A Valley of "Splendid Advantages"
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 40° 02.432 W 111° 43.932
12T E 437536 N 4432513
The Dominguez y Escalante Expedition was the first organized exploration of the American Southwest by Europeans.
Waymark Code: WMB5W5
Location: Utah, United States
Date Posted: 04/09/2011
Views: 9
A Valley of "Splendid Advantages"
On July 29, 1776, Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante led an exploration party of ten horsemen from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to establish an overland route to Monterey, California, while spreading the Catholic Faith to the native peoples they hoped to meet along the way.
On September 26th, the party left El Rio de San Nicolas (Hobble Creek, Springville), crossed the Aguas Calientes (Spanish Fork River), and camped at Arroyo de San Andres (Peteetneet Creek). Father Escalante described the grography and flora of the area in great detail. He was especially impressed with the beauty of Utah Valley, referring to it as a place of "Splendid Advantages".
The following day the diary read, "On the 27th we started out from El Arroyo de San Andres toward the south and, after going one league while still on bottomland, crossed another rivulet with as much water as that of a mid-sized irrigation ditch [probably Spring Creek near Payson City Park], and wherever it goes it follows the lay of the land which a very good for farming. We continued south over the same bottomland for a league and a half, went through its southern pass - which we named Puerto de San Pedro [Utah-Juab County line] - and entered another spreading valley which, because the salt flats from which Timpanois provide themselves lie very close to it on the east, we named if Valle de las Salenas [Juab Valley]."
Although the explorers never reached California, they covered some 2,000 miles across the challenging terrain we now call the American Southwest.