RETURN TO RAINBOW BRIDGE

In midsummer, 1966, I saw Rainbow Bridge for the third time. My first two visits were made on horseback. On the third we motorboated down Lake Powell from the comforts of Wahweap Lodge and National Park Service hospitality to what is now called Forbidden Canyon, and thence up a mile-long sandy trail to our destination. During this latest, amazingly easy approach, memory carried me back to that initial journey when white men first saw Rainbow Bridge, August 14, 1909. The discovery party, of which I was only a student member, reached its goal tired and footsore; the horses and pack mules, shoes mostly worn off and some hoofs bleeding, were too weary to graze the neighboring hillside. As I wrote forty years ago (National Parks Bulletin No. 54, Nov. 1927), that first trip to Rainbow Bridge was organized by Prof. Byron Cummings, then of the University of Utah, and was guided by John Wetherill. Cummings paid the expenses (Wetherill to Stephen T. Mather, Director, National Park Service, Feb. 25, 1924), including a daily wage to Wetherill. I wrote further that without Wetherill's superior ability as a guide the expedition surely would have failed.

I have often been asked how we first learned of Rainbow Bridge and who really discovered it. The real discoverer was some unknown Indian in the unrecorded past but, of the fourteen men on that 1909 expedition, Prof. Cummings was first to see the great arch. This I know because I was there and I saw him, several rods in advance, when he suddenly drew rein and pointed down canyon. Wetherill was first to join him, and thereafter each other member of the party. From that same spot I took the first picture ever made of Rainbow Bridge.

In 1908 and 1909, northeastern Arizona was not the friendly place it is today. Monument Valley was uninhabited; Navajos in their mid-twenties had never seen a white man. Old Hoskininni and his son, Hoskininni-begay, gave all the orders; Americans were not wanted; four prospectors had been killed within recent years; the Wetherill-Colville trading post at Oljato (or Oljeto if one prefers the Spanish spelling) was a lonely adventure. In 1908 soldiers had been called to settle a back-to-school order from Washington, and bitterness lingered.

Mrs. Wetherill related all this to Prof. Cummings as he was preparing to leave Oljato at the end of his 1908 explorations. No one had seen the Navajo Mountain bridge. Mrs. Wetherill was requested to continue her inquiries and engage as guide any Indian who clearly knew the way. Search for the reported bridge would be made next season.

Returning in June, 1909, Prof. Cummings was told by Mrs. Wetherill that she had learned of only two Indians who actually had seen the mystic bridge. These two were Piautes, Answering a question as to what Prof. Cummings and his students were doing in Navajo country, Mrs. John Wetherill, who spoke Navajo fluently, illustrated by describing the professor's 1907 survey of White Canyon, southeastern Utah, and its three natural bridges (now Natural Bridges National Monument). An Indian said he had heard of a large natural bridge over near Navajo Mountain, but had never seen it. Further inquiry proved fruitless; of all the Navajos who frequented the trading post hot one had ever seen the rumored natural bridge.

old Noshja and his son, Noshja-begay. They had happened upon it, spanning a nameless canyon northwest of Navajo Mountain, while hunting strayed horses, and could find it again. The younger man, Noshja-begay, was promptly hired, as had been requested; John Wetherill, "Hosteen John" as the Indians called him, would send word later when he and Prof. Cummings could meet him in Piaute Canyon.

Before the search could be undertaken, however, Wetherill had to go to Gallup, New Mexico, on business and thereafter Mr. Douglass, who depended upon a long flexible trumpet (the Navajos called him "the man who hears through a rope"), may not have heard correctly. His report also fails to mention that Mr. and Mrs. Wetherill and Prof. Cummings, the only people who then knew of the rumored natural bridge near Navajo Mountain, told their Bluff City friends of the alleged discovery during an overnight stop in early September, 1908. A year later, while Wetherill was concluding his business in Bluff and hurrying home to join Prof. Cummings in Tsegi Canyon, Mr. Douglass was writing and writing the General Land Office urging that the professor's official permit be cancelled and his archaeological collections confiscated (Douglass to Dr. Walter Hough, U. S. National Museum, Aug. 4, 1909; John Wetherill in The Plateau, vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 23-24. Flagstaff, Ariz., April, 1955).

