THE LAND OF CRIMSON CLIFFS

e [Music] [Applause] the Crimson Cliffs a playground of the Winds and what a h it is Arnold and I were in the midst of plans for our next World trip when a good friend stopped in one day to see us he told us we ought to discover a little Adventure in our own country before we tried to make people believe that such exciting travel could be had only in foreign lands he told us of this Southeast corner of the state of Utah where four states come together in a single point the only place in the world where you can be in four states at the same time or where you can drive through four states in something was flat where Majestic crimson sffs and arches have been the pleasure haunts of the Winds and the gods for a million years where Indians chant primitive prayers and writes as fascinating as they are strange and where Legends of the past and realities of the present blend in settings of such magnificence as seem almost unbelievable he was a powerful Persuader this friend of ours Arnold and I had just finished a trip to the South maybe you remember where we hunted the steaming jungles for raw rubber saw quinine made from the strip bark of trees saw loofah and balsawood and Manila hemp rested from Tropic lands where we found American fellows playing with strange pets they had captured in the jungle trying to relieve the boredom of lonely outposts up and down the hemisphere and then we visited a fabulous volcano and spent the night almost under its belching cone watching the spectacle of its molten eruptions listening to the Deep Rumble of its explosions and sensing beneath our ribs the Eerie grip of its fantastic reality and nearness we told this friend that if his Vermilion playground had anything to offer after what we had just seen we'd be glad to postpone our foreign trip and go see it you'll thank me for it was all he said and now we do we put out of Chicago on Route 30 and followed it all the way west to Salt Lake City then Southeast down here to this magenta Wonderland but the area is just as accessible from any other spot in the United States Route 66 crosses the country here to Arizona then this highway turns North and delivers you right into the heart of crimson Corner the southern route from New Orleans comes to El Paso and then up highways from Kansas reach Colorado and then enter from the East also from New Mexico even people from the West Coast find highways just as convenient all roads lead to this holiday spot in Blazing Red where Zeus himself must have vacationed in luxurious Leisure a thousand centuries ago Monument Valley the Natural Bridges dead horse point the Arch's Monument the goose necks of the San Juan Mexican hat and a hundred other spots all rubbing elbows with each other in this fabulous Southeast corner of the state of Utah our friend was right no one who can drive a car or who can ride with someone else who does should miss a vacation for himself among the spired cliffs the canyons and arches of this eroded Garden of the Winds but come along with us now and let Arnold and me take you there first it won't be as thrilling as when you see it yourself but it give you a rough idea we begin shooting as we approach the area over fine pavement and we look around wondering if this WI our friend was telling us about if so we think he was much too enthusiastic then we pull off the highway a little to see a geyser they tell us is nearby we find it all right every hour it shoots up higher than the C surrounded maximum height is maintained for only a few seconds however then it falls rapidly back down into the Earth twice each 24 hours it erupts steadily for more than 20 minutes then after it's quietly back down the hole for a minute or two it suddenly shoots up again without warning for about 3 seconds if you want a good soaking it's a very simple thing to get just hang around that hole for one Split Second too long when you know a regular eruption is beginning you'll get the soaking all right soon after leaving the geyser we Dro suddenly into this multihued Canyon over a wide easy dugway it was this spot here which the first settlers of Southeastern Utah back in 1885 called the jumping off place because they had to lower their wagons down these Cliffs by ropes to reach the valley floor not far beyond the lush green town of Moab comes into view surrounded by great walls of colored Sandstone 10 minutes drive back out of Moab we see the first sign we're looking for Arch's National Monument we leave the main Highway and head out across the desert toward the window section some 8 Miles Away the first look we get at it is over the tops of these green Cedars Beyond this tremendous B Balanced Rock which sits unconcernedly alongside the road with the beautiful snow covered Lal Mountains for a backdrop we try to drive up under the rock in the truck and you get some idea of the tremendous size of the stone and its supporting column by the way it dwarfs us down at its feet there is only about an hour of sun left when we reach the central parking area so we hurry out along the foot trails to catch the dramatic effects of Sundown on these windows cut in solid Stone by the erosive sand Laden Winds of a million years we're not disappointed either by the scenery or by the dramatic red of slowly fading light in fact it leaves us feeling a bit unreal as if we had suddenly found ourselves in a world we could see all right but which nevertheless just couldn't possibly exist and then as the Sun finally sets I point my camera right at the skyline and pan it slowly to the right the domes the minettes The Rock spires the arched windows all silhouetted against the darkening Sky only add to my feeling of unreality this isn't