A Monument to Those Who Went Before

"But why," asks almost everyone who has had opportunity to visit any section of the Monument, "are there so many of these arches in this particular area? And how are they made? They look as if they had been chiseled out of the rock by men and machinery."

Geologists answer both questions with the explanation that various forces of Nature have been active in this region for hundreds of thousands of years. The formation in which the arches develop is known by geologists as the Entrada Sandstone, a massive deposit of consolidated sands in many places more than 300 feet in thickness and covering a widespread area. During its consolidation and uplift, the Entrada Sandstone was broken by two series of master joints, or cracks, crossing each other at right angles. These cracks are approximately 20 feet apart and run through the entire thickness of the sandstone mass. Throughout the centuries water from rain and melting snow entered these cracks and dissolved the cementing materials of the sandstone, loosening the sand grains and widening the cracks.

Running water, bitted with the particles of sand and gravel, followed the parallel cracks, further enlarging them until they eventually became deep, perpendicular-walled gashes with thin, vertical rock masses, or fins, rising between them. Some of the fins were 150 feet in height, many of them over 100 feet. Water entered the other set of cracks and gradually enlarged them. Freezing and thawing pried loose slabs and chunks of rock which were undermined and fell away. Finally the fins became so thin in places that holes or windows appeared. The inexorable processes of weathering continued, making the openings larger and larger. Exfoliation, decomposition of the exposed surfaces, and polishing by wind-blown sand served to wear off the angles and smooth away the rough corners.

Less than 100 miles away, air line, to the south, are the three great stone girders of Natural Bridges National Monument. Although they, too, are the products of erosion, some of the processes by which they were formed are quite different than those which created the arches. Technically, a natural bridge is a span over or a passageway across a barrier or obstruction, whereas a natural arch or window is an opening through a barrier. But whatever the technical difference, the fantastic stone figures of Arches National Monument and the massive grandeur of the Natural Bridges are works of Nature unduplicated in such lavishness elsewhere in the world, With Rainbow Bridge to the southwest, and still other but less widely known and publicized erosional spans gracing some of the thousand canyons of the Escalante Wilderness, the silent but ever-grinding Colorado with its helper tributaries is rightly named "Sculptor of the Wastelands." But can they be justly called "wastelands," for they are waste-lands which seemed destined to prove to be the most valuable tourist-attracting features of the entire Southwest.

From either southeast or northwest, the approaches to Natural Bridges National Monument, south of Arches, lead the tourist-who-can-take-it through some of the most remarkable slickrock scenery in the United States. Blanding, the eastern gateway to "The Bridges," is approached from the north via Moab and Arches National Monument; from Colorado via Mesa Verde National Park; and from Arizona through the boundless open spaces of the Navajo Empire punctuated with the towering red stone temples and spires of Monument Valley. Hanksville, the western gateway, is the eastern extremity of the Wayne Wonderland which includes Fishlake National Forest, Capitol Reef National Monument, and the weird and colorful geological manifestations of the Water-pocket Fold.

The Natural Bridges themselves are a breathtaking climax to unsurpassed scenic surroundings in a setting of rockribbed grandeur impossible to describe. Although of magnificent proportions, their symmetry of form, sanded smoothness of finish, and position of almost retiring insignificance hidden, as they are, deep in the meanders of gargantuan canyons, themselves mere wrinkles in a gigantic geological jumble, make them appear as highly-polished gems or jewels rather than as massive structures of solid stone each weighing thousands of tons.

In the words of the geologist whose measure of time is millen-iums, not minutes, the great natural bridges of southeastern Utah simply "represent stages in the elimination of meanders within streamcut canyons." In this same slickrock region are the buttressed remains of similar bridges which have long since been destroyed by weathering and erosion, and evidences of others yet unborn whose embryonic forms are recognized only by the trained eyes of those who know what Time, running water, and gravity working together in the massive layers of Cedar Mesa Sandstone inevitably produce.

Of the three great spans of Natural Bridges National Monument, Owachomo illustrates best the thin, weak girder character-istic of advanced age. Kachina, on the other hand, is a mere infant and demonstrates the angular awkwardness and lack of polish associated with adolescence. Sipapu, in the prime of life, rises in a symmetrical arch; its graceful girder 53 feet thick at its thinnest point, giving an impression of sturdy strength that belies man's knowledge that the silent but persistently destructive activ-ities of Time and Erosion eventually will bring even this massive giant to a crashing end.

Who first saw the Natural Bridges? Long-abandoned ruins of prehistoric Indian structures, locally called "Moqui Houses," occur in caves and on ledges throughout the canyons in the immediate vicinity of the bridges. Undoubtedly these people, whom archaeologists believe were the ancestors of the present-day Hopis of northern Arizona, looked upon the massive stone spans with the same feeling of awe with which we view them today. Utes, Paiutes, and Navajos have roamed this land for centuries and they, too, knew the bridges. It is possible that prospectors and trappers from Colorado, pushing westward into the slickrock labyrinth of canyons and mesas threading the Escalante Country, may have gazed upon these carvings of Nature as early as 1870. However, the first verified report about them was that made by a prospector and riverman, Cass Hite, who was guided to the bridges by a Paiute called Indian Joe in 1883. Hite named the bridges President, Senator, and Congressman. Impressed by Hite's report, James Long, a mining engineer, visited the bridges in 1903, guided to them by a cattleman, James Scorup, who had first seen them in 1895. Long named the bridges Augusta, in honor of his wife; Caroline, for Scorup's wife; and Little Bridge. Reports of Long's visit which were published in the Century Magazine of August, 1904, and the National Geographic Magazine of September, 1904, brought the existence of these great works of Nature to the attention of the world. Aroused by these articles, the Salt Lake Commercial Club in 1905 sent an expedition to photograph and describe the bridges. This expedition changed the name of Little Bridge to Edwin. In 1907, the University of Utah sent an expedition, headed by Byron Cummings (credited with being the first white man to see majestic Rainbow Bridge in 1909), to make a thorough study of the Bridges and the country surrounding them. As a result of these various expeditions and the ensuing publicity given the bridges, the three great girders of stone and their immediate surroundings were proclaimed Natural Bridges National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt on April 16, 1908. Immediately following issuance of the proclamation, an official survey was ordered by the Commissioner of the General Land Office; this survey being carried out during the summer and fall of 1908.

If God delegated to Nature the privilege of carving out the Natural Bridges as a silent yet impressive illustration of the power of Time, Erosion, and Gravity, He could not have selected more impressive surroundings. Perhaps the tourist who finds the journey through slickrock country laborious, and who chafes under what he considers hardships of a region devoid of the habitations of man and the ministrations of civilization, may mutter something about this God-forsaken land. He rounds a corner and there, rising before him in all of its clean-cut, gem-like perfection stands Owachomo; a mighty, symmetrical, awe-inspiring span smoothed and polished as if finished only yesterday. The Great Sculptor cannot be far off, and he who a moment ago cursed this God-forsaken land finds himself glancing about, half expecting to see the Creator Himself resting on a rock while He gives His handiwork a final critical inspection. God, suddenly, seems very close; and you find yourself wondering if, perchance, He has not actually chosen this Slickrock Solitude as a retreat where He may come to rest from the ever-pressing problems laid upon Him by the devilish ingenuity of the human species. The design is of Divine pattern.