Interesting. I've never heard the Miracle Mile called #8.
I always defer to the early river runners when it comes to rapid's names but I know guys that were running this rio in fiberglass that call it the Miracle Mile. Now what?
That is not unusual for a rapid or section of river to have multiple names, which actually sounds kind of appropriate given that rivers have multiple personalities
! I was one of those running the Ark in fiberglass in the '70s along with a number of others, who are still paddling, and we had names for a few other rapids (eg. some in Brown's and Parkdale) that are now known by something else. Have you ever seen Doug Wheat's book "The Floaters Guide to Colorado" published by Falcon Books in 1983? A number of names were changed when the rafting industry really took off but not sure which companies, if any, had an impact in that regard. Back then, information was by word-of-mouth, or published books. Now that Colorado State Parks has created the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, I would imagine that the names they applied to rapids and river sections on all of their maps will remain for the foreseeable future. Come to think of it, the Bighorn Sheep Canyon name started after the Division of Wildlife transplanted bighorn into the Arkansas River corridor sometime back in the 80's or 90's in an effort to publicize the sheep.
I wonder if we had a new rapid created in the future by some monster storm, who would get the credit for naming it?
