ast issue we asked what y’all thought about the Bat Towers down around mile 265: if the ones on the Park side should be preserved and kept up as historical monuments, or removed before they become “historically significant,” i.e. are they monuments or trash?

  The topic was discussed at the Fall Meeting and the general consensus was:

  since the main and most majestic towers are on the Hualapai side and will remain regardless of what the Park does and:

  since funding is always scarce and there are many other pressing needs within the Park, (the historic boat collection, for instance):

  that posterity could afford to forego the Bat paraphanelia on the right bank.

  In a dissenting opinion historian Roy Webb writes:

  “Of course they are historical and should be kept intact, as much as anything left by Bass or Hance or John D.Lee. Just because someone can remember them doesn’t mean they aren’t history. Think what a loss it was when the NPS tore down all the buildings at Lees Farry and up in Dinosaur. I actually think the bat towers are a fascinating bit of history and stand as a monument to that same spirit (greed?) that drove Hance and Bass into the Canyon.”

For next issue we’d like 25 word opinions on:

Air traffic: inalienable rights
or indefensable wrongs?

Send your opinion to GCRG today.