The clear healing waters of the Pah Tempe Mineral Hot Springs run through an awe-inspiring desert canyon near Hurricane Utah. Many different First Nations tribes have visited this wondrous pristine site for centuries, and believe it to be most sacred. Unfortunately, this natural wonder may soon be destroyed by threatened development, but you can do something help to save these beautiful springs.
David Anderson is the founder of our Important Media blog network, and has been working with his father, Ken Anderson, to preserve the Pah Tempe Mineral Hot Springs. They recently launched a Kickstarter project in order to raise money to create a documentary chronicling the amazing history and natural importance of this unique site.
Here is David explaining why they are working to make this film to help generate more awareness about the significance of Pah Tempe:
Why do you think the story of the hot springs needs to be told?
“Pah Tempe’s mineral water, which everyone else recognizes as sacred and healing, is referred to by the local county water district as, incredibly, a ‘pollutant’ which they feel needs to be captured and ‘disposed of’ somewhere out in the desert. For them, this requires condemning and closing the property on which these precious hot springs sit. This outcome has been their consistent goal for many years, despite a worldwide (and local) fan base, and clear scientific consensus on the amazing biological uniqueness and diversity of fish in that exact section of the river, now made endangered by the diversion of water in the name of development.”
Here is more information about the structure and resources needed for the upcoming Pah Tempe documentary film, as well as other ways in which you can get involved to help preserve this rare natural wonder:
Campaign Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidryal/healing-waters-the-story-of-pah-tempe-mineral-hot
Campaign Goal: $13,500
Deadline: September 21st, 2012
What exactly is this money going toward?
We’re making a full-length documentary, for peanuts:
- $5000: Production company (when we brought filmmaker Loren Feldman of 1938 Media out to the hot springs, he fell in love, and immediately offered to help at far below his normal rate!)
- $1000: Licensing fees
- $1000: Talent and location compensation
- $2500: Production & travel expenses
- $3000-ish: Fulfilling Kickstarter Rewards
- $1000-ish: Kickstarter/Amazon fees
If we’re wildly successful and blow past our minimum goal, we’ll spend more money fulfilling rewards but we’ll use the vast majority of the extra to improve the production value of the final film. Please help us have that problem.
Our current plan is to present the documentary in 3 parts:
The Place – context for the hot spring itself, its geological. indigenous and pioneer history, as well as modern disrepair.
The Struggle – Ken intervenes against the dual pressures of neglect and agricultural infrastructure development, and tries for decades to find a balance.
The Future – how will the struggle turn out?
How else can I help?
Pah Tempe would absolutely still LOVE your help: please use your preferred sharing method — Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, or Pinterest? Or try Kickstarter’s sharing tools above to send our story and campaign to anyone you know who loves nature, the outdoors, hot springs specifically, or anyone who you think might be passionate and capable of helping us achieve our goal.
By sharing our goal to tell the story of Pah Tempe and Ken and the Anderson family’s quest to preserve the hot springs at Pah Tempe, you make it possible for others who might be touched by it to know it exists.
Learn more about the Pah Tempe Hot springs here.
