A History of Garfield County

Shaping the land

CHAPTER 1 SHAPING THE LAND G arfield County as presently constituted is the fifth-largest Utah county in terms of land area, with 5,158 square miles, and claims both the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau as part of its geological legacy. From the high country of Garfield's western lands tiny streams and springs give birth to the Sevier River, which gathers the interior waters of Utah's high plateaus into the Great Basin. The river's name is based on the Spanish name, Rio Severo, meaning severe and violent river-a suitable description for the sections of the river that tumble through rugged canyons on both ends of Garfield County.1 The longest river completely contained within the boundaries of a single state, the Sevier's main fork begins as a spring above Long Valley Junction in Kane County. It winds its way north through Garfield, Piute, and Sevier counties before curving south around the upper reaches of the Pahvant Range in Millard County to end in Sevier Lake. The lake is shallow, but it expands during occasional wet cycles; in drier years the river disappears into an alkaline flat. The HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Sevier River drainage system marks a transition between the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces. The Colorado Plateau begins near where the Wasatch Mountains end-at Mount Nebo in Juab County. From there it extends south into Arizona and east into Colorado. Plateau is a French word mean­ing a tray or flat place-a somewhat odd name for a region that has high country with altitudes of over 11,000 feet and canyons that plunge to 2,900 feet in elevation. The Colorado Plateau, however, was not so named because it is flat, but because of the general flatness of its underlying rock strata.2 The streams and creeks that drain this region's high country feed into the Colorado River. There are plateaus on the Colorado Plateau with names like Sevier, Aquarius, Paunsaugunt, and Kaiparowits that extend into Garfield County, and mountains including Escalante, Boulder, and the Henrys. Garfield County reaches to the heart of the Colorado Plateau, stretching from its western edge on the lip of the Great Basin to the Colorado River some 137 miles to the east. This strip of land, approx­imately forty-three miles from north to south, is known for its steep mesas, forested plateaus, imposing cliffs, barren slick rock, whimsi­cal rock formations, and stream-cut gorges and canyons. It is diverse in its topography, magnificent in its scenery, and colorful both in its geology and its history. The landscape itself tells the beginnings of that history, which goes back millions of years. Buried beneath Garfield County's Boulder and Escalante mountains are layers of rock laid down up to 550 million years ago by repeated encroachments of a great western sea, sedimentary erosion deposits carried and shaped by wind and water, and volcanic lava flows and intrusions. The Colorado River, which defines the county's eastern boundary, cuts through and reveals some 330 million years of rock deposits that form those lay­ers. A little over four miles above the northeast corner of Garfield County, the Green River joins the Colorado. These two grand rivers-indeed, the upper Colorado above the confluence was at first named the Grand River-begin high on the alpine ridges of the Continental Divide. The waters of the Green River flow from the Green Lakes in the Wind River Range of western Wyoming. The lofty SHAPING THE LAND peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park give birth to the upper Colorado River. Literally hundreds of springs, brooks, streams, creeks, and washes feed the rivers along their often meandering, sometimes raging, courses, cutting downward through millions of years of rock deposits. Major John Wesley Powell called the deep gorges of the Colorado River "a book of revelations in the rock-leaved Bible of geology," and he was "determined to read the book."3 The Paleozoic Era (570 to 245 Million Years Ago) About 300 to 280 million years ago, toward the end of the Paleozoic (old life) era of geological reckoning, central and eastern Utah began to evolve from a relatively flat, water-covered, stable area to one of incredible activity. In just a few million years a huge moun­tain range, called the Ancestral Rocky Mountains, pushed up from the earth, extending from New Mexico to Wyoming. A branch of that range curved westward into east-central Utah to form the Uncompahgre Uplift, which rose to elevations of some 12,000 to 15,000 feet. As the range ascended, it displaced a vast sea that had washed back and forth across Utah for some 200 million years. As the sea receded, a huge basin, called the Paradox Basin, formed over cen­tral and southeastern Utah, roughly between the Uncompahgre Uplift and what is now the Waterpocket Fold region in Garfield County. An estuary of the Gulf of California extended northward to the Needles area