William Grandstaff
William Grandstaff was an American cowboy and frontiersman who lived in Ohio before settling in Utah Territory and Colorado. Born into slavery, verified information about Grandstaff's life is sporadic, but he's believed to have been pressed into the service of the Black Brigade of Cincinnati during the Civil War; to have been one of the first non-indigenous settlers of Moab, Utah; and to have been well-respected in his community when he died near Glenwood Springs in 1901. He is the namesake of Moab's Grandstaff Canyon, and in recent years has received renewed attention from historians and artists.
Life
William Grandstaff was born into slavery at some point during the 1830s or 1840s. Differing records mark his place of birth as either having been in Viriginia or Alabama. He is thought to have been of mixed race. He either escaped or was released from slavery at some time during the 1850s.Grandstaff moved to Cincinnati and married a woman named Isabella Bond in 1857, with whom he had two children before divorcing by 1868. During the Civil War, Grandstaff was a member of the Black Brigade of Cincinnati, a military unit composed of forcibly conscripted African Americans that was the first of its kind organized by the Union Army. Since the Confederate Army never directly assaulted Cincinnati, the unit—and presumably Grandstaff—never saw combat, although Grandstaff would likely have been engaged in rigorous work aiding the construction of fortifications surrounding the city.
Following a possible foray in Omaha, Grandstaff traveled to Utah Territory in 1877, where he occupied the by-then abandoned fort of the Elk Mountain Mission, a Mormon settlement in present-day Moab whose original inhabitants had been driven out by the local Ute people in 1855 when the former attempted to usurp land of key agricultural importance to the latter. There, Grandstaff rounded up stray cattle and kept them penned within the slot canyon that would later bear his name, farmed, and traded. He also may have brewed his own alcohol and traded it to the Ute, who purportedly took a substantially greater liking to Grandstaff than they had ever had to Moab's earlier white and Mormon settlers.
At some point, Frenchie possibly attempted to murder Grandstaff, after which the former fled the fort. By 1881, Grandstaff had also moved out of the abandoned fort to settle a ranch on a patch of land adjoining a natural spring, on which he constructed a collection of dwellings that stand to this day. The same year, a battle broke out in nearby Castle Valley between newer white settlers and a small coalition of Ute and Paiute warriors. The fight was essentially a victory for the indigenous, who lost only two men, whereas ten white gunmen died. The white posse also nearly came into conflict with a few companies of Buffalo Soldiers during their return journey from the battle. Prior to the shootout, angry rumors about Grandstaff's putative bootlegging to the local Ute had already begun to mill around what was by then the town of Moab. In the aftermath of the violence, fearing he would be used as a scapegoat for the whites' defeat in battle and lynched, Grandstaff fled Moab; his flight was so hasty that he was reportedly forced to leave his cattle behind.
Grandstaff moved to Salida, and then to Glenwood Springs, where he came to live in a cabin atop nearby Red Mountain, from which he engaged in prospecting. In Glenwood Springs, Grandstaff married again, opened a saloon, ran a hot springs, mined, and in 1889 was on the ballot for the town's election for constable, by which time Grandstaff was a long well-known and appreciated member of the community. Grandstaff apparently became somewhat withdrawn after his second wife died in 1895, and although he remained involved in local affairs, spent increasingly long periods alone in his mountain cabin. In 1901, after a particularly long absence from town, a local boy was sent up to Grandstaff's cabin to ascertain his whereabouts; there Grandstaff was found dead of natural causes. William Grandstaff's funeral was well-attended, and was reported in the local newspapers as emotionally impactful on members of the community.
Legacy
Recent research into the life of William Grandstaff has been divulged by genealogist Nick Sheedy and shared by historical associations in Utah such as the Moab Museum.The Grandstaff trail in Glenwood Springs runs in the area of Grandstaff's Red Mountain cabin.
Grandstaff's old ranch dwellings are maintained by Moab Springs Ranch in Moab, Utah.