The morning sun has not yet crested the
eastern horizon as I sit atop a low-lying hill overlooking the
alpenglow on the Kaiparowits Plateau and a thin dusty road that
twists like a ribbon over the desert. Somewhere behind me there is
the distant howl of a coyote, and seconds later it is followed by a
loud, deep bark just below. I scour the undulating hills with my
eyes, but can't find a thing. The two coyotes exchange howls before
giving up and going their separate ways.
Fifty-mile Mountain, which is part of
the plateau, stretches as far as the eye can see toward the
northwest. The white band along its sheer cliff appears impenetrable. It reminds me of how long we have driven to arrive at
this point—forty
miles on a very bumpy graveled road. The pioneers didn't have it so
easy.
The
sound here is silence. Beside the howling coyotes, the only noise
comes from faint wisps of wind stirred up from the rising sun. Other
than that, there is nothing. We are in a remote section of the
world. In the distant north and east are the rugged canyons of the
Escalante and Glen Canyon. A few short hills of Navajo sandstone
heave from the desert floor. Miles of shadscale and rabbit brush dot
the sandy earth.
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The road to Hole-in-the-Rock is sixty miles on dirt roads.
|
One
hundred and thirty-seven years ago, a group of two hundred and fifty
hardy pioneers made a trek over this exact same land. They were
called on a mission by the Mormon church to lay the foundation for
future settlements, and to cultivate better relationships with the
Indians. The men and women were called from young settlements in
southwest Utah, primarily Cedar City, Parowan, New Harmony,
Kanarraville, Paragonah, Oak City, and Holden.
Preparations
for such an ordeal were immense. Each family had to carry enough
provisions for six months, along with clothing, cooking gear, food,
tents, and supplies. Wagons had to be sturdy, and horses young and
strong. Some brought herds of cattle.
Most
of these people left behind parents and siblings and comfortable
homes to settle a rough and nearly inhospitable land. Their ultimate
destination was the region near the San Juan River, on the border of
Navajo territory. Until now, there were no permanent Anglo
settlements, and much of the area was largely unknown.
The
previous year, in 1878, an exploratory party was sent to find a route
to the San Juan region via the south, crossing a vast area through
Arizona inhabited by the Navajo. It was decided that this route was
too sandy and too dangerous to bring such a large contingent of
wagons and stock.
On
their way back to Cedar City, they took a northerly route, crossing
the Colorado River at Moab, and then through Green River and Salina
before cutting back south. This route was determined to be too long.
It
is ironic that they chose to take a route that had never been tested
before. Riding on the advise of men who were “pretty sure” a
middle route could be taken, it was decided to take a “short-cut”
to San Juan. This alternate course would wend through some very
rough and unmapped canyon country; but supposedly it would shave off
enough time that it would only take them six weeks and allow time to
reach their destination before winter.
The
pioneers left their various towns during the fall of 1879, and
rendezvoused at Forty-mile Spring during November. From my perch
where I am watching the sunrise and listening to the howl of coyotes,
Forty-mile Spring is about two miles to the southeast. I can imagine
the isolation they must have felt. Even now, in the year 2016, this
area remains extremely detached from civilization. The nearest town
is Escalante (population 797), and it is an hour away on dirt road,
impassable after major rainstorms.
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Walter Joshua Stevens
|
For
me, this trek along the “Hole-in-the-Rock Trail" is something of
a pilgrimage. I have never been to this exact location before, yet I
have heard the stories and know the importance of the history. The
trek of 1879-80 was one that forever changed the destination of my
own family.
Walter
Joshua Stevens, my great-great grandfather, and his brother, Alma,
were among those called to the San Juan Mission. Still a bachelor,
young Joshua was advised to bring a wife, so he decided to marry his
sweetheart, Elizabeth Kenney. The Hole-in-the-Rock trek was their
honeymoon.
The
couple left from Holden, Utah in the early fall of 1879 in company of
his brother, David Alma, and uncle, Roswell Stevens. They rode in a
new Bain Wagon that was a gift from Joshua's father.
Along
the way, they stopped in Scipio to buy cattle, which they brought
with them along the way. They likely rode south and continued along
the Sevier River, passing Monroe, Marysvale, and Junction. Here they
would have turned east along the east fork of the Sevier River, then
through present-day Antimony, Widtsoe, over Escalante Mountain, and
into Escalante town.
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Elizabeth Kenney Stevens
|
On
November 20, 1979, the journal of Platte D. Lyman reads:
“Started on in company with two sons of Walter Stevens and his
uncle of Holden. Drove 7 miles beyond Escalante onto the desert and
made a dry camp, found some snow and good feed, have had good roads
today.”
