Legend has it that Dead Horse Point was so named because the ranchers in the old days would use it as a natural corral - they'd herd livestock onto the peninsula and because of the sheer drops the whole way around (1000 feet or so, into the Colorado River canyon), they'd only need to fence the narrow neck at one end to contain them. According to the legend, the mean, uncaring, lazy cowboy-types herded a pile of horses on to the neck one time and forgot about them and they all died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River far below.

Patrick knew better though. He knew that if I had to keep thinking about that legend, I'd be whining the whole time we were at Dead Horse Point and he wouldn't get any peace. So he assured me that that was only *one* of the legends, and that, probably, in actual fact, someone once found a dead horse there that had died of natural causes, being old and near the end of its life and tired. But that they couldn't really call Dead Horse Point "Place where someone once found a dead horse that had died there of its own accord because it was a bit old", so they made up the other story.

Patrick is wise.