Updates & Events
Fathers Escalante and Dominguez
Interest developed in the possibility of travel between Monterey, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fathers Escalante and Dominguez decided to try to reach Monterey by a northern route and left July 29, 1776 with a few men, herdsmen and a herd of cattle for food.
The party traveled north into Colorado, crossed into Utah near the present Dinosaur National Park, and continued down Spanish Fork Canyon to the present sites of Springville and Provo. Escalante wrote of the mountains, streams, the lake, abundance of fish, of the quality of the land, meadows, of the possibility of irrigation, of the numerous settlements which could be established and of the friendly Indians.
The exhibit continues with an account of exploration in the American Southwest.