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Saturday, December 08, 2007
Red Desert Rarity
In southwest Wyoming's Sweetwater County, turn south off the blacktop of I-80, navigate the web of dirt roads for a few hours and you'll find it: Adobe Town, with its thousand-foot cliffs, mazes of jagged walls and pinnacles, and cathedrals of stone complete with flying buttresses. The 180,910-acre swath was once home to inhabitants ranging from eight-foot-tall giant ground sloths to Native Americans and legendary outlaws. Now, the state has granted special protection to the area - and as energy development seizes Wyoming, conservationists hope that the feds will follow the state's lead. On Nov. 28, Wyoming's Environmental Quality Council designated Adobe Town as "very rare or uncommon," citing its geologic wonders and fossils, the crucial habitat it provides for big game and sage grouse, and its unique history: Adobe Town was a sacred site for Native religious ceremonies, and Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall gang stashed their horses here for an escape after the Tipton train robbery of 1900.
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