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N0KFQ > TODAY 11.01.12 20:40l 55 Lines 2559 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 16222_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 11
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<F6CDD<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120111/1822Z 16222@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.47
Jan 11, 1908:
Grand Canyon National Monument is created
Declaring that "The ages had been at work on it, and man can only
mar it," President Theodore Roosevelt designates the mighty Grand
Canyon a national monument.
Home to Native Americans for centuries, the first European to see
the vast brightly colored spectacle of the Grand Canyon was Don
Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, who traveled through northern Arizona
in 1540 with the Spanish explorer Coronado. Subsequent explorers
also marveled at the amazing view from the rim, but few dared to
attempt the treacherous descent into the 5,000-foot-deep canyon
and explore the miles of maze-like twists and turns.
Even as late as the 1860s, the Grand Canyon remained terra
incognita to most non-natives. In 1869, though, the geologist
John Wesley Powell made his first daring journey through the
canyon via the Colorado River. Powell and nine men floated down
Wyoming's Green River in small wooden boats to its confluence
with the Colorado River (now in Canyonlands National Park), and
then into the "Great Unknown" of the Grand Canyon. Astonishingly,
Powell and his men managed to guide their fragile wooden boats
through a punishing series of rapids, whirlpools, and rocks. They
emerged humbled but alive at the end of the canyon in late
August. No one died on the river, though Indians killed three men
who had abandoned the expedition and attempted to walk back to
civilization, convinced their chances were better in the desert
than on the treacherous Colorado.
By the late 19th century, the growing American fascination with
nature and wilderness made the canyon an increasingly popular
tourist destination. Entrepreneurs threw up several shoddily
constructed hotels on the south rim in order to profit from the
stunning view. The arrival of a spur line of the Santa Fe
railroad in 1901 provided a far quicker and more comfortable
means of reaching the canyon than the previous stagecoach route.
By 1915, more than 100,000 visitors were arriving every year.
Convinced it should be forever preserved for the benefit of the
people, the conservation-minded President Theodore Roosevelt
designated a large part of the canyon a national monument in
1908. Congress increased the protection of the canyon in 1932 by
making it a national park, ensuring that private development
would never despoil the Grand Canyon. Visitors today see a vista
little changed from the one Lopez de Cardenas saw nearly 500
years ago.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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