Utah Historical Quarterly Volume XX

The discovery of the Green River, by C. Gregory Crampton

Utah State Historical Society State Capitol-Salt Lake City, Utah Vol. XX October, 1952 No. 4 W, THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER1 BY C. GREGORY CRAMPTON* ITHIN 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 *C. Gregory Crampton is professor of history, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1A number of persons have contributed to the research, but they may not be held responsible for the conclusions expressed in this paper. A grant from die University of Utah Research Fund defrayed much of the expense involved. Copies of documents from the archives in Mexico and elsewhere were gen­erously provided at the direction of L. H. Kirkpatrick, librarian, University of Utah Library; Dr. Leland H. Creer, chairman, and Dr. David E. Miller, De­partment of History, University of Utah; Dr. S. Lyman Tyler, Department of History and Political Science, Brigham Young University; Professor Walter E. Cottam, chairman, Department of Botany, University of Utah; Mr. Jess Lombard, superintendent, and Mr. George M. James, ranger, Dinosaur National Monument; Mr. Robert Thorne, Jensen; Miss Maurine Clifford, U. S. Geo­logical Survey, Salt Lake City; and Mr. Jack Baker, Bureau of Land Manage­ment, U. S. Department of Interior, Salt Lake City. All of these and others contributed greatly to the interpretation of data in the field and otherwise and tiieir help is here gratefully acknowledged. THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER 301 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.2 'Much the best edition of the diary is by Herbert E. Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness, the Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin, 1776 (Salt Lake City, 1950), also published as Volume XVIII of the Utah Historical Quarterly (Utah State Historical Society, 1950), which gives the expedition and its principals stature and perspective. This edition includes a map done by Miera in colors which alone is worth the price of the volume. The diary and related documents (together with some valuable maps in­cluding three by Miera), edited by Herbert S. Auerbach, appear in the Utah Historical Quarterly, XI (1943). Further valuable material by Auerbach on Miera's maps and the route of the expedition is in the Utah Historical Quarterly, IX (1941). A brief summary of the diary edited by Philip Harry is found in J. H. Simpson's, Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah in 1859 (Washington, D. G, 1876), 489-95. The Eng­lish version of the diary by W. R. Harris, in The Catholic Church in Utah (Salt Lake City, 1909), is useful but the translation is frequently of doubtful accuracy. It was made from the printed version in Spanish published in the rare Documentos para la historia de Mexico, Second Series (Mexico, F. 302 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 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 Un-compahgre 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.3 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 1776.4 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 Coche-topa 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 Escalante y Comp., 1854), I, 375-558. The location of manuscript copies of the diary and related documents in the archives of Mexico and Spain may be found by consulting H. E. Bolton, Guide to Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico (Washington, D. C, 1913); and Charles E. Chapman, Catalogue of Materials in the Archivo General de Indians for the History of the Pacific Coast and the American Southwest (Berkeley, 1919). aBolton, Pageant in the Wilderness, 163, Escalante's diary entry for Sep­tember 5. 'The Spanish approach to the Utah region before 1776 has received scant attention. One of the most important works is by S. Lyman Tyler, "Before Escalante,'' an early history of die Yuta Indians and the area north of New Mexico (Ms. Ph.D. thesis. University of Utah, 1951). An article by Joseph J. Hill, "The Old Spanish Trail, a Study of Spanish and Mexican Trade and Exploration Northwest from New Mexico to the Great Basin and California," Hispanic American Historical Review, IV (August, 1921), 444-73, reprinted as "Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade Northwest from New Mexico into the Great Basin, 1765-1853," Utah Historical Quarterly, III (1930), is an earlier study. THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER 303 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.6 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 "Escalante says: "Halfway down this canyon toward the south there is a very high cliff on which we saw crudely painted three shields or chimales and the blade of a lance. Farther down on the north side we saw another painting which crudely represented two men fighting. For this reason we called this valley Canon Pintado," Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness, 166-67, Escalante's entry for September 9. Dr. David E. Miller, Dr. S. Lyman Tyler, and I made a reconnaissance of Douglas Creek on May 8, 1952, and we located two sets of Indian paintings midway in the canyon. One set, believed to be the first seen by the Spaniards, is located on the left bank, "toward the south," 1.2 miles below the forks of the creek and 17.1 miles from die highway at the foot of the canyon at Rangely. The paintings done in red