Context: The ranch mentioned here is near where he vacations in Utah with his family. This story was initially told to him by the owner of the ranch, who he described as being like a second mom to him. The valley mentioned in the story is the Heber Valley in Utah.
Text:
“So this story is about a Native American tribe, well actually two native American tribes, I wish I could remember the names of them. So, this story is regarding this mountain in the Heber Valley, which is called Mount Timpanogos. And, if you look up pictures of this mountain, it looks like a silhouette of this woman laying down on her back with her arms laying over her chest. Her head is on the left side and her feet are on the right. The story goes that she fell in love with this guy from a different tribe, from a different native american tribe. Her dad was the leader of the tribe she was a part of and her dad wanted her to marry someone from her tribe, to keep her tribe together or for whatever reason. And she was like no i really love this guy I really want to marry him. So, they came to the conclusion that they’d host a competition to see who can marry the leader’s daughter. The competition was whoever can get to the top of mount Tipanogos would win and get to marry her. So they started the competition and they were racing up and it turns out the guy from her own tribe and some of his friends cheated and threw the guy she really loved off the mountain. Little did they know, she was sitting right there watching it all happen. She watched the love of her life get thrown off this mountain. The story goes that she died of a broken heart on top of the mountain. There’s a series of caves in the mountain now, with a series of crystals in the center of the mountain resembling a heart, her heart. And in the winter, when the snow starts to melt, there’s a silhouette in the snow of her horse on the right side of the mountain.”
Analysis
This piece of folklore is a good example of a local legend specific to this area. The reason this is a legend and not one of the other tale types is because it is possibly based in truth and reality and it takes place in the real world. Additionally it is aligned with the folklore based on geological anomalies such as this mountain that looks like a woman.