Page "Utah Lake" Paragraph 18

Franciscan missionary Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, while on his expedition in late summer and early autumn of 1776, was trying to find a land route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California.

Two Timpanogots from Utah Valley acted as guides for his party.

On September 23, 1776, the party traveled down Spanish Fork Canyon and entered the Utah Valley.

From Escalante's journal, he describes Utah Lake: " The lake, which must be six leagues wide and fifteen leagues long, extends as far as one of these valleys.

It runs northwest through a narrow passage, and according to what they told us, it communicates with others much larger.

This lake of Timpanogotzis abounds in several kinds of good fish, geese, beaver, and other amphibious animals which did not have an opportunity to see.

Round about it are these Indians, who live on the abundant fish of the lake, for which reason the Yutas Sabuaganas call them Come Pescados.

Besides this, they gather in the plain grass seeds from which they make atole, which they supplement by hunting hares, rabbits, and fowl of which there is great abundance here.

" Escalante named the lake Lake Timpanogos, after the tribe living in the area.

Escalante's record clearly distinguishes between this Lake Timpanogos, a body of fresh water that he saw and sized, and Great Salt Lake, which he did not see or name, but was described to him as a river " communicates with others much larger.

" The next recorded European visitor was Étienne Provost, a French-Canadian trapper who visited Utah Lake in October 1824.

The city of Provo and the Provo River are named after him.