in present-day Canyonlands National Park, on the San Juan County side of Cataract Canyon. Sediment from the rapid erosion of the Uncompahgre Uplift washed into the Paradox Basin, repeatedly depositing layers of limestone, sandstone, and shale, depending upon the nature of the environment over the millenia- limestone being generally deposited when the area was covered by water; sandstone being deposited from eroded sediments of the high­lands surrounding the basin when it was dry land; shale, a hardened mud, during transition periods.4 According to Utah geologist William Lee Stokes: The Paradox Basin was nearly hemmed in by highlands to the north, northeast, and east and by shallow barriers or sills along the other sides. . . . The rim of the southwestern margin of the basin, which is now known as the Four Corners area, was almost at sea HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY level, so any slight rise of the ocean allowed seawater to spill into the basin and any lowering cut off the supply of water. The spill­way was a favorable place for the growth of marine organisms which tended to build up large banks or shoals of limy material. The large amount of organic material also restricted circulation of water in and out of the basin and later, when buried, became a favorable reservoir for oil and gas.5 The diverse and abundant sea and plant life of the layer after layer of rock laid down through this Pennsylvanian period of geo­logical development is evident in Garfield County. The alternating beds of sandstone and limestone, compressed by further deposits of the geologic eras which followed, are visible today where the Colorado River has carved Cataract Canyon to reveal a slice of Garfield County's geological history. Displayed within its depths, near where Gypsum Canyon enters from San Juan County, is the oldest exposed rock in the county or, for that matter, in the three-county area that includes all of Canyonlands National Park. These rocks from the Pennsylvanian period were formed some 350 million years ago. This same formation represents the youngest rocks on the rim of the Grand Canyon as the Colorado River cuts farther south and west.6 During this time, Garfield County, together with the entire southwestern portion of present-day Utah, lay near the equator. The sun beat fiercely on the land and sucked dry the water from the west­ern bench regions of the Pacific Ocean that had washed over the area. The moisture that fell on the Uncompahgre Uplift acted in concert with the wind to erode the highlands and deposit their load in the Paradox Basin, burying the remains of the earlier abundant plant and animal life. Many fossils, including those of both vertebrates and invertebrates, are found in the upper strata of the Paleozoic era deposits. Among the rock formations of the Permian period (285-245 million years ago)-the last 40 million years of the Paleozoic era- Kaibab Limestone was formed. This formation, which contains oil and natural gas, extends into the Upper Valley Oil Field of Garfield County and the Virgin and Washington oil fields in Washington County. The Upper Valley Field is located a few miles southwest of SHAPING THE LAND the town of Escalante between Escalante Mountain and the Escalante Rim. It is estimated to hold approximately 25 million barrels of oil. In the White Rim Sandstone of Wayne and Garfield counties (located within a triangle formed by the Green, Colorado, and Dirty Devil rivers) is an extensive deposit of tar sands-oil impregnated sand­stone. An estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil, in strata from five feet to more than 300 feet thick, are trapped in this porous rock.7 The modern-day importance of these deposits will be discussed in a later chapter. Mesozoic Era (245 to 66 Million Years Ago) During the early part of the Mesozoic (middle life) era the ancient Pacific Ocean continued its periodic spread inland over broad mud flats to lap at the edge of the Ancestral Rockies. Then the sea, which had moved back and forth across most of Utah for the previ­ous 300 million years, slowly withdrew to the western boundary of present-day Garfield County. This was the beginning of a gradual 220-million-year shift of the Pacific coastline to its current location. A barrier of some sort-perhaps mountains, low hills or even a grad­ual bulging of the earth's crust-developed along eastern Nevada, keeping the ocean back and forming a semienclosed basin between the barrier and the Ancestral Rockies. For the first time in some 230 million years, none of Garfield County was submerged by the sea. As the climate warmed, the land dried again. During the Triassic period-from 245 million to 208 million years ago-the prevailing north and northwesterly winds moved, rearranged, and sculpted enormous sand dunes, forming a Sahara-like desert that extended from central Utah far into Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Canyonlands National Park boasts some of the most conspicuous displays