Grand Canyon

Carved through the millennia by a single thread of water, it seems as though you have to constantly refocus your eyes, and your thoughts, to absorb the view and its meaning. With each passing hour, visitors are witness to a new and different look as the elements and colors constantly change, yet stay the same. Grand Canyon National Park is a fascinating place and people have wanted to experience standing on the rim first hand for as long as people could travel, however, it wasn't made a national park until 1919. Grand Canyon National Park of today owes its existence to the foresight of earlier generations who wanted to protect it as an American landmark that could be shared for decades to come. Perhaps they recognized the Grand Canyon as a metaphor for America itself - vast, untamed, endless possibility, rough, beautiful, full of character.

 

Most Sublime of all Earthly Scenes

Grand Canyon National Park is located in the remote northwestern corner of Arizona. The isolated location of this natural wonder discouraged all but the most adventuresome visitors until the completion of the southern transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. Even then, the difficult stagecoach rides from railroad stops in Williams and Flagstaff made the trip to the Grand Canyon a rugged adventure.

 

Many words have been used in reaction to seeing Grand Canyon. President Theodore Roosevelt called Grand Canyon "the one great sight which every American should see." He continued to say, "The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison--beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world .... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

 

Despite Roosevelt's enthusiasm and his strong interest in preserving land for public use, the Grand Canyon was not immediately designated as a national park. The first bill to create Grand Canyon National Park had been introduced in 1882 and again in 1883 and 1886 by Senator Benjamin Harrison. As President, Harrison established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893. Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve by proclamation in 1906 and Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908. Senate bills to establish a national park were introduced and defeated in 1910 and 1911; the Grand Canyon National Park Act was finally signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. The National Park Service, which had been established in 1916, assumed administration of the park. It has an area of over 1,900 square miles and 277 miles of the Colorado River run through it.

 

Environmentalist John Muir said, "It seems like a gigantic statement for even Nature to make all in one mighty stone work. Wildness so Godful, cosmic, primeval, bestows a new sense of earth's beauty and size… But the colors, the living, rejoicing colors, chanting morning and evening in chorus to heaven! Whose brush or pencil, however lovingly inspired, can give us these? In the supreme flaming glory of sunset the whole canyon is transfigured, as if the life and light of centuries of sunshine stored up in the rocks was now being poured forth as from one glorious fountain, flooding both earth and sky."

 

Grand Canyon is probably the world's most spectacular example of the power of erosion - a chasm 277 miles long and up to 18 miles wide with an average depth one mile. Scientists estimate it has taken a mere four to six million years to cut Grand Canyon. Nearly half of the earth's 4.6 billion-year history is displayed by the erosion. Exposed rock strata range from the 1.7 billion-year-old Vishnu Schist of the Inner Gorge, to the pale caprock Kaibab limestone deposited 250 million years ago, to the 1 million-year-old black lava flows in the western canyon. Six of the seven life zones recognized throughout the world are represented in the Grand Canyon region. They vary from that of Mexican desert at the canyon bottom to the arctic-alpine type of the San Francisco peaks. The canyon ranges from the lowest elevation at the bottom at less than 2,000 feet at the Grand Wash Cliffs to the highest elevation on the South Rim at 7,498 feet. The North Rim reaches above 9,000 feet.

 

The Colorado River helped form the awe-inspiring canyon. The Colorado River is one of the great river systems in the United States (over 1,400 miles long), and the area it drains totals nearly 12% of the United States. In Grand Canyon, the river averages 300 feet in width, is up to 100 feet deep, and flows at an average speed of 4 miles an hour.

 

In 1869 Major John Wesley Powell, a fearless, one-armed Civil War veteran, and his nine companions became the first men to journey 1,000 miles on the Colorado River going through the Grand Canyon. Equipped with four flimsy wooden boats and meager rations, Powell and his party braved dangerous rapids, searing heat, sinking morale, and the desertion of three men to complete their remarkable feat.

 

Animal life in the Grand Canyon region includes about 89 species of mammals, 17 species of fish, 355 species of birds, 47 species of reptiles and amphibians and 1,500 flowering plants. During the growing season, both rims and canyon slopes are covered with a great variety of wildflowers.

