This panorama of Monument Valley, taken by Christopher Gjevre, features the tall slender formation known as Totem Pole, the heavily eroded remains of a butte. Monument Valley is located on the border of Utah and Arizona and is protected as a Navajo Tribal Park, by the Navajo Nation. The area was once covered completely in sandstone layers, which have been worn away over millions of years to reveal the stone formations, mesas and buttes we associate with Monument Valley today. Images of these formations epitomize the American Southwest and were first brought to the attention of the public by the film and tourist industry, with the release of John Fords 1938 film, Stagecoach, starring John Wayne.