of rock from this period found anywhere in the state. Virtually all the deeper gorges as well as the access roads in the park negotiate through the red and white sandstone formations from this period. The same formations continue along the Colorado River for the length of the entire eastern boundary of Garfield County-from Cataract Canyon through the Circle Cliffs.8 A wetter climate returned for a time, and streams meandered through the canyon country of southern Utah. Shallow lakes and HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Ripple rock found along the Waterpocket Fold in Garfield County. (Utah State Historical Society) mud flats left deposits of silt which eventually hardened into sedi­mentary rock known as the Moenkopi Formation-reddish brown shale, gypsum, sandstones, and "ripple rock." Exposed portions of this formation cut across Garfield County from the Circle Cliffs in Kane County northwest along the Waterpocket Fold into Wayne County. Tracks of small lizard-like reptiles can be found in the Moenkopi Formation. About 220 million years ago a mudstone called Chinle Shale began to form. Volcanos spewed ash and rock over the area, covering and eventually helping petrify some of the trees, some of which can be found along the Circle Cliffs. In the younger deposits of Chinle Shale and Kayenta Sandstone, dinosaur tracks become more com­mon, their size increasing over time. Some stream channels cut dur­ing this time yield uranium deposits. A number of these deposits occur in the Shinarump Conglomerate in the Circle Cliffs. The wind and water erosion of the Ancestral Rockies east of SHAPING THE LAND Garfield County and the Mesocordilleran Highlands in western Utah provided much of the Triassic sediment of the Colorado Plateau 245 to 208 million years ago. The volume of eroded material was so immense that, according to one researcher, it "not only filled and smoothed over the ancient Paradox Basin, but also began to bury the mountains themselves. By the close of the Triassic Period no surface remnants of the Uncompahgre Uplift remained in Utah."9 Triassic formations of both hard and soft layers are found, with the harder rock forming cliffs and the softer deposits creating slopes of eroded material. Wingate Sandstone, the most prominent of the harder formations, is evident as the highest ridge along the Waterpocket Fold. It forms miles of nearly impenetrable cliffs sur­rounding the Burr Trail as well as those that cross the Flint and Shafer trails in Canyonlands National Park. Chimney Rock Canyon in the Garfield section of Capitol Reef National Park provides another example of Wingate Sandstone. Below the Wingate cliffs, a plateau of Kayenta Sandstone extends along the white cliffs of Capitol Reef. During the next 64 million years, which encompasses the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic era, three distinct environments succeeded one another, each leaving its geological mark on the Garfield land­scape. First came another period of a dry desert environment, where winds sculpted sand dunes of enormous size. Continental drift slowly rotated and moved the land northward, far from its original latitude. The dunes became the cross-bedded Navajo Sandstone, white to pink in color, that dominates the scenery of the present-day Escalante- Boulder road and extends the length of the Escalante River. The Glen Canyon rock formations also came from this period, as did the Great White Throne in Zion National Park and Rainbow Natural Bridge. In the second phase, a radical change in the environment took place as a great sea descended from Canada to cover the dunes and deposit a layer of Carmel Limestone. This layer thins considerably as one moves east until it disappears at the Colorado River. Erosion has exposed it from Cannonville and Henrieville south, and then west through Kane County. It is also evident in highway cuts on the east­ern edge of Boulder Mountain toward Hanksville and near the Singletree Campground. The Hole-in-the-Rock road follows a back- HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY bone of Carmel Limestone from the present-day town of Escalante to the Colorado River. The third phase brought a w a rm tropical climate that resulted in the Morrison Formation, which at one time covered an estimated 750,000 square miles of the western United States. Salt Wash Sandstone and Brushy Shale are two prominent subdivisions of the Morrison Formation in Utah. Within the Salt Wash Sandstone are found significant u r a n i um deposits on the Colorado Plateau. A strip of Brushy Shale lies along the eastern flank of the Henry Mountains. It was in this third phase that the dinosaurs flourished, although they had existed for millions of years previously. The Morrison Formation is probably the most-studied geological formation in the world due to the great number, variety, and importance of its fossils. An episode of uplifting, or mountain building, called the Sevier Orogeny occurred during the latter part