like that night we spent beneath the volcano in fact this is just the opposite that was noisy glaring explosive this is majestic Silence with stone eyes looking down on us from every direction watchful with the wisdom of a thousand centuries behind their unspeaking gaze oh well I guess my imagination is working overtime we stay here in the monument all night and this morning with bright daylight there is still plenty to see that leaves us a bit incredulous this is the parade of the elephants and it doesn't tax our imaginations much to see a small herd of them heading in our general direction they look so natural I find myself feeling in my pockets for peanuts to offer them and here are The Jug handles two magnificent arches joined right together at one end this is Park Avenue with those old red stone front SL up a straight as if building Engineers had done the job instead of wind and sand down a little way we find ourselves in a gigantic Corridor with Sandstone Cliffs Rising sheer above us the three gossips stand here watching us and we want to yell at them to mind their own business which they've probably already been doing for a few hundred thousand years then organ Rock sheep Rock and the Tower of Babel all Poke majestically up into the sky and this beautiful view out over Courthouse Towers Valley at the lovely lals Beyond with red monoliths of stone standing about in Majestic isolation Arnold is constantly climbing everything he can get his rubber so shoes on I hold my breath many times for fear he won't make it but somehow he always does here he lands finally on the top of keystone arch a supposedly impossible feat without climbing paraphernalia I'm glad of course to have him up there because looking at his tiny figure gives you some idea of the great height of the arch but I still think he's crazy to take chances on the way up he had to jump a wide crevice land on a sloping hump of precipitous Rock then scramble up the Slick face with a little more than his imagination to hang on to on the way down I photograph his jump I tell him I might just as well take the picture if he's going to break his neck anyhow at least it will add to the realism of our adventure he says oh don't get excited I'm all right once in a while however he admits he stretches his a bit too far just now he exercises great caution as he Maneuvers his way down the cliff is nearly perpendicular when he's finally on the ground we both give a big sigh of relief we next visit a section of the monument called Devil's Garden it's a fascinating place with row upon row of gigantic hogbacks lying so close together we wonder if a man could possibly get between them they are all 100 ft or so in height this SE ction is full of Windows and arches here is landscape Arch longest and thinnest natural Span in the world it is believed Delicate Arch is one of the most beautiful in the world it stands completely alone on the edge of a 400t precipice and the wind has hollowed out a great Bowl behind it Utah Cowboys of 50 years ago hunting stray cattle through the region saw nothing delicate about the stone to their hard-bitten souls it looked like only one thing so they called it that and the name sticks to this day the Old Maid's Bloomers all we can add is she was a pretty tall gal for the arch is 65 ft High we leave the monument with regret for what we've seen is hardly even a sample of what there is to see we could spend two weeks here and enjoy every single day of it but we must hurry on the road scenes now themselves are beautiful enough to make us stop and dig out our cameras the clouds the sky the green Cedars the salmon cliff we're having a color photographers holiday and then we find what we're looking for road sign for dead horse point one of the truly fabulous spots in both Legend and Scenic Beauty to be found anywhere in the world here along these tremendous walls of Utah's upper reaches of the Colorado near the river's Junction with the green and only 11 air miles from Moab is spectacular scenery superlative adjective seem so so useless here and still you struggle to give word expression to your feelings finally you stop talking and just stand looking in humbled silence at the magnificence before you years ago a group of cowboys drove a bunch of wild broomtail horses out onto this point over a narrow neck of land about 40 yards across the neck widens into an island of rough ground about a quarter of a mile across in every direction and completely surrounded except for the neck by thousand foot walls on the Riverside the drop is nearly 3,000 ft the best of the horses were called out for regular use and the rest left here to find their way back out to range they never found it that narrow neck eluted them and eventually they died of thirst with an open view of water just half a mile away straight down we arrive at dead horse point just before Sundown and again catch the full impact of dramatic red light on Great Walls and cliffs we build our fire on the regular camping ground provided for tourists and watch night settle into the Ageless Silence of the great Chasm barely 20 ft from where we sit we're almost as silent as the chasm the place impresses us tremendously this morning those strange feelings of unreality and ageless mystery are gone now we're just two ordinary guys hating to wake up and get the sleep out of our eyes while a brilliant Morning Sun does its best to help us Arnold finally stir AIT and manages to jar himself loose from the arms of Morpheus the green Cedars the Open Sky the fresh air gradually register on his Consciousness something more concrete however registers on mine and with a bang breakfast is a thoroughly unceremonious situation of getting as much