VIEWFINDER

A Hoax, 50 Million Years in the Making

IT WAS AN EPISODE so insignificant it barely registered a blemish on the enduring landscape. It marked a nanosecond on Earth's geologic timeline just like thousands of times before. Only this time there were witnesses. Bearing cameras. One of them chose to exploit his good fortune.

Monument Valley's heroic icons sit atop the southern crest of the Monument Upwarp for a hundred-mile stretch across the Arizona-Utah line. Erosion has gloriously exposed large blocks of sculptured sandstone with Anglo names befitting each formation, like Eagle Mesa, Bear and Rabbit, Rooster Rock, Elephant Butte, Totem Pole and The Mittens. From this indelible landscape, 50 million years in the making, comes the romanticized view of the mythical windswept buttes and spires of the American Southwest.

Only here, it's no myth. Crumbling monoliths scattered across the Colorado Plateau rise hundreds of feet from the desert floor, providing definitive images of the West depicted in movies, magazine ads and TV commercials. Monument Valley is familiar even to those who've never been there.

The lucky few tourists who were there at 12:45 P.M. on May 18, 2006, witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. A huge slab of East Mitten butte finally gave in to the effects of wind and weather, and came crashing down in a sandstone avalanche. The gentle forces of erosion scored another dramatic victory against the rock.

By all accounts it was a spectacular event, leaving in its wake barely a scar on the face of the vast plateau. Onlookers were awestruck, giving thanks to the heavens for being in the right place at the right time to witness this timeless occurrence. Among those present that day were Craig and Roylene Garrett of Madison, Wisconsin, and their guide, Kent Hugh. Roylene had the presence of mind to capture the avalanche on film and generously share the moment with the rest of the world (see opposite page).

Also present that day was another witness with a camera and a much different intent. This witness chose to perpetrate a hoax on the world. He couldn't resist spinning a false account of the incident in an e-mail message claiming East Mitten's "thumb" had collapsed, forever changing Monument Valley's most iconic view. He even went as far as attachingphotographs of a "thumbless" East Mitten to support his deception. It didn't take long for e-mail networks to spread the fraudulent message far and wide. Like an urban myth, the story grew as it circulated.

I first heard about it when the magazine's publisher called me into his office to show me a surprising e-mail he'd just received with the words "No More Mitten" in the subject line. Having dealt with Internet hoaxes before, we treated news of the fallen thumb with skepticism. But it looked so real on his computer monitor.

As the rumor gained momentum, my in-box filled with messages about the Mitten e-mail, all asking the same question: Can it be true? A call to the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park visitors center laid the hoax to rest. The thumb still stands. But as the bogus message continued to make the rounds over the next several days, the anonymous perpetrator must have enjoyed his brief moment of dubious renown. Who knows what hollow thrills he got from his infamy?

As geologic events go, this Monument Valley avalanche was no different than those witnessed by Ice Age Paleo-Indian hunters who inhabited the region about 10,000 B.C., Archaic hunter-gatherers around 6000 B.C., and Anasazi farmers in A.D. 1200. Except that their recording of such an episode was more likely to have been pecked into a rock.

Also I wonder if they embellished the story in their petroglyphs.