Lake Powell

In January 1880 a Mormon expedition lowered 83 wagons down a crevice in the canyon wall to the Colorado River, which is now under this lake.

They had 250 people and more than a thousand head of livestock, and they were looking for a way east across country nobody had a road through. The crack they found was narrow enough that a man could barely get through it. They spent weeks widening it with blasting powder and hand tools, cutting anchor points into the sandstone and laying a wooden track on the slickrock below.

The wagons went down roped, held back by men and oxen, on slopes approaching 45 degrees. Nobody was killed. Two children were born on the way. They founded Bluff in April.

The route was used as a supply road for about a year before an easier crossing replaced it. Roughly a third of it is under water now. The bottom end is buoy 66.