After years of controversy over Bill Clinton’s creation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, and especially since 2016 when whisperings indicated Donald Trump might reduce GSENM’s enormous reach, environmentalists have been preaching the gospel of salvation. The salvation of the land, that is — from extraction, mining, ranching and anyone else who might “bust the crust.”
Then Donald Trump actually did reduce the monument size, erasing a long swath of ground all the way down Hole-in-the-Rock Road. All the locals knew it was still there, but some visitors worried like it had suddenly disappeared. And still others argued that if there were still earth down there, it was now open to the egregious exploitation of cold-hearted Republicans.
The tribes of protectionists quickly dusted off the old war drums to fight for putting it all back. I mean, who doesn’t want to protect the unsurpassed beauty of places like Jacob Hamblin Arch in Coyote Gulch? I mean, look at this:
Yes, it’s worth protecting! Jacob Hamblin Arch has become the poster child of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — featured prominently on the websites of travel reviewers, daring outdoorsman, and even in press releases from the BLM itself.
Except, Jacob Hamblin Arch isn’t in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument …
It’s in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and has, for all these decades, been under the strict protection of the National Park Service.
Oops!
I know, I know. Honest mistake, but it really is a bummer when you find out that your poster child isn’t even in your own family — and certainly not the at-risk or lost child you made it out to be.
GSENM still has a lot to offer, which should make finding a new, legitimate poster child easy. At 1.9 million acres, it’s almost impossible to not find at least something worthy of a photo shoot in there.
Therefore, we present to you, Grosvenor Arch. We know it’s not as picturesque — in fact, it’s downright ugly. But at least it’s in the monument, and it is in a way, a lost child.
Courtesy Mike druckenbrod/Flickr.
We know calling this arch ugly is going to spur angry letters to the paper, in its defense, because in the eye of every beholder, there is some beauty found in every thing. We agree — Grosvenor Arch has a certain beauty — in the same way Quasimodo has. The Quasimodo of all arches is, at least, awe-inspiring.
So we invite the BLM and all conservationists and recreationists to see the raw and edgy “natural beauty” of Grosvenor Arch and to begin using it to represent all that the monument stands for — no belfry required.
– The Byway
Feature image caption: Grosvenor Arch. Courtesy Mike Druckenbrod/Flickr.