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Although the Anglo-American settlement of Escalante
began in the spring of 1875 by a group of men
from Panguitch desiring to find a location with
a milder climate, signs of inhabitation of the
area reached back much farther with evidence
of the Fremont and Anasazi cultures in the area.
In 1866, during the Black Hawk War, Captain
James Andrus's cavalry pursued Indians through
the area, naming it Potato Valley. A.H. Thompson,
who was the chief map maker of John Wesley Powell's
crew, traveled through the plateau regions on
different trips naming the points and mapping
the trail. On an excursion in 1875, Thompson's
party met four Mormons from Panguitch planning
to establish a settlement in the area. Thompson
advised the pioneers to name it for Father Silvestre
Velez de Escalante, who passed near the Escalante
River on his expedition from Santa Fe to California
in 1776.
Drawn by the mild climate and abundance of
grazing land, the settlers raised cattle and
sheep. Dairying, timber harvesting, and mining
were also important to the economy of the settlement.
Escalante remained an outpost on the Mormon
frontier for many years and was the last community
through which the famous Hole-in-the Rock expedition
passed in 1879 on its epic six-month journey
to the San Juan River in southeastern Utah.
Blessed with beautiful topography, fertile
lands, and a relatively long growing season,
Escalante has been called the "Land of
the Sleeping Rainbow." The early pioneer
settlers built more than fifty homes of native
brick which stand as a legacy today. The town
was laid out on the "Zion Plan," with
four homes to the block and ten-acre farms surrounding
it. Wide streets and neatly landscaped yards
with corrals and barns are still characteristic
of the town. Home industries, including gardening,
home canning, livestock raising, quilting and
making of handicrafts continue as a rich part
of the community life.
Many current residents, as in the case in most
Utah communities, trace their roots to a few
hardy pioneers. Those frequently associated
with Escalante are the families of Willard,
Henry, and Thomas Heaps; Hosiah Barker; Earnest
Griffin; Jared Porter; Don Carols Shirts; Napoleon
and Lorenzo Roundy; Perry Liston; William Henry
Deuel; Joseph Spencer; William Alvey; James
McInelly; Morgan Richards; William Cottam; and
Andrew P. Schow, who served as Mormon bishop
and leader of the community for thirty-five
years.
During the 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) camps set up under federal New Deal legislation
brought new life to the community and improved
roads to Posey Lake and Boulder. However, increased
government management of public lands brought
new and sometimes onerous restrictions to some
whose livelihood was based on the land. World
War II saw a migration to the industrialized
cities, as local growth was limited to what
the natural resources could sustain.
Hardy pioneers, closely knit by family and
neighborhood relationships, build a strong,
conservative community. Isolated from major
highways and large cities, the people battled
the elements to build irrigation systems, electrical
and telephone services (which eventually became
locally owned), service stations, a bank, an
airport, and other facilities which have made
Escalante an important oasis for the thousands
of tourists who visit the area each year. Visitors
come to hike the Escalante River, follow the
historic Hole-in-the-Rock Trail, view ancient
Indians structures and rock art, traverse the
magnificent Burr Trail to Lake Powell, and drive
the 120-mile-long "Scenic By-Way"-Highway
12-connecting Bryce Canyon National Park and
Capitol Reef National Park, along which Escalante
is located in the middle.
The community is still dependent on a multiple-use-of-resources
system with tourism, livestock, and timber the
mainstays of the local economy. The community
remains predominately Mormon; students attend
the local elementary school, the junior high
school, and the high school. Escalante reached
its largest population in 1940 with 1,161 residents,
but it has dropped to its lowest number, 638
inhabitants, by 1970. Since 1970 the population
has gradually increased to 818 in 1990.
Marilyn Jackson
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