SR 12 cuts a diagonal across Escalante from the middle of the city on the Eastern border to the Northwest section.

Mormon scouts looking for Black Hawk, a Ute Indian Chief, were the first to visit the Escalante valley or as it was called, Potato valley around 1866. They were followed by miners, trappers and survey teams. However, The first settlers came to the area in the Summer of 1875 from Panguitch. During the Winter that followed the men who first came here the men from Panguitch to gather up their families and return to the home sites which were created here. In the Spring of 1876 one family came to build their home here. With the physical barriers which existed in the area it took approximately ten years before the community was actually settled. Just a few mies North of Escalante you can find the Dixie National forest which is the site of the Aquarius Plateau rising to over 11 thousand feet. Trails winding through lava flows and thousands of pieces of petrified wood can be found in Escalante Petrified Forest State park first explored around 1872.

Hon. Elizabeth Ann Christensen