Byron Cummings was the most generous of men! Upon learning that a government representative was also seeking Rainbow Bridge, he ordered his party back to Oljato, a loss of at least forty trail miles, to offer the obvious advantage of his guide, Nosbja-begay, one of the two men known to have seen Rainbow Bridge. At the trading post, Cummings waited two days for knowledge of Douglass and then, because neither he nor Wetherill could delay longer, they resumed their journey.

About mid-afternoon a messenger brought word from Clyde Colville, Wetherill's partner at Oljato, that Douglass had arrived and would follow. So the professor and his companions unaddicted to await the surveyors. These latter included Mr. Douglass and five assistants: Dan Perkins, Jack Keenan, Gene Rogerson, F. English, and Mike's Boy, the Piute who had told Douglass of the Navajo Mountain bridge "eighty to one hundred miles west of Bluff."

From this meeting point, in Moonlight Valley west of Organ Rock, the two groups continued as one, following the Moonlight and Copper Canyon to the Rio San Juan; thence to a transient waterhole and a late camp in Nokai Canyon. During the afternoon, in answer to Wetherill's question, Mike's Boy admitted he did not know the way to Rainbow Bridge but had hoped to find it by asking other Indians.

Coming from his home at Oljato, Wetherill planned to follow Indian trails across the high mesas to Navajo Mountain and thence down into Piute Canyon.

Wetherill brought the Cummings mail, including a letter from a friend in Bluff City announcing the presence there of one W. B. Douglass, examiner of surveys for the General Land Office, Washington, D.C., who also had discovery of Rainbow Bridge as his prime objective. He had heard of it, so Douglass wrote the commissioner from Grayson (now Blanding), Utah, on October 7, 1908, from a Piute helper on his White Canyon natural bridges survey earlier in the summer (G.L.O. file 176521). The Piute said that only he and one other Indian had knowledge of the new natural bridge.

Just for the record, Mr. Douglass began his inquiry into the White Canyon natural bridges June 3, 1908; his survey of them continued from September 12 to October 3. Nowhere in his report (G.L.O. vol. 182, Utah) does he note that Prof. Cummings had surveyed these same bridges in 1907. The professor submitted a report and map from which, presumably, President Theodore Roosevelt issued his proclamation of April 16, 1908, establishing the Natural Bridges National Monument. It was that 1907 Cummings survey, as we have seen, that opened the door to Rainbow Bridge in 1908.

THE AUTHOR NEILL M. JUDD

Born: Cedar Rapids, Boone County, Nebraska Oct. 27, 1887. Degrees: University of Utah, B.A. 1911; George Washington Univ. 1913. Career: Student assistant to Prof. Byron Cummings, 1907, 1908, 1909; Aide in Ethnology, U. S. National Museum, 1911-1917; Curator, American Archeology, 1918-1930; Curator, Division of Archeology, 1930-1949. (Retired Dec. 31, 1949); Associate in Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, Jan. 1, 1950-Jan. 1, 1967. Honorary position; Supervised reproduction of ancient Maya monuments, Quirigua, Guatemala for Calif. Pacific Expos. 1914-15; Excavated and restored Betatakin Ruin, Navajo National Monument, Arizona, for Interior Department, 1917; Leader of 10 expeditions for the National Geographic Society, 1921-1927; Leader of 14 expeditions for the Smithsonian Institution and its branches, 1915-1931; Publications: 4 volumes for the National Geographic Society, 91 books and pamphlets for various institutions.

hid away with their sheep and goats and horses until the soldiers had gone and it was safe to come out into the open again and resume the life they preferred.

