December 1996 Blazer

Utah's most treacherous stretch of road

THE HISTORY BLAZER A'Elt'S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State ~ istoricaSl ociety 300 Rio Grailde * Salt Lake City, I'T 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 Utah's Most Treacherous Stretch of " Road" h DECEMBE18R7 9 COLONISTS HEADED TOWARD THE Sari Juan River country to settle discovered their way blocked by the canyon of the Colorado River. Before them, a notch in the rock too narrow for a wagon led to a passage that perhaps could be made into a road to the river 1,800 feet below. As impossible as it seemed, they really had no choice: mountain passes closed by snow and their stubbornness would not allow them to turn back. It seemed that the road, if they could widen the notch, would have to go down the chute at an incredible angle, the first fifty feet the worst at about 50 percent downgrade. It would be a wild ride. In wretched winter weather they put in six weeks of back- breaking effort and lived with their families in their wagons. With nothing but their grit and some picks, shovels, chisels, rock drills, sledge hammers, and a bit of blasting powder, they hacked a road out of rock that would become known as the Hole- in- the- Rock. Initially, the notch at the rim had to be widened enough to allow a team and wagon to go through. Benjamin and Hyrum Perkins, experienced rock workers, led the crew of " blasters and blowers." Tons of rock had to be broken and moved. Men in half- barrels, dangling by ropes over the rim, drilled holes in the rock face and inserted black- powder charges to explode away the obstruction. With powder in short supply, much of the rock had to be chipped away with the available tools. Rock debris was used to fill low areas in the canyon going down to the river; in some places the fill was many feet deep. One section of the road, toward the bottom, looked hopeless to construct. The cliff face dropped off abruptly. It seemed impossible to get past it until Ben Perkins master- minded a way to tack a road- known as " Uncle Ben's Dugway"-- onto the sheer cliff. Again, by suspending men by ropes, the crew chiseled out a ledge wide enough for the inside wagon wheels. About five feet below the ledge they drilled deep holes at intervals in the rock face and inserted sturdy scrub oak posts into them. They covered the posts with thick layers of brush and gravel, making the road bed level with the ledge they had cut in the rock. Just wide enough for a wagon, the road actually hung out from the side of the cliff and angled down toward the river. By January 26, 1880, the road that sweat, muscle and will- power had built was ready for use. By the end of the f ~ swte ek of February all the wagons of the company and their large cattle herd had descended the ' chute' safely and crossed the Colorado River. Each wagon down took a bit of the road with it! Only Platte D. Lyman kept a contemporary journal. On January 26 he recorded: " Today we worked all the wagons in this camp down the ' Hole' and ferried 26 of them across the river.. . . " His terse statement conveys no idea of what a thrilling and dangerous adventure it was. But the ( more) memory remained vivid in the minds of the participants who later described their personal experiences making the plunge through the Hole- in- the- Rock. Whose wagon went down first is controversial, but likely it was Hy Perkins's wagon with Kumen Jones's team with Jones as driver. Ben Perkins had been offered the honor but declined in favor of his brother. Evidently, Hy's team did not want the honor either. So Jones hitched his well- broken team to Hy's wagon. The rear wheels were rough- locked with chains to guard against brake failure and a run- away. Ten to 20 men held the wagon back with long ropes to keep it from plummeting out of control. With those precautions, the first team made it safely to the bottom. The same routine was followed for the rest of the wagons. George W. Decker remembered that one team of horses was blind, perhaps decreasing their fear of the steep road. They carefully felt their way down. He also recalled the excitement of the chattering, laughing, cheering crowd of observers watching the wagons descend. William Naylor Eyre remembered that it was so steep that horses as well as men were used to hold back the wagons. Occasionally the animals would lose balance and be dragged. When the teams were reluctant to approach the ' chute,' the wagons were pushed against them to get them moving. Then the outfit would shoot almost straight down that thrilling first 40 feet. Soft gravelly landings created by the fill areas slowed down the wild ride in places, but women and children prudently walked, sliding over the steepest spots. Joseph Stanford Smith and his wife Arabella were the last of the first group to go down. With no one at the top to help they left two young children and a baby at the top. Smith drove the team over the edge while his wife and another horse tried to hold the wagon back; both of them fell and were dragged over sharp rocks, and Arabella leg was badly slashed. After checking on his wife, Smith rushed back to the top for the children. Joseph Barton, who had hurried ahead of the second group, also took the plunge alone just about sundown. He rough- locked his wheels, and after considerable urging got his team to face the terrifying drop. It took only a half- minute to arrive at the first soft area 300 feet down. His chain had snapped, but luckily it had flipped around in such a way that the wheels remained locked. Out of necessity the road became two- way. The challenge of going up was every bit as difficult as going down and required more effort. According to John Holyoak, two men were sent back for supplies. Their wagon had to be disassembled 2and taken up in parts so the team could make the upward grade through the Hole. In the spring when Platte D. Lyman returned up the Hole, he and his companions had to unload everything they could and pack it to the top. It took the five- horse team half a day of hard work to pull the wagon to the top, less than a mile away. The road was abandoned in 1881 when it was replaced by the Hall's Crossing route. Although the life of Utah's most treacherous three- quarter mile road was short, it was exciting and demonstrated the triumph of pioneer inventiveness, determination, and courage. Sources: David E. Miller, Hole- in- the- Rock An Epic in the Colonization of the Great American West ( Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1959); Wallace Siegner, Mormon Country ( New Yo*: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942); Gustive 0. Larson and Charles S. Peterson, " Opening the Colorado Plateau" in Richard D. Poll, et al., Utah's History ( Logan: Utah State University Press, 1989). ' I'm HISTOBRLYA ZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( LC)