EiS Short: Four Corners

The Four Corners Monument, marking the common corner of four southwestern states, can seem perverse and arbitrary, memorializing nothing more than 4 invisible lines coming to a point in desolate country. There is little to do: no rides, no museums, just a few booths selling food and trinkets and the monument itself, a metal disk encased in a massive wheel of imported granite. And yet we do come, by the thousands, driving hundreds of miles out of our way and paying three bucks to stand on the smooth bronze disk, tie our shoes in four states at once, have our picture taken and then… well, nothing; buy some fry bread, perhaps, and then get back in the car and drive to somewhere else. It resembles a pilgrimage, a Southwestern Hajj, a ritual journey to be completed at least once in every American's life.