The Legend of Dead Horse Point

The Legend of Dead Horse Point

Around the turn of the last century, wild mustangs roamed the mesatop around Dead Horse Point. Cowboys were always looking for ways to catch these sturdy, fleet-footed equines. One of the best ways they found to capture the clever beasts was to herd them into a trap such as a box canyon.

Dead Horse Point was a custom-made horse trap, like a box canyon only in reverse. With sheer cliffs straight down on all sides and only a narrow strip of land for access, it made a perfect place to keep horses. All the cowboys had to do was herd the horses across the neck and out onto the “point.” They would then build a fence of pinyon and juniper branches across the neck and they had a natural corral! Here the cowboys could sort through the horses, choose the ones they wanted, and let the culls or “broomtails” go free.

Legend tells that one time a band of broomtails was accidentally left corralled on the waterless point. There the horses died of thirst within a view of the Colorado River. The 2,000 feet to the river must have seemed like 2,000 miles.