Arches graduated to a full-fledged national park when President Richard
M. Nixon signed a Congressional Bill on November 16, 1971. The change in
status was accompanied by boundary changes that reduced the area to
about 114 square miles. The loss of most of Dry Mesa, just east of the
present boundary (fig. 1), was offset in part by gains of new land
northwest of Devils Garden. The present (1974) boundaries, roads,
trails, and named features of the park are shown in figure 1.
The park was virtually completed at graduation time, and so far this
change in status has shown up mainly in new entrance signs, a new 1972
brochure and map, and a very informative “Guide to an Auto Tour of
Arches National Park,” keyed to numbered signs at parking spaces. About
all that remain to be added are new wayside exhibits, some boundary
fences, and spur roads and trails.
[Illustration: ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, showing location in Utah,
boundaries, streams, highways and roads, trails, landforms,
principal named features, and the city of Moab. The reader is
referred to figure 7 and to road maps issued by the State or by oil
companies for the locations of other nearby towns and features.
Visitors also may obtain pamphlets, from the entrance station or
from the National Park Service office in Moab, which contain
up-to-date maps of the park and the latest available information on
roads, trails, campsites, and picnic sites. (Fig. 1)]
Although Arches had officially become a park in November 1971, it was
not formally dedicated until May 15, 1972. The ceremony began by having
the Federal, State, and local dignitaries and other guests totaling 140
persons board the _Canyon King_, a 93-foot replica of a Mississippi
River sternwheeler (Lansford, 1972; Lohman, 1974, fig. 69), for its
maiden voyage down the Colorado River. After about half an hour, the
heavily laden boat became stuck on a sandbar, and after a 90-minute wait
the passengers were rescued by jet boats. This delayed a luncheon at the
Visitor Center put on by the Moab Lions Club. Following the luncheon,
Park Superintendent Bates Wilson made a brief welcoming address, then
introduced J. Leonard Volz, Director of the Midwest Region of the
National Park Service, who served as master of ceremonies. Speakers
included Utah Governor Calvin L. Rampton, Senator Frank E. Moss, a
representative of Senator Wallace F. Bennett, Representatives Sherman P.
Lloyd of Utah and Wayne Aspinall of Colorado, and Mitchell Melich,
Solicitor General of the Department of Interior, representing Secretary
Rogers C. B. Morton. After the speeches, a commemorative plaque, donated
by the Canyonlands Natural History Association, was unveiled by Senator
Moss and Mr. Melich.
Most of the color photographs were taken by me on 4- × 5-inch film in a
tripod-mounted press camera, using lenses of several focal lengths, but
a few were taken on 35-mm film, using lenses of various focal lengths. I
am grateful to several friends for the color photographs credited to
them in the figure captions. The black and white photographs were kindly
loaned from the Moab and Arches files of the National Park Service. The
points from which most of the photographs were taken are shown in figure
13.
[Illustration: Petroglyph figure]