Robber's Roost/Under the Ledge Ranches: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Canyonlands National Park
Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2012. Robber's Roost/Under the Ledge Ranches: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Canyonlands National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975802. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Intermountain Regional Office, Santa Fe, New Mexico / CRIS-CL Database
The Robbers Roost/Under the Ledge historic ranchlands encompass over 900 square miles in southeast Utah between the Green, Colorado, and Dirty Devil Rivers, including land in Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and adjacent Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), and private lands. The desert landscape includes deep canyons, wide open pastures, pinion and juniper forests, and sand dunes, all at an elevation of 4,000-7,100 feet. The landscape comprises the ranchland of four families (Biddlecome/Ekker, Tidwell, Chaffin, and Moores) with the period of significance beginning in 1870 with Cap Brown reportedly constructing a series of corrals on Twin Corral Flats, near the southernmost breaks of Horseshoe Canyon. The period of significance ends in 1974 when Canyonlands National Park began phasing out grazing allotments within the park. As extensive ranchland, the area includes numerous buildings, developed water sources, and trails. Although some landscape features were originally developed by oil and uranium prospecting expeditions, they were eventually reconfigured or adapted by ranchers for the purpose of raising livestock. The remnants of constructed resources within the area reflect the extraordinary efforts made by ranchers to thrive in an area avoided by earlier settlers. While the earliest Euro-American settlers thought the land too remote and inhospitable, the Biddlecome, Chaffin, Moore, and Tidwell families built resources necessary to live and work in this desert environment for several decades. Resources within the project area are significant under Criterion A for Subsistence Ranching (Agriculture) and Exploration/Settlement, Criterion C for Vernacular Architecture, and Criterion D for Archeological Resources found within the landscape. Though time and the elements have taken their toll on a number of features and sites, many structures within the landscape retain integrity. NOTE: Since this cultural landscape includes multiple jurisdictions, this database version of the CLI only includes those features within the boundaries of Canyonlands National Park.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2012-10-09
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- CANY , IMR
- Keywords
- agriculture, archeology, circulation, corral, exploration/settlement, fencing, grazing, historic vernacular landscape, livestock, oil company, ranch, subsistence ranching, trough, vernacular architecture, water collection, water features