By Jared Harris August 18, 2024 at 1:00pm
An iconic landmark in Arizona has collapsed just hours after a haunting video was filmed at the site.
On Aug. 8, Lake Powell’s famous Double Arch suffered a total collapse into the lake, according to KSL-TV.
The stunning geographical feature, referred to as the “Toilet Bowl,” “Hole in the Roof” or “Crescent Pool” by vacationers and locals, reportedly nearly crushed swimmers hours before it crumbled into the water.
According to KSL-TV, a group of boaters and swimmers were gathered near Double Arch when rocks began to fall.
Merril Campbell, a Utah boater, was present when the archway began to give way.
Hearing a massive splash too big to be a person, Campbell soon discovered he was almost a witness to a tragedy.
“I looked over, and a couple of the guys I was with had seen a big piece of rock fall off the bottom of the arch into the lake,” Campbell told KSL-TV.
Campbell’s friends saw the rockfall and estimated one chunk of tumbling stone to be the size of a Volkswagen.
Have you ever been to Lake Powell?
In a haunting video taken during the initial partial collapse (the rockfall itself was not in-frame, although a massive splash was), chaos eruptted after people realized what is happening. Those on the water begin shouting at those near the feature to get away.
“We were just under there,” a swimmer can be heard saying in the video.
Double Arch, although beautiful, seems to have been on a slow countdown to failure.
“Since formation,” the National Parks Service wrote in a post on the collapse, “this fine-grained sand feature has been subject to spalling and erosion from weather, wind, and rain.”
The NPS also pointed to “changing water levels and erosion from wave action” as suspected accelerants in the destruction of Double Arch.
Photos taken before and after the collapse show how the unique feature was practically erased from the landscape.
BREAKING NEWS: Double Arch, often called the Toilet Bowl at Lake Powell, has collapsed. (Photos Janessa Zech & NPS)#Utah https://t.co/7K60hF9aqf pic.twitter.com/5v5GH5EKoc
— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) August 9, 2024
While Lake Powell remains a go-to destination for unique features and cool water, the loss of Double Arch will be felt for generations to come.
Jared has written more than 200 articles and assigned hundreds more since he joined The Western Journal in February 2017. He was an infantryman in the Arkansas and Georgia National Guard and is a husband, dad and aspiring farmer.
Jared has written more than 200 articles and assigned hundreds more since he joined The Western Journal in February 2017. He is a husband, dad, and aspiring farmer. He was an infantryman in the Arkansas and Georgia National Guard. If he’s not with his wife and son, then he’s either shooting guns or working on his motorcycle.
Location
Arkansas
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Military, firearms, history
