Arches National Park, Utah

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park. Photo NAU.PH.93.37.269 by Alex or Dorothy Brownlee, courtesy of Cline Library Special Collections, Northern Arizona University.

Arches National Park in southeastern Utah protects one of the largest concentrations of sandstone arches in the world, in excess of 2000 individual formations. Over 100 million years of water and ice erosion, extreme temperature changes, and underground salt movement are responsible for this spectacular landscape.

Native Americans have been present in the Arches area for thousands of years. Fremont peoples, and later Archaic, Anasazi and Ute searched the arid desert for game animals, wild plant foods, and stone for tools and weapons. Between 1000 and 1300 A.D., Anasazi peoples lived in the southern area of what is now the national park, while Fremont peoples still lived in the northern area. By 1300, prolonged drought had made the region unsuitable for habitation, and the area was abandoned.

When Anglos first explored the arches country, groups of Ute Indians were living in the region. The newcomers combed the area looking for minerals, and eventually ranchers settled the region, grazing their cattle and sheep in the sparse grasslands of the area. Mormon settlement on the current site of the city of Moab was initially abandoned after conflict with the natives ended in the death of several Mormon missionaries in 1855. Twenty years passed before settlers returned to this now prosperous city on the Colorado River.

A small area was established as Arches National Park in 1929. By 1971, at the behest of the citizens of Moab, the park had reached its current dimensions of 73,379 acres. Elevation within the park varies from 3,960 to 5,653 feet, and precipitation averages only 8.5 inches per year.

Open pinyon-juniper woodlands cover much of the landscape, especially in moisture-accumulating depressions. Another common plant community is desert scrub, often rooted in delicate cryptobiotic soils. More specialized plant communities closely follow geography at Arches, e.g., alkaline shale washes are characterized by salt-tolerant plants such as saltbush and greasewood. Along streams and seeps, riparian species thrive, including cottonwood, willows and exotic tamarisk.

Grasslands once covered several valleys in the park, but heavy livestock grazing (occuring in some areas of the park as recently as 1982) has allowed shrubs such as Mormon tea and snakeweed to crowd out the grasses.   Animal life in Arches include a variety of rodents, birds and reptiles, including kangaroo rats, pinyon jays, and rattlesnakes. Large mammals include mountain lions, gray fox and coyotes.

--Researched and written by Shannon Kelly

Allan, J.S. 1977. The plant communities of Arches National Park. Ph.D. Dissertation. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 98 pp.

Sharpe, S. E. 1993. Late-Wisconsin and Holocene vegetation in Arches National Park, Utah. Pp. 109-122 In: Rowlands, P. G., van Riper, C., III and Sogge, M. K., editors. Proceedings of the Second Biennial Conference on Research in Colorado Plateau National Parks. Vol. 10. National Park Service, Washington, D.C.

Trimble, S. 1984. Arches National Park. Pp. 10-33 In: J.V. Murfin, editor. The Sierra Club Guides to the National Parks. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, New York, NY.

Barnes, F. A. 1987. Canyon country arches, bridges, and other natural openings: An illustrated guide. Canyon Country Publications, Moab, UT.

Berry, M. S. 1975. An archaeological survey of the northeast portion of Arches National Park. Selected Papers No. 3. Utah Division of State History Antiquities Section, Salt Lake City.

Mead, J. I., Sharpe, S. E. and Agenbroad, L. D. 1991. Holocene bison from Arches National Park, Southwestern Utah. Great Basin Naturalist 51: 336-342.

Tuhy, J. 1995. Endangered plants of the Moab area. Canyon Legacy 23: 11.