premise, and it appears that the local springs have been used to water fields and livestock.

I found faint petroglyphs on rocky ridge above the springs, indicating that people have used this place for hundreds of years. The tawny hills and barren valley are testimony to the isolated and dry terrain. In a land like this, any place that can sustain life is a gem.

Antelope Springs is a surprising oasis in the Escalante Desert.

Several miles west of Black Rock is another oasis in the desert. Antelope Springs was a stage stop in the 1860's. It is hard to believe now, but there was once a hotel, saloon, livery stable and barn on the premises. The springs are still there, although I was unable to find any signs of the old buildings. The springs have created a small pond, as well as a large marshy area, well suited for fowl.

From my readings, I can't find any evidence that the D&E expedition came across the springs at Black Rock or Antelope Springs. Instead, they camped near a hill called Red Rock Knoll, some two miles west of Black Rock. The company was in dire straits at this time. Their Indian guide had deserted them, leaving no one who knew the territory. They were tormented with an early winter storm that blanked the hills and valley, and stranded them for two days with no firewood.

The Beaver Bottoms.

When they finally continued, they trekked south and entered into what is called Beaver Bottoms, a point in the valley that tends to collect a lot of stagnating water. Their journal records the tribulation:

“We traveled only three leagues and a half with great difficulty, because it was so soft and miry everywhere that many pack animals and mounts, and even those that were loose, either fell down or became stuck altogether.”

The mire still flanks Highway 257 north of Milford. Just east of here, spreading across the valley like a forest of white giants, is a wind farm. Personally, I'm not a big fan (no pun intended) of new turbines sprouting up in divers places, but it sure grabs the attention of those driving by. In a way it beholds its own beauty. I guess I'm a little old fashioned and prefer to see the land as it was in 1776—or a thousand years earlier.

Another ten miles of driving will bring you to the southern terminus of Highway 257 and the small town of Milford. There's a lot of discoveries yet to be make along this 67-mile stretch of apparent barren highway. I think Pete Dotson knew what he was talking about. ♠

Wind farm near Milford.