The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised Edition — John Shaqi
The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised EditionLohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised Edition
Lohman, Stanley William
Colorado National Monument (Colo.); Geology -- Colorado -- Colorado National Monument
About 3 miles west of the Glade Park Store and Post Office are three
large caves in a cliff of the Wingate Sandstone on the north wall of a
canyon containing a tributary of Clark’s Wash. The middle cave, which
formerly contained a small one-room framehouse and other improvements,
was occupied for about 40 years prior to 1958 by Mrs. Laura Hazel Miller
(fig. 5). A large cave just to the west (left) was used for storage, and
another large cave just to the east formerly was fenced to shelter
domestic animals. Mrs. Miller lived alone most of this time but had a
dog for companionship the last few years she lived in the cave. When my
wife and I visited her in the mid-fifties we had a very pleasant
conversation with this very intelligent woman and could hardly believe
she was 87 years old. She could not understand why anyone could live in
crowded cities as she much preferred the peace and quiet of her cave.
Once a week she walked the 6 miles round trip to and from the Glade Park
Store and Post Office, bought what few necessities she needed, and
telephoned her daughter in Grand Junction. Maybe she had something the
rest of us have missed! She became sick in her nineties and moved to
Grand Junction to live with her daughter. After she died, the property
was sold, and I have since observed that vandals had burned her one room
house and had destroyed most of the other improvements.
[Illustration: CAVE in Wingate Sandstone inhabited by Mrs. Laura
Hazel Miller (visible between gate posts) until 1958. One-room house
was entirely within cave, and smaller storehouses extended back of
the house. Note blackening of cave roof by soot. (Fig. 5)]
Artesian Wells
It may surprise you to learn that several sandstone formations supply
water to artesian wells northeast of the Monument in The Redlands,
Orchard Mesa, and the southwestern side of the Grand Valley, most of
which are 500 to more than 1,000 feet deep. When first drilled and for
some years later these wells flowed at the land surface, but eventually
after too many wells had been drilled too close together, each well
reduced the output of neighboring wells until most wells ceased to flow
naturally. This made it necessary for most well owners to install pumps,
which further aggravated the problem by reducing the artesian head (the
height to which the water rises above the formation from which it
issues). This created a situation not unlike too many children sucking
on straws in the same ice cream soda, and led to a detailed
investigation by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Colorado Water
Conservation Board,[16] outgrowths of which were the present report and
its predecessors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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