Show Never ever A Away way J p v From People By my FLORENCE BITTNER It has to come of course eCore much longer you'll b bible be ble ible to go from anywhere to tc and nowhere will wil pie be able to get away om nn people Call it progress at is our sacred word Any Any- ing sing is acceptable in the theme theme theme me me of oC progress There is thing wrong with people but ey ey bring with them beer plastic bags lunch pas pas pa- pa s and a grimy sense of ofer ofer I er er I use I r FEDERAL Highway Admin- Admin I has restored 13 miln milon mil mil- on n in in public lands road mone money Utah which will make pos- pos ble a new road over San Santian Fan uan Q County's Comb Ridge Comb Ridge is that wall of oC tuck a thousand feet Ceet high highl l stretches from Crom 3 i ent nt Valley almost up to Elk with only the San Sandun J dun un River breaking through WHEN THE Hole h in the Rock met that ridge in their i gons they were forced to allow Low along its base day after alter and even when they e jane a to the River they could- could i get wagons across so they patched a zig zag trail tits its side and hitched as asI i ny y as seven teams to toe I je e wagon and the trail was irked with the blood and hide jm m the knees of the tor- tor Sed ed animals rhe The pioneers were fortunate i get over Comb Ridge at l because Albert R. R Lyman yin in later years came to tov tow w v that country as few men meni mente i te te said there are only two ices a man on foot can l f 1 s Comb Ridge and no place nan on horseback can cross crossi i fifty miles tt irHE TOP of Comb Ridge wavy sandstone and re- re a cocks cock's Crib ib b whence comes the me i e. e The isolation Comb ge has insured the land Jound jund it will become yester- yester ys y ys s memory when an oiled t hway is gouged across the thell ill ll of sandstone HT m r rhe fhe he amount of money rested re- re r pasted ted sted to build the road rich Lich will surely be less than thane r e miles and only a two jie he e road gives an idea of formidable task even for rn l highway building equip equip- pt p- p nt t which stops at no o o tale icle To mount Comb Ridge ill sill cost 13 million AH IS asking o Complete complete construction on onDie onnic Die nic hi highway hway U 95 from fromi i ending Eding ding to H Hanksville Comb Ige is is one small piece of hundred miles of oC what ow dirt road protecting e the most incredible fiery nery ry conjured up by the wed earth in the birth cess ss feel about having that id improved the same way eel eel 1 about having Farming Farming- jj Canyon made into an y-access y highway The id ld is terrible but I like 1 that tat way because it keeps i P le home by the hundreds Farmington Canyon and the Comb Ridge area the Miery nery is so glorious it is th h the trip over bad roads i a hardy few J. J DUR ROADS are an t natures nature's dignity We drove freeway newly opened Moss toss ross San Rafael Swell re- re We swooshed up that Me e and across that broken I l red land at 60 miles an ur Ur urn air conditioning blowin blow- blow ij 1 in our relaxed faces and hed at the worst barriers other nature has been able ahle erect r For a hundred years San lf el Swell has been a fast- fast of oC isolation against en- en aching known ray rd fly to Indians cowboys title ranchers and to ani- ani als als Engineers came with f mite ite and graders bridges blacktop and now people the hundreds come up Ithe and over and hardly bother to turn off the radio and get out to look IN MY growing years I would ask father my on the other side of the mountains mountains mountains moun moun- Dad would look at atthe atthe atthe the unrevealing Blue Mountains Mountains Mountains Moun Moun- and shake his head Only Indians and cowboys know that WHY DONT DON'T you know I hardly believed him He knew everything Because Ive I've never been there Nobody has almost Its It's such rough country theres there's no way in there NOW THEY are going to tomake tomake tomake make an oiled highway all the way from Blanding to the bridged Colorado Its It's an easy half hour detour detour detour de de- de- de tour on that road to Natural Bridges In my growing up years I knew the Bridges were there I read of them in school books and saw pictures of oC them but though I lived in the same county with them I never saw them Not many people did It was a long day-long horseback ride to see the Bridges and a long days day's ride at that NOW YOU get out of the car and walk along a blacktop blacktop blacktop black black- top path and look down on those stone arches and that's the wrong way to see them That's like looking at the Empire State Building from froman an it airplane looks squat The only way to know how tall the Empire State SUite Building Building Building Build Build- ing is is to look up at it itin itin itin in awe Just so with the Natural Bridges They should be seen from underneath where they can spread in majesty From the top they look like another hunk of rock in a stone land land- THAT LAND out there where the deer and the antelope antelope antelope an an- play and the sky is not cloudy all day It should not be seen from an air conditioned car careening along pavement It should be seen from the spring seat of a creaking wagon or on horseback day after dusty day We Ye dont don't know how far Car a hundred miles of desolation is We dont don't know how high a a ridge of sandstone is Ve dont don't know how wild the ocean ocean is and we dont don't know how big and terrible the earth is We have shrunk nature into handy freeze dried plastic packages to be betaken betaken betaken taken out reconstituted and enjoyed in civilized comfort IN MY mind that country down there there in Utah's forgotten forgotten forgotten for for- gotten corner has been my myland myland myland land of refuge the one remaining remaining remaining re re- re- re spot untouched by civilization The land the world passed by Now it will be open and I feel exposed as if my innermost innermost innermost inner inner- most secrets had been laundered launder launder- ed and spread on the front lawn to dry There is no place left to get away The Thelast Thelast Thelast last hiding place has been found ITS IT'S progress and it will bring tourists and their dollars and in our world anything is acceptable in the name of progress L 1 know but I do not approve approve approve ap ap- ap- ap prove and I am not resigned |