Stone arch collapses in southern Utah park

Wall Arch fell sometime last week, though no one reported seeing it fall

An undated image, left, provided by the National Park Service shows the arch before its collapse, right.

Associated Press

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, Utah - One of the largest and most photographed stone arches in Arches National Park has collapsed.

Wall Arch fell sometime early last week, though no one has reported seeing it collapse, said Paul Henderson, the park's chief of interpretation.

He said the arch, located along the popular Devils Garden Trail, was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy other arches in the park: gravity and erosion.

"They all let go after a while," he said Friday. Nevertheless, it was the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991.

For years, Wall Arch had been a favorite stopping point for photographers. Like others, it was formed by entrada sandstone being whittled over time into its distinctive formation.

Measuring more than 33 feet tall and 71 feet across, Wall Arch ranked 12th in size among the park's estimated 2,000 arches. It was first reported and named in 1948.

Rock fall from the remaining arms of the arch has forced the closure of a portion of the trail. Henderson said it would reopen when it was deemed safe and debris had been cleared.

Officials from the National Park Service and the Utah Geological Survey visited the site Thursday, noting stress fractures in the remaining formation.

In southern Utah, new case of gold fever

Seeking legendary Montezuma treasure



By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune






BLM spokesman Larry Crutchfield stands at entrance to a White Mountain cave where some believe Montezuma's treasure is located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (Mark Havnes/The Salt Lake Tribune)

KANAB - In the latest "National Treasure" flick, Ben Gates goes to Mount Rushmore in search of Aztec gold.

In real life, Corey Shuman goes to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in search of the same thing.

And he will be able to continue hunting there for Montezuma's rumored riches - now that the state has abandoned plans to seal off White Mountain east of Kanab to such expeditions.

The closure was part of a wider effort to shut down nearly two dozen old mines in the southern Utah monument.

But the legendary Montezuma site has been spared - at least for now.

"Technically, we wonder if it's a mine at all," said Jim Springer, a spokesman for the state's Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program. "If the BLM wants to move forward, they can."

That won't happen until a Bureau of Land Management engineer weighs in, according to Larry Crutchfield, the federal agency's spokesman for the monument.

"He'll evaluate the site with safety concerns in mind," Crutchfield said, "and then make some recommendations on what we can do."

Shuman and his prospecting pals at Draper-based Gold Rush Expeditions hope the caves and shafts on White Mountain in Johnson Canyon never close to treasure seekers.

"The site should be left alone because it is a historical resource and the only one of its kind," Shuman said. "The work that happened out there literally emptied the town [Kanab] for a year. It is a huge chapter in the history of Kanab and Utah."

That history began in the 1920s when a drifter named Freddy Crystal showed up and claimed he had a map from a Mexican monastery that identified Johnson Canyon as the burial spot for Montezuma's lost treasures. (Some believe the Aztec ruler's riches were spirited out of Mexico City to keep them out of the hands of Spanish conquistadors.)

So, with shovels in their hands and gold in their eyes, Kanab residents flocked to White Mountain to hunt for the stash.

But they never found it. The gold fever cooled. Crystal vanished, and Kanab's residents drifted back into town.

Nearly a century later, Shuman still believes there may be something to the legend of the lost treasure - mainly because of the petroglyphs chiseled into rock panels in the region.

"There is a huge panel just outside the monument - [which] has some interesting markings on it - that has been translated and may point to White Mountain and the mine."

Shuman also noted Crystal's credibility got a boost when several caves were discovered sealed off with an ancient form of concrete. He said the concrete plugs also featured petroglyphs, possibly made by Aztecs.

Treasure or not, efforts are under way to list the site on the National Register of Historic Places - a move Shuman believes could help preserve the caves that honeycomb the sandstone mountain.

Count BLM archaeologist Matt Zweifel among the Montezuma mine's nonbelievers.

"It seems far-fetched," Zweifel said. "For the logistics alone, you'd need an army of hundreds of slaves, surrounded by soldiers, and [have to] march through the Southwest desert crossing the Grand Canyon and a bigger canyon in Mexico."

Zweifel doubts the inscriptions are in Aztec. But he understands the legend's lure.

"They were all digging like mad," he said. "Everybody wanted to be a millionaire."

And they still do.

"One guy contacted us," Zweifel said, "saying he knew where the treasure was and would split it 50-50 with the BLM if we'd help him dig it up."

The agency declined.