of the Mesozoic era. The rel­atively narrow uplift stretched from southwestern Utah and eastern Nevada to Idaho and Wyoming. It is most striking along the Sevier River Valley, from which the orogeny takes its name. Immense slabs of rock, thousands of feet thick, pushed from west to east across the underlying formations. According to one geologist: As the great sheets of rock slowly moved over the material beneath them, they bent, buckled, and cracked until they came to rest as a shattered and contorted mass. New thrust faults periodically devel­oped beneath older ones and the whole stacked sequence would move again. One by one, over millions of years, sheets of tortured rock piled one upon another like the shingles on a roof.10 About 140 million years ago the last invading sea came in from the east and southeast, dividing North and South America into sepa­rate land masses. Stretching from the western Sevier River Valley to the Mississippi River, this sea pushed, flattened, and covered vegeta­tion, sand, and m u d while depositing sediments.11 The sand and mud would become the Dakota Formation, exposed in a n a r r ow strip along the Waterpocket Fold and circling east to the Henry Mountains. It is also the oldest rock visible in Bryce Canyon, where it is between 200 and 300 feet thick and dates back 95 million years. The Bryce formation is not actually a canyon; it is a series of fourteen SHAPING THE LAND large amphitheaters intricatly carved from the Paunsaugunt Plateau to depths of 1,000 feet or more. Fossils in the Dakota Formation at Bryce tell the story of the area's evolving plant and animal life, with evidence of a wide variety of vegetation, snails, clams, fish, turtles, crocodiles, and small primitive rodent-like mammals.12 The lush vegetation also formed seams of coal. An estimated three to seven billion tons of coal are believed by some to be in the Kaiparowits coal fields of Garfield and Kane counties. Another large coal field is in the Henry Mountain area. The sea's shores periodic advance and retreat over millions of years resulted in alternate layers of shale and coal in the area today. As the streams and rivers flowing from the highlands on the western edge of Garfield County deposited their loads of sediment in the sea, the smallest particles washed far­ther out to settle into the mud of the deep sea. These deposits became the Tropic Shale that forms the natural huge amphitheater where the towns of Tropic, Cannonville and Henrieville are located today. Coal seams left by luxuriant vegetation also appear between layers of the shale in this area, indicating the periodic rise and fall of the water. During one of the periods of shallow seas about 85 million years ago, the Straight Cliffs Formation began as sandy beaches on top of the Tropic deposits. Later layers came from brackish swamps, riverbeds, and floodplains. As the sea periodically receded and advanced it washed sand along its shores, which became Wahweap Sandstone. In making its final retreat, the ocean left shifting river sys­tems, swamps, and alluvial plains throughout eastern Utah that con­tinued to shape the landscape. Snow high on the Sevier Orogenic Belt to the west melted into braided streams and rivers, carrying debris and sediment across vast floodplains to bury the Wahweap Sandstone and create the Kaiparowits formation of Bryce Canyon and the Kaiparowits Plateau. (Kaiparowits is said to be an Indian word, and it appears to have a number of meanings, depending on which tribal interpretation is used. The most common translation is "Big Mountain's Little Brother"; another is "Home of our People." A third is "One-Arm," a name given to Major John Wesley Powell, who lost an arm at the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War. Novelist Zane Gray's Wild Horse Mesa is said to be the Kaiparowits Plateau.)13 At Bryce, most of the sandstones that covered the Tropic Shale 10 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY during this period have been stripped away by erosion. Only a few outcrops of Straight Cliffs Formation, Wahweap Sandstone, and Kaiparowits deposits remain at the lower levels in the southern part of the national park. They appear as brownish-gray rock and sedi­ment interspersed in layers of sandstone and mudstone; but they rec­ord an ancient and strikingly different landscape from the cool high plateaus and vibrant canyons of today. These rocks reveal an ancient coastal lowland where rivers flowed east into the vast sea. Small dinosaurs wandered along the rivers through lush jungle, feeding on primitive plants, each other, and other animals. Insects buzzed while furry rodent-like mammals escaped the heat of the tropical sun and the humid air in burrows and under lush foliage. Turtles alternately sunned themselves on rot­ting logs and wandered through the ooze of the swamps.14 Cenozoic Era (66 Million to the Present) During the transition between the Mesozoic (middle life) and Cenozoic (new life) eras, the dinosaurs disappeared