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Show - '- - .JTf . Paul Bunyan's Potty, a spectacular feature in the Salt-Horse Creek Complex in the Needles Section of Canyonlands National Park, has received its historic name "officially," according to word from Washington this week. Woiv It's Official-Canyonlands Pothole Arch is Really a Potty This large horizontal hole and surrounding rock formation forma-tion (upper center) in Canyon-lands Canyon-lands National Park, southeastern south-eastern Utah, has been officially offi-cially named Paul Bunyans Potty, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names announced. announ-ced. Donald J. Orth, a geographic geograph-ic names expert of the U.S. Geological Survey and executive execu-tive secretary of the Board's Domestic Names Committee, said that the act to standardize the name of the natural rock formaton for use in all USGS and other Federal maps and publications was made at the request of private citizens and with the approval of the Utah Committee on Geographic Names and is one of about 1,000 names formally adopted this year. "The arch," Orth said, "was apparently first named Paul Bunyans Potty by local cowboys who, inspired by the exploits of the legendary giant lumberjack, believed that the unusual shape and size of the arch were of bunyanesque proportions, even though there is no evidence that the folk hero ever visited the Utah site." "Geologically," the USGS ; spokesman said, "such arches and other features in the park have been formed by the slow erosion of the rocks over ! millions of years. During the long and slow erosional process, weaker materials ; crumble and break away, while erosion often results in some oddly-shaped formations some of which, quite naturally, ; resemble familiar objects or ; features that inspire identify- ; ing names. While this partial- ; lar feature has also been called ; Bow Tie Arch, the name Paul ; Bunyans Potty seems to be ; more popular among local ; residents." '. First created in 1890, the interagency Board on Geogra- ; phic Names shares responsibility responsi-bility with the Secretary of the Department of the Interior to establish and maintain uniform uni-form geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government. Gov-ernment. The Board serves as the central authority for geographic name proposals and inquiries and develops procedures to be followed in standardizing domestic and foreign names as well as underseas and extraterrestrial feature names. The Board itself generally does not propose name changes and usually follows a policy of recognizing present-day local usage or preference. The U.S. Geological Survey, as the Nation's largest civilian mapping agency, provides staff support for the Board's Domestic Names Committee. |