The Discovery of the Green River

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. XX October, 1952 No. 4

THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER

BY C. GREGORY CRAMPTON

WITHIN fifty years after the discovery of America, the Colorado River had been seen by Spanish explorers at the Grand Canyon and at places below, but the vast wilderness basin of its principal fork, the Green River, extending from the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming to Stillwater Canyon in Utah, remained altogether unknown to white men as late as 1776, when it was explored for the first time by the Dominguez-Escalante expedition. Although Spain had been in occupation of New Mexico since 1598, save for the years of the Pueblo Revolt, explorations toward the northwest from there do not appear to have been carried beyond the basin of the Colorado River proper as it is now designated, and it is doubtful if the river itself had been crossed above the Needles before 1776. Although unexplored, the country beyond the river had not remained a blank. From the Indians the Spaniards learned much about it, and with fertile imaginations they filled in the horizon to the northwest with mythical places like Gran Teguayo, with its golden cities located around a lake. This, a counterpart to Gran Quivira in the northeast, was a compound of Aztec myth, Coronado's Seven Cities, and information supplied by the Indians. These fabulous regions retreated as explorers ranged out from Santa Fe. Exploration on the northwestern frontier moved slowly until about 1750, when friendly relations were established with the Yuta Indians. During the next twenty-five years Spanish traders, trappers, and prospectors explored the major tributary streams and drainages on the left side of the upper Colorado from the San Juan to the Gunnison. To penetrate the unexplored wilderness of the right bank of the Colorado, the expedition, inspired and directed by the Franciscan friars Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Francisco Silvestre Velez de Escalante, was organized. The friars hoped to locate a road through to the Spanish settlements in California and at the same time they expected to find sites for future settlements, posts, and missions among the Indian tribes. The expedition, in the field during the last five months of 1776, belongs among the great explorations in the history of the West. It was a high adventure for the ten Spaniards who went along. It was the first comprehensive traverse of the plateau province of the Colorado River and of a considerable portion of the Great Basin, and the reports and maps are the basic historical documents for most of the area explored. The diary kept by Escalante and the maps made by Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, who went along as topographer, belong among the best of historical literature of the West.

The Dominguez-Escalante expedition got off to a late start, leaving Santa Fe on July 29, 1776. The party followed an established trail around the San Juan group of mountains, the separate ridges of which, like the Sierra de la Plata, and the streams draining them, like the San Juan, Navajo, Mancos, and Dolores, already carried names assigned them by earlier exlorers. They saw from a distance the already familiar La Sal and Abajo mountains in Utah. From the Dolores River, the Spaniards crossed the Uncompahgre Plateau, struck the Gunnison near its forks, and crossed Grand Mesa and Battlement Mesa to reach the Colorado River between the towns of De Beque and Grand Valley, Colorado. They were still in generally familiar territory, for here the river was recognized as being the one "which our people call San Rafael" and which the Yutas indicated was the same as the Colorado. Other Spaniards before them had probably reached the banks of the Colorado between this point and the vicinity of the town of Moab, Utah, and possibly elsewhere in the canyon country below, but no evidence has been discovered to show that they had crossed over to the Green River basin before 1776. Later Spanish and Mexican parties approached this stretch of the Colorado along two main routes, one originating in Taos and the other in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The former led through Cochetopa Pass and in general followed the. Gunnison River down to Grand Junction; the road from Santa Fe paralleled the Dominguez-Escalante trail around the San Juan mountains and branched off to pass south and west of the La Sal Mountains to arrive at the river at Moab. From either of these two points, the traverse across to the Green River, where a good ford was found at the present town of Green River, Utah, was an easy matter. This became the main Spanish-Mexican trail into the country beyond the Green River, and although it possibly may have been known before 1776, there is nothing in Escalante's diary to indicate that the explorers were aware of the route or of the existence of the Green River.

The Dominguez-Escalante expedition crossed the Colorado River at about the railroad point of Una and ascended Roan Creek through the Book and Roan cliffs, escarpments of the East Tavaputs Plateau. At the divide they passed over to the watershed of the Green River and descended the long northern slope of the plateau by Douglas Creek, a tributary of the White River. They were in new territory now and began giving names of their own choice to prominent geographical features. Douglas Creek, for example, was named Canon Pintado from the circumstance that Indian paintings on the rocks were seen at two different places. The fact that the two sets of paintings were noticed by Escalante in reverse order, an easy mistake to make, attests to the human qualities of his diary.

