Shiprock
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Shiprock (Template:Langx, "rock with wings" or "winged rock"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) is a monadnock rising nearly Template:Convert above the high-desert plain of the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. Its peak elevation is Template:Convert above sea level. It is Template:Convert southwest of the town of Shiprock, which is named for the peak.
Governed by the Navajo Nation, the formation is in the Four Corners region and plays a significant role in Navajo religion, myth, and tradition. Shiprock is a point of interest for rock climbers and photographers and has been featured in several film productions and novels. It is the most prominent landmark in northwestern New Mexico. In 1975, Shiprock was designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
NameEdit
The Navajo name for the peak, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "rock with wings" or "winged rock", refers to the legend of the great bird that brought the Navajo from the north to their present lands.<ref name="butterfield_greene"/><ref name="linford"/> The name "Shiprock" or Shiprock Peak or Ship Rock derives from the peak's resemblance to an enormous 19th-century clipper ship. Americans first called the peak "The Needle", a name given to the topmost pinnacle by Captain J. F. McComb in 1860.<ref name="linford">Laurance D. Linford, Navajo Places: History, Legend, Landscape, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 264–265.</ref> United States Geological Survey maps indicate that the name "Ship Rock" dates from the 1870s.<ref name="butterfield_greene">Butterfield, Mike, and Greene, Peter, Mike Butterfield's Guide to the Mountains of New Mexico, New Mexico Magazine Press, 2006, Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="linford"/>
GeologyEdit
Shiprock, an example of a volcanic neck, is composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black dikes of igneous rock called minette, a type of lamprophyre. It is the erosional remnant of the throat of a volcano, and the volcanic breccia formed in a diatreme. The rock probably was originally formed 2,500–3,000 feet (750–1,000 meters) below the Earth's surface, but it was exposed after millions of years of erosion.<ref name="readersnatural">Template:Cite book</ref> Wall-like sheets of minette, known as dikes, radiate away from the central formation. Radiometric age determinations of the minette establish that these volcanic rocks solidified about 27 million years ago. Shiprock is in the northeastern part of the Navajo volcanic field—a field that includes intrusions and flows of minette and other unusual igneous rocks that formed about 30 million years ago. Agathla (El Capitan) in Monument Valley is another prominent volcanic neck in this volcanic field.<ref name="semken">Steven C. Semken, The Navajo Volcanic Field, in Volcanology in New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 18, p. 79–83, 2001. {{#if:1524-4156|Template:Catalog lookup link{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}|Template:Error-small}}</ref><ref name="delaney">Paul T. Delaney, Ship Rock, New Mexico: The vent of a violent volcanic eruption, Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—Rocky Mountain Section, pp. 411–415, 1987.</ref>
Climbing history and legal statusEdit
The recorded first ascent was in 1939, by a Sierra Club party including David Brower, Raffi Bedayn, Bestor Robinson and John Dyer.<ref name="salkeld"/><ref name="ungnade"/> This was the first climb in the United States to use expansion bolts for protection. Pitons were used for direct aid. This first ascent route is featured in the 1979 book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.
Since then at least seven routes have been climbed on the peak, all of them of great technical difficulty. A modification of the original route is recorded as the easiest, and it is rated as Grade IV, YDS 5.9, A1.<ref name="salkeld"/> It was considered a great unsolved problem by the climbing community in the 1920s and 1930s. At that time there was a widespread rumor of a $1000 prize for climbing the peak, which inspired "dozens of attempts by the experienced and inexperienced alike".<ref name="salkeld"/>
The idea of climbing Shiprock is repugnant to many Navajo people. Climbing has been illegal since 1970.<ref>Template:Fifty Classic Climbs page 214</ref><ref name="Parks_Recreation">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Shiprock_Chapter">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In spite of this, rock climbers continue to see Shiprock as an interesting place to climb.
Serious injuries to three climbers in March 1970 caused the Navajo Nation to ban rock climbing not only on Shiprock but all over the Navajo Nation on monoliths, spires and within tribal parks under the jurisdiction of Navajo Parks & Recreation. The Navajo Nation announced that the ban was "absolute, final and unconditional".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
According to reports from the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department, which administers recreational activities on Navajo land, there have been false claims that the department allows rock climbing and cooperates with rock climbing organizations. A 2006 press release addressing Monument Valley, another area of monoliths within the Navajo Nation, states: Template:Anchor
Permits are issued by the department to camp and hike in some areas, but not for sacred monuments such as Shiprock.
Religious and cultural significanceEdit
Shiprock and the surrounding land have religious and historical significance to the Navajo people. It is mentioned in many of their myths and legends. Foremost is the peak's role as the agent that brought the Navajo to the southwest. According to one legend, after being transported from another place, the Navajos lived on the monolith, "coming down only to plant their fields and get water."<ref name="linford"/> One day, the peak was struck by lightning, obliterating the trail and leaving only a sheer cliff, and stranding the women and children on top to starve. The presence of people on the peak is forbidden "for fear they might stir up the Template:Spell-nv (ghosts), or rob their corpses."<ref name="linford"/>
Navajo legend puts the peak in a larger geographic context. Shiprock is said to be either a medicine pouch or a bow carried by the "Goods of Value Mountain", a large mythic male figure comprising several mountain features throughout the region. The Chuska Mountains comprise the body, Chuska Peak is the head, the Carrizo Mountains are the legs, and Beautiful Mountain is the feet.<ref name="linford"/>
Navajo legend has it that Bird Monsters (Template:Spell-nv) nested on the peak and fed on human flesh. After Monster Slayer, elder of the Warrior Twins, destroyed Template:Spell-nv at Red Mesa, he killed two adult Bird Monsters at Shiprock and changed two young ones into an eagle and an owl.<ref name="linford"/><ref name="dark_isle">Shiprock on Dark Isle</ref> The peak is mentioned in stories from the Enemy Side Ceremony and the Navajo Mountain Chant, and is associated with the Bead Chant and the Naayee'ee Ceremony.<ref name="linford"/>
ClimateEdit
GalleryEdit
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