They
drove three more miles to Ten-mile Spring where it was decided that
the herd take an alternate route because of the scarcity of water.
Eddy Lyman and Alma Stevens took the herd about seven miles toward
the Escalante River, near the ranch of Llewelyn Harris. They
continued in a southeasterly direction for five days, apart from the
rest of the group.
[It
is interesting to note that one of the great arches of the Escalante
Canyons is Stevens Arch, located at the mouth of Stevens Canyon. It
is a majestic arch which is very prominent on the skyline when you
are near the Escalante River. According to Steve Allen's book, “Name
Places in Utah,” it was named after a “local” rancher named Al
Stevens. I can't find any information to clarify who this “Al
Stevens” is, but logic would tell me that it could very well be
Alma Stevens. He would have passed close enough to see it during
this detour with the livestock.]
On
November 25, Lyman records: “Joshua Stevens and I
walked 4 miles to the main camp at 40 mile spring, spent most of the
day there and walked back in the evening, found Eddy had come in from
the herd.” (Of course, this may suggest that Alma Stevens stayed
back toward the Escalante Canyons with the herd.)
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Dance Hall Rock
|
Our
arrival at Forty Mile Spring is at a much more opportune time than
that of the pioneers. We are here in September, as compared to
November when the first snow had already fallen. I am camping with a
small youth group—just two leaders and three boys—and we are now
rolling up our sleeping bags and moving down the road.
Dance
Hall Rock is just a mile away and our first stop of the morning.
This huge sandstone formation is located a mile or so up the wash
from Forty-mile Spring, where the expedition spent three weeks. The
rock has a naturally formed amphitheater that proved to be a perfect
place for dances, and had great acoustics. It was a great way to
lighten the load of a daunting trip.
We
take our time exploring Dance Hall Rock. The sandstone floor isn't
quite an smooth as I had imagined. Names are carved here and there
on the walls, many modern and some old, but none that I can find date
back to the 1800's. No doubt that this has been visited by numerous
church groups and boy scouts.
If
one peruses the back-side of the amphitheater, he can climb to the
top of the dance hall. There are interesting geological formations
in the rock, including large pits that appear as if they have been
spooned from the sandstone. Most of them are so deep, that if you
fall in, you're not getting out without a long rope.
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Memorial to fallen Boy Scouts.
|
As
we continue our journey, the road naturally becomes rockier and we
find ourselves crossing more and more canyons. I have to remember,
however, that when the pioneers passed through, they enjoyed little
or no pathway.
At
the bottom of a wash, before a steep grade in the road, there has
been erected a monument. We pull over to read the plaque. On June
10, 1963, a group of scouts from Provo, Utah traveled this same road
to run a stretch of the Colorado River just prior to its being filled
by Lake Powell. As one of the trucks ascended this steep grade, its
brakes failed and rolled backward, overturned, and rolled down the
embankment, killing thirteen scouts and their leaders.
Being
scouts and leaders ourselves, this hits very close to home, and to a
small degree we are able to relate to them. It is also a sober
reminder of this treacherous and rugged land. The pioneers didn't
even have a road, but had to use their teams of horses or oxen to
pull their wagons up the grade.
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Moqui steps, corral, and name-etching near Fifty-mile Spring.
|
Down
the road, we come to another sandstone mound that is similar to Dance
Hall Rock. There is a spring nearby and it is obvious that it has
been used by many people over several centuries. An old fence with
cedar posts at one time enclosed a horseshoe-shaped formation in the
rock that was used as a corral. Fragments of wire and a metal gate
remain, as well as several names carved into the wall. I found one
that dated back to 1930.
Moqui
steps run up the slanted slope of rock, probably chiseled out by the
Anasazi a thousand years ago. I test them out for about ten feet and
they work really well, matching the movements of my hands and feet
perfectly, as if I were climbing a ladder.
Our
drive so far has kept us near the base of the Kaiparowits Plateau,
but now the road takes a sharp turn toward Glen Canyon. For six
miles we travel over slickrock and sandy pathways. It's not as bad
as what I thought it would be—we don't need four-wheel drive, and
we don't scrape bottom. (I think they've improved the road
considerably in the last few years.)
 |
Navajo Mountain.
|
Looming
prominently on our right is Navajo Mountain. I can tell we are close
now because Navajo Mountain is actually on the other side of Lake
Powell. We take a closer look and can see the chasm of the
Colorado River Gorge.
At
last, our sixty-mile dirt road comes to an end. The terminus loops
around like a lolly-pop, allowing enough room for a dozen or so cars
to park. Just 100 feet in front of us is a long sandstone ridge,
with a prominent gap cleaved through the center. We have finally
arrived at the “hole.”
