There is a legend that Montezuma II escaped Cortes around the year
1521, and hid in a large remote canyon located in south-eastern Utah. 
He was supposed to have been caputred by his own azetc people and
killed near that canyon.  I am NOT INTERESTED in weather the legend is
true or false. I am interested in finding the most reliable version of
this legend.  A correct answer consists of leading me to a good
written account of the legend.  I
realize there are other Montezuma legends, but I am only asking about
the one which involves Montezuma Canyon,in south-eastern Utah.  Other
Montezuma legends are NOT a correct answer.

---

Clarification of Question by tibiaron-ga on 13 Feb 2004 19:52 PST

pinkfreud went directly to two references I had already seen.  Perhaps
a more detailed version doesn't exist.

Here's a brief version of the legend:

"The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez landed on the eastern coast of
Mexico in 1519 and conquered the Aztecs and other native groups. The
Aztec leader Montezuma was killed at this time, but later legends told
of his return and recapture in southern Utah. His name lives on in the
present town of Montezuma Creek, Utah, and that of his people in
Aztec, New Mexico. A motel in Bluff, Utah, embraces the myth with the
name Recapture Lodge. The name of Cortez lives on through the town of
Cortez, Colorado, just east of Montezuma Canyon."

http://historytogo.utah.gov/navajosut.html

A possible lead to the legend's origins:

"Montezuma Creek probably gets its name from the belief of the early
settlers in the area that a northern branch of the Aztecs built the
Anasazi ruins scattered across the landscape. Peter Shirts [or
Schurtz], who was in the area in 1877, thought that Montezuma, the
Aztec ruler, had escaped from Cortez, only to be recaptured and killed
here."

http://www.fourcornerssw.com/east_to_us_160.html

You may have better luck searching, using the original(and proper)
spelling of "Moctezuma". For some unknown reason, in English the name
has turned into "Montezuma"

The name might have something to do with the lineal descendants of one
of Montezuma's grandsons (through one of Montezuma's daughters, who
married into Spanish nobility). Joseph Sarmiento Valladares, Count of
Montezuma, was viceroy of Mexico 1697-1701. The legend might date from
that period.

hlabadie-ga