San Juan Hill
In April 1880, a group of Mormons tethered their tired horses at the future site of Bluff along the banks of the San Juan River. Nearby, they found only cottonwoods for construction; these trees, with their twists and knots, proved as unruly as the river that gave them life. But the Mormons improvised as best they could (McPherson 220).When the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers reached the top of San Juan Hill, blood and hair covered the rocks from their horses' knees and feet. They had dragged their wagons up San Juan Hill, ten miles down the San Juan River from Bluff. As they surveyed the country, they saw tall cottonwood trees with their branches hanging high over the land. Little puffs of ash-purple sagebrush poked out of the ground, barely higher than the rocks that lay in the sand which were still warm from the sun's rays. Running water could be heard from Cottonwood Wash and the San Juan River in the stillness of the wilderness. It is not clear how much attention the people paid to the scenery or if anyone even had a vision of what the land would be. But they decided to stop and spend the night. These people were exhausted; some were ill and weak from the strenuous six-month journey they had just completed. The Hole-in- the-Rock expedition was hard for everybody participating, and they gladly welcomed the moment's rest. They tied their horses to the cottonwood trees and made camp.
The covered-wagon camp soon to become Bluff gleamed with camp fires in the dark..... (Albert R. Lyman 1966: 17).
Jane Walton
Most of the pioneers who came through Hole-in-the-Rock were leaders who took a stand to make sure that Bluff succeeded. These leaders were in the forefront when Bluff took a stand against nature and economic disaster. Platte D. Lyman was the president of the Pioneer Company, and Jens Nielson was the Assistant President. In April of 1882, Lyman was President, and Nielson was Vice-President of the newly organized San Juan Co-op Store. Hans Joseph Nielson (Joe) was herding Bluff's horses when the first Piute fight began. He rode all night to keep out of sight and avoid rousing the Indians against Bluff. Joseph A. Lyman (Jody) was a martyr to the cause of law in San Juan (Albert R. Lyman 1980, 49). Kumen Jones was a scout that explored San Juan in 1879 because he could speak with the Indians. He was a Bluff Bishop and a Patriarch. Willard George William Butt (Dick) was the Sheriff of San Juan County when it was overrun with thieves. Jane Walton was at one time Relief Society President(Albert R. Lyman 1980: 110). Navajos murdered Amasa M. Barton when they robbed the Rincone Store. He was the first Mormon killed in San Juan County by the Indians. In 1882, the Bluff Ward called Thales Haskel and Kumen Jones to be missionaries to the Native Americans.
Amasa M. Barton
Many people believe that Bluff was established as an outlet for runaway criminals or polygamists. Others think that Bluff was settled to secure quality land.
Bluff was not settled merely to establish first claims on a desirable valley....Bluff was settled primarily to secure the San Juan area for the Mormon people and Territory of Utah (Hurst 3).Bluff was organized on April 6, 1880, and became the first town in San Juan County. Shortly after Bluff City was established, the people held a meeting to organize committees. They started one to build a ditch, and another to lay out the fields and town. Settlers built huts, dug ditches, and planted during the first month.
Shortly after they began planting, the settlers discovered problems with the ditch and climate that prevented any quality crops. The people became frustrated and threatened to leave. In September 1880, Marion Lyman, Erastus Snow, and Apostle Brigham Young Jr. went to Bluff and convinced the people to stay. These leaders sustained Platte Lyman as the first President of the San Juan Stake and Jens Nielson as the first Bishop of Bluff. Nielson chose L.H. Redd, Jr. and Kumen Jones as counselors.
Something, a supreme power of some type, had to step in there and help those people out....When you take ground with nothing but sagebrush and trees on it and build it into a fertile valley and raise your living on it, there had to be some other help from some source other than yourself to keep people on (Hatch 17).Maybe the settlers did have help, and maybe not, but they took a stand and tried to fulfill the goal of the San Juan Mission.
Everyone had a milk cow, chickens, and pigs. Families had on average ten acres of farming land. They used land for hay, gardens, and fruit. Everybody worked, but they were only subsistence farmers because the land wasn't good for crops and the river was at constant war with the planters.
