Hole-in-the-Rock area and Mormon Pioneers

File — Box: 1, Folder: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Photograph number 1: Store at Hole-in-the-Rock. "Some twenty years ago a man kept this little store. His chief merchandise was tobacco. His only customers, Indians from Navajo Mountain!"
Photograph number 2: Dugway in the Slick Rocks. "Where all the wagons got down, but not each in one piece!"
Photograph number 3: Mute Reminders of Mormon Road Building! "Holes drilled by hand in slopping rock-Pegs driven into the holes, Brush and logs against the pegs-Loose rock and dirt against the brush-And, behold, a Roadway!"
Photograph number 4: 2000 feet above the River-Cottonwood Canyon in the background. "How the pioneers must have felt when they first stood at the top of Hole-in-the-Rock and saw this view!"
Photograph number 5: "Mormon Dugways," said one old pioneer, "were something like the cowboy's beefsteak. Just done enough to eat raw!"
Photograph number 6: Hole-in-the-Rock
Photograph number 7: "Down through the Hole. What a sight to face a driver!"
Photograph number 8: "Right at the Top. The stone steps cut by the pioneers to give their horses better footing! What were a few jolts on stone steps compared to surer footing for the team!"
Photograph number 9: Up through the Hole
Photograph number 10: Up near the top. "Just room enough to get a wagon through if you greased the sides of the box!"
Photograph number 11: Richardson and Whittaker-Pioneers of 1939. "They slept in their shirts and left their razors in Blanding!"
Photograph number 12: Jim Mike-Ute Discoverer of Rainbow Bridge. "He didn't go for 'picture man!'"
Photograph number 13: The Slick Rocks
Photograph number 14: Survivors of Hole-in-the-Rock. Kumen Jones, seated, drove the first wagon down through the great crack. Standing, from left to right: George Adams (?), Anie Neilson (?), Mrs. Adams, Mary Jane Perkins Wilson of Monticello, Utah, Delia Perkins, Jennie Decker Wood, Mrs. Nielson (?), Mrs. Sarah Perkins, and C.E. Walton.
Photograph number 15: Desert Sand between Lake Gulch and Greenwater Spring
Photograph number 16: The Twists of the San Juan River, from the top of Grey Mesa-Monument Valley can be seen in the hazy background.
Photograph number 17: Naked Rock and Lake Gulch
Photograph number 18: The Desert buries its own dead-The dead furnishes its own headstone!
Photograph number 19: "Zeke takes on a little nourishment!"
Photograph number 20: Lunch time under a Cedar. "And keep your boots off the tablecloth," said Zeke. "It's not good manners."
Photograph number 21: Sleep is sweet on clean solid rock. "We could sleep anywhere after a day in the saddle!"
Photograph number 22: Down through Cottonwood Canyon to the River. "The naked rocks looked like a great head of mile-high elephants crowded in a huge pasture!"
Photograph number 23: Approaching the Slick Rocks-Grey Mesa (Wild Horse Mesa, to Zane Grey) in the background. "It was off this Mesa the pioneers had to find a way-mountain goats showed them where!"
Photograph number 24: The horse didn't want to swim-First horse failed but second succeeded. 82 wagons crossed. "First try he pulled the old boat back to shore-second try, the current swept them down around the first great bend. The horse swam round and round the boat. He was finally turned loose to save him from drowning. The third try with a different horse, was successful. Both boat and horse crossed all right. What a place to take 82 wagons across!"
Photograph number 25: Ready to try a crossing of the River

Dates

1940-1950

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.