10 
A GAZETTEER OF UTAH. 
[bull. 166. 
parallel of 37° north latitude; west on this parallel to the thirty-seventh meridian 
west of Washington; north on this meridian to the parallel of 42° north latitude; 
east on this parallel to the meridian of 34° west of Washington; thence south to the 
forty-first parallel of latitude, and east on this parallel to the place of beginning. 
The area of the State is 84,970 square miles, of which it is estimated 
that 2,780 square miles are water surface, including Great Salt, Utah, 
and other lakes, and 82,190 square miles are land surface. 
EXPLORATION. 
From a very early time this region was traversed by Spanish cara- 
vans, traveling from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, Califor- 
nia. The old Spanish trail, which these caravans followed, entered 
Fig. 1.— Historical map of Utah 
Utah on the east near Dolores River, crossed the Grand near the 
Sierra La Sal, and the Green at the present crossing of the Rio Grande 
Western Railway. It reached the valley of Sevier River near its 
bend, and turning south followed its valley to the head and down the 
Virgin to a point near its mouth, whence it turned westward, runninj 
out*of the State near its southwest corner. This traffic, which at oik 
time was great, left, however, no trace behind in the form of a settle 
ment, and it was not until the hegira of the Mormans from the Mis 
sissippi Valley in 1847 that the present State of Utah received an; 
permanent inhabitants. 
The earliest recorded exploration of any part of Utah was a journe 
by two Franciscan fathers, Escalante and Dominguez, from Santa F( 
New Mexico, to the shores of Great Salt Lake, in 1776-77. So far i 
can be learned, their route followed in the main that of the old Spai 
ish trail, and it is not at all improbable that they were the pioneers 
laying out the western part of this route to Southern California. 
far as known, they were the first white men to visit the eastern pa 
of the Great Basin of Utah. This journey was not, however, frui.tf 