from the surface of the earth. No one knows with certainty what catastrophe killed these huge reptiles some 65 million years ago, but, whatever it was, it affected the entire planet for tens of thousands of years. Clam fossils from 106 locations around the world indicate that some 70 percent of the mollusk species were wiped out at nearly the same rate from New Zealand to Alaska during the same period that the dinosaurs disappeared.15 Meanwhile, other forces were acting to further shape Garfield County. The first 30 million years of the Cenozoic era were marked by the rise of Capitol Reef, the Waterpocket Fold, the Circle Cliffs, and the San Rafael Swell. The Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah also were lifted during this time, with lakes forming between them and the Colorado-Wyoming Rockies. As the mountains eroded, they provided sediment that entered the lake bottoms, and some sediment washed south to Garfield County as the river systems continued to develop. The fanciful towers, castles, rock gardens, and pillars carved by wind and water from the multicolored Claron Formation deposits at Bryce Canyon began between 50 and 60 million years ago. A long, SHAPING THE LAND 11 Bryce Canyon formations. (Utah State Historical Society) narrow body of water referred to as Flagstaff Lake extended from the Uinta Basin south between the San Rafael Swell and Circle Cliffs uplift and the Sevier Orogeny. Either an arm of Flagstaff Lake or another lake of this same period extended over much of present-day Washington County. Equally large bodies of water also were located in Wyoming and Colorado. The few scattered fossils in the resulting rock formation from the period are predominantly freshwater snails and clams. Pink sandstone layers interspersed through the Claron Formation were most likely laid down during dry periods when evaporation took more water out than the streams provided. During these times of a low water level, the rivers and streams washed sand and gravel over the earlier muddy limestone deposits. The Claron formations of Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks have their genesis in the deposits washed into these ancient lakes. The pink hues come from iron oxide and manganese in these sediments. For millions of years, the lakes repeatedly contracted and expanded, leav­ing a diverse rock record. Differences in the rate of weathering pro- 12 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY duces parallel grooving in the rocks. Layers richest in lime are more resilient to erosion and form ridges, while the lime-poor beds are more indented and eroded. About 40 million years ago molten rock from deep within the earth combined with and melted light-colored continental rock, pro­ducing a silica-laden magma that built into great volcanos. Massive eruptions from these volcanos rained ash across the landscape of western North America. Smaller volcanic intrusions, some of them rich with copper, iron, gold, silver, and other ores, began to push upward. Volcanos spilled ash and lava, while Utah and the surround­ing regions begin to bow upwards, lifting slowly to some 5,000 feet above sea level. As the plateaus pushed upwards, the Colorado River and its trib­utaries cut downward into their canyons. Lava flows that covered the Markagunt (Paiute for high land of trees), Sevier, and Aquarius plateaus provided them with a hard basalt protective cover, guarding them against the massive erosion taking place to the south and east. In the middle of this volcanic activity, clusters of volcanos pushed up through the underlying sedimentary rocks.16 The Henry Mountains were thus born, as were the La Sal Mountains near Moab, Navajo Mountain south of Lake Powell, and the Abajo Mountains west of Monticello. The Henry Mountains rise from the center of the triangular land mass formed by the meeting of the Colorado River and the Waterpocket Fold to the south and the Wayne County line to the north. They are not a range but are simply a group of five individual mountains formed by small igneous intrusions that punched through the older layers of rock 25 million to 35 million years ago. The dis­tance between the northernmost peak of Mount Ellen to the south­ernmost summit of Mount Ellsworth is only about thirty miles. A circle of eighteen miles radius includes the whole group. The most northerly and highest of the Henry Mountains is Mount Ellen (elevation 11,508 feet). From its two-mile crestline spurs descend in every direction. To the south, lies the 7,857 foot Penellen Pass from which Mount Pennell rises to 11,232 feet. Both mountains are guarded on their west flanks by a continuous ridge of exposed Navajo sandstone. On the southeastern side, Mount Pennell slopes to SHAPING THE LAND 13 the Pennell Creek Bench, which separates it from Mount Hillers (ele­vation 10,650 feet). Mount Holmes (7,930 feet) and Mount Ellsworth (8,150 feet) stand close together at the southernmost end of the Henry Mountains on the brink of the Colorado