In order to get water out of the San Juan River, the men went about three miles east of Bluff and made a grade for the water to go downhill. In 1881, William Hyde started a waterwheel for the farmers. It was sixteen feet high and drew 23,000 gallons of water per hour (Hurst 11).
By August 1880, the water had broken out of the ditch--a regular event still celebrated with much toil by those who tried to farm there--crops were drying up, and the settlers were discouraged. Some moved on (Hurst 10).When they first settled, the Mormons started to dig ditches for crops. But the crops were unsatisfactory, and by 1881, a new canal was required. But it was twelve to fifty dollars a rod, and
...the headgate of this ditch was located four miles above the town on a long stretch of slick rock. The builders hauled logs, brush, rocks, and earth to construct the rip-rap channel extending out into the river to divert the water. Three such walls allowed the water to be turned onto individual fields. Men cut cottonwood logs from the river's bank, using an estimated 1,000 trees which were woven into a framework to hold tons of rock and dirt (McPherson 227).
The next April, people began to plant for spring. They turned the water down the ditch, and by May the crops had succeeded.
In the spring of 1882, an irrigation company was organized and a ditch built. After traveling three miles through the new ditch, water reached Bluff on April 29, 1882 (McPherson 10). Though this wasn't the first time water had reached Bluff, the town celebrated its success. Before the artesian wells were discovered, the San Juan River was the only water they could use, but it was extremely sandy. When the river froze in the winter, the people cut the ice and hauled it to an icehouse. They packed the ice with sawdust from the mills, which kept it frozen throughout the summer until the river froze again. This was their refrigeration (Hurst 14)(McPherson 227).
Platte
D. Lyman
On May 6, 1882, the ditch washed out beyond repair. The community started over,
further upstream. The five-mile ditch lasted through the growing season, and
that year they
had success. Platte Lyman said, "The corn crop here is beyond all comparison
to the best I
ever saw anywhere (Hurst 14)." This was uplifting
compared to the single ear from the first crop.
In 1883 the settlers had more trouble with the ditch. The weather was so hot and dry that some people didn't plant until mid-July. The farmers thought their agricultural attempts had failed. Most of the farmers moved rather than start mining or raising cattle. The river rose seven feet more than usual in March 1884. Crops and house floors were covered with mud and sand. In April, Cottonwood Wash flooded again, tearing up the irrigation ditch and rip-rap dam. In May, the San Juan River rose two feet higher than it did in March. On the south end of town, water damaged houses, fences, crops, roads, and ditches.
Banks broke, ditches filled with sand, crops withered, taxes to support the effort increased, and stockholders appointed new leaders in an attempt to save the project. During the flood of 1884, the river carved up the canal, tore out the headgate, and covered what remained with sand (McPherson 227).The instability of the San Juan River was a major reason people left Bluff. Most of the attempts to tame the river had failed, and a solution continued to elude the residents of Bluff.
In 1894 it rained for a solid month, but in 1896 no water flowed in the San Juan during the irrigation season (Hurst 26).
Not only was the river a problem, but the climate was irratic as well. The infertile soil was sandy, and wood and water were scarce. In 1884, only about 700 acres of farmland remained that could be used for planting. But farming was not always bad; 1895 was known as the year of sugar cane. Yet the men continued digging ditches to the river.
Attempting to utilize the farm village pattern the Mormons had used to subdue desert oases elsewhere, Bluff's settlers struggled futilely to develop an irrigation system, watched as their limited land base washed down the San Juan River, and eked out an existence by grading railroad and freighting in the Four Corners area (Poll et al 380).
Due to the many problems with the river and the ditch, farming continued to be a constant battle, so the people of Bluff looked at cattle ranges as their only chance for survival. In the mid 1880s, people of Bluff started to emphasize livestock because of the frustrations with the San Juan River flooding their farming.
