Notes On The History Of The Kolob Canyons…Part 1

Issue 38.10

We welcome Steven Heath  as a new contributor to the Senior Sampler, and look forward to his series of articles on the Kolob Canyons

Part 1:

Until 1967, the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park was among the most difficult places to access in southern Utah.  Even today with highway access off I-15 at exit 40, few take the thirty minute five mile drive to see the greatest natural wonder adjacent to the interstate on its 1340 mile traverse of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana.  The word Kolob comes from Mormon scripture and means “Nigh unto the Gods.” [Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 3:3]  Mormons looking upon these majestic sandstone cliffs from New Harmony must have thought they were near God.

In addition to the wonderful scenery, Kolob has a rich and interesting human history.  The first recorded description of the region comes from the journal of Silvestre Veley de Escalante.  Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Escalante left Santa Fe, New Mexico seeking an overland route to Monterrey, California in July 1776.  Early October snow storms turned the ten man expedition south towards the New Harmony, Utah area.  The party passed the mouth of Taylor Creek on October 13, 1776, but like travelers today, they were too near the eastern edge of the valley to notice the cliffs.  Further south near present-day Hurricane, Utah, Escalante described the region as “all mesa-strewn land.” [Warner, 78]

The next recorded trek near Kolob came fifty years later as mountain man Jedediah Smith retraced the Dominguez-Escalante route from Cedar City to Hurricane from September 18-21, 1826.  Searching for beaver, Smith and his party traveled south from the annual trappers rendezvous at Bear Lake, Utah.  Instead of following Ash Creek to the Virgin River, which Smith named the “Adams River, his party turned to the southwest to the base of the Pine Valley Mountains to cross the Black Ridge.  [Smart, Old Utah Trails, 32]  Their view of the Kolob would have been extraordinary from that position.  Smith’s only diary comments on the country was its “unwelcome appearance” and the “detached hills” on the east are “somewhat higher.”  [Brooks, 55]  Smith’s return to the area in 1827 helped open up the western half of what would become the Old Spanish Trail, a major trade route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, California.  [Crampton, In Search of the Old Spanish Trail]  Exploration of the Kolob Canyons would have to wait until the Mormon settlement of southern Utah, Which is the subject of the next episode of this series.