Ran across these photos the other day of the "spanish" cross out on the Strip. The pictures aren't mine, a friend emailed them to me several years ago, but I thought I'd put them up to help remember old times.It's often forgotten that the history of the white man in Utah (and northern Arizona) didn't start with the Mormon pioneers. Fathers Dominguez and Escalante passed through the area in 1776 in a failed attempt to find a way from Spanish settlements in New Mexico to the missions in California. We know from the account of the expedition they passed north of Mt. Trumbull and just to the south of Kanab on their way back. Did some of their party venture down through Tuweep looking for a way across the canyon? Is this cross a sign of their passage?
Sadly, the cross is no longer there, or at least badly damaged (from what I've heard). Apparently, as news of the cross became more widespread it also became subject to rumors of Spanish gold buried beneath it or nearby. Subsequent digging and blasting have removed this intriguing symbol of another era.
Besides the cross itself, one of the things I remember most about going to see it was the huge number of broken arrowheads we found on our way to this little canyon.
2 comments:
I do remember going here with our family with Mom and Dad once. It's too bad that the cross has been destroyed. It's hard for me to imagine that people would be so thoughtless.
I never have been out there. Was working when you, Dad and Andy, I think went to see it. I remember Dad said that the BLM destroyed it to stop people from digging up the place. Anyhow I still think that it would be nice to go out there and see where it was. Andy said that it isn't too far from the road.
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