Names are an interesting thing and the source of the name of Bryce Canyon National Park is very intriguing. We've highlighted this story before but it's one worth telling again. Ebenezer Bryce's historic cabin still stands in the town of Tropic, Utah Sometime in the late 1870's or early 1880's…
Cattle rustling, bank heists, train robberies…temptations were irresistible for some of the more unsavory characters who roamed the Wild West at the turn of the 19th century. Blazing the Outlaw Trail from Montana to Mexico, outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang often hid out in…
Escalante was one of the most remote towns in the U.S. when Everett Ruess arrived in November 1934. Riding in on a burro and leading another packed with his gear, the 20-year-old artist and poet from California had recently become captivated by the southern Utah red rock landscape. After a few days…
Capitol Reef Country's history is full of colorful characters. Napoleon Bonaparte Roundy, known as Pole to his friends and locals, was a "rough-cut" Mormon who was quick on the trigger and not afraid to show it. Napoleon (Pole) Bonaparte Roundy Born in Centerville on February 5, 1851 to…
Perhaps two of the most immortalized “Ebenezers”in namesake history are the infamous Scrooge, forever celebrated as the former miser who despised Christmas, and the lesser known, Bryce, the man whose name is responsible for characterizing the other-wordly rock formations and stark landscape of Bryce…
Dinosaur skeletal remains Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s fossil history dates back more than 75 million years, and many paleontologists believe that this vast 1.9-million acre area has the highest concentration of dinosaur fossils in the world. From dinosaur tracks to skulls…
The old post office at Widtsoe, Utah Widtsoe ghost town is located in John’s Valley, about 16 miles northeast of Bryce Canyon National Park near the East Fork of the Sevier River. The town was settled in the early 1900s by Jedediah Adair, and his success as a ‘dry’ farmer drew other settlers to the…
In the fall of 1879, Mormon settlers from St. George, Parowan, and Cedar City left to settle new territory in southeastern Utah at the request of LDS Church President John Taylor. The six-week journey turned into a treacherous six-month expedition, as pioneers endured 200 miles of grueling, rugged…
Winter in Bryce Canyon National Park Check out our new Bryce Canyon Country newsletter for winter 2011, with information on Bryce Canyon, Scenic Byway 12 - All American Highway, and on the western outlaw Butch Cassidy…
The Anasazi State Park Museum offers another opportunity to get up close and personal with Utah’s natural and human history. A museum houses most of the artifacts that have been found in this former Anasazi Indian village, which was occupied between 1050 and 1200 A.D. and is believed to be the…
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