| OCR Text |
Show Here another tra i I in, the .comes one wh i ch from Santa Monica and Rio de San Xavier directly crosses over La Sierra del Venando Alazan'which we finished descending today, and is halfway shorter than the one we have been along the a league. narrow following. valley for little We went west-northwest after another half a rather long and steep a We turned a rivulet of northwest more than half more, and league, going up and down a but rockless incline, crossed extremely once cold water and halted by its good pas valley tures that are here, Santa Rosalia. Tonight, and the one before, we were feel ing the cold very much. Today six leagues. 201 [in atlJ. edge--naming RESEARCH AND The it and the INTERPRETATION little Floyd A. of O'Nei I and Gregory C. Thompson previous day's ·ition that after a camp at San Si Ivestre is located in such a posshort distance the party turned westward (Escalante says northwestward) and continued for two then crossed over what is now referred to leagues as the in the deep arroyo, Peninsula, and encoun a second creek now called Buzzard Creek. Here Buzzard Creek flows almost southwest and joins Plateau Creek. The party crossed The the creek and traveled along the south side of Plateau Creek. which Escalante the described is area that extends on plain clearly the south side of Plateau Creek. The party crossed the river to the north about two mi les below Collbran. The group then foll.owed along the north side of Plateau Creek to a point near Fuller Bridge, headed northwest across Anderson Creek, over Hayes Mesa, and through Lugans Basin to Jerry Gulch where they camped at a site they named Santa Rosa I (a. Today's march was six leagues by Escalante's measurement or fifteen miles for an average of two and one-half miles per league. tered RESEARCH METHODS The route differs radically from both Bolton and Russon. The the in the of the trail Meadows through previous day's description march disagrees by several miles with the earlier writers' routes and places San Silvestre farther downstream towards Collbran by many mi les than does the Bolton interpretation. Further, the site is on Plateau Creek rather than on Buzzard Creek. Starting from this westward location, the route fits far more accurately Escalante's description including his discussion of the deep arroyo than our on-site searchers of the Bolton route could find. Further, crossing the pen insula and coming to the point where Buzzard and Plateau creeks join fits the journal description very wei I. Traveling through the sagebrush plain fits perfectly the Escalante description of the trail after passing the confluence of Buzzard and Plateau creeks. The probable the -80- |
