Narrows Road Closure

[speleoguy]

The Narrows Road forms the southern boundary of Natural Bridge State Park. This is a beautiful area! Here's a video we did about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2azCZMo9Jhw

[Greg Stamper]

This is an interesting, educational and fascinating video.
Well done and produced.

[speleoguy]

And it was an interesting one to make too! Sad, however, just how little it shows. There is far more trash in the Nature Preserve than shown this video; and, as one fellow who's been there pointed out, the video does not begin to convey just how big the trenches and barriers are. And he's correct - when you see the damage for real, it makes your mouth fly open and makes you wonder what kind of mentality it took to do such a horrific thing.

As pointed out in the video, the same people responsible for closing the Narrows Road in such an irresponsible manner were also the force behind closing the Natural Bridge Cave. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEghGCFT ... re=channel A number of visitors, mostly from Ohio, told me that seeing the Cave was their main reason for visiting this area. And quite a number of them were so angry about the closure that they said they would not be back. This is so sad, and also money down the drain for local businesses.

On the matter of money: Several business owners told me that the single greatest blow to their annual income was the closure of the Narrows Road!!! Although I have no proof, I suspect the closure is why a few of the smaller businesses are no longer in business. The government officials who closed the Road and Cave are not concerned about such matters. Their salaries remain the same whether the area has any visitors or not. Actually, the fewer the visitors, the easier their jobs become. It's time we changed all that!

[Jim Stickley]

This is indeed very informative and eye-opening! Many thanks for your great work on this, speleoguy (caveman). Now you mention that change is in order, and I strongly agree. But what specific actions do we need to take? If you have a strategy, please share it. I, for one, am willing to follow your recommendations. Also, have you asked the Sierra Club to get involved in this? I believe that their involvement in the Red River Valley Dam debate was what brought Justice Oliver Douglas to his historic hike. It's time again to make history.

[speleoguy]

Thank you, Jim, for your interest and support in this matter. I've got some stuff written up about ideas for citizen oversight committees to have final say over the major management decisions of our public lands. I can put the finishing touches on the material and publish it here, if you like. Also, are you aware of a bill being debated in Frankfort: HB-312? It's imperfect and has a huge amount of opposition, but it, or a variation thereof, might be of value to our State. The most important thing this bill would accomplish is a requirement that before any trail or access is closed, the government would have to hold public hearings. That's what we were asking for two years ago, before Natural Bridge Cave was closed - against a massive amount of public outcry.

We need to talk! Please shoot an email to SaveOurCave@yahoo.com and we can exchange phone numbers. When the weather gets better and the tourists begin returning in force, I want to have public meetings and rallys. This can only happen by joining forces with people like you who want common sense put back into the management of our public lands. This same invitation goes out to anyone who wants to retrieve lost access rights and protect your future rights to use and enjoy the land that you own. Shoot me an email and let's start talking and planning.

Tom Martin

[speleoguy]

P.S.: Jim, you asked if I had contacted the Sierra Club about this. In our attempts to keep Natural Bridge Cave from being closed (without first having public hearings) we contacted the Sierra Club, Kentucky Heartwood, and numerous other "environmental" groups who have interest in the use and management of our beautiful public lands. We heard nothing from them! We were in no way surprised!!!

In 1984, a partner and I started the first rock climbing shop in the Red River area. It was called "Search For Adventure," a name coined by my partner, Martin Hackworth, one of the earliest and best climbers of Gorge sandstone. Many of the early routes he put up. In our climbing shop we sold a few bolts, mainly used as rappel anchors; and we sold the star drills to put them in with. Those were the days of Traditional climbing methods, and bolts were seldom used and their placement was very restricted. Eventually the Bosch Bulldog hammer drills came to the Gorge, and we had teenage kids coming from other states and bolting up routes that your grandmother could free climb. Things were out of control, and thousands of bolts were being illegally placed on public and private property. In order to protect our beautiful sandstone, and to protect property rights, Martin and I went before the Sierra club asking that they join us in an effort to put some controls on the bolting, and some common sense in the way the U.S. Forest Service was protecting our property (our cliffs) from damage and vandalism. The Sierra Club - and every other so-called environmental group - turned a deaf ear. The bolting continued unabated for years until the Forest Service finally laid down some rules - basically the same rules that we asked for from the beginning. Those days are called the "Bolting War" and I am proud to have been the one who started it.

You mentiioned the Red River Dam. I remained neutral in that war because I had friends who lived in Clay City, who's homes were often flooded by Red River, and I had family who owned a beautiful ancestral farm at the mouth of the Gorge who were going to loose this farm (by eminent domain) if the dam was put in. As I watched this war progress, I lost respect for many of the "environmentalists" who were fighting against the dam. Lies were being told - lies like how arches would be flooded if the lake went in. Even some members of the press believed and published these ridiculous lies. The truth is, if the dam was built so high that the arches would have been flooded, the better part of eastern Kentucky would have been flooded too. I never learned where the (actual) high water mark was supposed to be, but at the very worst, the only arch that would have been affected would have been Moonshiner's Arch, just upstream from the concrete bridge across Red River. This not a sandstone arch, but part of a collapsed cave which is now a limestone arch. Had it have been flooded, it would have become a treasure for those who like to scuba or free dive. Outside of that, little would have been flooded that matters to Gorge visitors.

When I fight political wars - or start them - I try to fight with the truth - not lies. Lies may win battles, but they usually cause the loss of wars. But whether our political wars and battles are lost or won, they must always be fought with the truth. Only the truth will achieve what is ultimately best for "we the people."