are to be seen on rocks immediately above die road and with some imagination might be described as two men in combat. There are numerous petroglyphs in conjunction witii the paintings. Six miles from this place downstream "on the north side," or die right bank, the second set of paintings was found located on a bold promontory above the road where a tributary stream comes into Douglas Creek. These are scarcely visible but tiiree objects which the Spaniards took for shields may still be seen and "the blade of a lance" is quite clear. The identity of the aboriginal audiors of these documents was probably of as much interest to die Spaniards as it was to the latter-day explorers. Over the camp fire tiiat night (perhaps several nights later), Escalante mentioned the paint­ings in his diary but seems to have noted diem in reverse of the order first seen. 304 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY (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.6 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.7 The Spaniards continued on along the right bank "The nomenclature of this drainage has been mundane; Arroyo del Cibolo of the Spaniards became Cliff Creek on the American maps. Present local usage has it as Cockleburr Creek in its lower course, which name is derived from a tributary stream. TEscalante in his entry for Setember 13 said that they traveled 2% leagues to reach the first springs. If their camp was in the vicinity of the K Ranch, the distance is closer to ten miles or about four leagues. These springs are located in section 5 T6S R24E and in section 32 T5S R24E Salt Lake Base and Meridian, Utah. There are numerous springs and seepages in the vicinity which are shown on a map prepared by the Grazing Service, U. S. Department of Interior, of Utah Region-2, 1943. The Spaniards made no mention of two white sulphur springs located between die first of the springs they saw and the other two and which flow from about the same contour, although in lesser volume. These sulphur springs, where there is a log cabin located at present, are the only ones noted in the vicinity on the maps of the Hayden Survey. In describing the springs Escalante says that "hacia al sur nacen dos fuentes copiosas. . . ." This may be translated "Toward the south rise two THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER 305 through several meadows watered by the springs they had just left and by other springs and seepages in the vicinity.8 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 \Y miles bdow 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 River9 (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 large springs," as all of the English translations of the diary have it, except for die fact that the springs rise in the north and flow south. If Escalante's Span­ish will tolerate this translation, that "two large springs flow toward the south," then he may be saved from making another mistake. "They probably kept to die level and did not ascend to the vicinity of die Burdette Cabin, on an elevation between Cliff Creek and Burdette Wash, where there are otiier large springs. Burdette Wash joins Cliff Creek just above die narrows. "Including the tributaries of die Green in the Uinta Basin and below. 306 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 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.10 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.11 They prob- T h e colored map by Miera in Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness. "There has been some question about die location of the historic camp­site and the ford where the explorers crossed the river. Herbert S. Auerbach, "Father Escalante's Itinerary,' Utah Historical Quarterly, IX (July-October, 1941), 111-12, and Herbert E. Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness. 57-59, 170, locate the camp and ford generally. Escalante was so careful in his observa­tions that it is possible to locate these places with accuracy by a review of the facts in his diary in relation to the geography of the area. In general, the camp must have been between the right angle bend of die Green River, near the southwestern boundary of the Dinosaur National Monument, and die mouth of Cliff Creek. As the Spaniards approached Green River, Escalante noted tiiat they traveled two leagues nortiiwest from the point at Cliff Creek where they had noticed the pools of water. If his directions and distance were accurate, as they usually were, tiiis would bring the explorers to the river approximately opposite the mouth of Brush Creek. The river here runs almost due south and the camp was pitched on the eastern bank, although Escalante says that they camped on the southern bank. He meant that they THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER 307 ably spent much time discussing the river. When it came to a name they chose to remember San Buenaventura, the thirteenth were located on the southern side of the stream in relation to its general course, which is in this region from northeast to southwest, and he uses the word "austral," rather than "south," to signify this. When the explorers broke camp on September 16, they traveled "'about one mile toward the north, arrived at the ford, and crossed the river." If die camp was opposite the mouth of Brush Creek, then one would travel about one mile (the Spanish mile was the approximate equivalent of the English mile) north to find the best ford in the