Item Detail
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30540
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3
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0
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English
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Monticello : The Hispanic Cultural Gateway to Utah
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Utah Historical Quarterly
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Winter 1984
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52
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1
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Utah State Historical Society
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9-28
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The first Hispanics to arrive in San Juan County were the men who came from northern New Mexico during the last decades of the nineteenth century to tend sheep owned by the Mormon settlers of the Bluff area. Since the latter had a somewhat limited knowledge of the sheep industry, men who were familiar with this type of livestock were needed; and the Hispanic New Mexican, who carried unbroken the sheep-raising tradition brought from Spain and introduced into New Mexico as early as 1598, was the one to fill that need. These men came on horseback from various New Mexico villages, a trip that took them about a week to make. They would usually work for eight or ten months at a time and then return home to spend a few months with their families. As some men returned to their villages to spend the winter, others would take their place, thus establishing a continuous flow of men over the two-hundred mile or so stretch of land. In time, a few of those who had traveled back and forth decided that they would stay to make their home and their future in a new territory. [Author]