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Hole-in-the-Rock.
|
The
“Hole-in-the-Rock” was the only nearby location for the pioneers
to descend into the Colorado River Gorge. When they encountered it
for the first time in 1879, the hole was merely a crevice in the
sandstone, barely wide enough—if that—for man or beast to walk
through. With picks, shovels, sledge hammers, chisels, and a small
amount of blasting power, the gap was widened so a wagon could make
it through. One glance over the edge at the steepness of the grade,
and one will be surprised that any wheeled vehicle could make it
down.
Platte
D. Lyman was the man who surveyed the crevice before work began on
the road. According to Emma Hawkins, Joshua Stevens' daughter,
Joshua “walked over to it with Platte Lyman, to measure the depth
of the crevice and to decide just what would have to be done.”
Even if the gap were widened for passage, it would be extremely steep
and dangerous for a wagon to pass through. The pioneers were
determined, however, and during December the work began.
Throughout
the early stages of the road-building, people were either lowered
down the cliff in a half-barrel, or else they accessed the bottom via
a trail to the river some two miles upriver. Hawkins explains how her father lowered Charlie Walton:
“He picked him up in this half barrel so he could stand and drill
the holes. He put the powder in so they could shoot the cliff off
there. . . . It was actually a barrel cut in two so that they had a
tub to stand in for footing. . . . [My father] took the hide off of
his beef with the feet on it for cinching. He fixed this barrel so
it was safe for the boy to get in. [The hide was] tied around the
barrel so there could be no accident with the boy working there.
Charlie Walton was just a slip of a kid at that time. He was in his
early manhood, anyway. He must have been just the right size to do
the job for him. I have heard my father tell that so many times of
how they drilled that down and made that road up wider.”
Much
of the blasting through the hole was directed by Jens Nielson,
Benjamin Perkins, and Hyrum Perkins. The Perkins brothers had
migrated to Utah from Wales, where they had experience in the
coal mines. Their proficiency in using blasting powder made them a
logical choice to lead the work.
Joshua
Stevens was also valuable from his past experience. He hauled rock
for the building of the St. George Temple. The road (when building
the temple) was so bad and so hard to get wagons through that they
learned to build an overlay road so the wagons could make the turn
without tipping over.
Two
different camps were established, one near the Hole itself, and the
other a few miles back at Fifty-mile camp. Those men at Fifty-mile
camp would walk six or so miles to the river where they would be
ferried across and work all week on a road that the wagons could
use to exit the eastern side of the Colorado River Gorge.
Both
camps suffered from fatigue and lack of food. Water was often
obtained from natural rock tanks that collected rain water. In the
absence of trees, fuel was procured by burning shadscale, a quick
burning brush abundant in the area.
While
many of the women camped further away to avoid the sound of blasting, Elizabeth chose to stay with her husband at the Hole on
account that this was their honeymoon. Emma states that her mother
was a great help in providing meals to the working men. Of the food
and work Emma said:
“[My
father] told me that they put barley and wheat in the beef soup for
something hot so the men could have something to revive them. They
would work a few hours, then they would come and get something to eat
and then they would work again. My father was always up at four
o'clock in the morning at work. I don't think the sun ever caught
him in bed. This job was one that was urgent. He had to get through
on account of the weather and there was no turning back. My father
was a working man. He was the one that could see that the thing had
to be done and knew how to get it done.”
For
nearly two months, the workers labored at the hole, using
hand-drills, chisels, and whatever blasting material they had to
widen the crevice. They toiled from above and below the hole, all
the way to the river, creating a road wide enough for a wagon. Much
of the slot was strewn with large boulders and very uneven terrain
that had to be filled with rocks, gravel, and sand. The labor was
difficult, but these men were hard workers. Cornelius Decker, a
member of the expedition, said later in life, “I don't think I ever
seen a lot of men go to work with more of a will to do something than
that crowd did. We were all young men; the way we did make dirt and
rock fly was a caution.”
During
their time at the hole, the expedition spent Christmas. Before the
children went to bed on Christmas Eve, they sang carols and hung
their stockings on wagon wheels. They were not disappointed when
they woke up and found parched corn, and cookies in their stockings.
I
assume that these hard-working pioneers worked every day except
Christmas and Sundays. Being a devoted religious group, they held
services on the Sabbath, which gave them an opportunity to rest,
pray, sing, and worship together. Sermons were given and the group
left edified and rejuvenated.
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Illustration of pioneers coming down the Hole.
|
On
January 26, 1880, the road through the hole was ready, and teams were
poised to go down the treacherous track. Even though it was built to
accommodate a wagon, the road through the hole was still dangerously
steep.