"One hesitates," I wrote, "before descending Hoskininni's stairway. It is a narrow passage into the unknown... We were tired when we reached the steps. The day had brought fatigue. Our weary horses balked at the dubious prospect; they required much coaxing. Two of them, trembling with fear and seeking better footing, left the stone-pecked trail, slipped and slid to the bottom, pack and all. Neither was seriously hurt. Both accumulated bruises and left patches of bloody hide on the abrasive sandstone. No other damage."

Beyond these ladder-like steps and safely through a couple of rock-walled ravines we came unexpectedly upon a place where the cliffs fell back and provided elbow room. After the day's adventures this charming little glen, carpeted with yellowed grass and fringed by scrub oaks, burst upon us as a complete surprise. And that is what we named it: "Surprise Valley." Camp was ordered and the horses freed to graze.

As often happens, freedom to rest and relax brought freedom to gripe! There were those who knew we were lost. Even our Indians. Mike's Boy, the Douglass guide, and Dogeyebegay, the Cummings horse-wrangler, were in a dither. Both wanted to turn back; they had gone far enough. We were lost!

There was no escape from these infernal gorges. Noshja-begay had not overtaken the party, as expected. We were lost, no doubt about it. A little farther and there would be no return. It was a discouraged group of men that lounged about camp in Surprise Valley that afternoon. Only Prof. Cummings and John Wetherill had confidence in the outcome. (These personal recollections are substantiated by Wetherill in his letter of Feb. 25, 1924, to the Director, N.P.S., and by Cummings in his booklet, Indians I Have Known, Tucson, 1952, p. 41). But Noshja-begay rode into camp just at suppertime, and spirits quickly revived. He had seen Rainbow Bridge; he could take us to it. The campfire was rekindled and Wetherill, translating for Prof. Cummings, questioned the Piaute closely as to our present position. There had been no mistake. We were on the right trail where there was no trail. Another half day, he said, and we should reach Rainbow Bridge. After an early breakfast we were on the way. The climb out of Surprise Valley, steep as it was and winding among huge blocks of sandstone, was a brutal one. And then came Paradise Valley and more sandstone blocks, as big as a house, and the scramble through dangerous Redbud Pass. Noshjabegay, unruffled and unhurried, led us on an equally toilsome descent into a maze of narrow, rock-walled gullies that comprise upper Bridge Canyon. Why Indian horses had wandered into a labyrinth such as this and why their owners had ever troubled to hunt them are questions only an Indian can answer.

OPPOSITE PAGE "THE MIGHTY ARCH RAINBOW BRIDGE" BY

JOSEF MUENCH. This unusual photograph of Rainbow Bridge emphasizes the size of what is considered the largest stone arch on earth. Note how the figures below the bridge seem almost infinitesimally small. Rainbow Bridge, in Rainbow Bridge National Monument, is 190 miles north of Flagstaff. The bridge is 309 feet high and has a span of 278 feet. With the creation of Lake Powell, Rainbow Bridge can be reached by a mile's hike from lake's edge.

And then, as we turned still another angle, there, quite without warning, stood the goal we sought. As I urged a very tired packhorse along behind the others, I saw Prof. Cummings, some distance in advance, come to an abrupt halt and point down valley. I saw John Wetherill hurry to his side, and then the rest of our company, one by one. Rainbow Bridge stood there, dwarfed by massive cliffs of Navajo sandstone that crowded in from all sides and towered high above. Prof. Cummings was first to see the great stone rainbow, as John Wetherill wrote the director of the National Park Service on February 25, 1924. I was last to join the group that gathered about him, but first to photograph Rainbow Bridge. The color photographs of today bring life and beauty to the red and brown cliffs of Bridge Canyon and to the blue sky above, but there was no color photography in 1909. turned our weary animals loose to graze, and looked over what we had come to find. Wetherill and Beauregard, alive with surplus energy, climbed the south cliff but, lacking a rope to negotiate the twenty-foot drop to the bridge's apex, contented themselves by erecting a monument with sandstone casts from the bones of some antediluvian sea monster.

