Moab Museum | Moab Historic Figures
The island of Maui was ravaged by wildfires in August 2023, destroying the cultural center of the island, Lāhainā. While our towns are far apart, our histories are intricately tied together. Our thoughts are with the families of Lāhainā who have lost family members, friends, their community, their homes in the deadliest U.S. wildfire in…
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Compiled by Stephan P. Zacharias of Moab Museum On November 3, 1911 the headline of the Grand Valley Times proclaimed: “P. CROUT KILLED BY ACCIDENT” The following story reported that he died alone on the road to Moab about 3 miles north of the ferry crossing as he was returning to town from a business trip to…
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In the summer of 1913, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, along with his sons Archibald and Quentin, and his nephew, Nicholas Roosevelt, paid a visit to the natural bridges of San Juan County, Utah. The Times-Independent reported that well-known guide, John Wetherill would be expecting the Roosevelts at his home and that he would be guiding them to see…
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This September, Moabites and visitors have had the opportunity to experience a prominent Moab story in two very different ways: both through a Museum exhibit and as an opera. William Grandstaff was an early settler of the Moab region- a Black cowboy and frontiersman who once ran cattle in the canyon we today call Grandstaff…
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A deep dive into new insights about Grandstaff’s life The story of William Grandstaff, a Black frontiersman who once called Moab home, has long held a prominent place in our region’s history, and the incomplete record of his life in the Moab Valley has long invited question and controversy. Records recently uncovered by musician and…
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