Cultural History
The San Juan River canyon at Bluff, Utah has been home to people for 10,000 years, since the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age. Paleoindian hunters came through this area in search of large game, leaving behind camps with fine spear points and, possibly, representations of mammoth and giant bison etched onto the canyon walls.
Following the Paleoindian period and the extinction of large Pleistocene mammals (around 9,000 BC), Archaic hunter-gatherers created a variety of seasonal camps across the landscape. The Upper Sand Island rock art panel preserves examples of Archaic imagery that illustrate humans holding atlatls (dart throwers) and fending sticks.
Around 1500 BC Ancestral Puebloan Basketmaker people began to move into the area, followed by Pueblo people around AD 750. The Ancestral Puebloans brought agriculture, which enabled the formation of settled villages. Villages evolved from Basketmaker pit house settlements, to above-ground, small unit pueblos, culminating in large multi-storied dwellings, located on prominent landscape features and within canyon alcoves. During AD 1150-1300, Southeast Utah was largely depopulated, likely due to severe drought. The people migrated southwards to more reliable water sources such as along the Rio Grande River system in New Mexico and near perennial springs in Arizona.
Following the out-migration of Puebloan people, the Bluff, Utah area seems to have been largely unoccupied until the arrival of Numic (Ute and Paiute) and Dine’ (Navajo) in the 1500s. Both groups settled in and around the Bluff area, residing in seasonal camps and in settlements, up to and including the time of Euro-American colonization during the late 1800s. Due to conflicts among Euro-American settlers, Utes, and Navajos, in 1864 the U.S. Army was dispatched to the Four Corners region to relocate the Utes and Navajos to reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. The Navajos were released from captivity in 1868, and allowed to return to the “Paiute Strip” in Southeast Utah, which is now the Navajo Reservation south of the San Juan River. Ute families were allotted lands in Allen Canyon and on White Mesa, north of Bluff, Utah.
The small, agrarian community of Bluff City was settled by Mormon pioneers in 1880. At that time, the San Juan River was a wide, meandering stream, subject to flooding, which washed away Mormon fields. As a result, the settlers at Bluff changed to livestock grazing. The ensuing prosperity enabled them to construct large, elegant homes, which can be seen in the Bluff City Historic District. Bluff gradually transitioned and diversified towards an economy based on continued ranching and agriculture, minerals development, transportation, education, and tourism.
Suggested Further Reading:
Aton, James M. and Robert S. McPherson. River Flowing from the Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan. Utah State University Press, Logan. 2000
Hurst, Winston B., editor. Deep History: The Archaeological Record of San Juan County’s Early Inhabitants. Blue Mountain Shadows, Vol. 13, Summer 1994. San Juan Historical Commission, Monticello, Utah.
Hurst, Winston B., editor. Deep History II: San Juan County’s Archaeological Record. Blue Mountain Shadows, Vol. 44, Fall 2011. San Juan Historical Commission, Monticello, Utah.
Following the Paleoindian period and the extinction of large Pleistocene mammals (around 9,000 BC), Archaic hunter-gatherers created a variety of seasonal camps across the landscape. The Upper Sand Island rock art panel preserves examples of Archaic imagery that illustrate humans holding atlatls (dart throwers) and fending sticks.
Around 1500 BC Ancestral Puebloan Basketmaker people began to move into the area, followed by Pueblo people around AD 750. The Ancestral Puebloans brought agriculture, which enabled the formation of settled villages. Villages evolved from Basketmaker pit house settlements, to above-ground, small unit pueblos, culminating in large multi-storied dwellings, located on prominent landscape features and within canyon alcoves. During AD 1150-1300, Southeast Utah was largely depopulated, likely due to severe drought. The people migrated southwards to more reliable water sources such as along the Rio Grande River system in New Mexico and near perennial springs in Arizona.
Following the out-migration of Puebloan people, the Bluff, Utah area seems to have been largely unoccupied until the arrival of Numic (Ute and Paiute) and Dine’ (Navajo) in the 1500s. Both groups settled in and around the Bluff area, residing in seasonal camps and in settlements, up to and including the time of Euro-American colonization during the late 1800s. Due to conflicts among Euro-American settlers, Utes, and Navajos, in 1864 the U.S. Army was dispatched to the Four Corners region to relocate the Utes and Navajos to reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. The Navajos were released from captivity in 1868, and allowed to return to the “Paiute Strip” in Southeast Utah, which is now the Navajo Reservation south of the San Juan River. Ute families were allotted lands in Allen Canyon and on White Mesa, north of Bluff, Utah.
The small, agrarian community of Bluff City was settled by Mormon pioneers in 1880. At that time, the San Juan River was a wide, meandering stream, subject to flooding, which washed away Mormon fields. As a result, the settlers at Bluff changed to livestock grazing. The ensuing prosperity enabled them to construct large, elegant homes, which can be seen in the Bluff City Historic District. Bluff gradually transitioned and diversified towards an economy based on continued ranching and agriculture, minerals development, transportation, education, and tourism.
Suggested Further Reading:
Aton, James M. and Robert S. McPherson. River Flowing from the Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan. Utah State University Press, Logan. 2000
Hurst, Winston B., editor. Deep History: The Archaeological Record of San Juan County’s Early Inhabitants. Blue Mountain Shadows, Vol. 13, Summer 1994. San Juan Historical Commission, Monticello, Utah.
Hurst, Winston B., editor. Deep History II: San Juan County’s Archaeological Record. Blue Mountain Shadows, Vol. 44, Fall 2011. San Juan Historical Commission, Monticello, Utah.
