The Great Delta Gateway From Juan Rivera in 1765
to the Modern Search for Robidoux’s Post
The Interpretive Association of Western Colorado is pleased to present Steven G. Baker, of Centuries Research, Inc. Mr. Baker will give a lecture about the Great Delta Gateway from Juan Rivera in 1765 to the Modern Search for Robidoux’s Post, Monday March, 9th, 6:30 pm at Bill Heddles Recreation Center, 531 North Palmer Street, Delta, CO.
The lecture is FREE and open to the public.
Munch of this information has never been revealed to the general public and corrects some deeply held though erroneous, beliefs. One of the great historic travel gateways of the American West, and particularly Colorado, existed on the Gunnison River in the near vicinity of Delta. Although the Delta area has long been recognized as an important nineteenth-century travel gateway on the North Branch of the Spanish Trail and the Salt Lake Wagon Road, the story of this gateway commenced in the depths of prehistory and factored heavily into the earliest useful descriptions of Colorado. For nearly forty years, the Uncompahgre Valley Ute Project has, as a public service history and archaeology program, quietly studied the history of many lessor known aspects of the early history of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison River drainages. Much of this work has focused on events which occurred along the Gunnison in the vicinity of Delta. These efforts have included a study of the Navajo-Uncompahgre Trail which has never before been recognized even though it long predated the North Branch of the Spanish Trail. In 1765 Juan Rivera led his company of explorers to the Roubideau Bottoms just west of Delta. In 1776 Fathers Domíguez and Vélez de Escalante also arrived at the Delta gateway as they sought to reach the legendary province of Teguayo in northwestern Utah and complete Rivera’s failed mission. In this heavily illustrated lecture, local archaeologist and historian, Steven Baker, will describe the Navajo-Uncompahgre Trail, chronicle the travels of Juan Rivera and others into the Delta area, and discuss his ongoing- though now seemingly successful- search for the elusive trading post of Antoine Robidoux. These include an entirely false notion that Juan Rivera traveled to Moab, Utah instead of Delta, Colorado.Steven G. Baker (b. 1945) has served as founder, president, and principal investigator of Centuries Research, Inc. of Montrose, Colorado since 1977 and is the director of the local Uncompahgre Valley Ute Project. He was trained in anthropology and archaeology at the University of Kansas (B.A. 1968) and in American colonial history (University of South Carolina (M.A. 1974)
A replica of Roubidoux’s Post (Fort Uncompahgre) built in the late 1820’s is located in Confluence Park across from Bill Heddles Recreation Center. The Interpretive Association of Western Colorado will be taking over the operations of Fort. The association is looking for part time volunteers to manage the Visitor Center and help in the gift shop. For more information on how you can get involved with the future operations of the Fort please contact Chris Miller, Executive Director, Interpretive Association of Western Colorado @ 970-874-6695 and request a Volunteer Application. For more information go to www.interpcolorado.org