River.17 The fissures on Mt. Ellen and Mt. Pennell have produced small amounts of copper with gold. Some gravel washed from the moun­tains contain bits of placer gold. The uranium and vanadium ores in the area predated the volcanic activity. The Henry Mountain peaks of today project high enough above the desert floor to wring out what moisture is left after clouds cross the high plateaus to the west, giving them a comparatively generous supply of rain. The slopes of the highest peaks are rich with vegeta­tion and timber, and springs abound from their flanks. The smaller mountains and the foothills are less generously watered and have few plants. About 24 million years ago, block- and detachment faulting began, and the Hurricane, Wasatch, and Sevier faults developed.18 The Duchesne and White rivers that began on the southern slope of the Uinta Range, and the Gunnison River of the Rockies, all drained into the Henry Mountains Basin and south into the Kaiparowits Basin. Panguitch Valley was formed when the Sevier Fault split the Markagunt Plateau on the west and the Paunsaugunt Plateau on the east. The valley between provided a natural course for the Sevier River and its tributaries. Much of the land today consists of alluvial deposits; the valley is strewn with volcanic stones and rubble washed from above. There is, however, about 7,000 acres of good bottomland composed of the rich silt deposited in the valley by the gentler cur­rents of the Sevier River. The area that stretches directly east from the Sevier River consists of high tableland that were fractured and lifted from the valley floor by the great faults. The plateaus include areas that range from 400 to 1,800 square miles and rise to more than 11,500 feet in elevation. They provide long barriers along the valleys that stretch for miles. Masses of volcanic rock, sometimes reaching a thickness of 5,000 feet, cap these great tablelands. Some of the underlying sedimentary layers are so deeply buried that they are seen only in the deepest gorges. Toward the end of the Tertiary period (around 5 million years 14 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY ago), the Green River reached the Canyonlands area and flowed into the Henry Mountains Basin, spilling over on the south end. As the river began its downward cut through the multiple layers of Mesozoic and Paleozoic rock, the Colorado Plateau began a slow tilt upward to the north, due to great pressures from deep inside the earth. As the slope of the land increased, the Colorado River, no longer slowed by huge lakes, became one of the "most erosive streams on earth."19 Two million years ago, it began carving its inner gorge. The river's tributaries also became highly erosive, cutting deeper and deeper into the land as they moved to join the Colorado. The most prominent of these streams in Garfield County are (from north to south) the Dirty Devil, North Wash, Hall's Creek, and the Escalante River. Along their routes a landscape of Navajo Sandstone stands nearly naked, stripped by erosion of its Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary period rocks. The Escalante Basin extends in a southeasterly direction to the Colorado River, between the Straight Cliffs and the Kaiparowits Plateau to the south and the Circle Cliffs and the Aquarius Plateau to the north. The majestic Aquarius Plateau with its Boulder Mountain rises over 9,670 feet, making it one of the world's highest forested plateaus. The Escalante River extends more than a hundred miles to the Colorado River (although the distance actually is closer to fifty miles as the crow flies) through some of the most spectacular, least-explored country in the continental United States.20 The Garfield Landscape Today A large network of nearly two dozen creeks and washes mean­ders into the Escalante River, forming the Escalante Basin. Those on the southwest beginning at the town of Escalante down to the Colorado River are Phipps Canyon, Harris Wash, Collett Wash, Scorpion Gulch, Fools Canyon, Coyote Gulch, Willow Gulch, Soda Gulch, Davis Gulch, Clear Creek, and Indian Gulch. From the Colorado River back toward town are Fence Canyon, Cow Canyon, Stevens Canyon, Georgie Canyon, Lower (East) Moody Canyon, Upper (Middle) Moody Canyon, Wide Mouth, Silver Falls Canyon, Horse Canyon, The Gulch, Deer Canyon, Boulder Creek, Calf Creek, SHAPING THE LAND 15 Cottonwood Canyon, Osbourne Canyon, Sand Creek, Death Hollow, and Pine Creek. The wanderings of these watercourses through the cross-bedded Navajo Sandstone have resulted in giant alcoves, box canyons, gorges, waterfalls, natural bridges, and arches. The natural bridges and arches are Escalante Natural Bridge on the south wall of Escalante Canyon just south of Sand Creek; Maverick Natural Bridge in a tributary canyon of Phipps Canyon; Phipps Arch in Phipps Canyon; Stevens Arch (the largest in the Escalante Basin), at the mouth of Stevens Canyon; Lobo Arch in Coyote Canyon; Coyote Bridge a mile farther downstream; and, about