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Rhetoric of Gateway Loop Trail
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Gateway Loop Trail: Rhetoric of Tight Places and Open Spaces
Ethan M. Riley
COM-698: Environmental Rhetoric
Dec. 12, 2011
Running head: GATEWAY LOOP TRAIL: RHETORIC OF TIGHT PLACES, OPEN SPACES 1
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Gateway Loop Trail: Rhetoric of Tight Places and Open Spaces
Nature is not something you go to; you experience it ... slowly. You take nature as it
comes, and at the gradual pace and in the poetry it decides to reveal itself with--the coos and
song of birds, the lengthening of shadows in midday, the pastel hues that hang over the desert at
dusk. In nature, some rhetoric is quiescent; they are the ones that articulate at a whisper and
require investments of time and silence to hear them. Other rhetoric cannot be ignored because it
is intertwined with the hustle and hum of everyday life. This essay analyzes an example of the
quiescent type--the Gateway Loop Trail in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.
The McDowell Sonoran Preserve spans 17,000 acres and includes the McDowell
Mountains, a range called mountains of discovery because of its unique geological features,
and the Marcus Landslide (City of Scottsdale, 2011). Formally created in October 1994,
management of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve is financed (e.g., facilities maintenance and
land purchases) with tax revenues. The McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission oversees the
Preserve and provides input on land acquisitions, while the nonprofit McDowell Sonoran
Conservancy supports the preservation efforts of the City of Scottsdale through public education
and volunteerism (City of Scottsdale).
The Gateway Access Area, 18333 N. Thompson Peak Pkwy, in Scottsdale is one of three
formal entry points (e.g., the Sunrise Access Area and the Lost Dog Wash Access Area) to the
McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The Gateway Access Area (also called the Gateway to the
McDowell Preserve and hereafter referred to as Gateway) is the largest and features various
amenities, including restrooms, shaded armadas, interpretive displays, drinking fountains for
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hikers and pets, an outdoor amphitheater, and the wheelchair-accessible Bajada Nature Trail (.5
mile). Recreationists can also enter the Preserve from the WestWorld, Quartz, Ringtail, and 136th
Street trailheads (City of Scottsdale, 2011). The access areas and trailheads are designed to fade
into the surroundings and fit unobtrusively into the existing landscape (City of Scottsdale,
2010).
The Gateway Loop Trail
From Gateway, hikers can access numerous trails of varying lengths and relative
difficulties, including the Gateway Loop Trail (hereafter called the Gateway Loop), a 3.6 mile
hike of moderate difficulty with an elevation change of 625 feet (City of Scottsdale Preservation
Division, 2010). The Gateway Loop is defined by the City of Scottsdale as a Preserve Primary
Trail, meaning its aim is to provide safe and enjoyable trail recreation opportunities within
preserved open space areas of the city, while having a minimum impact on the surround
environment (City of Scottsdale, 2010, section 8-3.001). Preserve trails are design according to
formalized guidelines established by the City of Scottsdale and published in the Design
Standards and Policies Manual. Every trail is drawn, built, and maintained so as to protect the
integrity of the land to the greatest extent possible (City of Scottsdale Preservation Division,
2005, p. 26). Native plants and sensitive wildlife habitat influence trail design. Trails are drawn
to have avoid disturbance of and have a minimum effect (City of Scottsdale, section 8-3.101)
on 18 varieties of plants, including saguaro and barrel cacti, mesquite, and ocotillo, and to avoid
fragile areas inhabited by desert wildlife.
This essay examines the design and construction of the Gateway Loop as a paradigm of
rhetoric of display, which, according to Lawrence Prelli (2006), entails the process of selecting
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which arguments to reveal and which to conceal in the invention of rhetoric. Preserve primary
trails (City of Scottsdale, 2010, section 8-3.001) are examples of rhetoric of display in that they
depict preferred truths and marginalize others. Displays, observes Prelli, take a variety of
epideictic sometimes conventional forms; they can be concrete like a globe or ambiguous like a
protest.
