Dead Horse Point State Park is a Utah state park adjacent to Canyonlands National Park, featuring a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River. The park is so named because of its use as a natural corral by horse thieves in the 19th century. The plateau drops off with sheer cliffs several thousand feet tall on 6 sides, with only a narrow neck of land (300 yards or so) connecting the plataeau to the main plateau. Thus it was easy for rustlers to simply fence off this narrow neck, and keep their horses from running away. Unfortunately the dry desert conditions, lack of food and water, and limited space often killed the horses.

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Dead Horse Point State Park is a Utah state park adjacent to Canyonlands National Park, featuring a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River. The park is so named because of its use as a natural corral by horse thieves in the 19th century. The plateau drops off with sheer cliffs several thousand feet tall on 6 sides, with only a narrow neck of land (300 yards or so) connecting the plataeau to the main plateau. Thus it was easy for rustlers to simply fence off this narrow neck, and keep their horses from running away. Unfortunately the dry desert conditions, lack of food and water, and limited space often killed the horses.

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Dead Horse Point is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. The peninsula is connected to the mesa by a narrow strip of land called the neck. There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.

According to one legend, around the turn of the century the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

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