BOB MCCRACKEN Nye County History JEANNE SHARPE HOWERTON / Special to the PVT View of the entrance to Cathedral Canyon looking south, 1994. ALICE LEVINE / Special to the PVT View from the suspension bridge of Cathedral Canyon (above) looking east, 1994, and one of the inscriptions (below). Note the statue of the Christ of the Andes. ALICE LEVIN / Special to the PVT Inscription in Cathedral Canyon, 1997. JEANNE SHARPE HOWERTON / Special to the PVT Lantern in Cathedral Canyon, 1997. Advertisement

Several years ago, I wrote a column on Roland Wiley, the former long-time owner of the Hidden Hills Ranch, about 15 air miles south of Pahrump.

It was at his ranch, beginning in the 1970s, that Roland built what he called Cathedral Canyon, his shrine to the beauty of life, his work of art projected on nature's canvas.

Roland died in 1994 and his monument now lies in ruins.

But what the vandals could not destroy was the memory of his wonderful creation, a memory that no doubt still lives in nearly all who visited the site when it was intact.

Recently, pictures of Cathedral Canyon dating to the 1990s, when it was in its prime, have been made available to me. I thought it might be useful to share several of those photos with readers. Perhaps these pictures tell better than my words who Roland was and what he created.

A bit of background: Roland Wiley was born in Iowa in 1904, graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and obtained a law degree in 1927 from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He moved in 1929 to Las Vegas, where he established a very successful law practice.

He served as Clark County District Attorney when the Las Vegas Strip was born with the opening of the El Rancho Vegas in 1941, and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Nevada twice -- in 1942 and 1950. At one point he owned nearly 18,000 acres in Pahrump Valley. He truly was a "can-do" man.

Roland purchased the Hidden Hills Ranch in 1941 from Belle Yount, widow (by dint of her status as common-law wife) of John Yount, whose parents, Joseph and Margaret Yount, had purchased the Manse Ranch in Pahrump Valley in 1876 and developed it into a Southern Nevada showplace.

But the Hidden Hills Ranch was no showplace when Roland took possession. There were cattle on the property but it was almost totally undeveloped. The primary structure was a rundown 20-by-24-foot cabin of board-and-batten construction.

The cabin stood within easy walking distance of a lovely canyon that nature has curved out of the Pahrump Valley floor. The canyon is from 50 to 60 feet deep, from 50 to 200 feet wide, and perhaps three-eighths of a mile long. Its floor is flat, with a serpentine footprint.

Roland began construction of Cathedral Canyon in the 1970s. He cleared a trail from the mouth of the canyon to its box-like upper end. Statues and other works of art were placed along the trail and in niches on the canyon walls.

Along the trail Roland placed scores of steel-framed message boards featuring quotes and poems, both religious and secular, that expressed his uplifting perspective on the world.

A 200-foot suspension bridge spanned the canyon, and nearby a 20-plus-foot statue resembling the Christ of the Andes stood watch over the site. The canyon was beautifully lit with colored lights at night. Roland is said to have invested $75,000 of his own money in constructing his cathedral under the stars and once told me he spent more than $1,000 per month maintaining it. Admission was free.

Thousands of people from around the world visited the site yearly and many signed its guest book, frequently expressing their awe and enjoyment of the canyon's beauty and the peace to be found there.

An old friend and employee of Roland's maintained Cathedral Canyon for a few years after his death, but it was a lost cause.

I recently obtained access to two fine sets of pictures of Cathedral Canyon in its prime. One belongs to Alice Levine, who over the years has served as lead editor for our 13 Nye County history books. She took them when she and her husband Judah, a well-known physicist who is in charge of the atomic clock for the U.S. government, and I toured Nye County in 1994.

The second set was taken by Jeanne Sharp Howerton, a Nye County native and my co-author of the Nye County history books on Railroad Valley. My thanks to both Alice and Jeanne for granting permission to share these pictures.

Twenty years ago Roland and I talked about publishing a book featuring pictures of Cathedral Canyon. Sadly, we never got around to it. I wonder if there is an interest in doing one now.

Idea: Perhaps Alice and Jeanne's photos might form the nucleus for such a book. Are there community members who have quality pictures of Cathedral Canyon and would like to participate in such a project? If so, please let me know.