four miles farther, Jug Handle Arch; Broken Bow Arch, on the north wall of Willow Gulch; and Nemo Arch and Moqui Window in Davis Gulch. Today the canyon floors harbor wildflowers and grasses, ferns and willows, trees and shrubs, and have become a haven for hikers. The climate of Garfield County ranges considerably from the high Escalante and Boulder mountains to the canyon depths. The prevailing western winds traveling across the Great Basin are forced to altitudes of over 10,000 feet as they cross the plateaus of Garfield County. The highlands act to condensate the moisture and extract it from the wind-driven clouds. Descending from the higher lands into the warmer regions below, the now-dry winds actually extract mois­ture from the lower altitudes rather than adding to the humidity.21 The rainfall in the inhabited valleys of Garfield County is vari­able from year to year and place to place, but it is sparse compared to that received by the plateaus, requiring irrigation for lawns, gardens, and farms in the summer months. The average valley precipitation is around twelve inches a year, with an average low of about seven inches and the average high between fourteen and twenty-two inches. The plateaus act as reservoirs to collect the precipitation; the water then makes its way to the Sevier and Colorado rivers in scores of rivulets and creeks. Numerous springs, fed by the rain and snow in the high country, dot the base of the plateaus.22 Temperatures average between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and 85-90 degrees in the summer at the towns of Boulder and Escalante. The Tropic, Henrieville, and Cannonville areas tend to be a bit warmer year-round, while Panguitch is often colder. Temperatures 16 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY there can vary as much as fifty or sixty degrees in a single day. One early resident of Panguitch maintained with a wink that Panguitch was not as cold as everyone said it was-he could only remember one summer when there were no leaves on the trees.23 Others have com­mented that the climate there is "nine months of winter and three months of damned cold weather." A mid-century traveler through the valley wrote that Panguitch is "where in summer they have the best winter climate in the world."24 While exaggeration is the prerog­ative of old-timers, the official record shows a more realistic, but still cold, picture. Panguitch is subject to a relatively dry northwesterly flow and is surrounded by mountains and highlands that take much of the remaining precipitation and keep the valley area drier than might be expected for such a high elevation. Still, the climate can be most harsh-temperatures can drop to a low of thirty or more degrees below zero in winter and soar to the nineties in summer, and summer frost is not uncommon. Mean low temperatures in January are about 5-6 degrees, with highs averaging 38 degrees. In July aver­age highs are in the low 80-degree range, lows average 45 degrees. The growing season is short, with only an average of 76 consecutive frost-free days.25 The high plateaus receive about twenty-five inches of moisture a year. Although the first major snow usually falls in late September or early October, snowfall has occurred in all twelve months. Patches of snow commonly are still evident in late June. Violent summer thun­derstorms and severe lightning often accompanied by hail are not uncommon and can cause dangerous flash floods in the washes of the dry desert below. Large mammals such as mule deer, elk, antelope, black bear and cougar make their homes on the higher tablelands in summer, many of them migrating to lower elevations in the winter to find feed. Beaver lodges dam small streams, while coyotes and bobcats range widely. Marmots, rabbits, weasels, chipmunks, skunks, and ground squirrels are also common. The last free-roaming herd of buffalo in America make their home in the Henry Mountains at the present time. Among the many birds of Garfield County, both bald and golden eagles are occasionally seen soaring high above the landscape. SHAPING THE LAND 17 Goshawks also thrive in the forested areas. Merriam turkeys, an intro­duced game species, live on the east side of Boulder Mountain. Brook, rainbow, and cutthroat trout are plentiful in the county's lakes and streams, while hybrid species have been planted in Blind and Cooks lakes. Mosquitos and horseflies torment hunters, fishermen, campers, and hikers in the high wet places, while scorpions keep them alert in the drier lowlands. Rattlesnakes can be found from mountaintop to canyon bottom. The vegetation of areas is influenced by both altitude and avail­ability of water. In the lower desert areas where water is scarce, so is plant life; plants there include sagebrush, various cacti, paintbrush, rabbitbrush, ricegrass, ephedra, and other plant life common to the western deserts. In the deep canyons where streams and springs run most of the year, wildflowers, grasses, and watercress are often