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Arch Etiquette and Naming Arches

Nearly every day there are new arches being documented in Kentucky.  Ninety nine times out of one hundred when someone ‘discovers’ an arch someone else has ‘discovered’ it before them. This is commonly referred to as Christopher Columbus Syndrome.  In the 1900’s, it just was not important to those who stumbled across them to care to document them.  In some cases they were documented and the information was lost over the decades.  Interestingly enough, the latter appears to be more common than one would imagine.  Lost data after a death is a sad and unfortunate truth. Our hope is to someday secure as much data from arch hunters to preserve it for generations to come.

Rainbow Rock

© Dustin Robinson


There is some etiquette when it comes to naming arches. Many folks when they find an arch immediately have an urge to name it after someone they love or something of value to them. Others name them something that has nothing to do with anything, so folks can not figure out where it is located. Some name the arch after what it looks like or its features. Naming conventions for natural features, including arches, are to not name them after the living. Typically when naming an arch we refer to what is close by; such as a named ridge, watershed, road, town, former owner of the land, something historic nearby, or what it looks like. Prior to the last few years there was not a statewide database to keep things straight, so there are many instances of arches being named several times by those that come across it.  Take for instance Rainbow Rock in Rockcastle County which has the most names in the database, with five. When this happens, normally it begins on the local level where multiple folks are each calling an arch something different and eventually one name sticks more than the others. There are also instances where someone personally documents an arch, but does not share the information with others.  Then someone else comes along and documents it, naming it something different, not knowing it was previously named. In a recent conversation with Victor Fife, who has documented over 1000 arches in Kentucky and Tennessee, several of his documentations have been renamed in Mammoth Cave National Park.  His response to that was, “That is just the way things go.”  The National Park Service now has his data and is going to use his names for the arches in the park. One other thing to mention are the alternative numbered names added to many of Kentucky’s larger and known arches back in the 1990’s during the work on the Journal Of Natural Arch Discoveries. A large percentage of which was the work of Chris Moore and John Burns.  There are 155 numbered arches in Kentucky that all feature a KY in front of that number.  Take for instance Koger Arch in McCreary County, which is also called KY-54.  The arches of the Red River Gorge have a different numbered designation from those journals.  These have an RR then a number up to 36. For example, Grays Arch is RR-27. Of all the numbered arches there was only one that the location was not known until early 2023, KY-126 in McCreary County.  Documented by Nicholus Terzakis, this arch had vague directions to it.  Joey Fritz and Mandy Ownes recently relocated it.  How cool is that?  Altogether there are currently 350 arches in the database that have two or more names.

Arch Awareness Month 2023

Bill Fultz made it possible that we had an update to the database back in January before Arch Awareness Month.  If you are not familiar with that, you can check below for some features to highlight the arches that have been abused, as well as the arch hunters that are out there hunting and documenting the arches of Kentucky.  Check out KWAL for more on Arch Awareness Month.

The database now stands at 2634 documented arches, with 2762 documented features (including false arches, windows that are less than 3' openings, and destroyed arches).  The map is also updated to 922 features.  The lead list still stands at 676 possible arches or leads.  

Abused Arches can be checked out here.

Arch Hunters can be checked out here.

Our latest is an article and interview with Dustin Robinson, one of the current arch hunters and part of a new generation of those passionate about arches.

If you'd like to submit an arch or a photo of one in the database please click above or right here and submit an arch!

March 2022 Update

Thanks for taking part in Arch Awareness Month.  This was out fourth year promoting arch awareness and it was the best yet for sure! Be on the lookout for some lingering articles that we were working on that didn't make it to production for Arch Awareness Month, but that we still want to share with you all.  We really enjoyed learning the history of the arch hunters in Kentucky and greatly thank Todd Fife for that idea!

The database now stands at 2542 documented arches, with 2636 documented features (including false arches, windows that are less than 3' openings, and destroyed arches).  The map is also updated to 835 features.  The lead list still stands at 221 possible arches or leads.  

All of the Top 10's have been updated (if required) and can be found here.

If you'd like to submit an arch or a photo of one in the database please click above or right here and submit an arch!

September 2022 Update

Give Bill Fultz a cheer for his dedication to this database.  Due to being hurt by someone I thought was a friend, I personally do nothing with this database anymore.  It is all the passion of Bill.  So please feel free to reach out to him about any questions about Kentucky Arches.  He is more dedicated than almost anyone.  If only you all knew the work he put in to make this database one of the best in the world.  Weekly if not daily work on it.  Quite impressive and he has taken this database far beyond anything I could have imagined when I created it.  Thanks Bill and 3000 arches is just around the corner. 

The database now stands at 2609 documented arches, with 2718 documented features (including false arches, windows that are less than 3' openings, and destroyed arches).  The map is also updated to 878 features.  The lead list still stands at 683 possible arches or leads.  

All of the Top 10's have been updated (if required) and can be found here.

If you'd like to submit an arch or a photo of one in the database please click above or right here and submit an arch!

What makes it an arch?

What does it require to be an official arch?

This is a much-debated topic.  A natural arch is a rock exposure that has a hole completely through it formed by the natural, selective removal of rock, leaving a relatively intact frame.  What that means is that any hole through rock, that was formed in a natural way, that has left solid rock all the way around it, is in theory a natural arch.  If you have hiked in areas of the Red River Gorge, you would know that you could find 1000’s of ‘arches’ that would qualify in just one small cliff line.

So how do we classify it as an arch or just a hole in Kentucky?

We use the measurement of 3 feet in any direction of the opening.  Meaning up, down, or sidewise of the smallest part of the opening of the arch.  So, it could be 3 feet tall and 1 inch wide at the smallest or most constricting part of the hole and it would be an arch. 

If the smallest part of the opening is 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet, it would not be an arch under this classification.

Why 3 feet?  That is close to the 1-meter requirement for a Minor Arch, per NABS.

 

Here are NABS Arch Levels:

Miniature Arch – all opening dimensions are smaller than 1 meter.

Minor Arch – one or more opening dimensions are at least 1 meter.

Significant Arch – the product of any two orthogonal opening dimensions is at least 10 square meters.

Major Arch – having a span of 50 meters or more.

 

Using those levels, the only major arch in Kentucky would be Mantle Rock, as it has a span of 156 feet.  There are quite a few significant arches in Kentucky, over 2600 minor arches and most likely closing in on infinite miniature arches in the state.

 

If you are interested in more information about what is an arch, check out NABS.

Top 5 largest spans in the database in Kentucky.

  1. Mantle Rock
  2. Rock House Natural Bridge
  3. Natural Arch
  4. Fishtrap Bridge
  5. Sheltowee Trace Arch

More Articles ...

  1. NABS & Kentucky
  2. Mantle Rock History
  3. History of Arch Hunters in the RRG
  4. Fire Rings Under Arches
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