...favorable factors conductive to the development of the cattle industry included a low population base, with only a handful of settlements like La Sal, Bluff, and Monticello springing up in the midst of livestock country; unfenced lands for general use; good winter and summer ranges at various elevations that nurtured different types of forage that could be utilized during different seasons of the year; a growing railroad feeder system that made towns like Dolores, Durango, Mancos, and Montrose, Colorado, as well as Thompson, Utah, natural starting points for the cattle to be moved to eastern markets; and favorable prices at the stockyards. At its zenith around 1886, cattle could be sold for between $30 and $75 apiece, creating a substantial profit margin to facilitate restocking of the ranges (McPherson 173).
But the L.C.(Lacy Cattle) and Carlisle Companies already had large portions of the ranges. In 1885, the First Presidency of the Mormon Church called Frances Hammond to preside over the San Juan Stake. The Mormons turned to Hammond for help with their livestock. Hammond told them they could achieve success by making the industry Mormon-dominated. Bluff then established the Bluff Tigers' Cattle Company, sometimes called the Bluff Pool (McPherson 173). Hammond took 300 acres of farmland and switched it to livestock range. He attempted to claim all ranges for Bluff that hadn't already been claimed. He assigned riders from the Pool to patrol eastern ranges so the L.C. Company's livestock wouldn't graze on it. Hammond helped the Bluff Pool to petition the Territorial Legislature so that they could tax all stock coming from Colorado to Utah. Within one year, Hammond had turned Bluff into a stock economy.
Hammond and Edmund Carlisle had a discussion in May of 1887 when Carlisle ordered the settlers out of North Montezuma, and Hammond told them to hold their ground. A month later, Carlisle was issuing threats, and everyone on either side of the battle carried weapons. The conflict between the Bluff Pool and the larger ranches grew into a large legal battle in September. Carlisle filed claims and requested a date on which he could present his case to the court. He failed to go to the hearing and the claims were awarded to the Pool.
John Albert
Scorup
The early nineties were bitter, hard times for Bluff. Crops and range grasses suffered from drought. As a result, the Carlisle Company started to abandon ranges in 1892. John Albert (Al) Scorup began rounding up cattle and less accessible rangelands for the Bluff Pool. This Mormon cowboy saved his money and worked hard to hold out. His story is a symbol of dedication to San Juan. Almost every cattle company but the Bluff Pool was abandoned and dissolved in the late 1890s (Albert R. Lyman 1980: 177).
In 1895, Jens Nielson urged the co-op to sell their sheep. Due to the drought and the market slump in 1986, the Bluff Pool was becoming more individualistic.
Bluff had come of age in the nineties: by 1896 the old log school had been torn down and the 'new hygiene' was being taught to the ladies (Hurst 27)
Bluff was one of the wealthiest towns in Utah, per capita, of its time. L.H. Redd, Jens Nielson, and Franicis Lyman were the wealthiest men in Bluff. The people had made good investments in livestock, freighting, and oil. In addition to these factors, the gold rush brought new money into the town.
Bill Williams began the gold boom in 1892 that continued throughout that winter. Bluff flourished at this time with 40-50 gold seekers going through town a day. During the years of boom, Bluff was in the middle of the excitement. Thousands of miners passed through and demanded goods, so Bluff assumed a mercantile atmosphere. The town began to prosper, mainly because of prospectors who were en route to copper, coal, gold, iron, and silver mines that were discovered about sixty miles southwest of Bluff.
By comparing Bluff of 1886 to Bluff of 1892, we can see how the town prospered. People lived in log huts until Francis Hammond came in 1886 and helped them build stone houses with floors and shingle roofs. The stone houses were of better quality than the log cabins. They were stronger and lasted through most of the elements. By 1892, people were building a new church, school, and co-op store. In 1893, the new stone chapel was dedicated.
Bluff has changed a lot since Hole-in-the-Rockers arrived there and settled it. It went from being a poor farming village to a prosperous town that thrived in livestock and mining. The settlers had problems, but they were strong. Bluff flourished because of the people who united together and fought to make everything work. They attempted to tame the San Juan River and Cottonwood Wash so they could farm and raise cattle. In later years, after the original Bluff settlers had left or died, Bluff started to decline in riches. Bluff is a charming, beautiful town. It is a tribute to the pioneers who took a stand against all odds. In that light, Bluff will always be rich, and its heritage will forever stand strong.
Page designed by Matthew Little and Crystal Lacy
San Juan High School