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Show Letters to the Editor ... r - I . . . . I ! , s ' V .?..," . . i - ... - - I x s . i C ! Dear Editor: The scenes shown in the pictures are one of the reasons the environmentalists of this country are so demanding in their attempts to keep our ; country clean. Trash over ; three feet high is piled along the river, beer cans and other trash is thrown in a conglom-; conglom-; erate mass in and around those so called places of ; habitation that some people : from Texas (if license plates '. are to be believed) are evidently trying to homestead -! as a trailer and tent has been '. in the same location for over four weeks. The sanitary facilities are non-existant for these two camps and along with several dogs, who are quite friendly, the surrounding area has a nice aroma, if you happen to like that type ' of odor. The State Health Board has evidently not been on the ball lately when they allow condit-ins condit-ins like this to exist without trying to clean it up. The State saw fit to close the Lion's Park for overnight camping, claiming that the running water, faucets, and toilets were not adequate for the public, but they allow the Colorado River to be-polluted by people denied the privilege of overnight camping. In this writer's opinion, the State should first look to its own part of unsanitary conditions condit-ions existing in the State, parts such as rest stops, etc., before closing private, clean and sanitary stops, placed for the welfare of the people. -W. D. McCarthur Dear Editor: All summer I have enjoyed the sunny yellow marigolds that surround the trees on our Main Street. Monday evening around 9 o'clock I discovered Keith Peterson on his knees with a pastic bucket in one hand, cleaning the weeks and debris from the flowers. It was Keith and five others who purchased and planted them. You and your efforts are appreciated Keith. Thank You! C. Pipkin Dear Mr. Taylor: During the last two weeks of May, Mrs. Bates and I had the pleasure of spending our holiday in Canyonlands National Nat-ional Park including three nights in Moab. We enjoyed our experience very much the second time we have ' visited Canyonlands National Park and with our growing affection for the area would like to express to you, some of our concerns. We are most concerned about the pictographs. These are truly unique on the planet. Mrs. Bates and I have seen the pictographs in France and Spain and nothing compares with the Canyonlands pictographs. pic-tographs. Realizing there will be many opinions concerning them, we would like to express our own and that is that those who are going to appreciate the pictographs will have known about them already and that they should not be advertised nor made easy to find or reach, Specifically, signs pointing to them, automobile roads improved, distribution of printed maps showing how to find them, and so forth, should not be encouraged. Mrs. Bates and I found the pictographs in the Maze without any difficulty and without any guidance except from the area Ranger the evening before and from others climbing down to their location. We were literally most disturbed by motorcycles tearing tear-ing up and down endlessly and purposelessly almost all over the park roads. Most had no mufflers and their sound could be heard for many miles away. Looking at this auditory desecration of a beautiful and quiet place, simply from economics, it is not to the advantage of your community and others in Utah to have motorcycles destroying one of the very things visitors come there to have peace and quiet. Roads! There is a growing body of opinion which we share that there are lots of roads in the United States and that if people wish to see lots of roads, they need not come to Utah. In fact, we went to Utah, and believe others do to, to avoid roads. We suggest that roads in the State, as much as is within your influence, be kept rough and to a minimum. As the country becomes more mature and more crowded, backpacking will become more popular and more vital to the true recreation of the citizenry. We hope you will do what you can in your power to encourage the development of backpacking with its quiet and minimal destructive impact on the environment in Canyonlands National Park. We enjoyed Moab very much. My brother, George Thomas, has purchased property prop-erty just south of the town. Right now the merchants of Moab, with their community still beautiful, will be naturally looking for ways of improving their economic sufficiency. Along that path if the citizens are not alert, led by their newspaper fortunately owned locally, lies the destruction of the very ' things that people came to Moab to enjoy. For Mrs. Bates and myself, I am, Sincerely, -Talcott Bates, M.D. Monterey, California |