food down Us in as short a time and with as little work as possible fruit juices cereal hot drink we even cook eggs now and then we do very little talking as we eat we're not mad at each other we're just hungry also we thoroughly expect someday to have some big hotel like the walar maybe offer us positions as dishwashers and cheap because of our expertness at the washing job so far though no offers have come in with everything finally put away we decide to begin our day with a bit of excitement before we leave dead horse point we pull out of the parking area Beyond which cars do not or cannot go and head out toward the extreme edge of the walls on the rivers side but wait a minute Arnold I don't mean the extreme Edge we didn't like that first spot so good so we decided to try this one which looks a little better to us only this time Arnold doesn't come busting out onto it quite so fast I guess it's good I'm the cameraman I think I like it better I call to Arnold that the view below is really magnificent so he kneels down to take a look well maybe it is a bit far down at that but there is no denying the magnificence of the view either down or across and once you visit dead horse point I'm sure you'll appreciate exactly what we're talking about we pull away from here too with misgivings we were only on the point overnight and this morning and that wasn't half long enough it's the one place I have personally promised myself to return to but now we hurry on to other spots down past the towns of Moab montoo and then out from Blanding toward the mountain 9,000 ft up during the climb we see this sign standing alongside the road so walk the 300 yards to see the Goblet time after time already we've been startled at the erosive powers of wind and sand but this fragile bit of workmanship startles us how long it took to Fashion it or how many centuries it will still stand no un even guesses from the Goblet we climb on over the pass and drop down into white Canyon to the Natural Bridges National Monument to see the great spans which have stood it is estimated for a million years as the waters and Winds of the canyon have eaten away the stone beneath them today they stand here in all their Majesty easily accessible to the marveling eyes of the people of the 20th century and also of the centuries to follow perhaps as long as as man shall last upon the Earth as we come in we find Mr Wy red custodian of the monument busily Shing his horses Preparatory to a trip across the canyon and up onto the first Bridge it is decided that Arnold and Mrs red will go along too they stand chatting for a moment then Mount their horses and get underway I rode my first horse across that bridge 40 years ago says Mrs red and I'm no more afraid now than I was then and off they go by this time too Wy has told us the difference between Bridges and arches a question we've been confused on ever since we first got into the other Monument an arch says Wy is farmed by the wind alone blowing sand for thousands of years gradually eating away the softer sections in the Rock and being helped by heavy pieces cracking and falling off a bridge on the other hand is the work of both wind and water spanning a canyon where a creek or river runs and the water helps to break the hole through they passed by the name sign of this first Bridge o aomo from the hopy language meaning Flat Rock Mound named after this smooth null of polished Stone which stands nearby it seems no one can quite straighten out the name mixup on the bridges each of them has two one is an American name given by early discoverers in this case the Edwin Bridge after Colonel Edwin the other two were named for wives of the discoverers Caroline and Augusta when the place became a National Monument it was decided that more appropriate and nobler names should be given the bridges so the hopy ones were chosen to the local people of the area however the American names still stick as the horses reach the center of the bridge Arnold and Wy Dismount Mrs red stays put it isn't very wide up on top so I don't blame her but Arnold again wants a look down and this time he really gets a good one three miles down white Canyon from oomo is Kachina this bridge is the most massive of the three and by far the most difficult to photograph it sits in the bottom of a deep narrow Canyon and is 205 ft high with more than 100 ft of solid rock above the span it is named after the sacred dances of the hopes but sipapu is Queen of them all 261 ft across and 225 ft High the capital building at Washington could sit comfortably under its Majestic Arch and still lack 50 ft of touching underside of the span its name seems somehow to fit imaginative as it is sipapu meaning in Hopi the portal of Life Hy Indians believed that in the beginning The Souls of men were imprisoned under the Earth the animals heard about this and began digging to release them coyote Badger and others doing the work Badger finally broke through the crust and the souls of men streamed from the underworld through the arched hole which Badger had dug when life is done men must return to the underworld through the same arched portal no wonder that today hopes are reluctant to approach sipoo Bridge sipoo portal to imprisonment beneath the Earth 40 some tortuous miles below the bridges white Canyon empties into the Colorado we drive down here intending to cross on the ferry maintained by one of the three families living here we arrive in time to set up our beds and go to sleep alongside the famous river this morning as we wake up the Sun tips The Cliffs about us turning our whole world to delightful color strange and fascinating the Colorado has been a river of mystery of fear of treachery and of