<\/p>\n
Most people in Dolores have heard of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition, the Spanish explorers who came through the area in 1776 and named the Dolores River.<\/p>\n
But few know about Miera y Pacheco, a famous artist and mapmaker who accompanied the Spanish priests on their quest to find a route from the missions of Sante Fe, N.M., to California.<\/p>\n
The story of Pacheco\u2019s life and his art was recently told by Dr. John Kessell, an author and professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico.<\/p>\n
Pacheco Miera was a sculpture, painter, and cartographer, the latter of which was during the days when people were so convinced there was a river from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean that they drew them onto maps, even though they were never found.<\/p>\n
Kessell is campaigning to have Utah Lake near Provo renamed for Miera, who created a map of the expedition that included one of those rivers conveniently flowing west from the lake toward the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Now the Spaniard\u2019s maps adorn museum walls, and his sculptures are featured at the Church of Cristo Rey in Santa Fe and at the Zuni Pueblo visitors center.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach map was more artistic than the last,\u201d Kessell says. \u201cBack then, this area was not Mexico or America, it was New Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miera, at age 63, dutifully recorded the \u201cdiscoveries\u201d made by the expedition, including the Piedra River, which means Standing Rock in Spanish. It was named for nearby Chimney Rock. He accurately recorded locations of the Los Pinos, the Florida, the Animas, and the Dolores Rivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they got to the Dolores, Miera rode on ahead and disappeared into Summit Canyon and was missing for some time,\u201d Kessell said. \u201cThey named it Miera\u2019s Labyrinth.\u201d<\/p>\n
They continued onto the Green River and to modern-day Provo, where Miera wrote that the view \u201cwas the most pleasing and beautiful sight in all of New Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Provo, the group surmised they had 340 more miles to the coast. Actually, it was twice that far, \u201cand nobody knew about the Sierra Madres at the point,\u201d Kessell says.<\/p>\n
Against Miera\u2019s wishes, they turned back toward Santa Fe, meeting Utes along the way and traveling through Hopi country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did not reach Monterey, and their preaching had scant affect during the four-month horse-pack trip,\u201d Kessell continues.<\/p>\n
Upon meeting the Colorado River at a point now under Lake Powell, the expedition took 12 days to find safe passage. And then Miera became ill from the hot weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the charity of the Paiute tribe that healed him,\u201d Kessell said. \u201cIt was the first time Indians had seen Spaniards this far West.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miera and his original maps of the area survived, although with some now amusing distortions. The Green River for example is shown on the western side of the Wasatch Range. And then there are those wishful rivers flowing to the Pacific for which boat building supplies were carried for on the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were going to paddle from the Great Salt Lake, to L.A.,\u201d Kessell joked. \u201cIt was not until 1845 when maps showed no river. It is interesting the long the influence of the Miera maps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miera did however debunk the belief at the time of a great inland sea in the Western half of the soon to be U.S. territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat had been appearing on French maps, was actually dry land,\u201d Kessell says.<\/p>\n
Miera\u2019s maps had the panache of an artist, featuring leaping buffaloes, scenes of native peoples, and religious art. A copy of Pacheco\u2019s 1776 map is on display at the British Museum. Much of the Southwest is labeled by Spain as the Quivira region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not rename Utah Lake Laguna de Miera,\u201d Kessell concludes. \u201cHe deserves commemoration.\u201d<\/p>\n
His recent book on the subject is called Miera y Pacheco: A Renaissance Spaniard in Eighteenth-Century New Mexico.<\/p>\n
Kessell\u2019s presentation was sponsored by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Southwest Colorado Canyon\u2019s Alliance.<\/p>\n