Grand Canyon National Park/LEON.bin/data/dcx001.doc

Text File | 1995-10-03 | 4KB | 52 lines

To stand and look at the Grand Canyon is to stand in awe.  This spectacular natural wonder
stretches over three hundred miles of northwestern Arizona, and takes one's breath away at the
first glimpse.  This canyon is like no other.  It has mountains and cliffs, gorges and chasms, rocky
shelves and a raging river.  Its unusual contours have inspired unusual names, such as Isis Temple,
Buddha Temple, Wotan's Throne, Tower of Ra, and Bright Angel Point, reflecting the effect they
had on those who named them, and everyone who sees them.

Modern man is not the first to be astounded by this magnificent spectacle.  Native Americans have
been dwelling near or in the canyon for centuries, dating back to ancient peoples such as the
Anasazi, Havasupai, Hualapai, and Paiute, and most recently the Navajo.  Remnants of those
civilizations, such as pottery and dwellings, have been found in the canyon, and archeologists still
study and speculate about those cultures today.  One of those cultures, the Anasazi, can be traced
directly to the Hopi Indians, which live on a reservation in northern Arizona just as the Navajo do.
These various people were the first to really explore the canyon and make there homes there; the
only evidence of any other culture are a few indications of passage left behind by paleo-hunters
eleven thousand years ago, which predates the Anasazi.

But although these cultures were the first, they were certainly not the last.  In the mid-1500's the
first Spanish expedition arrived at the Grand Canyon, led by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, who had
been sent to search the area for riches.  Upon reaching the canyon, they were overwhelmed by its
size, and unable to find a way to cross it.  Finding that they could not go on, they turned back and
returned to Mexico where they were court martialled, along with Francisco Vasquez de
Coronado, the leader of the southwestern expedition, for not succeeding in padding the royal
Spanish coffers.

In the 1800's Americans began exploring the region, looking for fur bearing animals and other
natural resources to make money on.  In 1869 Major John Wesley Powell and nine other men
travelled one thousand miles down the Colorado River, which took them through the Grand
Canyon.  It was this expedition, and a subsequent one that shed a great deal of light onto this
unexplored area, and paved the way for further exploration.

By the late 1800's miners had moved into the region and staked claims, looking for lead, copper,
and zinc.  Mining, however, proved to be quite treacherous and dangerous in the canyon, and
many miners abandoned their claims.  Others decided to try their luck in making money off the
tourists, environmentalists, photographers, and other people who were flocking to the canyon and
the surrounding area.  By the early 1900's visitor services were underway, and that same
company, the Fred Harvey Company, still provides those services today.

President Theodore Roosevelt saw the magnificence of the Grand Canyon for himself in 1903,
and five years later he was able to declare the Grand Canyon and some of the land around it a
national monument.  In 1919 Congress allowed the monument to be upgraded to national park
status, and in 1975 the size of the park was doubled under the administration of President Ford.
Four years later Grand Canyon National Park was also made a World Heritage Site.

The Grand Canyon has awed and delighted mankind for centuries, and will continue to do so for
centuries more.  No matter which rim one stands on, or from which angle one looks, the canyon is
always stunning, and it is no wonder that so many people have been and are drawn to it every
year.