NATURE’S STRANGEST MONUMENTS

[Music] these are some of nature's most unusual geological formations weird arches fantastic spires towering cliffs massive buttes unlike those anywhere else in the world we're going to visit these strange formations in utah's canyon country find out how they were formed hundreds of millions of years ago and learn about the colorful history of indians outlaws and explorers who survived in this rugged wilderness today when discovery takes a first-hand look at nature's strangest monuments [Music] discovery 70 the award-winning program for young people with bill owen and virginia gibson [Music] hi and welcome to discovery we're in arches national monument in the heart of utah's red rock country at the foot of some of the most unusual and startling rock formations to be seen anywhere in the world this is america's canyon country over a million acres of mesas canyons arches and monoliths with the colorado river winding through its center the landscape everywhere is rock cliffs of rock terraces of rock crags of rock a whole land of naked rock with giant forms carved on it cathedral-shaped use towering hundreds or thousands of feet cliffs that cannot be scaled and canyon walls that shrink the river into insignificance [Music] [Applause] that's how john wesley powell the first white man to explore canyonlands extensively described this remote corner of southeast utah a century ago a hundred years later nothing has changed today the guides through canyonlands and arches country are the rangers of the national park service such as naturalist william taylor long ago a man who wanted a life in the wilderness built this small log cabin ranger taylor has brought a bus load of third grade children here from the neighboring town of moab to acquaint them with the geography and geology of the area arches national monument started out well kind of like a mountain range only a mountain range that the the middle has fallen in on now and there's a big valley down it now actually before that it was one layer after another of different kinds of rock part of it had been sand one time a desert other kinds of rock came in that were made out of mud they were floods or part of a stream or the bottom of a pond then more sand underneath that but the most important layer of all was left behind by a part of the pacific ocean over 250 million years ago and this is a bed of salt well salt is plastic and when you pile a mile or two miles of stone or rock on top of it all those tons and tons and tons of pressure pushing down squeeze it up in different places and what happened here in arches was that a great flat bed of these layers of rock kind of squeezed up in a long line as you continue along through arches country you also see spectacular towers sweeping coves shapes resembling figures of men and animals [Music] balanced rocks and other weird forms all the names of the formations in this area were given to match the fantastic shapes this group is called the parade of [Music] [Applause] elephants devil's garden the three gossips here is park avenue a corridor-like formation that reminded early visitors of the big city skyline each person sees these formations in a different manner and many give their own names to the rocks we're standing on the dead horse point overlook the substance of this plateau is again sandstone fans of oceans winds floods and ground down mountains in layer after layer each with its own past it's upon this substance that the forces of nature have worked for about 70 million years to produce this remarkable landscape this promontory is thousand feet above sea level at two thousand feet below us the waters of the colorado river make their way from the continental divide in colorado to the gulf of california a distance of 1400 miles the name dead horse point like many of the names around here evokes a colorful history of indians miners cowboys and bandits who once lived in canyon country this area was named after the hot blooded mustangs that ran wild by the thousands before the turn of the century dead horse point was a natural corral due to the peculiar terrain which offered no escape except through the narrow entrance way the cowboys of the plane use this spot to rope and break the mustangs and to drive them to the markets to the east an eagle or mountain goat can move easily through this wilderness but the human visitor who wants to take a closer look at some of these strange monuments will have to leave his car for travel on foot horseback or jeep jenny perhaps the most exciting way to see this magnificent country is from the air we'll see how well nature designed dead horse point to help the cowboy in his work and we'll see one of the world's largest man-made lakes and nature's largest bridge and we'll do that in just a minute it took the indians cowboys and settlers have pioneered the canyonlands days to travel a few miles now in a few minutes we'll see hundreds of square miles of utah's red rock monuments one of the marvels of these monuments is how different they look to us as the light changes or from another point of view earlier we saw them pretty much the way the pioneers did now we're going to see nature's oldest and strangest monuments in a modern way [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the mystery and fantasy of canyon country is best revealed from this bird's eye view flying across this 32nd national park gives you a perspective of the area's vast dimensions and incredible geological variety that you could not discover from traveling on the ground dead horse point is the starting place for an aerial exploration of this vast country heading westward you soon reach chesler park a landscape that from above must be as surprising and unreal as the first glimpse of the moon surface here the hardness of sand and barren rock disappears they're replaced by a circular carpet of grass ringed by canyons and the odd-standing rocks which have given this area the name needles here massive red sandstone has been worn into a fantasy of pillars spires and steeples some as tall as 30-story buildings some do indeed resemble needles while others look like huge mushrooms and still others like totem poles or the up thrust fingers of ancient giants major powell named this area spirit land and the spirits of ancient men still seem to linger here seven centuries ago cliff-dwelling indians inhabited the canyons just east of the needles at the eastern boundary of the park you come to the maze little known and seldom entered this is an intricate network of narrow ravines cut into red sandstone there are several natural bridges in the depths of the maze and cattle rustling trails made around the turn of the century can still be followed not recorded by the census taker were a few notorious rustlers and train robbers who took refuge in the rock crannies and high maces of this section of canyon country from here the bandits could look out in all directions and avoid capture among them was the famous outlaw team of butch cassidy and the sundance kid who are part of the folklore of the region this area has been named robbers roost from the top cassidy and his gang could be hidden from view and see out for miles around it's said there is still stolen treasure buried here the isolated western portion of canyon country is separated from the rest by cataract canyon formed by the colorado river here rapids almost wiped out the party of nine explorers that made up major powell's expedition one of the explorers said of it