Evening Star Newspaper, June 6, 1937, Page 86

Photo by Bragaeca-Herrick MOREHEAD PATTERSON — HE ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE ITHIN sight of one of the most popular tourist_ resorts in the world is 2 forest-covered plateau a mile long and nearly as wide on which no human being has ever stood. It has been gazed at by millions of human eyes; hundreds of thousands ot men and women have watched the last rays of the sun wrap it in a mantle of purple and gold — but it is still enchanted ground with a silence and mystery all its own. Shiva’s Temple, it is called; but during its countless cen- turies of existence it has never heard the footfall or voice of priest or worshipper, or had the remotest association with humanity. It is an isolated mesa in the Grand Canyon, only a few miles from the famed El Tovar Hotel. There never was a Temple of Shiva that towered five hun- dred feet or that could hold five thousand people; but nature has carved one here from the solid rock that reaches up nearly seven thousand feet, and if hollow might contain a million souls. Its flat forest-covered roof lies level with the Canyon rim and it has a mountain mass nearly as great as Mount Washington. Separated from the surrounding land by a deep gorge, its precipitous walls rise with dignity and grandeur. They are beautiful, but they offer a stern challenge to man to invade the sanctuary of the Temple’s summit. After all these centuries that challenge has been accepted by Morehead Patterson, an adventurous New Yorker, and the American Museum of Natural History. If it be humanly possible, scientists will stand on the summit of Shiva’s Temple before 1937 has faded into limbo. But it may not be possible, at least with inventions available to man today. We don’t know yet, but we will find out before the summer has ended. It would seem simple to land there in an airplane, or to flop down in an autogiro like some great prehistoric bird settling on its nest. That was the first thought, of course, for Mr. Pat- terson is air minded. So a reconnaissance was made from the air. The photographs showed that the flat top of Shiva’s Temple is covered with a heavy growth of pinyons and juni- per, like those of the Canyon rim. Landing in that mass of forest is impossible. Next he thought of a blimp. Perhaps it could hover low enough over the mesa to drop men with saws and axes who could clear a landing space. When their work was done our sciantists could be landed to open this treasure house of the ' ages. But air currents spoiled that plan. Winds rush and swirl through the treacherous ravines and canyons, boiling up over the summit of Shiva’s Temple. It is inconceivable that a blimp could hover there. A parachute would undoubtedly be carried far away to drop in the Canyon's bottom a mile below the rim. Approach from the air appears to be impossible. As if fore- seeing that eventually man would attempt to desecrate the Temple, nature has built her defenses with consummate skill. The attack, if an attack can be made with reasonable hope of success, must be from the ground. Therefore, Mr. Patterson ordered a series of vertical and oblique stereoscopic aerial photographs of both Shiva’s Temple and Wotan’s Throne, another mesa in which we are interested. These photographs are now being studied to determine whether a trail could be constructed up the sides of the mesas at reasonable expense. “Preliminary inspections are often most misleading,” the topographers have reported to us, “but Shiva’s Temple ap- pears much more accessible than expected and there is one place on the high ledge of Wotan’s Throne which suggests possibilities.” There the matter rests. If the photographs disclose a prac- tical route, the attempt will be made. If not, the Temple will remain inviolate as it has stood through countless ages. But why should we risk life and gold to climb this isolated THIS WEEK Color Photography by Hewitt & Keene plateau in the greatest gorge of all the world? Just asa “‘stunt’’? The American Museum of Natural History is not interested in stunts. But were we able to explore the top of Shiva’s Temple we would get, as we see it, information of biological significance which the world has never had before. Some time between 35,000 and 100,000 years ago, Shiva’s Temple was separated from the main rim of the Canyon. Month by month, the infinitely slow process of erosion cut a trench in the softer parts of the Kaibab limestone which caps the mass. The forests still remain and presumably the animal life con- tinued to exist. As the separation grew wider and deeper and the walls became more vertical, succeeding animal generations found themselves completely isolated from the “mainland.” There is no reason why they should have be- come extinct. The forests still gave them food and shelter and probably pools of rain water formed in the rocks. But even if all the water had disappeared the animals could still adapt them- selves to live without it. Nature accommodates itself to such conditions in many deserts. Some mammals who live there never have to drink. They get all the liquid they need from vegetation. It is doubtful that any large mammals still exist on these plateaus. Deer probably would have left before the separation was complete or would have died from intensive inbreeding. But smaller mammals such as squirrels, chipmunks, pack rats, pocket gophers and other rodents would have no reason to desert. their home before the isolation was complete. Maogazine Section Reptiles, amphibians and non-flying insect life should re- main in their original state. We know that, with isolation, animals go through a period of evolution, developing differ- ent characters and special adaptations, but we can only guess at the rate of this evolution. ) Were we able to collect the animal and insect life from Shiva’s Temple and compare it with that of the Canyon’s main rim, we would learn many things. We would have a time X ] YAvapal PO: T L BcTovar moTEL - AD Qremem ANGEL TRAIL e 5. o 5Pl POINTE, o - Y HE N X | S