After note-taking and photography, a walk down canyon to see the big river was suggested. The "silvery Colorado" proved to be a muddy flood; wreckage of a huge wooden dredge lay half submerged on the opposite shore. In a shallow cave at the north tip of Bridge Canyon, a small dwelling had been demolished by placer miners to provide camping space. Broken tools and utensils were present, but we didn't linger. We wanted to be back at our own camp before dark, but in this we failed. The canyon was incredibly narrow and dark,In his official report to the General Land Office (vol. 182, Utah, p. 134), Mr. Douglass states that during the last day's ride "a spirit of rivalry" developed between himself and Prof. Cummings to see which would first reach Rainbow Bridge. Had the professor known of this rivalry at the time, he would have been the most astonished member of the joint expedition. It was Wetherill who realized what was afoot when he saw Mr. Douglass press forward on his big roan to take the lead and who put spurs to his own horse and cut in front.

Thus John Wetherill was first to ride under the great arch, and all the rest of our company followed. Approaching from upstream, we unsaddled beneath the east or northeast arm,with only a narrow ribbon of night sky high above. When matches gave out we stumbled over boulders and into pools now a thousand feet beneath the surface of Lake Powell.

Several individuals who were not present at the discovery have since offered narratives of the Rainbow Bridge expedition differing from that herein. Some have even claimed that names of earlier visitors were erased by the 1909 party. The only names erased prior to June 1, 1925, as Custodian John Wetherill wrote the National Park Service on that date, were those of visitors in 1913 and 1916; he, himself, had erased them to avoid the necessity of reporting the fact and thus making the perpetrators liable to fine or imprisonment.

Although pack expeditions still make the trip to Rainbow Bridge most visitors prefer to make the approach by boats from modern marinas such as pictured above which offer one day excursions.

OPPOSITE PAGE "RAINBOW BRIDGE-A JEWEL IN A WILDER-NESS OF RED ROCK" BY JOSEF MUENCH. This

Aerial view of Rainbow Bridge dramatizes the rough and forbidding country the first party of white explorers had to prevail against when they "discovered" the arch in August, 1909. Navajo Indians knew of Rainbow Bridge before that and it was with the guidance of two of these Indians that Dr. Cummings' party reached the bridge on an arduous exploration journey from Navajo Mountain.

Only from an aerial viewpoint can one see visually in one broad sweep the effects of hydroerosion. Note the two unfinished arch forms above Rainbow Bridge, once started by the currents of an ancient waterway.

As I wrote in 1927, Prof. Byron Cummings, then of the University of Utah, was first to see Rainbow Bridge and John Wetherill was first to ride beneath it. Ours was a two-part expedition, because Prof. Cummings deliberately retraced his steps forty miles in order to share his guide, Noshja-begay, with a government representative, W. B. Douglass of the General Land Office. Douglass has always contended that his Piaute, Mike's Boy, who first told him of it, was the actual guide to Rainbow Bridge. But Mike's Boy did not know the way, as Custodian Wetherill informed the National Park Service January 28, 1924, when the subject of a plaque honoring the guide was being considered.

A bas-relief of Noshja-begay on horseback, as the Rainbowbow Bridge guide, now decorates a northeast cliffside upstream from the great arch. Actually, however, he overtook the expedition half a day's ride from our goal, and it was it was John Wetherill, with descriptive information supplied by old Noshja, who successfully led the joint expedition across the most difficult and dangerous portion of its journey. Thus, in my opinion, as Noshja and his son together deserve the honor of having previously discovered Rainbow Bridge and marked its location, it was really John Wetherill who brought success to the dual adventure. Without his expert leadership, I am sure, neither Cummings nor Douglass would have reached Rainbow Bridge in August, 1909. Without Mrs. Wetherill's perseverance in fulfilling Prof. Cummings' request of 1908, the two Piautes who actually had seen the mysterious natural bridge and knew the way the only ones who did know would not so soon have been found among the Indians of northeastern Arizona.

