Personal Reminiscences of San Juan County Clarence Rogers
Shortly after the settlement of Bluff in 1880 some of the San Juan pioneers began looking for another place to live. One day Walter C. Lyman got on his horse and headed north. After about fifteen miles, he came to a high mesa called White Mesa. Looking north a vision passed before his eyes and he saw a beautiful town. The place was beautiful and the crops were green. People asked him later how big the town was and I recall him saying, "I wouldn't dare say how big it was. You would think I was absolutely crazy." In the vision he also saw a temple there on a hill. My father, David John Rogers, was living in Bluff at that time. He and Walter became good friends. My father was just as interested in White Mesa as Walter was. Eventually, the two of them went to survey a ditch from Johnson Creek on to the mesa. The only instrument they had was a carpenter's level, which is now in my possession. They used a long board about 18 feet long with a leg about 2V2 feet long on each end. Walter carried the back end with the carpenter's level and my father carried the front end, placing it where Walter told him to. They were going through trees, brush, and arroyos when my father came to a pile of rock. He could see it was manmade and quite new. He asked Walter what it was. Walter replied, "I was up here looking for a route where I thought we could build a ditch. I piled that rock up where I thought a ditch might go." They surveyed right through that rock pile and that is where the ditch was built. They started work on the ditch with the help of the Jody 153
