The Journal of 2020 Foresight

Reports from the Knowledge Labs about our recent findings, research topics, and interviews with lifestyle leaders who are creating their own futures.

How to stimulate your own powers of foresight. Consider the following thought provokers. Ask yourself, in these categories what are the brand new trends and forces? Which are the ones growing in importance? Which current forces are loosing their steam? Which have peaked or are reversing themselves? Which are the "wildcards" about to disrupt us in the future? POLITICAL AND TECHNICAL thought for food: Electronics, Materials, Energy, Fossil, Nuclear, Alternative, Other, Manufacturing (techniques), Agriculture, Machinery and Equipment, Distribution, Transportation (Urban, Mass, Personal, Surface, Sea, Subsurface, Space), Communication (Printed, Spoken, Interactive, Media), Computers (Information, Knowledge, Storage & Retrieval, Design, Network Resources), Post-Cold War, Third World, Conflict (Local, Regional, Global), Arms Limitation, Undeclared Wars, Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Governments (More/Less Power and Larger or Smaller Scale), Taxes, Isms: Nationalism, Regionalism, Protectionism, Populism, Cartels, Multinational Corporations, Balance of Trade, Third Party Payments, Regulations (OSHA, etc.) Environmental Impact, U.S. Prestige Abroad. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC Food for thought: Labor Movements, Unemployment / Employment Cycles, Recession, Employment Patterns, Work Hours / Schedules, Fringe Benefits, Management Approaches, Accounting Policies, Productivity, Energy Costs, Balance of Payments, Inflation, Taxes, Rates of Real Growth, Distribution of Wealth, Capital Availability and Costs, Reliability of Forecasts, Raw Materials, Availability and Costs, Global versus National Economy, Market versus Planned Economies, Generations: Y, X, Boomers, Elderly, Urban vs. Rural Lifestyles, Affluent vs. Poor, Neighborhoods and Communities, Planned or Organic Growth. Got Knowledge?

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Thursday, June 16, 2005

Awe-Inspiring: Stirring the Imagination and Kindling the Mind

Chapter Three: The Outpost

By Steve Howard, CKO
The Knowledge Labs

Table of Contents
Chapter One: Basecamp
Chapter Two: The Ridge
Chapter Three: The Outpost
Chapter Four: The Tribal Territories

“(Chief Seattle’s letter) ‘The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of event and memories in the life of my people."

Joseph Campbell

ST. GEORGE, Utah. As we did when we left Aspen, we back tracked on highway 12, intersected 89 south and veered west on 9 to Zion National Park’s east entrance.

Journal of 2020 Foresight: Less drip-like and more etched canyon and cliff monuments of sandstone – that’s the first thing I noticed.

Pathfinder: According to the National Park Service brochure, geologist Clarence Dutton described the rugged southern country that had been hidden in its remote surrounding.

Explorer: But it was his prose that I enjoyed. He wrote about the sense of awe, "There is an eloquence to their forms which stirs the imagination with a singular power and kindles in the mind ... a glowing response .... Nothing can exceed the wondrous beauty of Zion... in the nobility and beauty of the sculptures there is no comparison."

Pathfinder: Within its borders lie a desert swamp, a petrified forest, springs and waterfalls. At Zion contrast and scale account for everything.

Trailblazer: But, the 2,000 to 3,000 feet canyon walls of grays and light tans differ from than the bright oranges and deep red-browns of Bryce.

Explorer: Zion is so unique that it’s massive rock formations and desert terrain blend in with hanging gardens and waterfalls.

J2020F: To your point. Kolob Canyon is filled with fingerlike red sandstone canyons. Hurricane Fault exposes ancient layers of rock. Kolob Arch is one of the largest freestanding arches in the world, measuring some 310 feet across.

Trailblazer: Zion Canyon itself a spectacular gorge was carved out of multi-colored sandstones and shale by the Virgin River to a depth and width of a half-mile each, narrowing to 300 feet at the Temple of Sinawava.

J2020F: My only issue with the total experience is the roads. Park roads and parking, designed in the 1920s for lighter traffic create restrictions. We waited at the Zion Tunnel for about 10 minutes.

Pathfinder: Some vehicles require an escort if they don't fit the dimensions

J2020F: We know that Zion was established as Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909 and later expanded in 1919 as Zion National Park.

Pathfinder: Mormons renamed the canyon Zion taken from the Hebrew, meaning a place of safety or refuge.

Explorer: But the name Mukuntuweap was coined by John Wesley Powell and Grove Karl Gilbert thinking it meant canyon in Paiute, in 1872.

Eagle: Those would be the Southern Paiute like other Great Basin tribes who roamed the broad four corner Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin and parts of the Mojave Desert areas overlapping what are now the southern parts of Utah, Nevada and California and the northern part of Arizona.