Displays are manifested theoretically through the verbally generated image in speeches
and literature. Displays appear rhetorically in sketches, paintings, maps, statistical graphs,
photographs, and television and film images. Displays are manifested rhetorically in the
homes we inhabit and in the many places we visitmuseum and exhibitions, memorials
and statuary, parks and cemeteries, casinos and theme parks, neighborhood street corners
and stores. Displays are manifested rhetorically in the demonstration of scientific
finding, of a political grievance, or a preferred identity. In whatever manifestation,
displays also anticipate a responding audience whose expectations might be satisfied or
frustrated, their values and interests affirmed, neglected, or challenged. (cited in
Herrick, 2009, p. 270)
Nominal literature was found on the rhetoric of display aside from Prellis text; consequently,
studies concerned with the related concept of visual rhetoric were also consulted. Select works
from Vivan (2011), Dyehouse (2011), Foss (1982) were surveyed for insights into the use of
displays (e.g., visuals) to create a particular reality or world, the meaning of which emerges
only through interaction between the artist [or trail designer] and the viewer [or hiker] (Foss, p.
55). Dyehouses survey of displays at American Museum of Natural History reinforces the need
for collaboration between archivist and patron, introduces the term patterning, and observes
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that science popularization is understood as simplifying (or vulgarizing) scientists more
complex forms of discourse (p. 330). The practice of befouling science and nature is applicable
to the subsequent argument. Additionally, case studies of Disneylands Frontierland by
Francaviglia (1999) and Steiner (1998) served as archetypes for my rhetorical reading of
Gateway Loop. Specifically, the authors treatment of Frontierland as architectural
packaging (Steiner) and stylized allegory (Francaviglia) proved applicable to the study of the
Gateway Loop and its depiction of the Sonoran landscape and the nature--culture dialectic.
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The Gateway Loop is a bifurcated rhetoric. The dominant rhetoric (orrhetoric of open
space) satisfies our anthropocentric arrogance and desire for control of empty (a word
synonymous with idleness and meaninglessness in our post-industrial revolution vernacular)
spaces through the inclusion of a scenic point near the Gateway Loop summit (the trails
highest elevation is 3,212 feet). The marginalized rhetoric of tight spaces is one of context,
perspective, and micro and meso realities. The ineffable details that make technology intuitive,
ideas relevant, and inspire Daniel-Booneing (Leopold, 1949, p. 177) are examples of rhetoric
of tight spaces in so much as they are incongruous with governing, wholistic rhetoric(s). Society
prefers encyclopedic depictions, displays, and designs that reflect Ciceros idea of a broadly
educated (Herrick, 2009, p. 108) rhetor and present communication trends (consider how
modern technologies sired a communication zeitgeist that values acronyms, abbreviations, and
shorthand). Ironically, despite a societal fixation with precision and detail, we live in a
widescreen culture of generalizations.
Scenic Points: Rhetoric of Open Spaces
Hikers encounter many inspirational views along the Gateway Loop, but the signature
vista is that of Scottsdale and Phoenix as seen from an appointed scenic point near the
Gateway Saddle. Like the spectacle of Frontierland, the view from Gateway Saddle is a crafted
sequence of camera shots: long, establishing views; medium shots; and close-ups (Steiner,
1998, p. 11). The sprawling city below strikes bystanders with a strange visual effect. Strange
in that the audience is confronted with a panoptic vision of American Expansion (Francaviglia,
1999, p. 165) couched in a voyeuristic visual of the Phoenix Metro Area. People look at nature as
an external phenomenon, yet theyll splurge to surround themselves in a faux feeling of
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wilderness. People mortgage lake-front property, hire landscapers, lease SUVs, and live in low-
light communities that package nature as a series of memorable physical or scenic features into
which human activity was placed (Francaviglia, p. 165). Nature is something we want just close
enough to see, hear, and leverage (e.g., raise property values).
It is important to distinguish the scenic point along the Gateway Loop as a human
invention that favors a objective reading of the Sonoran Preserve, the wildland-urban interface
(WUI), and our hegemonic control over the environment. The scenic point makes the same
rhetorical impression as does a raised desk. People raise their desks in a passive-aggressive move
to make themselves feel powerful. Likewise, placing the scenic point at or near the high point of
the trail not only provides the best views of the valley, but foments feelings of authority. There is
a psychology behind capturing and holding the high ground. Annexing the high ground is
important to the suasory effect of the Gateway Loop; moreover, it is recognized by the City of
Scottsdale (2010) as a paramount design factor.