In
order to prevent the wagons from dashing to the bottom of the hill,
or over a cliff, two of the wheels were rough-locked. This means
that a heavy chain wrapped several times around the wheel and the
felloe of the tire, and then the loose end attached to the box of the
wagon. In addition to this, long ropes or chains connected to some
part of the wagon ran behind, where a dozen or so men pulled in the
opposite direction, playing tug-o-war with the forward momentum of
the wagon. Some men tied large cedar trees to the rear.
In
David Miller's authoritative book on the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition,
he states that there is a little controversy as to who led the first
wagon down the hole. He says that no fewer than six different people
have been claimed to be the one, but concludes that it was probably
Kuman Jones who rode down in Benjamin Perkins' outfit.
But
according to Emma Hawkins, it was her father, Joshua Stevens, who
drove the first team down the hole: “When I came to this country in
1914, Kuman Jones told me, 'Your father was the daredevil that took
down the first wagon.' He wanted to be sure that this road was safe.
There have been others claim the same thing, but this came to me
from Kuman Jones and from my father too.” (It is interesting that
Joshua Stevens is not included as one of Miller's six men.)
 |
We descend the Hole.
|
Standing
at the top of the hole, we are now planning to make our own descent.
The crevice wedged out by the Mormon pioneers is an obvious break to
an otherwise solid lip of sandstone at the brink of Glen Canyon. The
chute runs steeply downward, perhaps wide enough for two men to stand
side by side with arms spread. Below us about a mile are the
beautiful blue waters of Lake Powell.
With
no further fanfare, two leaders and three scouts begin the trek down
the hole. The old road is non-existent, and it takes quite a bit of
imagination to envision what it must have looked like. The pathway
is now strewn with boulders and sparse growths of brush. We pick our
way down the hill, climbing down rocks and balancing over boulders.
There have been a few rock slides over the last 136 years, but most
of the debris in the chute was here when the pioneers came through.
They filled the gaps with sand and gravel, which has since eroded to
its original level.
 |
Name engraved is nearly twenty feet above the current floor.
|
 |
"G.W." could be either George Westwood, or George Westover, both members of the expedition.
|
With
a careful eye and a little imagination, you can guess where the level
of the road once was. As we climb down, we notice some names etched
on the wall, much higher than could be done now days without a
ladder, thus showing the elevated level of the road. There are also
scratch marks where the hubs of the wagons scraped along the wall.
But
for the most part, it is difficult to find evidence of the original
1880 journey. There are names carved into the wall the entire way
down, but they are of later origin, most probably making pilgrimages
like ourselves. Even though I warn my scouts not to carve their
names, I don't consider all of the writing as graffiti. Many of
these people are descendants and the wall stands as a continuing saga
of the same story.
 |
| Possible scratch marks from the hubs of the wagons. |
 |
| Chisel marks in the rock. |
 |
A sample of "modern graffiti" etched inside the Hole.
|
 |
These stairs were carved about twenty years later to accommodate people of Escalante.
|
Etched
lines in the sandstone that look like claw marks or finger nail
scrapes show evidence of chisel marks. These marks are fairly
abundant—if you look—and are a testament of the immense amount of
labor and sweat that was put into the making of the road.
About
1,000 feet down, the slot opens up, giving more room, but continuing
on a very steep grade. Here, the pioneers chose to continue the road
along the left wall. Along this section there are several steps
chiseled into the stone. These were carved out some twenty years
later by citizens of Escalante who ran a Trading Post at the bottom
of the hole, near the river. They used the stairs to transport goods
up and down to the store.
 |
Looking up the Hole from the point where it fans out.
|
 |
Uncle Ben's Dugway.
|
 |
Drill holes at Uncle Ben's Dugway, compared with a hand.
|
Just
below the staircase are a row of holes bored into the stone. I had
been keeping an eye out for these, as they are a famous engineering
feat. Uncle Ben's Dugway, as it later became known, is named after
the brains behind the project, Benjamin Perkins.
Along
a section of about twenty-five feet, the workers were instructed to
chisel out a shelf just wide enough to accommodate the inside wheel
of a wagon. From this shelf, the rock slopes downward, and five feet
below is where these holes are drilled into the rock. They are about
two and a half inches wide and ten inches deep, and drilled squarely
into the rock so that directionally they are at a slant. After
scouring near the river and even back towards the Kaiparowits
Plateau, workers found enough solid oak branches to make stakes two
feet long, which were inserted into the holes. From here, they found
branches, rocks, and gravel, enough to built the road up five feet to
become level with the shelf that had been chiseled out. The result
was a road wide and sturdy enough, over which a wagon and team of
horses could travel.
