nature

Cleo

A Minor Character in a Major Landscape

Photo by Yacov B on Unsplash

West of Grand Junction, Colorado, almost to the Utah State Line, there is a wilderness area known as the McInnis Conservation Area. The Colorado River flows along one border of it for a while. A 125-mile hiking trail known as the Kokopelli Trail crosses it. There are numerous campsites. There are spectacular natural stone arches that draw nature photographers from hundreds of miles around.

Yet campers, boaters, hikers, and photographers barely scratch the surface. [Medium unpaid members can continue to read free by clicking HERE.] The huge vastness of the area remains largely untouched by human visitors. For the most part it’s one of the last truly wild places on earth.

One of the smaller arches along the trail is called the Will Minor Arch. It’s on the hiking maps, but other than that there is no explanation.

To find out who Will Minor was, you have to go to a museum in Grand Junction. Cleo, as Will Cleo Minor wanted to be known, never lived in the town. He preferred the great out-of-doors.

And he was a loner. Starting in the early 1930s, he took a job herding sheep in the mountains southwest of Grand Junction. By himself.

Now that doesn’t sound like a very exciting life. Sheep can be pretty dull. Herding…