At the mouth of Douglas Creek the expedition crossed the White River, which the explorers named the San Clemente, and then struck northwest, ascending the drainage of Stinking Creek (through the Rangely oil fields), following buffalo trails. In the vicinity of Artesia they crossed over to the drainage of Cliff Creek where they camped on September 11, in the vicinity of the K Ranch right on the Utah-Colorado line. Here they enjoyed a good drink of water and fresh meat from a bull buffalo killed by some of the men during the afternoon. They also spent the day of September 12 here, refreshing themselves and resting the stock. The name Arroyo del Cibolo (Buffalo Creek) was given to the stream where they had been so generously provided. Next day the explorers traveled west, doubtlessly following well-defined animal and Indian trails, down the gradual slope of Buffalo Creek keeping on the north bank. On their right was the abrupt Blue Mountain of the Yampa Plateau, called Sabuagari by the Yutas. As they moved downstream they came opposite the great plunging white cliffs which they had seen from the headwaters of Douglas Creek on the rim of the basin. Passing these they traveled much closer to the mountain where it slopes off sharply to the south and west. At about ten miles from the last camp they entered a narrow valley where the creek had cut through a yellowish hogback, and presently they crossed the courses of a number of springs flowing from strata in the foot of the mountain some distance above the trail. Escalante reported that the first spring was a quarter of a league along a well-beaten trail from two other larger ones, "a musket shot apart," to which they gave the name "Fountains de Santa Clara." These springs may be easily located and in May, 1952, they were all delivering a flow of delicious water, as they were when the Spanish discoverers located them. The Spaniards continued on along the right bank through several meadows watered by the springs they had just left and by other springs and seepages in the vicinity. They now approached a narrow passage where the creek breaks through upturned strata of rock. At the opening of the narrows the stream runs across bedrock, the place where Escalante noted the large pools of water. They crossed the creek just above these and proceeded through the deeply-trenched declivity high on the narrow south bank, the other side being precipitous and impassable. Emerging from the passage they entered open, rolling country. Rather than continue on down Cliff Creek, they crossed it about 1 1/2 miles below the entrance to the narrows, and bearing northwest ascended the low hills on the north side. As they did so, they came into view of Split Mountain in the Dinosaur National Monument off to the right, and ahead of them they caught occasional views of the Green River. Presently they reached the edge of the rounded bluffs overlooking the valley of the river now visible to them for a distance of five or six miles. Directly ahead was a broad plain which sloped down to a meadow along the bank dotted with cottonwood trees. After traveling six leagues during the day they camped among the trees in the meadow and named it La Vega de Santa Cruz, since then, and probably before, a favorite camping place.

The explorers of Spain had finally reached the Green River. That they were so long in doing so is in part owing to the great canyons of the Colorado which were greater barriers to exploration than ranges of mountains. Spanish and Mexican explorers eventually discovered all of the great tributaries of the Colorado River (excepting the Escalante River discovered by the second Powell expedition and named after the Spanish diarist who never saw it). In the canyon country of the Colorado River, exploration usually proceeded on a horizontal plane. In most cases, the streams were first seen above their mouths, above the canyons, or at places between canyons. The course of streams discovered could at first only be surmised, owing to the frequent difficulty of lateral exploration. The routes of travel that developed and subsequent explorations usually followed the same horizontal plane. The general result was that the number of names for the same stream multiplied, and the exact geographical nature of the Colorado River system through the canyon lands was fragmentary and incomplete until John Wesley Powell carried through his vertical explorations beginning in 1869. Most of the conjectural geography of the discoverers was generally sound, but when the Spaniards found the Green River they made a wrong guess and one of such proportions that it took fifty years to dispel the myth which they created.

Arrived at the river, the explorers spent the days of September 14 and 15 in camp. Another buffalo was killed, men and animals rested, observations for latitude were taken, and Joaquin Lain, citizen of Santa Fe, carved his name and the date "1776" on one of the cottonwoods near the river. The historic camp was in full view of Split Mountain, about five air-line miles distant to the northeast, which Escalante was the first to describe. The Spaniards could see from their camp the great curving sweep of the mountain which appeared to join the deeply-serrated extension of the Yampa Plateau and form by their cliffs a huge corral. The Indian guide pointed out to them the place where the river breaks through the "corral" to enter the valley in which they were camped. Miera recorded this sight on one of his maps. Their camp was located approximately three and one-half miles above the bridge at Jensen on the eastern, or as Escalante called it, the southern, side of the river. They probably spent much time discussing the river. When it came to a name they chose to remember San Buenaventura, the thirteenth century theologian, teacher, biographer of St. Francis, one-time Minister-General of the Order of Friars Minor, Cardinal, and Saint.

The Spaniards did not know that they had discovered the main tributary of the Colorado. Rather, they imagined that they were in another watershed. Had there been any prior discovery of the Green River, which would have been made below the Tavaputs Plateau where the relationship between the Colorado and the Green could be easily surmised, they probably would have recognized the river. Located deep in the center of the Uinta Basin, which could easily be mistaken for a drainage pattern unrelated to the Colorado, they could only guess about the course of the river above and below the discovery point. Escalante noted that they learned from the Indians that the San Clemente (White River) emptied into the San Buenaventura, but he admitted that he did not know if the other streams that they had crossed previously were a part of the same river system. Apparently the Indian guides did not tell them, or it is possible that they did not know themselves that the San Buenaventura was also a tributary of the Colorado. Unknown before, and being the largest stream that they had seen since leaving Santa Fe, the San Buenaventura did not fit well into the drainage pattern of the Colorado as the Spaniards understood it, and therefore they guessed that it was the main stream of an unrelated river system.