It
is interesting that I had never heard of an alternate story for Uncle
Ben's Dugway until I began looking into my own family history. Emma
Hawkins gives the credit to her father, whose story she heard from
his own lips:
“They
could see that they didn't have room enough to get a wagon and they
would have to take the cliff off and make an overlay on the other
side so they could make it. He is the one that instigated that
building and the driving of those pegs. He told us in the cave about
how they drove those pegs in rocks to hold the brush they put on top.
He told us about it before we had ever heard anything about San Juan
of the Hole-in-the-Rock and before all this writing was done about
it. . . Brother Lyman has got it in his book as the Ben Perkins
Road. I think he called it that because he married two of the
Perkins girls. How can forty men work on a road and have it be one
man's road? It wasn't Ben Perkins' idea. It was my father's. . . I
don't care if Ben Perkins gets credit for it or not. I know that I
have got my dad's story and his impressions. I know my dad well
enough to know that if there was any kind of work that had to be
done, he could figure out a way to do it.”
[In
fairness to the Perkins family, it should be noted that Joshua
Stevens told these stories to his family while hiding in a cave in
Mexico, just before his murder in 1912. Emma was only seventeen
years old, and it is possible that some of the story may be
misremembered, embellished, misunderstood etc. But on the other
hand, you never know. She may be spot on!]
 |
Looking toward Lake Powell from just above the point where the slot opens up.
|
 |
Looking toward the Hole from above the lake.
|
From
the point of Uncle Ben's Dugway, any remnants of the original road
disappear (from what I can discern), and it is now just a scramble down a
rocky hillside, past an informative sign, to the shoreline of Lake
Powell. Before the damming of the lake, the pioneers rode their
wagons down for another mile to the Colorado River, where they were
ferried across.
 |
Our new-found friends arrived at the Hole via Bullfrog Marina on Lake Powell.
|
The
lake is lower this year, as it has been for quite a while due to drought. But, there is still plenty of water, and this oasis in the
desert is the part looked forward to the most by our scouts. They
quickly change into bathing suits, using large boulders as shields,
and dive into the water.
I'll
go swimming, but not now. It is interesting that there are a couple
of boats docked along the shore, probably having made the long ride
from either Halls Crossing, or Bullfrog Marina. It turns out that
access to Hole-in-the-Rock is more popular from the lake, than
overland.
We
meet the family that is on the boat nearest to us. It is a husband
and wife with their kids, a sister to the wife, and also her parents,
who are probably in their eighties. (They brought both boats.) At
first I think they are just your average tourist boaters, but then
the old lady speaks up: “Are you fellows descended from anyone who
came down the hole?”
I
am the only one able to answer affirmatively. Quickly I learn that
her great-grandfather was Henry Holyoak, who was a member of the
Hole-in-the-Rock expedition. As the pioneers had brought animals
such as cattle and chickens, the Holyoaks brought a hive of honey
bees. The lady—Janelle Hicks I believe is her name—tells us the
story that at some point during the trek, their wagon overturned and all the bees escaped. Not only did they have to reassemble the
wagon, but they also had to wait until nightfall to sack the bees.
“It has stayed in our family,” she continues to say, “and every
generation since then has kept bees.”
We
continue to talk with the adults in their family, including her
husband who is a UFO specialist living near Roosevelt, Utah. It
makes for an interesting conversation. Eventually I take a dip in
the water, bobbing up and down from the slow, but steady sway, and
watching the reflection of the rock cliffs atop the surface. Always
on my mind, however, is the immensity of the feat which my ancestors
and several others performed many, many years ago. They did it not only
because they were hard-working and determined to make the trek work,
but because they were devoted to their God and religion.
After
crossing the Colorado River, the pioneers had another three months of
arduous travel before them, arriving in Bluff on April 5, 1880. Some
of the settlers eventually returned to their former homes in western
Utah, while others migrated to other areas. A good segment of them,
however, stayed in the area, and laid the foundation of what is now
San Juan County, Utah.
Joshua
Stevens and his wife, Elizabeth, were among those that migrated
elsewhere, this because there wasn't enough room for everyone in the
small valley near Bluff. After Joshua's murder in Pacheco, Mexico,
his family returned to San Juan County. But that's another story. ♠
Sources
Hawkins, Emma Stevens Palmer. Interview by Gary Shumway, July 20, 1973.
Hawkins, Emma Stevens Palmer. Interview by Gary Shumway. September 2, 1973.
Miller, David E.
Hole-in-the-Rock: An Epic in the Colonization of the Great American West. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1959.
