Day 8: By George! It's Saint George! 

 

Main Page > Go South West Old Men! >

 

The next morning Bone had to teach an IBM Consulting Class, so Mike booked out to check out the very famous 17-mile scenic drive in the Land Cruiser !

 

The West Mitten Butte in the Morning Darkness!

The 17-Mile Scenic Drive in Monument Valley is a famous, unpaved dirt loop offering close-up views of iconic sandstone formations like the Mittens, John Ford's Point, and the Three Sisters, taking a few hours that Mike enjoyed, while Bone brainwashed the unwashed.

 

Sunrise in Monument Valley!

Since the Class Bone was teaching was in Europe, it was over by the time that the mountain time sun was just rising over the amazing landscape! Mike returned and the Boys broke their fast at the Views restaurant, that had the quality of a second-rate Hampton Inn. The Boys headed back to their Hotel Room, which had a walkout to the entire landscape of Monument Valley was in view (the reason for the name of the Hotel!), with the massively cool Mittens right there in front of them!

 

Mike and Bone in the Mittens Outside the View Hotel!

Walking out into the brisk morning air, the Boys simply could not take enough pictures to really capture the grandeur and majesty of Monument Valley! Taking as many pictures as possible (which wasn't!), Mike and Bone packed up headed back on the road!

One thing the Boys noticed is that the Navajo Nation had fenced off pretty much the entire park! They did not encourage people to stop and hike like in a National Park.

 

Careening Through Kayenta on 163!

Soon, the Reservation Park and the resplendent reds of Monument Valley moved into the more mundane Southwestern desert as Mike and Bone next headed southwest towards St George Utah!

 

About to turn a page out side of Page, AZ!

One of the cool things of traveling off season was cool, pleasant weather and super loooong stretches of no traffic, allowing Mike and Bone to cruise comfortably through the awesome aridness of the Southwest! So enough, they were out of the Grand Canyon State of Arizona and into Utah!

 

Cavorting through Kanab Utah!

The Boys made great time through the very famous Kanab region! Kanab is a city just north of the Utah border and is named after Paiute word meaning "place of the willows."  The US Fort Kanab was built on the east bank of Kanab Creek in 1864 for defense against Indian attack and as a base for exploration of the area.

Kanab is situated in the "Grand Circle" area, centrally located among Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Grand Canyon (North Rim), Zion National Park, Pipe Spring National Monument, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and Lake Powell, all places Mike and Bone have hit in the past.

Kanab is also known as "Little Hollywood" due to its history as a filming location for many movies and television series, prominently Westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), The Lone Ranger, Death Valley Days. Gunsmoke, Daniel Boone, El Dorado (1966), Planet of the Apes (1968), Mackenna's Gold, WindRunner: A Spirited Journey, Western Union (1941), The Desperadoes (1943), In Old Oklahoma (1943), Buffalo Bill (1944), Westward the Women (1952), The Yellow Tomahawk (1954), Tomahawk Trail (1957), Fort Bowie (1958), Sergeants Three (1962), Duel at Diablo (1966), Ride in the Whirlwind (1965), Convict Stage (1965), The Shooting (1966). Even the great Clint Eastwood spent time there filming the Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)!

Soon, however Kanab was a distant dust cloud as Mike and Bone sped ever west and the familiar dark red rock of southern Utah came into view as the Boys sped into St George, for a split ?

 

St. George, Apple of their eyes in Apple Valley Utah !

Soon the familiar dark red rock of southern Utah came into view as the Boys sped into St George, for a split ?

 

Mike's solo Dance with Destiny in the Death Valley Desert !

One of the objectives of the trip was to check out the extraordinary life and Hotel of the Amargosa Hotel in Death Valley, home of the NY Ballerina Marta Becket. Unfortunately Boney had another day of teaching the IBM European Team ahead of him. Since internet was highly unlikely, the Boys decided that Bone would stay in St George at a Holiday Inn Express, and Mike would push on to visit Marta!

 

Mike's Solo Dance with Destiny in the Death Valley Desert !

The story of Marta Becket is nothing less that amazing. Marta Becket (August 9, 1924 – January 30, 2017) was born Martha Beckett, was an American actress, dancer, choreographer and painter. She performed for more than four decades at her own theater, the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California.

Marta grew up in in New York, and began ballet lessons at age 14, which eventually led to performances as a ballerina. She was in the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall and on Broadway she appeared in Show Boat, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Wonderful Town. Later, she took her one-woman show across the country, performing in small theaters and school auditoriums. She married in 1962, and she was on her way with her husband to an engagement in 1967 when, due to a flat tire, she discovered a theater in Death Valley Junction and decided to stay.

The theater was part of a company town designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch and constructed in 1923–24 by the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The U-shaped complex of Mexican Colonial-style adobe buildings included company offices, a store, a dorm, a 23-room hotel, dining room, lobby and employees' headquarters. At the northeast end of the complex was a recreation hall used as a community center for dances, church services, movies, funerals and town meetings.

Becket rented the recreation hall, then known as Corkhill Hall, began repairs and changed the name to the Amargosa Opera House. In 1970, journalists from National Geographic discovered Becket doing a performance at the Amargosa Opera House without an audience. Their profile and another in Life led to an international interest in Becket and her theater. She began performing to visitors from around the world, including such notables as Ray Bradbury and Red Skelton.

In later years, Becket dropped the dancing to perform weekly The Sitting Down Show. Becket ceased performing in her Amargosa Opera House at the end of the 2008-09 season but began performing again in 2010 with her final show was February 12, 2012.

Becket occupied the theater since 1968, and personally created the murals and sets. The performances were a source of income for both the Opera House (now owned by Marta's non-profit organization) and the entire town. Marta died after a full and eventful life on January 30, 2017, at her home in, from natural causes at the ripe old age of 92.

Amargosa Theatre is now a Hotel, that Mike was gonna check out that evening!