Why is the Grand Canyon an important geographical landmark for the USA?
You must have seen beautiful pictures or videos of the Grand Canyon on television or the internet. The sheer magnanimity of this geographical landmark, located in the northern part of Arizona, USA, is mind blowing. It is part of the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the most fascinating tourist attractions in the world. For the uninitiated, a canyon is a long, narrow and steep valley that has been divided into two or more parts by a river. While canyons are scattered all over the world, the Grand Canyon, is one of the largest of them all.
Here’ what makes this giant canyon so important for America.
Millions of years of sediments
One of the most well-known canyons of the world, the Grand Canyon is spread across an area of 18 square miles. It was formed over time by erosion of the earth’s surface through the forces of wind and water. In fact, geographers have found evidence that the ancient rocks were exposed to the force of the Colorado River for millions of years. This widened and deepened the canyon. The walls are made up of red and golden coloured rocks. These rocks appear striped due to successive layers of sediment deposited over millions of years. In fact, the Grand Canyon is said to have at least 40 rock layers in its walls! In pictures, it looks like as if an artist has rendered tons of shades of the colours brown, red and yellow, making it all so breath-taking!
A Grand National Park
The then US President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon as a national monument. Thereby, to preserve it, The Grand Canyon National Park was established by the US government on 26th February, 1919. The Park is situated in north-western Arizona and covers an area of 1900 square miles. Since the inception of the national park, the canyon became a global attraction. The most famous region of the canyon is the South Rims. You can visit this region throughout the year. Its most popular point is known as Diamond Creek where you can see stunning views of the whole canyon. It is also popular among hikers, trekkers and river rafters. There’s a glass bridge across the Canyon known as the Skywalk. Would you dare to walk on this?
Grand Canyon and human activity
People have been visiting the Grand Canyon for over a millennium now. In fact, human activity in and around the canyon can be traced back to the native Americans who had carved dwellings into the walls, the remnants of which can still be found. Yet, up until the mid-19th century, this geographical landmark was vastly unknown to most Americans and was regarded as ‘The Great Unknown’. In 1869, expeditioner John Wesley Powell became the first person ever to take a complete tour of the Grand Canyon. He helped historians and geographers solve many mysteries. Two years later, in 1871, Powell led another expedition to create maps of the region.
That’s when the real magnitude of this structure came to the fore. Despite its sheer scale, there are some people visited the entire canyon and mapped it out for us! A truly daunting task, isn’t it?