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Article: ARIZONA'S CROOKED FINGERS Canyon de Chelly.
- Article from:
- Cobblestone
- Article date:
- September 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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People have lived in Arizona's Canyon de Chelly (duh SHAY) for almost fifteen hundred years. Three narrow canyons cut jaggedly, like crooked fingers, across otherwise flat land for as far as twenty-seven miles. The canyons run from 30 to 1000 feet down to the valley floor. Fantastic natural rock formations rise abruptly from that floor, where the Chinle Wash flows from time to time.
Geologists believe that about 230 million years ago this area was covered by an inland sea. When the water receded, a thick deposit of mud and sand remained. Action far beneath the surface of the earth pushed up high mountains nearby. The mountains collected and held onto moisture ...