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Visual qualities are important to trail users, [sic] therefore trails should be designed to
blend with the surrounding environment. Views from the trail to the surrounding
environment should also be considered. Trial users enjoy changes in scenery, thus
increasing demand for loop trails and trail networks that allow the user to return to the
starting point without traveling the same trail twice. (section 8-3.101)
Presumably, the site of the scenic point was chosen with visual rhetoric in mind. The view is
impressive, but also articulates the ongoing tension between nature and culture. The boundary
divorcing environment from civilization is sandwiched between the wildness of the Sonoran
Preserve in the foreground, and the bustle of progress, which occupies the background and
extends into the horizon. Whereas foreground images should have the most detail, the audiences
eye is drawn to the horizon. Nature, the WUI, and their consubstantial rhetorics are summarily
scaled (or reduced) to replicas more satisfying than the real thing, [where] perfectly predictable
adventures [and futures] supply a sense of mastery and reassurance (Steiner, 1998, p. 11).
The view from Gateway Saddle is beautiful despite its amorphous presentation of the
WUI. The scenic point is comparable to the window analogy made by George Wald and included
in Silent Spring. [A] very narrow window through which at a distance one can see only a crack
of light, wrote Wald of his research into the visual pigments of the eye. As one comes closer
the view grows wider and wider, until finally through this same narrow window one is looking at
the universe (cited in Carson, 1962, p. 199). The view from the scenic point is claustrophobic in
spite of its panoptic breadth. One cannot see nature or experience wildness from this elevated
roost, because nature is in the details. It is the artistry of a spiders web, the intricate beading of a
Gila Monster, and the erosional whitewashing of sandstone by water, wind, and time. These
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incongruities (i.e., the narrow fits and tight spaces) are most often ignored in favor of
commoditized perversions of nature cropped for postcards and picturesque backdrops for Jeep
commercials (Meister, 1997).
Whereas the Gateway Loops mostly fails to depict fractalized nature (a nature of perfect
imperfections), it can be interpreted as a threshold to discovering natures incongruities. Taken at
face value, views from Gateway Saddle trivialize nature as scenery, a term that demeans nature
to a setting and marginalizes its quintessence. But the scenic point can also be read as an
invitation to transform abstract concepts and flat images into lived experience (Steiner, 1998,
p. 6) and discover the meticulous architecture and tight places of the Sonoran desert.
Trail Design: Rhetoric of Tight Places
Leopold (1949) wrote inA Sand County Almanac that there was no more wilderness; no
places of wildness spared by mans anthropocentrism. Despite peoples best efforts to engineer
wilderness in preservation of recreation, science, and/or habitat, there is always the tarnish of
artificiality. Wilderness is a resource which can shrink but not grow, writes Leopold. Invasion
can be arrested or modified but the creation of a new wilderness in the full sense of the word
is impossible (p. 200). It is the charge of trail designers, stewards, and hikers to achieve
presence and discover refuges of wildness--the unnamed and oft unseen topographies such as
the tight places, narrow crevices, recessed nooks, and snug alcoves that scale (or reduce) a space,
rouse a sense of presence, and force visitors into negotiations over the micro- and meso-
meanings of place. Rachel Carson (1962) observed that natures real value is not a low-hanging
fruit to be read and effortlessly understood; rather, nature obliges audiences to seek personal
meaning.
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Most of us walk unseeing through the world, unaware alike of its beauties, its wonders,
and the strange and sometimes terrible intensity of the lives that are being lived about
us. ... We see with understanding eye only if we have walked in the garden at night and
here and there with a flashlight have glimpsed the mantis stealthily creeping upon its
prey. Then we sense something of the drama of the hunter and the hunted. Then we begin
to feel something of that relentlessly pressing force by which nature controls her own.
(Carson, 1962, p. 249)
The original Frontierland design accentuated tight places through a process of selective
compression (Francaviglia, 1999), a modeling technique in which the character of a large object
(e.g., Earth), event (e.g., the Battle of Gettysburg), or idea (e.g., Manifest Destiny) is reduced in
size and inconsequential details omitted to accommodate an available space, primed audience,
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or preferred interpretation. Frontierland was designed to aggrandize icons and symbols that
would instruct individuals how to view places and the people who occupy (or should occupy)
them (Francaviglia, pp. 169-170). Globes, cycloramas, memorials, and the Gateway Loop are
examples of selective compression in that they articulate a sort of sedated familiarity. In fact, the
City of Scottsdale observes that Loop trails ... provide the comfort of knowing that the trail will
return to the starting point, thus reducing the change of anyone becoming lost (City of
Scottsdale, 2010).
