The occurrences of salt and potash in and near the park and the attempts to find oil and gas nearby are discussed in a recent report (Hite and Lohman, 1973), and the deposits beneath Moab, Salt, and Cache Valleys are discussed in later chapters.
In 1955 and 1956 the Pacific Northwest Pipeline, known also as the “Scenic Inch,” was constructed by the Pacific Northwest Pipeline Corp. to transmit natural gas from wells in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico for a total of 1,487 miles to the Pacific Northwest, with additional pickups from gas fields in northeastern Utah, northwestern Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming (Walters, 1956). This 26-inch pipeline follows the general route of U.S. Highway 163 from Cortez, Colo., past Moab to Sevenmile Canyon 10 miles northwest of Moab, where it turns abruptly to the northeast and crosses about the middle of Arches National Park. It crosses the park road and the flat area between the Fiery Furnace and the southeast end of Devils Garden, but the scars are so well healed that most visitors are unaware of its existence unless they happen to look southwestward across Salt Valley, where the filled excavation is still visible. The filled trench also appears in the lower middle of [figure 23].
Unlike Canyonlands National Park a few miles to the south, Arches was not on the route of the famous early-day river expeditions of John Wesley Powell or of most of those that followed; however, the southeastern boundary of the park is the Colorado River, formerly the Grand, which was traversed by the first leg of the ill-fated Brown-Stanton expedition (Dellenbaugh, 1902, p. 343-369; [Lohman, 1974]).
The canyon of the Colorado River along the southeastern park boundary is deep and beautiful and is a favorite stretch of quiet water for boaters and floaters. Partly paved State Highway 128 on the east bank is a part of a most scenic drive from Moab to Cisco—a small railroad town about 32 miles northeast of the eastern border of [figure 1] ([fig. 7]). This road has been variously called the “Moab Mail Road,” the “Cisco Cutoff,” the “Dewey Road,” or the “Dewey Bridge Road” after an old suspension bridge ([fig. 7]) across the Colorado River at the old townsite of Dewey about 12 miles south of Cisco. During the summer this deep colorful canyon may be viewed at night by artificial illumination. Each evening one-half hour after sundown, an 80-passenger jet boat leaves a dock north of the highway bridge, carries passengers several miles upstream, then floats slowly downstream followed by a truck on the highway carrying 40,000 watts of searchlights which play back and forth on the colorful red canyon walls, while the passengers listen to a taped discourse. The entire trip requires about 2 hours.
The spectacular arches and red rocks of Arches and vicinity have been used to advantage in making color movies and color TV shows. Parts of the recent Walt Disney film “Run, Cougar, Run” were filmed beneath Delicate Arch ([fig. 43]), in Professor Valley of the Colorado River just east of the park ([fig. 7]), and in other sections of the canyon country.
Ever since military jet aircraft broke the sound barrier, there has been a growing number of protests from concerned citizens, organizations, and National Park Service officials concerning the dangers sonic booms have posed to Indian ruins and delicate erosional forms in our national parks and monuments, such as natural bridges, arches and windows, balanced rocks, and natural spires or towers. Many instances of damaged ruins, roads, erosional forms, and broken windows were reported. My wife and I can vouch for the destructive power of such booms, for in October 1969, while we were having breakfast at Squaw Flat Campground in The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park, a particularly severe blast from a low-flying jet not only violently rocked our jack-supported trailer but broke the windshield of our car.
At Arches National Park, particular fear was felt for Landscape Arch ([fig. 53]), thought to be the longest natural stone arch in the world, and many a special round trip from headquarters involving 47 road miles and 2 trail miles was made to check on the condition of this arch after especially loud sonic booms were heard. Finally, in April 1972, following a rash of newspaper and magazine articles that spread across the nation, the Secretary of the Air Force put a virtual stop to this danger by ruling that, except in an emergency (Moab Times-Independent, April 12, 1972):
Supersonic flights must not only avoid passing over national parks, they also may not fly near them, according to the new regulation. For each 1,000 feet of altitude, the pilot must allow one-half mile between the flight path and the park boundary. The regulation also prohibits supersonic flights below 30,000 feet (over land) so the high speed planes must allow 15 miles between the nearest park boundary and the flight path.
Let us hope that with the aid of this long-needed regulation and cooperation from visitors, the arches will remain intact for many more generations to see.
