[Deseret]
Fathers Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Dominguez seek a new route from New Mexico to California and explore Utah.
[Source: History to Go, Trappers, Traders and Explorers, http://historytogo.utah.gov/timeline/trapperstradersandexplorers.html]
9 man party (including 2 priests mentioned above) explored 1700 miles thru present day Colo, Utah, Ariz, New Mex, in 158 days; start Santa Fe: 29 July 1776; finish Santa Fe: 2 Jan 1777.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: original party size = 10 men (2+8).
ReplyDelete5 Aboriginal Americans joined the party from Aug.14 to Sep.2.
Thus party grew to 15.
[Source: The Dominguez-Escalante Journal, Edited by Ted J. Warner, Translated by Fray Angelico Chavez, Foreword by Robert Himmerich y Valencia, (U. of UT Press, 1995)]