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Natural arches - really nothing more than holes through rocks - have become icons of the American Southwest. Dr. Munthe studies arches as a geologist, now join him to learn their bewildering diversity, how they grow, how they die. Arches focus the art of painters and photographers, whose personal visions are expressed in different representations of particular arches. Long-vanished cultures were also drawn to arches. Fremont and Anasazi camps, rock art, and even dwellings are often found beneath or within the graceful spans. Many local examples of arches in art and archeology are illustrated, and perhaps we will begin to understand why There's Something About Arches. Jens Munthe has generously volunteered his services.



The brother of this year’s featured artist will offer insights, perspective and vignettes regarding the artist’s remarkable history as a scientist and artist. Dr. Howard Hutchison started life as a quiet second child. His reputation as a scientist is well known among paleontologists. Howard’s research spans several generations. He started his career when paleontologists dug fossils and then prepared and compared them. He was known as a preeminent fossil-finder. This ‘eye’ for seeing things helped develop and extend his art. Phil, his older brother, will review Howard’s remarkable way of ‘seeing’ things. The audience will be treated to pen and ink drawings found in scientific literature and pen and ink representations of the local landscape. Phil Hutchison has generously volunteered his services.


                                                         Drawings by Dr. J. Howard Hutchison



A talk and slide show will detail the outlines of Powell’s life and especially his survey’s explorations of the rivers, canyons, and plateaus of southern Utah and northern Arizona. Many of the lessons he learned about these arid lands shaped the policies he pursued as director of both the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology.


                            John Wesley Powell                                                          James Aton



The Western Soundscape Archive (WSA) recognizes the vital connection between places and their soundscapes, and features audio recordings of animals and environments throughout the western United States. Begun in November of 2007, the archive is housed at the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library and features recordings contributed by volunteers, state and federal agencies, and conservation groups. The website continues to grow and currently includes representative sounds of approximately 90% of the West's bird species, 95% of the region’s frog and toad species, and more than 100 different types of mammals and reptiles. In September of 2007, the archive was the recipient of a three-year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Kenning Arlitsch is Associate Director for IT Services at the Marriott Library; he co-wrote the grant proposal and is the co-principal investigator of the WSA with Jeff Rice. The WSA is the latest in a string of major digital library programs that Kenning has initiated since 2000. He will discuss the history of the WSA, its challenges and successes, and will demonstrate the website.




The ideal homestead represented some of the best hopes of the 19th century: honorable work, food for a family, and the independent spirit born of financial self-sufficiency. Today, we debate with fire on all sides whether our remaining common lands should be preserved or developed to stimulate the economy. Join writer and historian Dorothee Kocks for a lively discussion on how this homestead tradition – arguably the first federal entitlement program – might give us courage today.

Kenning Arlitsch is Associate Director for IT Services at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. From 1999-2004 he began building the Marriott’s digital library program, founding the multi-state Mountain West Digital Library, the Utah Digital Newspapers program, and helped launch the Western Waters Digital Library. His department is responsible for digitization, interface design and development, database creation, and server infrastructure. Kenning holds a BA in English from Alfred University in New York, and a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is co-founder of the Western Soundscape Archive.

James M. Aton is Professor of English at Southern Utah University. He is the author of four books: John Wesley Powell: His Life and Legacy (Salt Lake City 2010), The River Knows Everything: Desolation Canyon and the Green (Logan 2009), with Robert S. McPherson, River Flowing from the Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan (Logan 2000), and John Wesley Powell (Boise 1994). He was a Fulbright Scholar of American Studies in Indonesia and China.

Phillip T. Hutchison is a retired attorney and brother of the artist, Howard Hutchison. Phil lives in Seattle where he spends his time sailing and drinking coffee. He also does a little watercolor and drawing. He is interested in the Escalante art scene and makes it a point to visit his brother in Escalante two to three times a year. Phil is a gifted speaker and will no doubt present a unique perspective on our featured artist.

Dorothee Kocks is a writer and professor who also has been known to play accordion in public. Despite the obvious lack in judgment displayed by her choice of instrument, she has been employed by the University of Utah, where she taught Western and environmental history; as editor-in-chief of the Wasatch Journal, an arts and outdoors magazine; and currently as mentor to students scattered in the virtual space of Western Governors University. Her talk draws from her book Dream a Little: Land and Social Justice in Modern America. Kocks’s historical novel, The Glass Harmonica, is forthcoming from SkyeBooks.com in 2010.

Although he holds a PhD in Paleontology from Berkeley, Jens Munthe's worldwide field studies were largely focused on stratigraphic geology while dodging bandits of various sorts. His career with Mobil Oil and Aramco had absolutely nothing to do with arches, but upon retiring to Escalante in 1995 he became curious about local arches and was asked to write a book about them. His Arches of the Escalante Canyons and Kaiparowits Plateau provides the sole database of local arches; fewer than 100 arches were known prior to publication, but 630 were in the book's original Arch List and another 100 have been added since.

Jerry C. Roundy was born in Escalante, Utah as the eighth child and fifth son of Wallace Napoleon and Ella May Griffin Roundy. He entered Brigham Young University in 1957 and received both a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Political Science and History. He later received a PhD in Western American History from BYU. Dr. Roundy taught for 33 years in the LDS Church Education System. Upon retirement from Ricks College in 1993, he and his wife returned to their home town of Escalante where they are both active in church and community affairs. In 2000 he published a book "Advised Them To Call The Place Escalante", which is a history of the early explorations of Escalante, the settlement, and events from past to the present.