J2020F: Wavoka, the fish-eating, messiah’s tribe? The one who preached the Ghost Dance that ultimately led to Sitting Bull’s death in 1890?

Eagle: And the event that closed the last chapter on the Old West or the last frontier? No, you’re thinking of the Northern Paiute tribe in and around Pyramid Lake, in Washoe County, Nevada – along the state’s northwest border with California.

J2020F: So the Southern Paiutes were the first to inhabit the canyon?

Eagle: No, they were third. The official human history breaks the periods into four with the first three covering Utah Native American cultures -- pre-Anasazi, Anasazi and Fremont and, then Southern Paiute.

Explorer: The last chronicles the period from 18th century Euro-American exploration to Mormon settlements in the 19th.

J2020F: Wait. Let me guess, the first white men known to visit the area?
I bet the Escalante expedition came through on their way to California, right?

Pathfinder: Padres Dominguez and Escalante passed near what is now the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center three months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Explorer: We already know Jedediah Smith explored the area for the same mission – to find a way to California. From the 1820s and lasting several decades, a route connecting New Mexico with California followed the Virgin River for a portion of its length.

J2020F: What about Fremont? He must have figured in the early mix of explorers.

Pathfinder: True. Captain John C. Fremont wrote about his1844 journeys in the region.

Explorer: As more trade routes and emigrant trails multiplied, the settlers arrived. The first whites were from Salt Lake City – Mormon farmers who settled in the Virgin River and Cedar City area.

J2020F: This must have been in the 1850s, then?

Pathfinder: Right. In roughly a decade Mormon farming settlements had expanded 75 miles up the Virgin River and into Zion Canyon area.

J2020F: They must have encroached on the Paiutes.

Pathfinder: Zion was still virtually unknown and unexplored by whites, but a Paiute guided Nephi Johnson a Mormon missionary and translator into the canyon.

Explorer: Word got out. Mormon pioneer Joseph Black became the first white man to build a Zion Canyon cabin and farm.

Trailblazer: But life wasn’t easy because of “catastrophic flooding by the river (especially in the Great Flood of 1861-1862), little arable land, and poor soils made agriculture in the upper Virgin River a risky venture.”

J2020F: What happened to the Paiutes?

Explorer: By controlling and diverting the flow of water, settlers expanded their number of ranch animals -- Cattle and other domesticated animals, however, pushed out wild game and depleted native grasses.

Eagle: As you can imagine things got worse for the Native Americans.

Pathfinder: Ever since the first wave of whites appeared, their numbers had been greatly reduced by disease and slavery under the Spanish in the 18th century.

Eagle: Now as the era of ranching and farming took hold, their numbers decreased to almost zero.

Explorer: For almost 40 years Mormons farmed the canyon until it was protected in 1909 and converted into a national park.

Trailblazer: While consisting predominantly of sandstone sedimentary rock, the rock formations in the park also include limestone, shale, mudstone and conglomerate originating during the Triassic through Jurassic geological periods, some 250 million to 150 million years ago.

Pathfinder: And, today over 800 native plant species inhabit microenvironments created by the differences in elevation, sunlight, water and temperature -- like the hanging gardens, forested side-canyons and isolated mesas.

Eagle: Also, today mule deer, rock squirrels, lizards and rare and endangered Peregrin Falcons and Mexican Spotted Owls can be spotted. In fact, natural history field observations are encouraged to help monitor the health of the park.

Explorer: Sightings of bighorn sheep, owls, falcons, mountain lions, bobcats, bears and anything unusual can be reported on observation cards handed out at trailheads and visitor centers.

J2020F: Speaking of trailheads, while mountain biking is forbidden, backpacking permits are required to camp on a hiking trip – but they are free.

Explorer: But the hiking isn’t for your every day tourist. Moderately strenuous and strenuous trails require hiking long distances uphill. And, extreme summer heat makes any hike more difficult.

Eagle: Truth be told, we only stopped momentarily to snap photos and record video footage at the remaining turnouts.

Explorer: We all became impatient like kids. It’s like we had seen enough natural wonder to become bored.

Pathfinder: I had the similar experience a couple of summers earlier when we were continuously overwhelmed by the shear beauty of Norway --- 5 waterfalls at the same time of equal magnitude to the one show piece in Yosemite.

Trailblazer: Or at the Louvre. On one vacation I took in Paris, France I visited room after room, after room, after room where all four walls were plastered with masterpieces.

Pathfinder: I know. No way you could absorb the beauty and creativity. No way to really appreciate each piece. After awhile they all looked the same and it was time to move on to something entirely different.

J2020F: Feeling guilty for not being worthy, we exited the park and traveled back to St. George where we connected with interstate 15 and hit the trail for the desert and our overnight destination, New York, N.Y. in Las Vegas, Nevada – before going our separate ways.

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