SUPAI,
Arizona is perhaps the most isolated village in the lower 48 states. One either
hikes, rides on horseback, or helicopters into this village, that lacks paved
roads or automobiles – and it is an 8-mile haul into the Grand Canyon.
Lynn Arave, this blog Author, led a group of nine
people (including three of his children) into Supai on a trip back on April
6-7, 2004.
From his first look at the village of about
500 people, the Author was fascinated with the remote town. Even after he had
seen the roaring waterfalls, located about two miles extra from Supai, the resident Native Americans were his biggest fascination.
The Author spent 15 minutes talking to the
minister of the Bible Church, the lone church in town.
The Author eventually co-wrote a long
travel/outdoor story about the group’s trip to Supai and it was published in
the Deseret News on May 9, 2004, under the headline: “Havasupai Canyon and the
Village of Supai.”
(Ray Boren, co-wrote the story and another
Deseret News colleague, photographer Ravell Call, took pictures of the trip.)
About two weeks after the publication of the
story in the Deseret News, Arave got a telephone call from the Kingman,
Arizona Stake President, Scott H. Charon. He said that the LDS Church had
basically abandoned dozens of Church members in Supai, shortly after President
Spencer W. Kimball died, on November 5, 1985.
(In fact, many Native American programs in
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dried up and quit altogether
soon after President Kimball's passing, as one of his accents had been such
programs.)
Surprisingly, President Charon said that it
was the story in the Deseret News that had reminded area Church leaders about
Supai – and the lack of an LDS presence there for more than 19 years.
He said that the Church had now rented a building
in Supai and were now holding Sunday services there. Also, it was a coveted
High Council assignment to be the member each month who gets to hike the eight
miles (and 2,135-foot elevation drop) down to speak at the church service.
During the next three years, the Church was able to secure a building and add a white steeple to its top. (That small church chapel is one of the first structures travelers see today as they enter Supai.)
The First Counselor in the Bishopric of the
Peach Springs Branch, Doug Angle, also became very interested in the Church
members living in Supai. From 2004-2007, he identified about 60 church members
there; organized numerous service projects; and was instrumental in the branch
organization there. By 2007, Supai had its first full-time missionary couple in
town, and they lived in the rear of the meetinghouse.
While it is sad that the Church abandoned
members for almost 20 years in Supai, it was equally strange that the Deseret
News story was the spark that put the church back in town.
AND, that is not the end of the story, at
least for the Author of this blog, as he received a "reward," of sorts:
Greg Witt, a
Salt Lake author and hiking enthusiast, also became intently interested in
Supai after reading the Deseret News story. He not only went there often, but
wrote several hiking guides for the area and even assisted in service projects
for the village (as it suffered periodic flooding damage).
In 2011,
Wilderness Press was looking to expand its extensive “Walking” city book series to Salt Lake
City. They contacted Witt about doing a “Walking Salt Lake City” book, but he
said he thought Lynn Arave and Ray Boren were better suited for that endeavor.
In 2012,
that book was published and it launched the book writing career for Arave and
Boren. The pair would co-write two more books together and Arave would
separately write another 7 books, as of 2026, with a contract for two
additional books in the future (12 books total).
Today, Supai and its waterfalls are an
extremely popular outdoor mecca and reservations to visit have to be made in
advance and sell out quickly.
