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Near Montrose in Montrose County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)
 

The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition / Dominguez-Escalante Country

 
 
The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, July 8, 2018
1. The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition Marker
Fungus has overtaken this marker
Inscription.
The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition

Just south of here on August 27, 1776, the Spanish explorers Dominguez and Escalante met a Ute Indian whom they called El Surdo (The Deaf One). They were seeking a route west, the two Spaniards explained, and wanted information about the lands and peoples in that direction. El Surdo, however, was an unhelpful source. “We learned nothing new,” Dominguez wrote irritably afterward, “except to have suffered from the heat of the sun.”
Their sufferings were only beginning. Over the next five months, the two Franciscan priests and their ten-man expedition would endure heat, cold, thirst, hunger, and various other miseries as they wandered through present-day Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. They had left Santa Fe on July 29, 1776, hoping to find an overland route to California and thus link the two branches of Spain’s North American empire. This purely exploratory mission marked the Dominguez-Escalante expedition as unique; unlike most Spanish colonial expeditions, it sought no immediate military, religious, or metallurgical conquests.

The travelers followed the 1765 trail of an earlier explore, Juan Rivera, into present-day Colorado, then continued north through here, crossed the Colorado River near present-day Grand Junction, and eventually
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reached the Green River, where they turned west into present-day Utah. By late October, with California nowhere in sight, they decided to turn back, skirting the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley en route. By the time they returned to Santa Fe on January 2, 1777, Dominguez and Escalante had walked more than 1,700 miles. And though they did not reach California, they added greatly to the store of geographical knowledge about the West, describing and mapping thousands of square miles of previously uncharted territory. Later explorers, including the legendary John C. Fremont, would rely on Dominguez and Escalante’s discoveries.

[Painting of Grand Mesa]
By early September 1776, the party had reached the beautiful environs of Grand Mesa.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection

[Photo of the Colorado River]
In the late 1776, Escalante identified the Colorado River by its Ute name, translated as Red River; but also Rio Grande de Cosninas, and the San Rafael.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection

[Photo of cascading waterfall]
Of the La Plata River Escalante wrote: “[It] descends through the same canyon in which there are said to be veins and outcroppings of metallic ore….”
Colorado Historical Society

[Background Photo of Roan Cliffs]
The explorers
Dominguez-Escalante Country Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, July 8, 2018
2. Dominguez-Escalante Country Marker
Fungus has overtaken this marker
encountered the Roan Cliffs near present-day Debeque, Colorado, on September 5, 1776. Escalante described them as a “chain of high mesas, which are of white earth from the top down to the middle, and from the middle down evenly striated with yellow, white, and not too deeply tinged red ochre.”
Colorado Historical Society


Rear
Dominguez-Escalante Country
{Drawing of areas of the expedition}

 
Erected 1994 by the Colorado Historical Society, Colorado Department of Transportation.
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: ExplorationNative AmericansWaterways & Vessels. In addition, it is included in the Colorado - History Colorado, and the Dominguez y Escalante Expedition series lists. A significant historical date for this entry is January 2, 1777.
 
Location. 38° 26.135′ N, 107° 52.043′ W. Marker is near Montrose, Colorado, in Montrose County. Marker can be reached from Chipeta Road north of U.S. 550, on the right when traveling north. Located in area of the Ute Indian Museum. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 17253 Chipeta Road, Montrose CO 81403, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Pageant in the Wilderness (a few steps from this marker); Building An Empire: The Spanish Frontier
Marker amongst other plaques about the expedition. image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, July 8, 2018
3. Marker amongst other plaques about the expedition.
(a few steps from this marker); In Behalf of the Light (a few steps from this marker); So Bold, So Beautiful a Land (a few steps from this marker); The Ute Way of Life (within shouting distance of this marker); The Utes / Uncompahgre River Country / Ouray (1833-1880) / Chipeta (1843-1924) (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); The Hangin' Tree (approx. 0.2 miles away); Early Irrigation in the Uncompahgre Valley (approx. 1.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Montrose.
 
Also see . . .  Wikipedia article on the Dominguez–Escalante Expedition. (Submitted on July 16, 2018, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.)
 
The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, July 8, 2018
4. The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition Marker
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on July 16, 2018. It was originally submitted on July 16, 2018, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 351 times since then and 25 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on July 16, 2018, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.

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Mar. 29, 2024