challenge since the first white men with Father Escalante tried to find a way across its incredible Canyons Ledges and chasms in 1776 tragedy humor heroic achievement life and death have been written into history by its swirling Waters I never stand alongside it anymore without many of these chapters flashing through my mind the first time a white man ever looked upon Rainbow Bridge our neighbor in Arizona whose hair turned snowy white after a few fear freezing minutes in a Colorado whirlpool and Rapid my parents crossing the river at Le ferry in 1885 our friend a bishop who sank from sight beneath its yellow swirling surface and was never seen again the floating of 80 wagons across it at hole in the Rock by heroic Pioneers in 1880 chapters all epics of human struggle pitted against the might of this stored River of the West on the lighter side is the day I flew over the Canyons taking these air shots you've just been seeing as we approach Marble Canyon Bridge the one over which you drive as you enter Utah from Arizona on us89 my pilot says how would you like to fly under that thing are you mad I demand of course not he answers come on let me show you I'm torn between fear of this sudden lump my throat and a desire to see what it would really be like flying down into the Marble Canyon and underneath its bridge I wonder if I could take it while I'm making up my mind Norman Banks and heads down between the walls these walls sheer Rock straight up and down and only a few hundred feet across with the yellow ominous Colorado gliding like a watchful waiting snake just below I say a silent prayer for that one little motor up ahead and keep my eyes glued to my camera Closer Closer Closer I can feel my heart beat against my ribs it it will that bridge ever pass over the top of us when we're safely out again Norman suggests I film him going under from the rim near the bridge well any excuse to get my feet on the ground right now looks wonderful to me so he lands and lets me out then takes off again circles about and now here he comes right up in front of us heading straight up between the walls toward the bridge the the tiny plane is dwarfed by the Great Walls but it still has 500 yards to go before it can get out I hold my breath again and my heart and he is out and my heart sinks gradually back down where it belongs with that over we're back here at height on The River's Edge ready to cross on the ferry which has come over for us Arnold drives the car aboard and we start for the other bank as we cross I begin to wonder if we're going to make it the ferry doesn't seem too secure to me or maybe it's because I'm remembering all these things I have told you about the Colorado the men only laugh as we swing back and forth but I think of the Swift moving current straining at the ferry trying to break us loose from our cables the fery operator sits unconcernedly staring out the old windshield and the radiator PLS blows and hisses its way across the Colorado but we arrive safely on this side and are soon off the ferry coming up the bank and heading down river toward a canyon we want to see on the way this great red wall right up almost to the clouds in front of us rounding a Bend we suddenly see the object of our little trip standing here like a gigantic gargoyle anchored to the mountain side but as we climb the steep slope opposite it assumes the profile we were told it would that of old hosini great Navajo Chieftain who was never conquered by United States troops after years of fighting the chief disappeared into the nameless Canyons of the Colorado taking his Warriors and their women with him and n Nature has reared its own monstrous Monument to him in the very Canyons where he found refuge and peace we decide to visit a cattle ranch nearby and when we arrive the place seems more like a dream world or shanga nestled here among these great cliffs there are almost a thousand head of white-faced cattle in the herd with still more arriving in fact it's the first Roundup this young fellow has ever known cattle still constitute one of the major industries of Utah amounting to some 16 millions of dollars in capital value and that's a lot of te- bone steak the ranches are hardly in Hollywood style as you find them nestled in Canyons beneath towering Cliffs but it's the thrill of our life to spend four days at this one laughing and joking with the Cowboys riding with them as they round up the cattle reving in the fresh clean air sweeping down from the canyons and eating thick steaks for breakfast dinner and supper we won't forget this part of our Crimson Cliffs experience for a long long time the weeks allotted for our trip to Utah are almost gone so we finally arrive in the last section which we plan to visit Monument Valley it is difficult to describe this Valley in words or even to picture it in such fashion as to do it justice since I was a small boy I've heard of its great rocks Pinnacles and spires standing alone scattered about in the red desert towering nearly a thousand feet above the valley floor they Bear all kinds of colorful names and somehow each seems to possess an uncanny Fitness Emperor the mittens Castle Rock bind in but Rooster Rock sitting hand Brigham's tomb casket but totem pole the three sisters and many many more but this is the first time I have ever been here and now I wonder why I ever stayed away so long Hollywood came to Monument Valley only a few years ago and since then many notable films stories have been photographed on location within its magnificent domain in fact we find this movie set still standing boarded up and alone out here on the desert and it is not in the least unusual to arrive at the lodge at night and find famous