vicinity which Escalante's guide said was the "only one." This is located immediately below the great right angle curve in the Green River where it changes its course from west to south and just outside the southwest boundary of the Dinosaur National Monument. This is the northeast corner of section 33 T4S R23E Salt Lake Base and Meridian, Utah. Escalante identified the ford as being located "west of the northern crest," by which he must have meant Split Mountain, and "very close to a chain of hills of loose earth, some of them lead colored and others yellow." This is a positive point of identification for the river at the bend impinges on these hills which Escalante describes and they extend to within 100 yards of die ford below the bend. Miera on some of his maps describes them as the "Sierra Mineral." On one of these hills overlooking the ford is an anonymously-placed black stone marker which accurately says that, "Escalante crossed here 1776." Escalante observed that the ford is stony and at this place today the ripple may be seen at the low water stage. This crossing, known to the Indians before 1776, was long used by them and the whites after Escalante's time. The township survey plats of this general vicinity made in 1878-79, show the "Uinta and White River Trail," used mainly by the Indans, and which probably had been pretty closely fol­lowed by Escalante and party, as leading toward it. The plat of T4S R23E Salt Lake Base and Meridian, however, was made in 1900, and shows neither die approaching trails nor the ford. Residents around Jensen speak of it as die old "Indian Crossing." The gravel bottom made it a serviceable ford for wagons before the ferry was established and the bridge built at Jensen. At the crossing the Spanish explorers turned west, as Escalante says, and they "traveled a league along the north bank and meadow of the river," when they came to a small river. Brush Creek. The Spaniards did turn west at the crossing and, as abruptly, turned south along the river until they came to Brush Creek. Escalante means here that they traveled along the northern side in relation to the general course of the river, and he uses the word "septentrional," rather than "north," to indicate this. At something less than a league, actually, they came to Brush Creek; from there Escalante said it was a league to the next stream, Ashley Creek, but this is an underestimate. However, die distance between Ashley Creek and the ford is just about two leagues (league=2.63 miles), which agrees with Escalante's total. Escalante does not indicate the names given these streams, but Miera shows them ac­curately on his maps, which reflect that Brush Creek was called Rio de San Simon, and Ashley Creek, Rio de San Ladeo. In view of the evidence, there can be little doubt about the location of this first crossing of the Green River. Granting this, the campsite would have been approximately one mile south of the ford on die left, or east, bank, and amid some large cottonwood trees. About one mile south of the ford a de­lightful meadow with a park-like growth of cottonwoods begins which extends down the river for some distance. The trees, numbers of them growing in pairs as Escalante describes them, are thickest and largest on the bottom lands along die river's edge. Some of the largest trees today appear to be near die head of the meadow, at about one mile from die ford, on what is known as the DudleyRanch, and at the point where there is a corral and die remains of a cabin. The Spaniards must have had their camp within a radius of one- 308 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY century theologian, teacher, biographer of St. Francis, one-time Minister-General of the Order of Friars Minor, Cardinal, and Saint.12 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 half mile from tins vicinity along the river bank. This would place them on the northern portion of the dividing line between sections 3 and 4 in T5S R23E Salt Lake Base and Meridian, and north of the mouth of Brush Creek on the opposite side. Local residents and others have sought along diese bottoms for the tree on which Lain cut his name and the date 1776, but it is problematical if the cottonwoods seen by die Spaniards, which were large in 1776, are still alive. Bolton asserts in his notes to the diary. Pageant in the Wilderness, 58, that the trees are still living, but Professor Walter P. Cottam, chairman of the Department of Botany, University of Utah, does not share his view. Bolton, ibid., 57-58, 170, also has the camp too close to die "Dino­saur Quarry" in the Dinosaur National Monument. The Powell expeditions of 1869 and 1871 camped along this stretch of the river, and noted that it was a favorite camping ground for the Indians. Their camp of 1871 appears to have been very close to that of the Spaniards of 1776. There is insufficient space here to review the evidence found in sev­eral accounts of the Powell explorations contained in four volumes of the Utah Historical Quarterly, VII, XV-XVII (1939, 1947-1949); also in J. W. Powell, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West (Washington, D. G, 1875); and in Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Vouaoe (New Haven, 1926). MBorn Giovanni de Fidanza, he was canonized San Bonaventura in 1482. Zealous Franciscans in Spanish America used his name frequently in naming places and it is liberally sprinkled over much of the Western