Why this explorer’s carving on a Nice Salt Lake island rock is now on a historic register

HOOPER, Weber County — John C. Fremont and Christopher “Equipment” Carson left what’s now recognized as we speak as Fremont Island reasonably upset in 1843, however the ghost of Carson may not be upset to seek out that what he left behind is now an American treasure.

A cross that Carson etched in stone throughout a tour of the island practically 181 years in the past is now one of many latest additions to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. It joins simply the Fielding Garr Ranch on Antelope Island, Black Rock in Tooele County and the Ogden-Lucin cutoff trestle as the one websites throughout the Nice Salt Lake on the register.

“It is thrilling,” stated Marisa Weinberg, Nice Salt Lake coordinator for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fireplace and State Lands. “The cross is one thing that everybody asks about on the island. It is in all probability essentially the most sought-after web site to go to regardless of how troublesome it’s to entry.”

Carson’s cross

The story of Carson’s cross dates again to the expeditions that Fremont and Carson led in modern-era Utah again in 1843 and 1844, starting 4 years earlier than Mormon pioneers settled within the Salt Lake Valley. They had been the primary explorers of European descent to achieve and map many components of the state, together with what ultimately grew to become Fremont Island.

Nevertheless it’s truthful to say Fremont and his colleagues weren’t huge followers of the island again within the day.

On Sept. 9, 1843, months into the expedition, Fremont, Carson and some others boarded an 18-foot inflatable rubber boat and departed the shores of the Nice Salt Lake for an island that had captured their consideration, in accordance with Alex Baugh, a professor of church historical past at BYU, who wrote a bit on the expedition’s historical past.

The group had excessive expectations in regards to the journey, believing the island may very well be “an unique paradise,” College of Utah historians famous in “Saline Tales: An Oral and Visible Historical past of the Nice Salt Lake.” Baugh wrote that the crew spent “the higher a part of two days” exploring the island and making scientific measurements.

Touring the island dashed any hopes the group had. Fremont famously dubbed it “Disappointment Island” after the group encountered no wildlife, vegetation or indicators of life on the desolate island. By all accounts, Carson etched the cross on a rock simply to cross the time earlier than the group ultimately left.

“We ascended the very best mountain beneath (a) shelving rock (and) reduce a big cross which is there to today,” Carson later recalled.

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

He explored everywhere in the West earlier than he died in 1868. He is the namesake of Carson Metropolis, Nevada, and Equipment Carson County, Colorado, amongst different legacies. His dwelling in Taos, New Mexico was named a Nationwide Historic Landmark in 1963 and added to the historic register in 1966, the identical yr this system was created.

Preserving Carson’s cross

Whereas Fremont, Carson and others discovered their keep on the island disappointing, their enterprise proved to be important in historical past. Their findings helped map the Nice Salt Lake shoreline and Utah, which had been important instruments utilized by pioneers in settling the state.

This significance in state historical past sparked the efforts to incorporate the cross — a reminder of their quick island journey — within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

“Though it is a tiny etching in a rock (and) appears insignificant, it tells a narrative of the early explorer events that got here to Utah when it was simply utterly barren and open land,” Weinberg stated. “They paved the way in which for different settlers, such because the Mormon settlers to return out right here and make this place their dwelling.”

The hassle so as to add the cross to the registry solely began just a few years in the past as a result of the island had been privately owned for greater than a century up till November 2020. That is when a personal philanthropist with the Palladium Basis bought the island and donated it to the Nature Conservancy, which transferred it over to the Utah Division of Forestry, Fireplace and State Lands to handle beneath a conservation easement.

Weinberg stated the division first started working with the Utah State Historic Preservation Workplace on a cultural useful resource survey in 2021, the identical yr the workplace helped get Black Rock added to the register. The concept of including Carson’s cross to the federal record solely picked up steam because the state land managers compiled the 2023 administration plan for the island.

The group decided that getting it listed on the register was first step towards long-term plans to protect the location. She provides that she views the itemizing as opening the door “for us to raised defend it.” The division is weighing completely different prospects like new fencing or signage that may very well be added within the space.

Whereas Fremont Island is troublesome to entry, the aim is to protect the location so individuals who do attain it sooner or later can view one of many earliest items in trendy Utah historical past.

“It will be important for individuals to know that the historical past right here is wealthy and there is lots of people who handed by means of right here earlier than we had been capable of dwell right here as we speak,” Weinberg stated. “I believe it is vastly necessary to know that historical past to assist (us) recognize what we now have a bit of bit extra.”