 

Native American communities surround Grand Canyon and actively maintain their ancient cultures and traditions. Their cultures have long been associated with their exquisite but functional crafts, which reflect their close ties with nature. Fine collectibles created by native artisans began to be marketed to outsiders in the 1880s. Native American tribes surrounding Grand Canyon include the Havasupai, Hualapai, Kaibab-Paiute, Hopi and Navajo.

 

Nearly 5 million people a year visit the park. In 1919, during its first year as a national park, fewer than 45,000 people visited Grand Canyon. In this majestic place, the integrity of the natural environment is maintained through a delicate balance often challenged by the impact of man. It is increasingly important for each of us to minimize our environmental impact on the park and to protect its natural grandeur.

 

One such way is by entering the park via the Grand Canyon Railway. Perhaps environmentalist John Muir said it best, "When I first heard of the Santa Fe trains running to the edge of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, I was troubled with thoughts of the disenchantment likely to follow. But last winter, when I saw those trains crawling along through the pines of the Coconino Forest and close up to the brink of the chasm at Bright Angel, I was glad to discover that in the presence of such stupendous scenery they are nothing. The locomotives and trains are mere beetles and caterpillars, and the noise they make is as little disturbing as the hooting of an owl in the lonely woods."

 

The Grand Canyon's Train

Grand Canyon country was a far-off distant land in the late 1800s. Only the most adventurous of explorers could rough the elements to see it with its remote location in northern Arizona, still a territory at the time. But Americans were on the move and going west. American ingenuity was hard at work in the form of the railroads, being built and tying the nation together. The main line west was built from Chicago to Los Angeles and it passed through Williams, Arizona.

 

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad started a spur line north from Williams going toward the huge chasm with thoughts that something so colorful must be rich with ore. But the bet didn't pay off and railroad was left empty handed. However, there was much interest in the fabled canyon so the railroad began advertising the Grand Canyon as a destination "en route to or from winterless California" and people started coming. As did dignitaries like President Theodore Roosevelt, an ardent admirer of the canyon, who helped the promotion by proclaiming the canyon as "the one great sight every American should see." Roosevelt's environmental fervor would help shape the policy to make the canyon a national park and preserve it for future generations.

 

The President arrived at the canyon the way the rest of the traveling public did - by rail. In fact, 44,000 people visited the Grand Canyon when it was designated a national park in 1919. The railroad's contribution to Grand Canyon National Park is notable. Once the train started bringing people to see the amazing sight, they needed a place for people to stay and eat. The railroad is responsible for building historic Grand Canyon Village, which is still the center of canyon activity today. Along with the Fred Harvey Company, the railroad built the lodges that grace the canyon's edge, including the El Tovar and Bright Angel Lodge.

 

Through the roaring '20s, the depression-ravaged '30s and war years of the '40s, the rail line provided the lifeline to the storied Grand Canyon. However, in an ironic twist, America was on the move again - but this time in their cars. America had expanded again, this time with Interstate highways that tied the nation together. With the rise of the automobile, and later air travel, came the demise of long distance passenger rail service in the US. In 1956, visitation to Grand Canyon National Park surpassed one million, most of whom arrived in their car. The rail line was retired by Santa Fe in 1968 as visitation to the canyon neared 2 million per year.

Preserving a Piece of America

The Grand Canyon Railway was brought back to life in 1989 and so too, was a piece of American history that had been lost. Today, it's the only operating railroad servicing a national park in the United States. Just as today's Americans and international The first train arrived at the South Rim on September 17, 1901visitors have the chance to experience the sights and sounds of Grand Canyon National Park, they can also experience what it was like to arrive at the canyon by rail as their grandparents and great-grandparents did: how the anticipation amongst the travelers filled the air as the train departed from Williams Depot knowing they were almost there; how the topography changed as the train passes through pine forests and the high desert, the San Franciso Peaks in the background to the east; how the train finally pulled up to the Grand Canyon Depot in the shadow of the El Tovar Hotel, built by the Railroad in 1905; how they must have walked up the steps as though they were climbing the steps to a natural shrine; and how they walked to the rim to look upon the magnificent sight; and how the feeling is the same today as it was in 1901.