Hemisphere. THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER 309 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.13 The report reflects that the general nature of the T h e historic work of Alonso de Posadas, sometimes written Posada, appears to have been published for the first time under die title, "Copla de un informe hecho a su majestad solve las tierras del Nuevo Mexico," in Documenfos para la Historia de Mexico, Tercera Serie (Mexico, Vicente Garcia Torres, 1856), I, 209-25, although it is there mistakenly accredited to "Fray Alonso de Paredes." The account of die fictional Pefialosa expedition to Teguayo in 1662, ascribed to Father Nicolas de Freytas, was first published by John Gilmary Shea, Expedition of Don Diego Dionisio de Pefialosa from Santa Fe to the River Mischipi and Quivira in 1662 (New York, Shea, 1882). In reply, this called forth the work by Casareo Fernandez Duro, Don Diego de Pefialosa y su descubrimiento del Reino de Quivira: informe presentado a la Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid, 1882), which also contains a copy of die Posadas Report. A manuscript copy of the Informe is in the Archivo General de la Naci6n, Mexico City, in Historia, III. The report deserves translation and publication in English. The Pefialosa affair is explored in an article by Charles W. Hackett, "New Light on Don Diego de Pefialosa: Proof That He Never Made an Expedition from Santa Fe to Quivira and the 310 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 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.14 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.16 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 Mississippi River in 1662," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, VI (Decem­ber, 1919), 313-35. "Escalante, or whoever in the party knew of Posadas' report, remembered in general but not in detail. For example, Escalante notes that Posadas refers to the river as the dividing line between die Comanche and the Yuta nations. Posadas mentions the Yutas, but when he wrote, the Comanches had not yet begun their historic southeastern migration from Wyoming and die Spaniards did not know of them. Posadas does say that the Colorado and the San Juan separate the Apache and the Yuta nations, but he makes no menton of die Comanches. "Like the splendid work of Father Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron, written in 1626, "Relaciones de todas cosas que en el Nuevo Mexico se han visto y Sabido, asi por mar como por tierra, desde el afio de 1538 hasta el de 1626 . . . ," Documentos para la historia de Mexico, Tercera Serie (Mexico, Vicente Garcia Torres, 1856), I, 29-55, which was also edited and translated by Charles F. Lummis, Land of Sunshine, XI-XII (1899-1900). Equally im­portant is the Memorial written by Father Alonso de Benavides in 1630. This was published that year in Spanish and soon thereafter in other European languages. It was brought to a definitive English edition and translated by Mrs. Edward E. Ayer and annotated by Frederick Webb Hodge and Charles F. Lummis (Chicago, 1916). The Revised Memorial of 1634, probably not accessible to Posadas, has been translated and elaborately annotated with numerous supplementary documents by Frederick Webb Hodge, George P. Hammond, and Agapito Rey (Albuquerque, 1945). "Herbert S. Auerbach, in Note 23 to his "Father Escalante's Journal . . .," Utah Historical Quarterly, XI, 56, incorrectly assumes that the San Buenaven­tura River, as the name for a stream in the trans-Colorado River region, antedates the Dominguez-Escalante expedition. T H E DISCOVERY OF THE GREEN RIVER 311 forded the river a mile north of their camp,17 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.18 The Spaniards continued on south from the Sevier, "For the location of the ford see Note 11. T h e colored map in Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness, and two of Miera's maps included in Auerbach's edition of the journal, Utah Historical Quarterly, XI, show this, but one of the maps, undated, opposite page 38, reveals a curious connection between the Green and the Colorado through die Rio de los Saguaganas. This map, however, seems to have had the least 312 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY 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,19 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.20 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. effect on subsequent cartography. Miera appears to have been responsible for most of this conjectural geography. Escalante was not in agreement with him on the Tizon River nor on the origin of the Sevier River which he identi­fied with the Gunnison! "There is nothing in Escalante's diary to indicate that the Arizona Strip or the crossing of the Colorado at Lee's Ferry, where they tried unsuccessfully to cross, was known to die Spaniards before this time. Indeed, die ford which they discovered at the Crossing of the Fathers appears to have been used after their time and before the more accessible crossing at Lee's Ferry was used. ""Not the least of those who recognized the achievement of these Spanish pioneers was John Wesley Powell, who gave the name "Sierra Escalante" (called by the Hay den Survey "Escalante Hills") to the ridge between the Green River and die Little Snake River, north of the Yampa River, and in part within die bounds of the Dinosaur National Monument The Escalante River was named during the second Powell expedition.