After accusing author Russ Manning of being confused about the Skyuka Arch yesterday, I confirmed that I was a little confused myself. It wasn't the Manning book I read twenty years ago, it was Natural Bridges of Tennessee, a 1979 bulletin of the Tennessee Division of Geology by James Corgan and John Parks. I remembered I had found the book in question at UTC's library and thought I might take another look at it.
Then another thought hit me like a wall of limestone going sixty miles an hour: I didn't need to go to the library! I had photocopied the pages of the bulletin all those years ago and stashed them away in my trailbook files.
The bulletin contains a description with measurements and even a photo of the Skyuka Arch. Yes, it is the same one Brady and I revisted yesterday. And yes, the two state geologists, of all people, are evidently the source of the confusion about the type of rock and its original elevation. "The rock that forms the bridge is obviously sandstone," they write. They go on postulate that "apparently this arch acquired its distinctive shape elsewhere and tumbled into place as a large boulder that rolled down the mountain."
My apologies to Russ Manning! Russ, you may have committed some minor plagiarism (and who doesn't, these days?), but you're not to blame for turning Monteagle limestone into Pennsylvanian sandstone.
Ah, Geology! Ah, humanity!
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The same 1979 bulletin sadly notes underneath a very distinctive photograph of "Cleland's Natural Bridge" that "despite several efforts, this long-described bridge could not be located." Mr. Parks and Mr. Corgan, you could locate this lost bridge in your own bulletin if you flip back just one page where you've got a photograph and map of the Lookout Mountain Natural Bridge. Another mystery solved!
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