artists and authors Hollywood Executives nationally known photographers and ordinary tourists sitting around the long table chatting over the remains of a delicious meal before going to bed Monument Valley one of the truly remarkable spots in all the world for rest for quiet peace and for Scenic Majesty Monument Valley is an avajo Indian Reservation we won't argue the theoretical Justice or Injustice of white men moving in on land occupied by these people years ago and after finally subduing them the establishment of a reservation for them on land as harsh and unfriendly to life as this but it reminds us nevertheless that in 1894 a report was given to a congressional committee stating that this country is desolate desert inhabited only by Mormons and roving Outlaws unfit for anyone except Indians as we discuss today the basic freedoms equity for all peoples in the world and just compensation for lands taken from them we might well remember these citizens of Monument Valley their goats on Sandy dunes or bare rock their mud Hogans their weaving their meager store of cornbread and the friendliness of their smiles as they meet tourists whom they know are friends we grow to like this fellow very much during our short stay here he invites us to go along with him and his friends today as they prepare for a healing ceremony to be conducted for a little boy stricken with tuberculosis this part of the preparation is in reality a simple sweat bath but the way these strange people of the desert do it it becomes far from simple at least for a white man as you've seen while I've been talking a fire is built in front of this tiny Hogan far out in the valley rocks have been put into the fire and heated to high intensity then placed inside the airtight Hogan now the men undress drink heavily of water and then crawl inside to sit on clean fresh cedar bark and in Pitch Darkness around the hot rocks in a sweat ceremonial that would prostrate an ordinary white man for 35 minutes by my watch they have stayed inside without a breath of oxygen entering the Hogan I had begun to wonder how long they could stay alive all this time they have chanted prayers constantly their chant is difficult to describe mostly variations on one note rising and falling and continuing monotonously on and on now as you see they come crawling out perspiration running in small rivers down their bodies the old man is 83 years old yet he seems as able to take the Oreal as do the younger men they have brought no towels they didn't forget them instead they just don't need them to the Navajo nothing is cleaner than the pure salmon sand which is blown through the air and Brilliant sunlight by his Desert Wind so clean sand is a suitable to dry himself with as the finest towel in the shinest bathroom in the land and these men Revel in that sand like small Boys on a beach when the sand dries they will simply brush it from their bodies and they'll be as faultlessly clean as anyone could ask I am amazed at how meticulous they are not at all as I had been led to believe leisurely now they dress themselves then completely oblivious to me and my camera they mount their horses and ride away to further prepare themselves in Mind and Spirit for the healing ceremony tomorrow this morning in a especially prepared Hogan the healing ceremony begins first with great humility and devotion a painting is to be prepared of colored Sands as an offering to the great God of the Navajo the medicine man explains that God is bound to be pleased when so so much effort is expended to make a beautiful picture for him and when pleased he will surely hear and answer the prayer of the humble Indian with sand obtained by pulverizing different colored rocks gathered from the cliffs in the desert these men of the wind and the sun proceed with their painting weaving their strange medicine as they work a painting in which every part is symbolical like the figure of the man laid with car Poland across the round face of the sun which this painting represents then the little boy is brought out undressed rubbed with a strange potion the contents of which are known only to the Navajo then he is seated upon the beautiful painting and the ceremony proper begins I try to find out the words of the prayers which the men are chanting but I'm unsuccessful to Arnold and me it sounds exactly the same as we heard yesterday while the men were inside the sweat Hogan the rhythmic chant rising and falling going on and on variation on the same tone or note monotonously repeated over and over until we actually lose track of time I watch the medicine man as he works and sense the meticulous care with which he performs each step of the right Vigilant care not to offend but rather to please and win his God bizarre and fascinating as it is I can't free myself from the forceful grip and feeling of the Primitive Simplicity of the whole thing if God hears the prayers of Christians he must also also hear the prayers of a people so intense as these and now the ceremony is over the little boy is lifted from the painting and brushed clean with sacred prayer feathers then he is dressed and the day is done and the navajos go back to their mud Hogans among the great spires and Cliffs of Monument Valley back to their horses back to their goats back to their weaving their corn bread and the loneliness of their existence back to await the miracle of the healing which their God must surely s they're are simple people yet somehow proud and free in the Majesty of their surroundings and Arnold and I head back to Chicago but we've left something behind us a nostalgic something which will surely someday draw us back once again to Utah's Land Of The Crimson Cliffs [Music]