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Zion National
Park History
Almost 12,000 years ago Zion's first peoples, who are now almost
invisible, tracked mammoth, giant sloth, and camel across southern Utah.
Due to climate change and overhunting these animals died out about 8,000
years ago. Humans adapted by focusing on mid-sized animals and gathered
foods. As resources dwindled 2,600 years ago, people tuned lifeways to
the specifics of place. Such a culture, centered on Zion, differentiated
over the next 1,500 years into a farming tradition archeologists call
Virgin Anasazi.
Zion's geology provided these and later pioneer farmers a combination
rare in the desert: a wide, level place to grow food, a river to water
it, and an adequate growing season. On the Colorado Plateau crops grow
best between 5,000 and 7,000 feet, making Zion's elevations -- 3,666 to
8,726 feet -- almost ideal. Differences in elevation also encourage
diverse plants and animals; mule deer and turkey wander forested
plateaus; bighorn sheep and juniper prosper in canyons.
The Anasazi moved southeast 800 years ago, due probably to drought
and overuse. Soon after, Paiute peoples brought a lifeway fine-tuned to
desert seasons and thrived. In the 1860s, just after settlement by
Mormon pioneers, John Wesley Powell visited Zion on the first scientific
exploration of southern Utah. By hard work and faith pioneers endured in
a landscape that hardly warranted such persistence. Flash floods
destroyed towns and drought burned the crops. Only the will to survive
saw Paiute, Anasazi, and European descendants through great
difficulties. Perhaps today Zion is again a sanctuary, a place of life
and hope. Human use of the Zion National Park landscape dates back to at
least 6,000 B.C. Archeologists have divided this long span of human
history into four cultural periods, each characterized by distinctive
technological and social adaptations, that are briefly summarized here.
During the Archaic period (approximately 6000 B.C.- A.D. 500), small
groups hunted game and collected wild plants, seeds, and nuts across the
broad expanse of the Great Basin and western Colorado Plateau. This
mobile lifeway left few traces in the archeological record, with the
exception of materials recovered from dry caves and a few deeply buried
sites. In these protected settings, perishable artifacts, such as
baskets, cordage nets, and yucca fiber sandals, survived. The Archaic
toolkits also included flaked stone knives, drills, and stemmed dart
points. The dart points were hafted to wooden shafts and propelled by
throwing devices, called atlatls.
By about 300 B.C., some archaic groups had begun to supplement wild
foods in their diets by cultivating small patches of corn and squash
along rivers and near springs. Archeologists have labeled these groups
the “Basketmakers”, because of the abundance of coiled and twined
baskets found in many late Archaic sites. These early experiments with
horticulture reduced group mobility and increased the need for food
storage. Basketmaker sites often have grass or stone-lined storage cists
and shallow, partially underground dwellings, called pithouses.
Within a few centuries, small-scale gardening had intensified into the
full time horticulture that typifies the Formative period
(A.D.500-1300). Two distinctive horticultural groups, the Virgin Anasazi
and Parowan Fremont, appear in the archeological record of Zion National
Park during this period. They established year round habitation sites
(often called “pueblos, the Spanish word for “village” or “community”)
with pithouses, storage cists, and later, above-ground masonry room
blocks. Grinding stones (“manos and metates”) signal the importance of
corn in the diets of both groups. Sedentary lifestyles encouraged the
production of plain and painted ceramic vessels. These were used for
storage, food preparation, and as trade goods across broad geographic
areas. The new technology of the bow and arrow also gained widespread
acceptance during the Formative period. The extent to which the Virgin
Anasazi exploited wild plants and game is still unclear. Some
researchers suggest that they were almost totally dependent on
cultivated foods. By contrast, the Parowan Fremont may have continued to
hunt and collect a broad spectrum of wild resources to supplement
cultivated foods.
Virgin Anasazi sites typically occur on river terraces along the Virgin
River and its major tributaries, overlooking the fertile river bottoms
where corn, squash, and other crops could be grown. There is evidence
that hunting and collecting parties made forays to nearby upland areas,
like the Kolob Plateau. Parowan Fremont sites are found along stream
courses and near springs. They cultivated a drought and cold tolerant
variety of corn (called Fremont Dent) that could be successfully grown
at higher elevations. The Virgin Anasazi and Parowan Fremont appear to
have interacted along cultural contact zones, such as the Kolob Plateau,
during the last years of the Formative period.