Returning from my third trip to Rainbow Bridge, I was repeatedly asked what changes since my previous visits were most noticeable. And my answer: First of all, ease of travel. In 1909 and again in 1923, I came in from the north under auspices of the National Geographic Society and forded the San Juan on the old Piaute trail (see "Beyond the Clay Hills,"

Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 275-302, Washington, 1924). We crossed some pretty rough country on horseback.

Today one may float in comfort to within a short walk of Rainbow Bridge. That easy approach, in my opinion, is unfortunate. With one of the world's greatest wonders to be seen almost without effort I detected, or thought I detected, a noticeable lack of appreciation. The average visitor, if I saw correctly, appears content to scramble up the path from the boat landing, take a picture to prove he was really there, and scramble back again. "A prize too easily won loses its value."

Some few of these present-day visitors find added satisfaction in scratching their names on the cliffs, ignoring the official register beside the trail.

In 1909 a small slab-sided altar stood close against the east base of Rainbow Bridge, evidence that some primitive had tarried there to offer his prayer to The Masterbuilder. That A simple little altar was still present in 1923, when I passed a second time, but it has since succumbed to careless feet.

Geologists tell us that Rainbow Bridge, 309 feet high high enough to span the capitol building in Washington, D.C. was carved by sand and water during immeasurable time. The Navajos have a different story. "Long, long ago," they say, "one of their hero gods, while hunting in the canyon, was unexpectedly trapped by a rush of floodwaters. With escape cut off, death for the hunter seemed certain. But just then the great Sky Father cast a rainbow before the torrent, our hero god climbed to safety across the arch, the latter turned to stone, and is there today as evidence our great Sky Father constantly watches over and protects His earth children."

Present-day Indians have, or formerly had, a deep veneration for the unusual, the sublime, and the awesome. In 1909, I clearly recall, gentle old Dogeye-begay, the horse wrangler, would not ride beneath Rainbow Bridge because he did not know the prayer that would insure his safe return. And both He and Noshja-begay refused to sit with our group for a photograph because a picture shows only one side of a man.

What becomes of the other side?

INDIAN RAIN SONG

All day long Wind-Woman Has been weaving clouds. All day long On the wide loom Of a desert sky, Weaving clouds Into a pattern, Old in meaning. And all so hills, in need, And canyons Which have gone without, Might have, Before it grows too late For weaving, New blankets of bright rain To wear Throughout the night.

-Elizabeth-Ellen Long

WHIRLWIND

Like a thousand lariats twirled by an unseen hand The whirlwind begins its roundup across the land. Bits of sage, a scrap of paper, these it casts aside; What does it take to make a whirlwind satisfied? Searching, always searching in a never-ending quest, What hidden gold does it pursue? What fabled treasure chest?

James Rhodes

WINTER COTTONWOODS

Bare-limbed, The cottonwoods Are silver filigree Until spring's pale green miracle Of leaves.

Vesta Nickerson Fairbairn

BOOTHILL BURIAL

Epitaph for a Newspaper Editor Once was tarred and tied to a rail (Saw some graft and printed the tale). Once beat up and left almost dead (Heard a bribe and told what was said). Waylaid once and punched in the face (Found a bum and championed his case). Once was pinched and thrown into jail (Said in print the food there was stale). Twice was charged with underhand acts (Both those times just printed the facts). Burned out once by riders at night (Said that bankers weren't always right). Once at church he wasn't let in (Wrote how some were living in sin). Hope that things are right where he goes, Else he'll tramp on Somebody's toes.

