Photos: On this day – February 26, 1919 – the Grand Canyon is established as a United States National Park

Posted Feb 26, 2013

On this day – February 26, 1919 – President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of the U.S. Congress establishing most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park. It is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile. Nearly two billion years of the Earth’s geological history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While the specific geologic processes and timing that formed the Grand Canyon are the subject of debate by geologists, recent evidence suggests the Colorado River established its course through the canyon at least 17 million years ago.Since that time, the Colorado River continued to erode and form the canyon to its present-day configuration. (Wikipedia,AP)

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GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO, MOUTH OF PARIA CREEK, LOOKING WEST FROM PLATUEAU
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Noon rest in Marble Canyon, second Powell Expedition, 1872
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A map of the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas, c. 1908.
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Diagram showing the placement, age and thickness of the rock units exposed in the Grand Canyon.
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This is the Shiva Temple area of the Grand Canyon in Arizona in 1937. (AP Photo)
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Mule party reaching the head of Bright Angel Trial on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona after completing the one day trip to the Colorado River in the bottom of the canyon. This National Park Service photo is dated October 1951. (AP Photo)
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Here is the mysterious Shiva Temple, Grand Canyon mesa, as seen from a TWA airliner in September 1937. Scientists are now exploring the wooded butte, hoping to discover what manner of wild life may inhabit it. Sheer precipices cut the top off from the world. (AP Photo)
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A group on horseback travel up a path at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, June 8, 1938. (AP Photo)
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A young Havasupai mother carries her child in a cradle made of basket, in Supai or Havasu Canyon, August 12, 1941. The remote American Indian reservation is located in one of the tributary gorges of the Grand Canyon. (AP Photo)
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Two children of the Havasupai sit outside a house made of crude stones and logs, at Supai village in Havasu Canyon, Arizona, July 23, 1942. Some 200 people of the Havasupai live in this remote area west of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the smallest American Indian reservation in the country. (AP Photo)
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The size of only ten square miles, Supai or Havasu Canyon, shown here on July 23, 1942, is the smallest American Indian reservation in the country. The remote area west of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is home to some 200 people of the Havasupai who cultivate the land growing corn and fruit crops; as visible in the center of the picture. (AP Photo)
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A man on horseback admires a waterfall at Supai or Havasu Canyon, Arizona, July 27, 1942. The remote area near South Rim of the Grand Canyon is home to some 200 people of the Havasupai, the smallest American Indian reservation in the country. (AP Photo)
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The Union Pacific Railroad which operates cabins, lodges, and cafeterias in the Grand Canyon, the Bryce and Zion National Park in Southern Utah, announced that they have redecorated their facilities to accommodate the summer visitors. This is a scene in the Zion National Park in Utah, Jan. 17, 1946. T (AP Photo/Union Pacific Railroad) No Sales
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Members of the Havasupai are gathered to watch the dedication ceremony of a Quonset hut chapel at Supai, or Havasu Canyon, April 13, 1948. Some 200 people of the Havasupai live in this remote area west of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the smallest American Indian Reservation in the country. From left to right are: Rev. Robert Frazier, Episcopal missionary to the tribe, Rev. Arthur B. Kinsolving, Bishop of the Episcopal Missionary District of Arizona, and Rev. J.R. Jenkins, the Episcopal clergyman who converted most of the Supais. (AP Photo)
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Men of the Havasupai erect the framework for a Quonset hut chapel, at Supai, or Havasu Canyon, April 16, 1948. Some 200 people of the Havasupai live in this remote area west of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the smallest American Indian Reservation in the country. (AP Photo)
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Although he narrowly missed death by drowning several times as he plummeted down the turbulent rapids of the Colorado River for 200 miles from Lee’s Ferry, Arizona through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead, Alexander Grant Jr., eastern whitewater champion and young Union Pacific Railroad official, managed to keep his tiny craft afloat. He is shown at the end of the trip in Los Angeles, Aug. 5, 1941. He made the perilous journey in 20 days. (AP Photo)
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A fight to the death is simulated by three daring movie stunt doubles a mile above the Grand Canyon for a scene in “Rim of the Canyon”, May 9, 1959. Guy Way, doubling for actor Mickey Shaughnessy, is stands over Chuck Couch, doubling for actor Cornel Wilde. Hanging from the bucket at right is Rosemary Johns, a high wire expert doubling for actress Victoria Shaw. Thin invisible wires attached to corsets strapped beneath their clothes caught Way and Johns when they were thrown clear of the bucket. The bucket normally is used to reclaim bat guano, a fertilizer, from a cave across the canyon. (AP Photo/Dick Strobel)
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A mule back party climbs a trail at the Grand Canyon in Arizona as they thread the "Needle's Eye" into the "Devil's Back Yard" on the North Wall of the canyon. This view at the National Park is dated April 23, 1964. (AP Photo)
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Grand Canyon from the South Rim, near the NPS Visitor Center
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South Kaibab Trail at Cedar Ridge
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Rockfalls in recent times, along with other mass wasting, have further widened the canyon.
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A bighorn ewe at the Grand Canyon, 2008
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Satellite image of the Grand Canyon area
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Aerial view of the less-visited lower Grand Canyon, down river from (west of) Toroweap Overlook
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Smoke from prescribed fires on the south rim, as seen from Yavapai Point, April 2007
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Rafters in the Grand Canyon pass one of the rapids of the (mud-)"colored" Colorado River
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Grand Canyon covered with snow
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Guano Point - a popular vantage point for tourists, situated on the West Rim of the Grand Canyon
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Ancestral Puebloan granaries at Nankoweap Creek.
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Eagle Rock (located at Eagle Point) on the west rim, aptly named for its shape, is considered sacred by the Hualapai Indians.
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This is an aerial view of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, 1980. (AP Photo)
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This is an aerial view of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, 1980. (AP Photo)
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This is an aerial view of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, 1980. (AP Photo)