From TOM TILL "THEN & NOW"

The Zephyr is honored to present selected images from
TOM TILL’s remarkable book, “Then & Now.”

This is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, photograph of the Moab Valley. The photographer made the image from the cliffs northeast of Moab. When I tell people I have lived in Moab for twenty-six years, they almost always say, “Wow, you must have seen a lot of changes!” And, of course, I have. Some have been positive. It’s nice to have a good movie theater, for example, and new people coming to Moab have certainly made it a more cosmopolitan place. Moab’s new prominence has given us the Moab Art Festival, and many artists and writers have made Moab their home. On the downside, our town has a Little Reno look, it’s impossible to eat out from March to October, and the grocery store is a crowded Tower of Babel, with every European language, and some Asian ones, spoken by the throngs in line.

Corona Arch, also known as Little Rainbow Bridge, is a popular hiking destination near Moab. Very little has changed in the fifty years since the original photo was taken, although the juniper on the right appears to have died. Occasionally daredevil pilots fly small airplanes through the arch, usually coming from behind the arch as it is seen here, and continuing out toward the viewer. TT

* Since ‘Then & Now’ was published in 2000, Corona Arch has drawn a new breed of thrillseekers. Just type “Corona Arch” into a YouTube search and see what you find…JS