A Gymnasium of Basalt in Arco, Idaho
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2010-09-25 10:34:39
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The gymnasium or red hall shown above is not unique in Arco - the church shown below is also built of basalt: The choice of this less-than-ideal stone for such an unusual building as the Rec Hall has everything to do with Arco's location. Arco sits at the edge of the Snake River Plain, which is covered with basalt flows that flooded the landscape (in fact, they're called "flood basalts"). The image just below shows Arco in the foreground and black expanses of flood basalt in the distance to the west (in the direction of Craters of the Moon National Monument, twenty miles to the west). Our Rec Hall is the nearest of three red-roofed buildings in a line on Arco's main street; the church's red roof is the most distant of the three. The final image below shows one of the basalt flows south of Arco. Arco sits at the foot of the mountain in the right background of the image. The outcrop shows the vesicular nature and irregular breakage of the basalt that made it such a challenge for the building above. |