here grandeur glory and desolation are all merged into one the major and his party took eight days to line their boats along the rugged banks to avoid running cataract canyons man-eating rapids today during the summer guides take adventurous visitors along the same route [Music] until the backup waters of the colorado formed lake powell rainbow natural bridge was rarely visited today it's a famous national monument colorful symmetrical rainbow bridge is greater in size than any other known natural bridge with a 278 foot span the bridge gracefully arches to a height of 309 feet enough to straddle the capital in washington dc thicker at the top than a three-story building it's wide enough at 33 feet to accommodate the average highway the coloring becomes brilliant in the afternoon sun possibly the basis for the indian legend that the arch is a rainbow changed to stone but while rainbow bridge inspired the legends of ancient indian tribes to the mormon pioneers of the last century its awesome surrounding country was a reality to deal with a rugged landscape that had to be crossed [Music] from here it seems the mormons achieved the impossible when they took their families livestock and wagons up and over the sheer canyon walls along the side of san juan hill named for the river beside it we can still see part of the mormon trail throughout canyon country we discover reminders of the courage strength and tenacity of those who settle this beautiful but demanding land in april of 1880 250 mormon pioneers looking for better farming lands to the south of earlier mormon settlements took three days to struggle up that trail 80 wagons and hundreds of animals were driven and dragged along a trail we might find difficult to walk on today with inside of the mormon trail you can see the ruins of a trading post built in 1883 this is all that remains of a four-room building standing alone in the wilderness within these walls indians would barter what they had taken from nature for what settlers could offer from their civilization [Music] the indians who live in canyon country are mostly navajo just a few miles from here is the northern gateway into navajo land a valley of still more incredible buttes and rock formations called monument valley nestled among the massive monuments live navajo families in their dirt covered houses or hogans we'll visit monument valley and we'll go inside a hogan to meet three generations of a navajo family we'll see them tending sheep weaving prized navajo rugs and meeting some of the challenges of modern civilization we'll do that in just a minute you enter monument valley a few miles above the utah arizona border this panorama of buttes and pinnacles scattered over hundreds of square miles of the stark valley floor is visible from many miles away just behind us the mitten buttes rise 900 feet a mile and a half apart and to the north huge monoliths tower over the valley with names like cathedral rocks brigham's tomb eagle rock mason grey whiskers and eye of the sun these monuments contain layers of hard sandstone on top of softer shale the remaining blocks are erosional remnants of once much larger geographical formations around the monuments there is little vegetation chiefly desert pinion and small juniper trees the seeds of the juniper are used by the navajo to make their beautiful necklaces and other kinds of jewelry the smaller desert brush like tumbleweed rabbit brush broom weed and mormon tea is barely adequate to feed the remaining flocks of sheep and goats herded by the sparse navajo population nearby are some remarkably preserved cliff dwelling houses of the anasazi dating back more than a thousand years what little we know of them comes from these dwellings and the mysterious hieroglyphs or petroglyphs the drawings and symbols the indians carved upon the canyon walls [Music] the navajo today is the largest tribe in the united states numbering about 120 000 and their reservation is about the size of west virginia the rugged arid countryside has made living off the land difficult and the days of total dependence on grazing and agriculture have passed however in monument valley's canyon recesses are in the shadow of its maces there are still about a dozen navajo families tending sheep weaving colorfully patterned drugs and patiently receiving the summertime visitors who come here each year navajo family that still lives here are the jacksons whose dirt covered hogans and plain framed summer shelters stand in contrast to the cars and pickup trucks that mr jackson uses in construction work off the reservation his brother tends the family flock of sheep and goats as it makes its way to the upper reaches of the valley this is the interior of the family hogan for centuries the center of navajo life it's a snug thick wall dwelling made of earth and logs with a smoke hole in the center and an entrance facing out under the most imposing monuments in the valley linda arlene's grandmother betty sampson dresses every day in the ceremonial dress and jewelry of her ancestors and she has kept alive many of the ancient navajo arts although the navajo have been weavers of rugs only since 1900 their work is prized around the world for its beautiful and original designs and its striking use of colors each rug is unique mrs jackson like every other weaver develops her design and chooses her colors as she goes along mrs jackson is handing down her precious skills to her granddaughter she performs all the necessary tasks herself from shearing the wool through carting and dyeing it before starting to weave nearly all the navajo skills which also include pottery basket and jewelry making handed down hundreds and in some cases thousands of years almost died out at the beginning of the century as factory goods replaced homemade wares in everyday use but traders recognizing the rare and unusual workmanship and craft involved encouraged a revival of native arts and today they flourish in monument valley [Music] with the old nomadic and herding ways insufficient to support the navajo the tribal council has tried to find ways to bring industry and commerce to the reservation as the younger members of the tribe learn more about the outside world they become anxious to have careers outside the reservation and to have some of the conveniences of modern life and yet by custom and tradition most of the navajo are still drawn to the old way of sheep and the hogan the closely knit large family the rituals and dances to keep well and ward off the evil spirits they become accustomed to a world of nature and solitude with time enough for everything and there's still distrust of strangers who long ago took away their land with this clash of civilizations there have been many difficult adjustments but the navajo are determined to choose their own destiny whether it's here in the valley or across the distant hills we'll be back in just a minute we hope you've enjoyed today's program about nature's strangest monuments if you'd like to find out more about the land and the people of this region then ask your librarian for any of these books utah by alan carpenter dancing cloud by marion conrad buff and this book along sandy trails by anne nolan clark be sure to be with us next week for another exciting adventure as discovery continues to discover the world bye bye [Music] the discovery production units domestic transportation and promotional consideration provided by united airlines [Music] this has been a jules power production in association with abc news