Escalante cited some evidence in support of this conclusion. He said that they thought it was the river which Fray Alonso de Posadas had mentioned in a report written in the seventeenth century. In anticipation of the trip, the friars doubtlessly familiarized themselves with the available documents bearing on the area they expected to visit. One such source was the Informe, written in 1686 in response to a royal request by Father Posadas, who had been a missionary and custodian in New Mexico before that time. The king had wished to be informed about the New Mexico periphery. Diego de Pefialosa, a former governor of New Mexico in exile, had proposed to the King of France in 1678 that he lead a military expedition to conquer Quivira and Teguayo. In his proposition, Pefialosa appears to have been the first to make documentary use of the word Teguayo, which land, thought of by him as lying east of the Rocky Mountains, he claimed to have visited in 1662, when he was governor of New Mexico. This claim was false, but the proposal, and others made by Pefialosa, scared the Spanish authorities and prompted the request for information.

The report of Fray Alonso de Posadas is probably a fair summary of the geography of the heart of the North American west as it was known in the middle of the seventeenth century, and as such it is a valuable historical document. However, the work becomes conjectural and imaginary when Posadas attempts to describe the unknown and it is not always apparent when he is doing this. The report reflects that the general nature of the Rocky Mountain chain for some distance above Santa Fe was understood. These mountains were then known to form the continental divide, identified as the boundary between Quivira to the east and Teguayo, which he located to the west. It is stated that some of the rivers flowed westward from these mountains to the Pacific, but he named only the San Juan and the Grande (Colorado), and it is not evident precisely what part of the report Escalante had in mind when he cited Posadas in his diary. Posadas, of course, had never been in the territory Escalante and party had recently discovered. He reports only the most general information about the region northwest of Santa Fe, including some interesting observations on Teguayo. What he reports was a matter of general knowledge at the time he wrote, or was obtained from Indian informants, maps, or earlier writers.

With this meager information and their own surmise, the Spaniards created the fantasy of the San Buenaventura River. Pictured by Miera on his maps, this held the river to be the main artery of a drainage pattern altogether separate from that of the Colorado River. This creation was probably developed as the explorers continued their journey. On September 16, they forded the river a mile north of their camp, and proceeded thence westward through the Uinta Basin. Within a few days they had crossed oyer the divide, and by Spanish Fork Canyon made the first descent into the Great Basin above the latitude of the Mojave Desert. There is no indication that the explorers imagined themselves to be in an interior basin. Rather, upon discovering Utah Lake and learning from the Indians that it connected with the Salt Lake to the north, which they did not see, they conceived of this as still another drainage system with an outlet to the sea. This conjecture is illustrated by Miera on his maps and he guesses the outlet of the Salt Lake to be identical with the Rio Tizon discovered by Juan de Ofiate in 1604, which was in fact the Colorado. Although Ofiate had not discovered the stream, he had visited it in that year in the vicnity of Bill Willams' Fork, where the natives had told him of the great lake of Copalla on to the northwest, around which Indians lived in possession of an abundance of gold. Inasmuch as Copalla, or Copala, had in Posadas' Report become synonymous with Teguayo, it is probable that Miera and his colleagues thought of themselves as being in that fabled land in Utah Valley, although they do not say so at the time. It is quite clear that Miera thought of the Colorado and the Tizon as two separate streams.

Leaving Utah Valley, the Spaniards turned south to reach the latitude of Monterey in California before continuing their journey to the coast. Reaching the Sevier River on September 29th, they filled out the fantasy begun earlier when they decided that it was the lower course of the San Buenaventura. The myth is nicely illustrated on the Miera maps. The San Buenaventura, or the Green River, is accurately shown in relation to the streams of the Uinta Basin, but instead of connecting it with the Colorado, Miera lifts it out over the Wasatch Mountains and empties it into the Sevier River, a Great Basin stream. He accurately shows the Sevier flowing into its sink, Sevier Lake, which he called lake Miera, the western limits of which are not shown. The Spaniards continued on south from the Sevier, and near Cedar City decided not to continue to California, owing to the lateness of the season. They returned to Santa Fe by the Arizona Strip, the Crossing of the Fathers, and the Moqui and Zuni Villages, arriving on January 2, 1777. They had completed one of the great explorations in the history of the West. In the great arc from the Colorado at Una back to the Colorado again at Lee's Ferry and the Crossing of the Fathers, they were in territory new to white men. The remarkable diary of Escalante, the maps made by Miera, and related materials are fundamental historical documents for much of this vast area, a fact since recognized by students of the region. This is a a large and impressive group which includes Manuel Agustin Mascaro, Alexander von Humboldt, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, and Jose Antonio Pichardo, who wrote before the end of the Spanish period, and appreciated the achievements of these first explorers. They and others clearly acknowledge their indebtedness when they perpetuate the geographical fantasy of the San Buenaventura created by Dominguez, Escalante, and company at the time of the discovery of the Green River in the historic year 1776.

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