These Came Through the Hole-in-The-Rock

By Marian Gardner Nielson

Published in Saga of San Juan 1968,

They came from the green hamlets and the secure villages,
These dedicated pioneers.
Who were plodding along the lonely trail of their beliefs.
The mocking mirages faded before them in the desert;
The icy pinnacles of stony mountains glared at them,
As they wallowed through the sandy washes
And rock-bedeviled canyons below.

Lack of food painted blue smudges on the faces of the hardy ones.

There was one patriarch in the company
With poor crooked feet--frozen on other starvation treks--
Who led the train with homely prayer and practical advice.



The dreamer saw spired cities and green ranches
Spread-eagled over the mesa and into the box canyons.
The explorer who came in late at night
Exhausted in body and spirit, huddled around the cow-chip campfire
And ate his cold flapjack
Alone.

The main body, virile in its youth,
Crawled along the canyon rim.
Young zealots with heads high, constantly checking
for lagging feet of barefoot children,
Or eyes straying in torment to a swaying wagon where illness lay,
Searching the buttes for a through break,
   the muddy waters for a fording place,
Confident in their manhood and the integrity of their quest
These pioneers prayed fervently,
And square danced as fervidly on the rocks at night camp.

These came through the Hole-in-the-Rock

Heritage and Horizons

By La Raine Redd

Published in Heritage and Horizons in San Juan 1975

Pioneer stalwarts struggled hard
To find this land where they could rest
And do the biddings of their Lord
Without fear of death or false arrest.

Through Hole-in-the-Rock the small group came;
They crossed deep gorges and sandstone buttes.
Meeting hardships of rough terrain,
They arrived in Bluff to face Navajos and Utes.

Since early times in San Juan's story
The Church has grown and the people prospered.
For a hundred years they've pushed to glory
And made this vineyard bloom, preferred.

What of horizons that before them lay--
The progress, achievements, the promises held?
It's up to us, their burdens fray
And build this land and make it yield.
Our future, as theirs, before us lies--
A responsibility to this heritage--
To grow, to build, to amplify--
Our hearts to praise and give patronage.

A Saga of San Juan

By Jeralyn Smith 12th grade

Published in Heritage and Horizon in San Juan

Heritage Arts Festival writing contest 1975

Silas Smith was called by Brigham Young

To lead eighty families to San Juan.

They left new homes just barely built,

To cross desert, canyons, and sage.

The task was hard and troublesome,

To those who knew Cedar as home.

The wagons were fixed and sturdy made

  to come to San Juan.

This unknown road was not a trail,

But to their home it could not fail.

Jens Nielson had courage to build a road

Where none but mountain sheep would go.

They caught the goal and used some blasts

To build a road where brave could pass.

The "Hole" was narrow rough and steep

But pioneers found land to keep.

It wasn't bush but barred and dry in San Juan

The families settled by and by.

No one complained, lost hope, or died.

The pioneers built many things:

A fort, a meeting house, a swing.

Again log cabins had been built

New blankets sewn made ready to quilt.

Their mission hard, was there to do

Befriend the Lamanites it's true.

They fed and huumored any Ute,

Although his manners weren't to suit.

Roving bands were hard to like

When they're fierce and come by night.

The natives soon found that

They could trust the Mormons in San Juan.

Milk cows and horses stolen were

So Haskell came to calm the stir.

He told them that they might die,

Some did and quilt their raids they'd try.

White criminals were also close

Which seemed to be a double dose.

But people lived amongst this fear in San Juan.

Small "cribs" were built to irrigate

With these, the folks could cultivate.

Joe Barton started running freight.

Platte Lyman, a store to accommodate.

But floods destroyed some parts of town.

While mail began some fears to drown.

Some families moved, but most stayed in San Juan.

As Fredric Jones built Monticello

Carlisle cowboys felt the blow.

They planned for bad but never would

Unnerve or kill this neighborhood.

Albert R. Lyman and his wife

Began Banding to start a new life.

But due to inspiration's help

They're safe in San Juan.

These pioneers showed lots of faith,

Determination, and a smiling face.

They conquered nature. Suffered through,

So we might live beneath the Blues.

Our Fathers had great courage, too.

They fought and died for us it's true.

They had "stick-to-it-ness"

Do you?

Trails Across the Desert

Map courtesy Hole in the Rock Foundation

By Josephine Bayles

Published in San Juan Centennial Sampler 1980


Foreword:  The following are words written when the horse back trip was taken to the Hole-in-the-Rock in September 1940.  I wrote the first verse, but several of us, including Casse Monson, wrote the 2nd verse.
It goes to the tune:  Covered Wagon Trails


There are trails across the desert,
There are trails across the sand,
There are trails the Piutes used to travel
As they traveled in a warrior band.
When the trails of Indians and of Mormons
Came together in this dreary place,
They made history in this San Juan County,
"Tis their trail that we came to trace.

Covered wagons furnished transportation,
Weary horses plodded through the dust;
They came willingly because they must--
Weariness and troubles oft beset them,
Of their praise we love to sing and talk;
'Tis of them we're thinking as we travel
Down their trail to the Hole-in-the-Rock.
Riding down trails made long, long ago
By our forefathers all,
Who had answered, as we know
Their own dear leaders' call.

Chorus:
Down a covered wagon trail,
Not a brave heart dared to fail,
Over bush and rock they rode
Each with an enormous load.
Though they're nearly all gone now,
To their memory we bow;
Now our voices let's raise,
As we sing to their praise
Down this old time wagon trail.