Both the Virgin Anasazi and the Parowan Fremont disappear from the
archeological record of southwestern Utah by about A.D. 1300. Extended
droughts in the 11th and 12th centuries, interspersed with catastrophic
flooding, may have made horticulture impossible in this arid region.
Some researchers have suggested that the sedentary horticultural groups
could not successfully compete for wild resources with the more mobile
Numic language speakers (such as the Southern Paiute and Ute) who were
in the region by at least A.D. 1100.
The time span between A.D. 1300 and the late 1700s has been described as
the “Neo-Archaic” by some researchers, since the lifeways were
reminiscent of the earlier adaptation. The Numic language speakers were
the only occupants of the Zion landscape. They depended on a wide array
of wild plants and animals, moving seasonally to hunt game or collect
ripe seeds and nuts. This mobile lifestyle was reflected in their
material possessions, which consisted of baskets, nets, and snares, as
well as bows and arrows. Some, particularly the Southern Paiute, also
planted fields of corn, sunflowers, and squash to supplement their
collected wild foods. These more sedentary groups made brownware vessels
that were for storage and cooking.
The Historic period begins in the late 1700s, with the exploration and
settlement of southern Utah by Euro-Americans. Initial explorations by
traders from New Mexico blazed the Old Spanish Trail, which followed the
Virgin River for a portion of its length. During the next century,
American fur trappers and government surveyors added new overland travel
routes across the region. In 1872, John Wesley Powell explored the areas
around Zion Canyon, as part of western surveys conducted by the U.S.
Geological Survey. The early pack trails soon became well-used wagon
roads, connecting Santa Fe to the California markets.
In 1847, Brigham Young led members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints (Mormons) to Utah Territory, establishing settlements
in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Within a decade, Mormon pioneers were
sent to settle the southern part of the territory and grow cotton in
Utah’s “Dixie”. Towns like Shunesberg, Springdale, Grafton, Adventure,
and Paradise sprang up along the upper Virgin River during the 1860s. In
1863, Issac Behunin built the first log cabin in Zion Canyon, near the
location of the Zion Lodge. Soon the canyon was dotted with other
homesteads, including that of William Crawford, near Oak Creek.
During the remainder of the century, the small communities and
homesteads struggled to survive. Catastrophic flooding by the river,
little arable land, and poor soils made agriculture in the upper Virgin
River a risky venture. Some of these settlements, including Shunesberg
and Grafton, were ultimately abandoned for more favorable locations.
By the first decade of the 20th century, the scenic qualities of
southern Utah, and Zion Canyon in particular, had been recognized as a
potential destination for tourism. In 1909, a presidential Executive
Order designated Mukuntuweap (Zion) National Monument, in Zion Canyon.
The new monument was, however, virtually inaccessible to visitors, since
the existing roads were in poor condition and the closest railhead a
hundred miles away. The Utah State Road Commission, established in that
year, began construction on a state highway system that would eventually
improve access to the southern region. State officials also negotiated
with the Union Pacific Railroad to develop rail and automobile links and
tourism facilities in southern Utah. By the summer of 1917, touring cars
could finally reach Wylie Camp, a tent camping resort that comprised the
first visitor lodging in Zion Canyon.
In 1919, a Congressional bill designating Zion National Park was signed
into law. Visitation to the new national park increased steadily during
the 1920s, particularly after the Union Pacific extended a spur rail
line to Cedar City. The Utah Parks Company, a subsidiary of the Union
Pacific, acquired the Wylie Camp in Zion, and offered ten day rail/bus
tours to Zion, Bryce, Kaibab, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Construction on the Zion Lodge complex, designed in “Rustic Style” by
architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, began in the mid-1920s. In 1930,
the newly completed Zion-Mt Carmel highway allowed motorists to travel
through Zion to Bryce and points east. This highway was one of the
greatest engineering feats of modern times, requiring the construction
of a 5,613-foot tunnel to negotiate the vertical sandstone cliffs of
Zion.
Visitor numbers at Zion National Park have continued to increase over
time, necessitating the construction of trails, campgrounds, and other
facilities. The economic benefits of tourism now support the small
communities surrounding the park, ensuring their survival into a new
millennium of human history. |
