Snowfield Monument "Franciscan Fathers"

The words on this monument are the friars' own. On October 13, 1776, the Domínguez-Escalante expedition — ten men looking for a route from Santa Fe to California — struggled south through this country and wrote it down. They had camped near Kolob, at a spot named for Our Lady of the Pillar, and that day they descended to Ash Creek, which they called the Rio del Pilar, and pushed on through a stony pass between sierras. Over the many stones, their diary records, they traveled "with great difficulty," halting in a pretty cottonwood grove they named San Daniel.

What the plaque says

October 13, 1776: "We set out southward from the small river and campsite of Nuestra Senora del Pilar ("Our Lady of the Pillar" – Kolob Canyon of Zion Canyon National Park)…" and…"We traveled a league and a half to the south, descended to the little Rio del Pilar (Ash Creek) which here has a leafy cottonwood grove, crossed it, now leaving the valley of the Senor San Jose, and entered a stony cut in the form of a pass between two high sierras…" "We continued without a guide, and having traveled with great difficulty over the many stones for a league to the south, we descended a second time to the Rio del Pilar and halted on its banks in a pretty cottonwood grove, naming the place San Daniel – Today five leagues south." Franciscan Fathers Atanasio Dominguez, Sylvestre Velez de Escalante and eight other members of a daring exploration party departed the Mision de Santa Fe, New Mexico, on July 29. 1776, in an attempt to establish contact with the Franciscan mission at Monterey, California. Following previous expeditions into the Spanish borderlands they were able to cross the Colorado River near Grand Junction, Colorado, and entered the unexplored regions of the Great Basin near Spanish Fork, Utah. They then proceeded southward along the Wasatch Mountains expecting a westward flowing river that would eventually take them to the Pacific Ocean. Disappointed and facing the reality of winter snows they "cast lots" at a point near Cedar City, Utah, on October 11, 1776, and elected to return to Santa Fe by a southern route. Their encampment here at "San Daniel" represents the first recorded entry of non-native people into Washing County, Utah. The Fathers arrived back at the Santa Fe Mission on January 2, 1777, having traveled over 1800 miles and recording one of the greatest explorations in American history. Their observations and maps were instrumental in the opening of the American Southwest to further exploration and commercial use of the National Historic Old Spanish Trail.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kolob Canyons — 7.7 mi
  The quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park
• Hurricane Canal Trail — 13 mi
  The hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
• Zion National Park — 14 mi
  Towering sandstone cliffs that glow like fire at sunset
• Grafton Ghost Town — 17 mi
  A photogenic ghost town used in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

More markers nearby

• Toquerville Veterans Memorial — 7.4 mi
• Toquerville — 7.4 mi
• Southern Indian Mission — 8.4 mi
• Fort Harmony — 8.4 mi