George L. Kress

VACATION - Family Style

Daddy likes the mountains; The children like the sea. I'd like some peace and quiet, Wherever I may be. But no one asks my preference Or what poor Mother thinks; Oh well it makes no difference I'm only changing sinks!

Jean Conder Soule

yours sincerely FOLLOWING THE TROOPS IN VIETNAM

Wherever our duties as soldiers take us, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS always seems to reach us. We may be in the heat of battle or flying over the vast jungles of Vietnam. The magazine may be slightly worn and weather-beaten but we manage to pass it on from one GI to another.

It is always a great pleasure to read and admire scenic pictures of our beautiful State of Arizona. This brings back wonderful memories of one's life in Arizona. It also encourages us to fight harder for our country. Many thanks to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS for bringing home to us, in this so distant land.

CW3 Clarence D. Gatewood (Navajo) Qui Nhon, Vietnam I am a resident of Payson, Arizona. At the present time I am with the army in Vietnam.

I received a subscription to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS as a Christmas present.

I am not the only one in my company from Arizona, so the magazines are enjoyed by others.

On behalf of my fellow statesmen, I would like to thank you for making the memories of home available to us.

SP/4 Randall G. Kaufman APO San Francisco, Calif.

CALENDAR TROUBLE: OR, OUR FACES ARE STILL RED

Last Christmas the ministers of our denomination received your calendar as a gift from our headquarters in Winona Lake, Indiana. I was very pleased to receive it as I found the pictures most beautiful and put it up in a prominent place in my home where it could be referred to easily.

My pleasure turned to consternation last Sunday. I took at face value that Mother's Day was May 7th as you had it printed on your calendar. Our boys presented their Mother's Day gifts to my wife which was just fine as she looks at your calendar, too, and also thought it was Mother's Day. The problem came a little later when I delivered a Mother's Day sermon at 9:30 to my own congregation and at 10:30 to another congregation in Clay City as I had been asked to be their special speaker that Sunday. My embarrassment was, of course, too great for words and I rather suppose I'll be hearing about it for many Mother's Days to come.

I trust other ministers did not make the same mistake. Perhaps you should be a little more careful in printing holidays on future calendars.

Dr. Robert Clouse, Minister Clay City, Indiana

GET WITH IT, HARVEY!

The following is a carbon copy of a letter by one of our readers sent to Mr. Paul Harvey, radio commentator and syndicated columnist, in response to his broadcast late in April of this year. The letter speaks for itself (and for us!).

Dear Sir: Constructive criticism can be useful but when based on falsehood, it is valueless. I refer to your April 21st 12:30 PM broadcast wherein you referred to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS stating that over the past year they have completely ignored the desert area of our state. This is not only untrue but grossly unfair and we Westerners don't take kindly to such utterances from strangers ( you haven't set up housekeeping here yet).

Of the 7 copies of "Highways," published since April of 1966, which I happen to have on hand, 4* picture and/or discuss the desert, one issue being almost entirely devoted to that subject.** The purpose of the magazine is to depict all of our state, not just a part, which job becomes monumental with every nook and cranny within her "borders" offering the unexpected, the thrilling, unsurpassed beauty and a host of other things too.

One with a keen eye would also recognize the psychology affecting the subject matter as related to our seasons which is greatly appreciated at least by some of us.

(Mrs.) Suzanne R. Nelson Phoenix, Arizona

The photograph was taken along Arizona 64 on the Navajo Reservation east of Grand Canyon. A Navajo weaver, in the ways of her mother and mother's mother, with tireless fingers, is weaving a rug which will eventually find its way into some trading post to be purchased eventually by a tourist.

In the intricacies of Navajo religion and ceremonial life, little understood by others than the Navajos themselves, the medicine man and his sand painting have deep religious significance. The sand painting is no idle creation of idle hands. Each grain of sand, each pattern in the sand has a deep significance in the healing ceremony, a ceremony which extends beyond the patient but encompasses the well being of friends and relatives.