n Western phrase, "demoralised," and proposed to cast lots to find
which should make food for the others, a proposition which horrified
Ashley, and he begged them to hold out longer, assuring them that the
walls must soon break and enable them to escape. They had not expected
so long a gorge. Red Canyon is twenty-five miles and, with the three
above, the unbroken canyon is about thirty-five miles. Under
the circumstances the canyon seemed interminable and the cliffs
insurmountable. The latter grow more precipitous toward the lower end,
and scaling would be a difficult feat for a man well fed and strong,
though well-nigh hopeless for any weakened by lack of proper food. At
last, however, an opening appeared. Here they discovered Provo encamped
with an abundance of provisions, so their troubles were quickly over.
The opening they had arrived at was probably Brown's Hole. There is only
one other place that might be called an opening, and this is a small
park-like break on the right side of the river, not far above Brown's
Hole, formerly called Little Brown's Hole and also Ashley Park. The
Ashley men would have had a hard climb to get out of this place, and
it is not probable that Provo would have climbed into it, as no beaver
existed there. It seems positive, then, that Ashley came to Provo in
Brown's Hole. Thus he did not "make his perillous way through Brown's
Hole," as one author says, because he ended his journey with the
beginning of that peaceful park. They lost two of their boats and
several guns in Red Canyon, and Ashley left there a mark to identify the
time of his passage. He wrote his name and the date, 1825, on a large
rock above a sharp fall, which was (later, 1869,) named in his honour.
I saw this inscription in 1871 and made a careful copy of it, which is
given here. See also the illustration of Ashley Falls on page 113. The
location of it is just west of C in the words "Red Canon" on the map,
page 109. In the canyon of Lodore, at the foot of Disaster Falls, we
found some wreckage in the sand, a bake-oven, tin plates, knives, etc.,
which Powell first saw in 1869, but these could not have belonged to
Ashley's party, for plainly Ashley did not enter Lodore at all. It was
evidently from some later expedition which probably started from Brown's
Park, in the days of Fort Davy Crockett.

* Wm. Henry Ashley, born in Virginia, 1778; went to Missouri 1802;
general of militia; elected first governor 1820; went in