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Rangers at Zion National Park advise visitors to remain long enough to see the park, especially when it has been drenched with rain. Then waterfalls cascade from every notch and crack and precipice, and the sun, emerging through a break in the clouds, turns the canyon walls into a kaleidoscope of patterns and colors. The Anasazi The first inhabitants of Zion were nomadic hunters known as the Anasazi (Navajo for "Ancient Ones"). The magnificent ruins of their dwellings, which were built around A.D. 750, are found throughout the Four Corners area where the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet. The remains of one large Anasazi settlement were discovered in the Parunuweap Canyon at Zion. While the Anasazi were farming the southern part of what is now Zion National Park, the northern part was occupied by people belonging to the Fremont Indian culture. But by A.D. 1200, both the Anasazi and the Fremont had begun to decline. Archeological findings suggest that as a sophisticated architecture developed, an increasing number of trees were used for building and fuel, thus destroying the water sheds so vital for crops, game, and forage food. According to this "ecological suicide" theory, the lack of raw materials and food eventually forced a mass exodus, perhaps as many as 700 years ago. The Paiutes During the next several hundred years, the region was visited by small bands of Fremont descendants, but Zion was not permanently populated again until the nineteenth century. We know the settlers as Paiutes, a tribe of Native American closely associated with some of Zion's great legends the pranks of Kai-ne-sava, the God of Fire, who set great flames (lightning) atop the West Temple, and the doings of Wai-no-pits, the Evil One, who invaded the Indian camps with disease. So deeply ingrained were these superstitions and the fears that grew out of them that the Paiutes were of little value as guides to the early white explorers. Zion Early Explorers Nephi Johnson, a young Morman missionary and interpreter among the Paiutes, was probably the first white to see the glory of Zion. Ordered by Brigham Young in 1858 to explore the upper Virgin River, he persuaded a Paiute to guide him over the rugged escarpment of the Hurricane Cliffs and up the river. But Johnson's guide refused to go any farther than Oak Creek; Wai-no-pits lurked somewhere in the dark shadows of the narrow canyon called Ioogoon, "an arrow quiver," meaning you "come out the way you went in." Later explorations soon led to the settlement of Zion and Parunuweap canyons. Joseph Black is generally credited with having been the first to explore the upper area of Zion. In contrast to the early settlers, who viewed the scenery rather calmly, Brother Joseph brought back such glowing accounts of the canyon that it was often referred to as "Joseph's glory." We owe the name Zion to another Mormon, Isaac Behunin. While scraping a living from crops and cattle, Behunin is supposed to have said: "These great mountains are natural temples of God. We can worship here as well as in the man made temples in Zion, the biblical `Heavenly City of God.' Let us call it Little Zion." Although Mormon pioneers farmed and lumbered in and around the canyons, outside expeditions reported Zion's riches to the world. One such expedition was led by the Civil War veteran and surveyor John Wesley Powell, who already was renowned for his exploration of the Grand Canyon. Extending his studies north in 1872, Powell surveyed the Parunuweap ("water that roars") Canyon and Little Zion, which he named Mukuntuweap ("straight canyon"). Establishment of ParK in Zion Stephen T Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, was impressed by Zion's beauty and believed the area worthy of national recognition. He and his assistant, Horace Albright, who became the second director of the National Park Service, worked hard to bring it under federal protection. On July 31, 1909, President William Howard Taft signed a proclamation creating Mukuntuweap National Monument. Nine years later, the National Park Service recommended enlarging the monument and changing its name to Zion. President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation on March 18, 1918, and the following year Zion National Park was established. Extract from "The Sierra Club Guides To The National Parks Desert Southwest". Published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. Distributed by Random House. 1984. |
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