People are fear being lost, apprehensive of getting lost in something, and panicky about
losing track of time. This is the reason the foreground and the tight places in actual nature,
semiotic meaning, and rhetorical discourse are often overlooked and sometimes avoided.
Dyehouse (2011) observes that the Evolution of the Horse display at the American Museum of
History exhibits a sophistication that differs from that attained by forms of visual inscription
typically employed by scientists (p. 300), thereby implying that most popular science is a
dilution of scientific discourse; the Gateway Loop rates somewhere between simple and
sophisticated. The scenic point panders to the oh, by the way spectator. The views are
picturesque but passive, intimidating the onlooker into a monotone reading of nature that
emphasizes mans hegemony over nature. Conversely, the entirety of the 3.6 loop trail acts as an
arbiter between nature and the hiker that requires renegotiating meanings. Unlike the scenic
point, the trail is not a fixed point but a string of moments and cycloramic vistas that change with
every movement. Gateway Loop grants immediate and intimate access to the tight spaces of
nature. Loop hikers are within investigative reach of desert flora, fauna, and architectural
curiosities. Moreover, the inquisitive hiker does not chance getting lost because a variety of
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natures incongruities hug the trail along every bend, drop, and incline. The Gateway Loop
performs as reified tour talk from Glacier National Park (Carbaugh & Rudnick, 2006) in that
the trail, more so than the scenic point, tiptoes the multiple senses of a place between sellable
objectives and entertainment, offering accurate information, coherent tales, and multiple
perspectives (p. 182). Our interpretation of nature is influenced by the design to the Gateway
Loop design (i.e., protection from disorientation), yet the ratio of trail to nature is
disproportionate enough to accommodate all projected meanings.
Conclusion
I have heard it said that seeing is believing. The only problem is that what we see is often
the belief of marketers, architects, programmers, and government. The Gateway Loop is a
bifurcated rhetoric demonstrative of mans contradictory search for hegemonic order and a kind
of rhetorical catharsis achieved through relational symmetry (nature and culture) and presence of
being. Presence is a principal antecedent to change, and a salient issue in much of the
environmental rhetoric read for this course; in particular, that of Carson (1962) and Leopold
(1949). Presence is realized by inclusive and exclusive means in the design of the Gateway
Loop. The scenic point--an appointed spot of visual distinction--is superficial, serving more as
consignment rhetoric than a heuristic lure. Hikers become bystanders, who are neither expected,
required, nor invited to participate in the invention of meaning. The meaning of the view is
decided for hikers in this canned reading of the Sonoran Preserve. The same human desire for
order and facilitated use is reflected in the City of Scottsdales trail design (City of Scottsdale
Preservation Division, 2009). Trail users tend to favor the easiest, most obvious route. If the
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designated trail is not the easiest and most obvious, trail users will begin to create new,
unauthorized trails (City of Scottsdale, 2010). This is rhetoric of open spaces.
Rhetoric of tight places--as the name might imply--is communicated in appeals of
moderate to difficult difficulty that require patience and participation. The Gateway Loop dips,
elevates, and snakes through an unspoiled habitat where every contour primes the hiker for the
next scene. The trail is an architectural tour of a conceptualized landscape depicted as a
constructed setting taken for granted like circumambient air we breathe (Steiner, 1998, p. 8).
The desert is a real biome, but our comprehension of the desert topography is constructed, in part
through naming (Carbaugh & Rudnick, 2006). The features, process, and displays that we know
too much or too little about are marginalized as incongruities (or subterfuges against the
dominant meaning or rhetoric). As an example of rhetoric of display, the trail favors sustainable
interpretations of the Sonoran Preserve that link a vivid narrative about the region to a design
that could sustain the story line (Francaviglia, 1999, p. 163).
Future research might consider scenic views from other WUI trails. What do inverse (or
introspective) views like that found from Gateway Saddle imply about mans relation to nature?
Furthermore, can the concepts fundamental to tight places and open spaces be applied to other
rhetorical displays and suasory artifacts. What similarities are there between the Gateway Loop
and, for example, the Gettysburg Cyclorama or observatories? How do these texts reify presence,
and articulate the tension between distance, space, and place? How does the rhetorical and
physical size of the Gettysburg Cyclorama, the vastness of space, the structure of a honeycomb,
or the ergonomic contour of an iPhone affect the audience? Rhetorical studies of architecture,
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user experience design, and display could answer some of these questions, and engender exciting
new ones.
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References
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