Monument Valley
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Monument Valley (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, meaning "valley of the rocks") is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching Template:Convert above the valley floor.<ref name="readersnatural">Template:Cite book</ref> The most famous butte formations are located in northeastern Arizona along the Utah–Arizona state line. The valley is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, the Native American people within whose reservation it lies.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Famed director John Ford used the location for a number of his Westerns. Film critic Keith Phipps wrote that "its Template:Convert have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West".<ref name="auto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Geography and geologyEdit
Monument Valley is part of the Colorado Plateau. The elevation of the valley floor ranges from Template:Convert above sea level. The floor is largely siltstone of the Cutler Group, or sand derived from it, deposited by the meandering rivers that carved the valley. The valley's vivid red coloration comes from iron oxide exposed in the weathered siltstone. The darker, blue-gray rocks in the valley get their color from manganese oxide.
The buttes arising from the valley floor are clearly stratified, with three principal layers. The lowest layer is the Organ Rock Shale, the middle is de Chelly Sandstone, and the top layer is the Moenkopi Formation capped by Shinarump Conglomerate. Major rock formations include West and East Mitten Buttes, Merrick Butte, Hunts Mesa, Eagle Mesa, Sentinel Mesa, Brighams Tomb, Castle Rock, Stagecoach, Big Indian, Rain God Mesa, Spearhead Mesa, Mitchell Mesa, Mitchell Butte, Gray Whiskers, Elephant Butte, Camel Butte, Cly Butte, King-on-his-Throne, Rooster Rock, and Setting Hen. Another notable formation is Totem Pole, a highly eroded butte remanent. The valley also includes large stone structures, such as the "Eye of the Sun".
Between 1945 and 1967, the southern extent of the Monument Upwarp was mined for uranium, which occurs in scattered areas of the Shinarump Conglomerate; vanadium and copper are associated with uranium in some deposits.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
TourismEdit
Monument Valley includes much of the area surrounding Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, a Navajo Nation equivalent to a national park. Oljato, for example, is also within the area designated as Monument Valley.Template:Citation needed
Visitors may pay an access fee and drive through the park on a Template:Convert dirt road. Parts of Monument Valley, such as Mystery Valley and Hunts Mesa, are accessible only by guided tour.
ClimateEdit
Monument Valley experiences a desert climate with cold winters and hot summers. While the summers may be hot, the heat is tempered by the region's high altitude. Although the valley experiences an average of 54 days above Template:Convert annually, summer highs rarely exceed Template:Convert. Summer nights are comfortably cool, and temperatures drop quickly after sunset. Winters are cold, but daytime highs are usually above freezing. Even in the winter, temperatures below Template:Convert are uncommon, although possible. Monument Valley receives an occasional light snowfall in the winter, but it usually melts within a day or two.Template:Citation needed
In visual mediaEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Monument Valley has been featured in numerous computer games, in print, and in motion pictures, including multiple Westerns directed by John Ford that influenced audiences' view of the American West, such as: Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and The Searchers (1956).<ref name="auto"/><ref>Template:Cite news "Ford is popularly regarded as a director of westerns, the director who made John Wayne a star and made Monument Valley the locus for the myth of the American West. It was a reputation he encouraged. 'My name's John Ford – I make westerns', he once said by way of introduction.1 Among his most popular westerns are Staqecoach (1939), My Darlinq Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1947), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
"Western or non-western, Ford's films exhibit characteristics that transcend those categories. Critics have recognized Ford's preoccupation with the traditional values of home and country, whether the country is Ireland or the United States; they have characterized his heroes as loners, men disappointed with life in some way that is only implied; and they have enumerated the elements of a typical Ford film: Monument Valley, the Seventh Cavalry, a fight, a dance, a wedding, a funeral, and the members of the so-called John Ford Stock Company, actors who appeared again and again in his films: John Wayne, Victor McLaglen, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond, Olive Carey, Harry Carey, Jr., John Qualen, and Hank Worden among others.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news "Monument Valley resides on the Utah–Arizona border, within the territory of the Navajo Reservation. Encompassing approximately 30,000 acres, the land is noteworthy for its incredible sandstone buttes, which reach as high as 1,000 ft. Realizing how magnificent the location would be for a western picture, resident Harry Goulding approached John Ford about shooting his next film there. After previewing the landscape through some pictures Goulding brought along with him, Ford was certain he wanted to film Stagecoach there. Some of the motivation for that was the remoteness of the location. Hundreds of miles away from any form of civilization, it certainly discouraged nosey producers from prying, though the natural beauty of the terrain was a deciding factor. It became his preferred location for shooting westerns; Ford favored its majesty over accuracy in films like My Darling Clementine (1946), set in Tombstone, Arizona, and The Searchers, which substitutes the location for practically everywhere the characters travel to. The expansive countryside embodied the untamed potential of the western frontier so vividly it has become the iconic image of the west. Ford's discovery of Monument Valley was crucial in piecing together his image of the frontier — a vision which has become the defining portrait of the American West."</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Many more recent movies, with other directors, were also filmed in Monument Valley, including Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), the first Spaghetti Western to be filmed (in 1967) outside Europe, and Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger (2013).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
GalleryEdit
- Monument Valley (14).jpg
Monument Valley, the Thumb
- Mittens and Merrick after Sunset.jpg
West, East Mittens and Merrick Butte after sunset
- Snow covered Monument Valley sunrise in January.jpg
Snow-covered Monument Valley sunrise in January
- Monument Valley, 6AM.jpg
Monument Valley West and East Butte at 6:00 am
- Sandstorm in Monument Valley, Arizona - Utah, USA.jpg
Sandstorm in Monument Valley
- Monument Valley, Utah, USA - 23638754781.jpg
Vegetation of Monument Valley
- Monument Valley, Utah, USA - 23426578800.jpg
Monument Valley landscape
- Golden Monument Valley (cropped).jpg
View on the Monument Valley from Hunts mesa
- Monument Valley rock formation.jpg
Monument Valley rock formation
- Mystery Valley, Monument Valley, 2005 (1).jpg
Mystery Valley
PanoramaEdit
Template:PanoramaTemplate:Panorama
See alsoEdit
- List of sandstones
- Valley of the Gods
- Uluru
- Goulding's Lodge
- Tepui
- List of rock formations in Monument Valley
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
External linksEdit
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