found. Between 5,000 and 7,000 feet elevation the landscape changes. A vari­ety of small bushes and shrubs intermingles with the sagebrush and rabbitbrush. Blackbrush and shadscale become common. Greasewood grows in the more saline low areas. Utah juniper begins at around the 5,000-foot elevation and is joined by pinyon pine at about 6,000 feet. A transition zone of western yellow pine and gambel oak starts at around 6,800 feet, and by 8,000 feet Douglas fir and white fir flourish. Narrowleaf cottonwood, red-barked birch, and chokecherry thrive along the edge of streams. Transition-zone shrubs include antelope brush, manzanita, serviceberry, and big sagebrush. Between 8,000 and 9,500 feet in elevation aspen, blue spruce, white fir, and Douglas fir are the most common trees. In a few places limber pine, a particularly hardy high-altitude species, spreads its rugged branches. Shrubs include the hardy chokecherry and snow-berry. At elevations above 9,500 feet only the most rugged, storm-resistant trees survive: alpine fir, Englemann spruce, limber pine, and the granddaddy of all trees, the bristlecone pine. In the Great Basin bristlecones can be found at scattered high elevations, and some bristlecones are more than 4,600 years old-the oldest-known living things on earth. Dendrochronologists have located even older dead bristlecone pines in California and Nevada, with rings dating back more than 12,000 years, making them contemporaries of the Paleo- Indians who roamed the Garfield landscape in millenia past. 18 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY ENDNOTES 1. John W. Van Cott, Utah Place Names (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990), 335. Both Van Cott and Halka Chronic in Roadside Geology of Utah (Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1990) note that some sources incorrectly credit Brigadier General John Sevier of Kentucky as namesake of the Sevier River. 2. Dean L. May, Utah: A People's History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987), 8-9. 3. Mary C. Rabbit, "John Wesley Powell: Pioneer Statesman of Federal Science," The Colorado River Region and John Wesley Powell, Geological Survey Prefessional Paper 669 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1969), 3. 4. William E. Stokes, Geology of Utah (Salt Lake City: Utah Museum of Natural History/Utah Geological and Mineral Survey, 1988), 86. 5. Ibid., 87. 6. For seventy miles above the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers, the Colorado meanders, dropping an average of only 1.3 feet per mile. Through forty-mile-long Cataract Canyon the river follows a more direct course, dropping an average often feet per mile. Before the con­struction of Glen Canyon Dam, as the river left Cataract Canyon near the southeastern corner of Garfield County, its course again slowed and twisted, dropping only about 1.5 feet per mile for another 180 miles through Glen Canyon on its way to the Grand Canyon. 7. Stokes, Geology of Utah, 103. See also Bradley G. Hill and S. Robert Bereskin, eds., "Oil and Gas Fields of Utah," Utah Geological Association Publication No. 22, Salt Lake City (1993). 8. Stokes, Geology of Utah, 101. 9. Ibid., 105-6. 10. Nicholas Scrattish, Historic Resource Study: Bryce Canyon National Park (Denver: United States Department of the Interior, 1986), 2-4. 11. Stokes, Geology of Utah, 132. 12. Scrattish, Historic Resource Study: Bryce Canyon, 2-4. 13. Van Cott, Utah Place Names, 211. 14. Scrattish, Historic Resource Study: Bryce Canyon, 2-4. 15. David Jablonski and David M. Raup, "Selectivity End-Cretaceous Bivalve Extinctions," Science 268 (21 April 1995): 389-91. 16. Grove Karl Gilbert, Geology of the Henry Mountains (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880), called the mountains laccolites (more commonly known as laccoliths). Although Mount Hillers is a true laccolith, the other four peaks are stocks. Stokes, Geology of Utah, 185. SHAPING THE LAND 19 17. Gilbert, Geology of the Henry Mountains, 2-3. 18. Block faults are where a block of the earth's surface has two or more sides on which breaks, or faults, occur. Detached faults run nearly horizon­tal and are usually formed by the down-thrust of regular faults, causing the upper crust to slide across lower rocks. See Chronic, Roadside Geology, 302-3. 19. Stokes, Geology of Utah, 191. 20. Much of the information for the Escalante Basin comes from the chapter written by Edson B. Alvy in Nethella Griffin Woolsey, The Escalante Story: 1875-1964 (Springville, UT: Art City Publishing Co., 1964 ), 1-18. 21. John Wesley Powell, Report on the Lands of the Arid Region: With a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1879), 151. 22. Ibid., 130-36. 23. As told to Linda K. Newell by her father, Foisy E. King. 24. Walter Kirk Daly, "The Settling of Panguitch Valley, Utah: A Study in Mormon Colonization" (Master's thesis, University of California, 1941), 23. 25. Mark Eubank, Utah Weather (Salt Lake City: Weatherbank, Inc., 1979), 217.