A modest proposal: Bright Angel Frontier
March 16, 1998
The United States is presently a frontier nation without a frontier. But we can change that.
We can re-create a real frontier by properly managing the vast and lightly populated tract of federal land in eastern Nevada, southern
Utah and the Four Corners area. This area is referred to here as the Bright Angel Frontier, after the stream at its southern edge.
The original western frontier had three defining qualities. It included areas of both settlement and wilderness; it was large enough to keep
those uses from interfering with one another; and it was marked by a progressive "thinning-out" of civilization.
We can re-create such a frontier by identifying suitable tracts of federal land, two hundred miles across -- far larger than current
management units -- and then dividing them into a series of graduated, concentric development rings. The use of these different rings
will allow us to fully accommodate both conservation and local development, and then progressively thin out development toward the
center of the area.
Ranchers and loggers throughout
the largest, outer ring will benefit
by owning land that they
are now leasing
from the government
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The Bright Angel area would have five rings. The first would facilitate growth, and each ring inward would take visitors farther away
from the modern world and farther back in time.
The outer ring would be more open to private development than federal regulations now permit. Some land here would be sold to private
owners for ranching, forestry, mining and other traditional western uses. All Indian lands would remain parts of their reservations,
however. A few important zoning rules would ensure that open spaces remain open. Other very limited rules would gradually restore
the signs and storefront architecture in the towns to the style of the 1950s, to preserve the feel of an important period and to differentiate
the frontier area from the outside. The towns would otherwise continue to govern themselves as now.
The next ring in would continue current land-use policies. Most lands would remain public and some would be leased to commercial
users. Limited zoning rules might call for the signs and public spaces in the towns to take on the appearance of an earlier period, say the
1920s.
The third ring would take visitors back to a pre-industrial period. This would be an area of open countryside and turn-of-the-century
towns. Cars and electricity would be banned, and transportation would be by horse, bicycle or foot. Steam trains or other public
transportation would serve the principal destinations.
The fourth ring would also have pre-industrial settlements, but of a still earlier, pioneer period and with fewer amenities. There would be
hotels in the towns but no public transportation.
Finally, the center of the tract would be a mix of trails and wilderness areas. A campground at the very center might be developed as a
signature feature of the Bright Angel area and a worthy destination for hikers.
The development rings would not be perfect circles. They would take account of the locations of existing towns and resources. They
would also permit some anomalies: there might be some wilderness areas within the outer ring, and some irrigated agricultural valleys in
the pre-industrial rings.
This frontier area will benefit all the groups involved. Ranchers and loggers throughout the largest, outer ring will benefit by owning
land that they are now only leasing from the government. Residents of existing towns will benefit from increased employment, both in
traditional industries and in tourism. Visitors to pre-industrial towns will be able to experience earlier, quieter forms of settlement.
Walkers or bicyclists in the pre-industrial areas will enjoy the wild countryside and the sense of being far from the modern world, while
still having comfortable accommodations at the end of the day. And dedicated backpackers will enjoy the large wilderness at the center.
The combined area would be
bigger than England,
and would have a perimeter
longer than the distance
from Canada to Mexico
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It will be easiest to establish this area in a sparsely populated place where most lands are already federal. There should be only small
towns in what will become the outer rings, and virtually no population in the inner rings, so that nobody is displaced. The pre-industrial
towns can be built from scratch (although to traditional designs) on land sold from federal holdings; everyone will buy with full
knowledge of the land-use restrictions. Some existing towns might also vote to join the pre-industrial ring, perhaps after a 25-year
transition period.
There are two places where such sets of circles will fit. One is in the redrock canyons of southeastern Utah, and the other in the deserts
and "island" mountain ranges of east-central Nevada. These tracts would almost touch, and could be connected by a short corridor of
land.
Connecting the two tracts will bring about a spectacular result. The combined area would be bigger than England, and would have a
perimeter longer than the distance from Canada to Mexico. Establishing it would effectively re-create a western frontier, permanently,
and with very little disruption to current residents or current uses.
We should do this while we still can.
Neil W. Averitt
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