Abbey Geoglyph?
Utah based wilderness rambler Mike Coronella recently posted to the Abbeyweb about an interesting find just outside the southwestern section of Arches National Park. I appreciate him allowing me to repost his account and photo:
“The area in question is very jagged; the edge of a massive upthrust, the layers are exposed leaving the harder ones protruding up into the sky, very cool, very colorful. I was able to get to a high point just as the rain started; I could see down the cliff line on the west side of Moab Canyon and the grand valley–and the far end was obliterated by rain. I could hear thunder far off, and to the east, where I could clearly see through one of the Window Arches, the rain was starting to encroach. I was certainly in a place that warrants a hike to see; the view was exceptional, despite the coming storm.”
Looking down at his feet, he noticed some large pieces of chert forming letters that spelled
ABBEY
According to Mike, they were “obviously put down a long time ago, judging from the way the dirt was around them.”
As much as I’d be thrilled to hear of an original “Abbey” somewhere in the wilds, I’m a little skeptical of this being one of them. Seems a bit grandiose for Abbey. A more subtle inscription like the well known Everett Ruess “nemo” or “nemo1934″ would be more convincing. Then again, the man did drive a red Cadillac convertible around, occasionally tossing beer cans out the window, so he could definitely be ostentatious. The “believers” have also been quick to point out other examples of this sort of behavior: pissing into the abyss, rolling tires into a crater outside Albuquerque, then poring gasoline on them and setting them ablaze fire, shooting flaming arrows off the lip of the North Rim into Grand Canyon, rolling boulders off cliffs and into canyons, etc.
I don’t believe any of these examples necessarily indicates he’d make a large geoglyph of his name. These other actions either weren’t in the wilderness, weren’t lasting or easily detectable for very long. You wouldn’t have known the boulder was rolled off by a human. You’d never know he pissed off into the canyon.
But perhaps the key reason I don’t think it’s Abbey is that he always struck me as someone that avoided bringing unnecessary attention to himself. Even his most jarring “letters to the editor” were not meant to draw attention to himself but to an issue. Or to expose a lie. Like I said, I could see a small inscription that would most likely never be found, but something you could see from a plane? Don’t think so.
Looks like a fan tribute to me.
Larger resolution image is here. Mike’s photo stream on Flickr is here.
Mike Coronella is also the co-author of The Hayduke Trail, published in 2005 by The University of Utah Press.