Six Decker families made the Hole-in-the-Rock journey together, including fathers and grandfathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and their lives in and beyond Bluff reflected both endurance and loss. James and Anna Mickelsen Decker were camped at 50 Mile Spring before passing through the Hole-in-the-Rock when Anna gave birth to their third child during harsh winter conditions; she supplemented the family income as a seamstress, while James became Bluff’s first sheriff in a rotating position, farmed, ranched successfully, and served in county offices including superintendent of schools. James, Anna, and their 11 children were among the few families who remained in Bluff, but in 1901 a diphtheria outbreak devastated the community and killed James and four of their children. Nathaniel and Emma Morris Decker welcomed their second child within a week of arriving in Bluff, had four more children there, lost one after three days, and moved to Mancos, Colorado, in 1889, where they had three more children; Nathaniel chiefly supported the family by hauling freight. Peter and Harriet Decker Mickelson came to Bluff with an infant son, had three more children there and one in Manassa, Colorado, after moving in 1884, and Peter died of kidney disease in 1888 at age 29; Harriet later married John Gilleland in 1897 and had two children. Ida Dalton Mickelson married Peter in 1883, had a son born in Bluff, and sixteen years after Peter’s death married Joseph Macdonald, a widower with four children. Cornelius and Elizabeth Morris Decker traveled with two children, and Elizabeth wrote of their first conditions in Bluff, “We are all well and as dirty as pigs living in the dirt”; they had two more children there, moved to Snowflake, Arizona, in 1884, and of their 10 children, six lived to adulthood. Zachariah Jr. and Emma Smith Decker began the trek with five children after Zach took part in the initial five-month exploring expedition; after living at Montezuma Fort for a year they moved on to Snowflake, Arizona, where a diphtheria outbreak killed four of their children, and six of their 12 children lived to adulthood. Zachariah Sr. came on the San Juan Mission hoping to find grazing land for a special breed of horses, and his 15-year-old son George helped herd the company’s cattle to Bluff before returning to Parowan to help his mother; after one and a half years at Montezuma Fort, Zachariah Sr. also returned to his wife and home in Parowan.