According to former Superintendent Bates Wilson (1956), Prof. Lawrence
M. Gould, of the University of Michigan, was the first to recognize the
geologic and scenic values of the Arches area in eastern Utah and to
urge its creation as a national monument. Mrs. Faun McConkie Tanner[1]
told me that Professor Gould, who had done a thesis problem in the
nearby La Sal Mountains, was first taken through the area by Marv
Turnbow, third owner of Wolfe cabin. (See p. 12.) When Professor Gould
went into ecstasy over the beautiful scenery, Turnbow replied, “I didn’t
know there was anything unusual about it.”
Dr. J. W. Williams, generally regarded as father of the monument, and L.
L. (Bish) Taylor, of the Moab Times-Independent, were the local leaders
in following up on Gould’s suggestion and, with the help of the Moab
Lions Club, their efforts finally succeeded on April 12, 1929, when
President Herbert Hoover proclaimed Arches National Monument, then
comprising only 7 square miles.[2] It was enlarged to about 53 square
miles by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Proclamation of November 25,
1938, and remained at nearly that size, with some boundary adjustments
on July 22, 1960, until it was enlarged to about 130 square miles by
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Proclamation of January 20, 1969.
According to Breed (1947), Harry Goulding, of Monument Valley, in a
specially equipped car, traversed the rugged sand and rocks of the
Arches region in the fall of 1936 and, thus, became the first person to
drive a car into The Windows section of Arches National Monument. Soon
after, a bulldozer followed Harry’s tracks and made a passable trail.
When my family and I visited the monument in 1946, the entrance was
about 12 miles northwest of Moab on U.S. Highway 163 (then U.S. 160),
where Goulding’s old tire tracks led eastward past a small sign reading
“Arches National Monument 8 miles.” This primitive road crossed the
sandy, normally dry Courthouse Wash and ended in what is now called The
Windows section. At that time there was no water or ranger station, nor
were there any picnic tables or other improvements within the monument
proper, and the custodian was housed in an old barracks of the Civilian
Conservation Corps near what is now the entrance, 5 miles northwest of
Moab.
Former Custodian Russell L. Mahan reported (oral commun., May 1973) that
soon after our initial visit in 1946 a 500-gallon tank was installed
near Double Arch in The Windows section and connected to a drinking
fountain and that two picnic tables and a pit toilet were added. At that
time the only access to Salt Valley and what is now called Devils Garden
was a primitive dirt road which, according to Breed (1947, p. 175), left
old U.S. Highway 160 (now U.S. 163) 24 miles northwest of Moab, went 22
miles east, then followed Salt Valley Wash down to Wolfe cabin (fig. 1).
According to Abbey (1971), who served as a seasonal ranger beginning
about 1958, a sign had by then been erected at the crossing of
Courthouse Wash which read:
WARNING: QUICKSAND
DO NOT CROSS WASH
WHEN WATER IS RUNNING
The ranger station, his home for 6 months of the year, was what Abbey
described as “a little tin housetrailer.” Nearby was an information
display under a “lean-to shelter.” He had propane fuel for heat,
cooking, and refrigeration, and a small gasoline-engine-driven generator
for lights at night. His water came from the 500-gallon tank, which was
filled at intervals from a tank truck. At that time there were three
small dry campgrounds, each with tables, fireplaces, garbage cans, and
pit toilets. By that time an extension of the dirt road led northward to
Devils Garden, and some trails had been built and marked.
Bates Wilson became Custodian of the monument in 1949 and later became
Superintendent not only of Arches but also of the nearby new Canyonlands
National Park (Lohman, 1974) and the more distant Natural Bridges
National Monument. In the fall of 1969, Bates told me of some of his
early experiences in the undeveloped monument, including the evening
when 22 cars were marooned on the wrong (northeast) side of Courthouse
Wash after a flash flood. Bates and his “lone” ranger brought ropes,
coffee, and what food they could obtain in town after closing time,
threw a line across the swollen stream, had a tourist pull a rope
across, then took turns wading the stream with one hand on the rope and
the other balancing supplies on his shoulder. After a fire had been
built and hot coffee and food passed around, the spirits of the stranded
group rose considerably, except for one irate woman from the East, who
refused to budge from her car. Bates and his helper finally got the last
car out about 1 a.m., after the flood had subsided, and Mrs. Wilson then
supplied lodging and more food and coffee for those who needed it.
During and for sometime after World War II and the Korean War, lack of
maintenance funds and personnel had prevented improvement of the
facilities in many of our national parks and monuments, particularly in
undeveloped ones like Arches. The day was saved through the wisdom and
foresight of former Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth, who saw the
need and desirability of putting the whole “want” list into one
attractive, marketable package. In the words of Everhart (1972, p. 36):
Selection of a name is of course recognized as the most important
decision in any large-scale enterprise, and here Wirth struck pure
gold. In 1966 the Park Service would be celebrating its fiftieth
anniversary. What a God-given target to shoot for! Why not produce a
ten-year program, which would begin in 1956, aimed to bring every park
up to standard by 1966—and call it Mission 66?
The ensuing well-documented and cost-estimated plan for Mission 66 was
enthusiastically backed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and approved
and well supported by Congress to the tune of more than $1 billion
during the 10-year period. For Arches, this included a new entrance,
Park Headquarters, Visitor Center, a museum boasting a bust of founder
Dr. Williams, and modern housing for park personnel, all 5 miles
northwest of Moab. By 1958 (Pierson, 1960) a fine new paved road between
Park Headquarters and Balanced Rock (frontispiece) was completed. These
badly needed improvements were followed by the completion of the paved
road all the way to Devils Garden, the building of the modern
campground, picnic facilities, and amphitheater in the Devils Garden,
and the construction of turnouts and marked trails.
[Illustration: Petroglyph figure]