Wedding Canyon is a photograph by Jon Burch Photography which was uploaded on August 18th, 2013.
Wedding Canyon
John Otto was a colorful, one-man political action committee, who provoked the citizens of Mesa County to petition Congress to declare the area west... more
Title
Wedding Canyon
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture/faa Watermark Will Not Appear On Your Finished Photograph.
Description
John Otto was a colorful, one-man political action committee, who provoked the citizens of Mesa County to petition Congress to declare the area west of Grand Junction a National Park. In addition to his lobbying campaign, Otto worked tirelessly and single handedly built miles of trails in the monument. Eventually, the Grand Junction newspaper and Chamber of Commerce got behind his project, and Colorado National Monument became a reality by an act of Congress on May 24, 1911. He stayed on as the caretaker of the monument at a salary of one dollar a month into the 1920's.
Born in Missouri, Otto married Beatrice Farnham on June 20, 1911 at a rustic alter near the base of Independence Monument in what is known today as Wedding Canyon. They divorced in 1912. Otto lived his final twenty years on a mining claim near Yreka, California, where he was buried in a pauper's grave. In 2002, the Colorado National Monument Association erected a gravestone carved using a sandstone rock resembling Independence Monument.
Image copyright 2013 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
August 18th, 2013
