5. Monumental Highway & Rock Buildings

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

In this installment, the Motor Men of 1917 have reached Comb Wash, I was a bit uncertain how they got down to the wash, but no longer. A 1911 USGS mining report in Google Books cites a road that connected Bluff and Goodridge (Mexican Hat). It was built by the oil companies’ operating west of Comb Wash toward Goodridge. The road came by way of Navajo Springs. The springs show on old (and even some modern) maps as at the gap in Comb Ridge where US163 (and the old road) starts down into the wash on a long man made ramp. The 1932 GLO plat map also shows that as the route of the road.

 

Just before starting down the ramp westbound on US163 an old road enters from the north. It is the road that was followed by the Motor Men coming in from the Butler Wash crossing. It appears from other maps that this section of route was also followed by the Mormon “Hole in the Rock” pioneers of 1879 , but they were going north (along Comb Ridge) after the climb out of Combs Wash at San Juan Hill before turning west toward Bluff.

 

My feeling is that maybe the earlier posted photo of the Maxwell in 1916 climbing a very rough road was made in this trough, and it was certainly down this trough or gully that Dolph and Hopkins went to reach the gap at Navajo Springs.

 

I have posted a couple of videos of the map and gap

and

for your viewing pleasure.

 

I must digress a little here, for the benefit of anyone using General Land Office plat maps. The surveyors differed in the care they gave to the task, as might be expected. In the case of some of the plat maps in this area, they are pure fantasy within sections. The surveyor walked and chained the section lines, and therefore had to cross roads that crossed the section lines. So he was usually accurate along section lines. But within a section, he was apparently free to guess, or draw the road’s route wherever he felt like it.

 

That observation is important and easily demonstrated. For our purposes we can “trust” the plat maps at the points where roads crossed section lines, but they are highly, and I mean very highly, speculative within sections.

 

We must now leave Comb Wash going south-westward toward Mexican Hat. An early 1900’s article I read mentions a three times weekly stage between Bluff and Mexican Hat to serve the oil workers in the area. That probably means that Dolph and Hopkins followed a well established stage coach route in the Maxwell.

 

I have marked on a Google Earth map sites as identified in the log, and I have also marked where the probable old road crossed section lines (with a blue cross). The mileage is that in the log, and not on the ground today.

 

 

 

A look at Google Earth shows an old road bed quite well, and in this case your eyes are more helpful than the speculations of a surveyor who didn’t have a satellite view!

 

The first “landmark” in the log after Comb Wash is the rock cabin at 12.3 miles. The next map shows that site(s). The two possible sites can be reached by a short hike, or perhaps viewed with binoculars from the modern road.

 

 

At 17.0 Dolph and Hopkins started down an incline, which matches with the old road (see map)

 

They pass a “fine pyramid” on their “left” at 20.1 miles. The “old road” and modern US163 pass a prominent pyramid (see maps) which is on the right! But the plat maps shows the “old old road” to be where Dolph places it….no surprise there, but it cleared up what I though might be a confusion of right and left in the log.

 

 

The log observes that they are traveling in deep sand as they pass the pyramid. They were because they were traveling in a dry creek bed.

 

For the old alignment pros, a close look at Google Earth reveals a short curved section of the old old road at 37.222494, -109.823999 merging with a newer old road, and both merging with US163. The old old road Dolph describes followed the creek bed, and was replaced, perhaps in the 1930’s by the “old” road which is on or under the modern road as it passes the pyramid on the opposite side.

 

This last observation raises a question. Which of the old alignments did Dolph and Hopkins actually travel? There is the oil company road, built before 1910, and there is a publicly funded road built before the 1960’s which I’m thinking was built in the late 20’s or early 1930’s, and there is the modern road built probably in the early 1960’s, and no doubt improved since then.

 

What we have to fix the road Dolph took is his log and the plat maps. In the most probable view, I am following the 1930’s era road with my purple “pen”, because it left a clear track and lasting in the sand and rock. It is pretty evident that the 1930’s road was built to handle limited volumes of traffic, and there was no great investment in cuts and fills. So it probably followed the oil company road fairly well, for the obvious reason that the oil company (and the stage coach that traveled it 3 times a week) also had to follow the contours through the same area.

 

I have overlaid the 1909 plat map on Google Earth, and 8 out 9 section crossings (marked 09) are on or come very close to matching the line I have marked on the map in purple, which itself follows the visible road bed (probably 1930’s). So I am satisfied that the route taken by Dolph and Hopkins was on, or within sight, of the line I have drawn.

 

The 1911 plat map (surveyed in 1909) identifies the location of Raplee’s House (see map below). The Motor Men camped there (the first night out, I believe), beside the San Juan River. Dolph says in his memoirs:

 

“We returned to spend the night at Mr. Raplee's House on the banks of the San Juan River near Mexican Hat (Goodridge). During the Oil Boom of 1909, Mr. Raplee had built a very fine rock house, too near to the San Juan River. The Indians warned him and pointed to the marks on the rocks left by the high water in their lifetime. He ignored the warning and the house was completed, ready to move into - then came the high water. The house was so well built that it was not washed away, but was almost buried in sand. One room had been excavated and in this we spent the night.”

 

The possibilities that the house foundation still exists must be near zero, given the probable high water in the intervening years, but it would be worth a stop to take a look.

 

 

We will leave the Motor Men in this installment sleeping in the abandoned rock house on the San Juan.

 

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

[Alex Burr - hester_nec]

The Indians warned him and pointed to the marks on the rocks left by the high water in their lifetime. He ignored the warning and the house was completed, ready to move into - then came the high water. The house was so well built that it was not washed away, but was almost buried in sand. One room had been excavated and in this we spent the night.”

 

Always listen to the Indians - they were here first!!!

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

[mobilene]

Dave, this dissertation could earn you your Ph.D. in roadology!

 

I am following along, fascinated.

 

jim

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

Dave, this dissertation could earn you your Ph.D. in roadology!

 

I am following along, fascinated.

 

jim

 

 

Alex and Jim,

 

Thanks, guys! And don't hesitate to do some roadology of your own. The log is in post 1, and the road is there for all to see in Google Earth. I will also happily share the Google plat map overlays, road details and markers....but somone needs to tell me how to export just the Monumental Highway items as I also have US99 and National Parks stuff on the sidebar.

 

I would really appreciate any insights on the site of the Rock Cabin at 12.3 miles There should still be a footprint on the ground.

 

I was actually half way through my Ph.D. dissertation in the 1970's, but I went back to work and never finished....alas, one of two regrets in my life I hope I "finish" this one!

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!