Two Brothers Who Lived in Southern Utah Wilderness Left A Wooden Boat in a Cave

There are three caves in Southern Utah where two brothers dug out some work rooms and a place to live back in the 1950s. For some reason they also left what appears to be a large wooden boat in one of the caves.

Unveiling the Mysterious Caves of Southern Utah

The caves were inside the Grand Staircase National Monument but with the recent boundary change now sit outside the new borders of the monument. It takes an off-road vehicle to reach the caves.

The two brothers, Bill and Cliff Lichtenhahn, were originally seeking for uranium in this desert area. They didn't find uranium, but they did find jasper and petrified wood that they polished and sold.

Resilience in the Face of Nature

At one point this area went through a time of rain and floods. The brothers made the caves more secure and even put doors on the entrance. Perhaps this inspired them to make the wooden boat.

There was a lot of fear in the United States over the growing threat from the Soviet Union and the rise of nuclear weapons. The Lichtenhaun brothers may have felt safer in their caves in the middle of nowhere.

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The area is far away from any water or rivers. If it really was a boat they were building, maybe they pictured some sort of flood event and a need for escape. They are long gone and there is no one to ask.

It is an interesting location to explore if you have the time and the vehicle. Maybe you can figure out why there is a wooden boat sitting in the desert.