Utah's National Parks. Ron Adkison
Markagunt Plateau, known as the Kolob Terrace, that forms the Virgin River watershed, southwest Utah’s largest tributary to the Colorado River. The Hurricane Cliffs bound the plateau on the west, forming the boundary between two major physiographic provinces: the Basin and Range Province to the west, and the Colorado Plateau stretching eastward to the Rocky Mountains.
The Markagunt is one of the most extensive of Utah’s high plateaus, roughly 70 by 30 miles. The southern half of its surface is incised by tributaries of the Virgin River. These tributary canyons, combined with the nature of the sedimentary rock layers through which they have eroded, are responsible for the magnificent scenery that visitors from all corners of the globe come to enjoy.
The North Fork of the Virgin has created a deep and narrow canyon of incomparable beauty. At its widest point, one-third mile separates the canyon walls, and at its narrowest, only 20 feet or so. Imposing buttes and towering crags crown the canyon’s cliffs, and from below they appear to be majestic mountain peaks. From the heights of the gently contoured plateau, however, viewers gain a different perspective of them. Up there, one quickly notices that the tops of these buttes and towering crags were at one time parts of the continuous level landscape of the plateau. They are simply now isolated from it by erosion.
Geologists have subdivided the Colorado Plateau physiographic province into a number of distinct units. Parts of Zion and Bryce lie within the Grand Staircase section, near the southern margin of the High Plateaus. True to its name, the Grand Staircase rises in a series of varicolored cliffs and broad plateaus from the north rim of the Grand Canyon to the Pink Cliffs high on the flanks of the Markagunt, Paunsaugunt and Aquarius plateaus. Each “step” contains vast wooded plateaus, and each “riser” exposes varicolored cliffs. The belt of cliffs forming the “riser” in Zion is the White Cliffs, composed of the Park’s dominant sedimentary rock layer, the Navajo Sandstone. The Vermilion Cliffs, composed of the Moenave and Kayenta formations, outcrop along the flanks of lower Zion Canyon. The youngest rise in this series of steps is the one at the edge of the highest of the southern High Plateaus—the Pink Cliffs of Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon.
Human History of Zion
Mankind has been in the Zion landscape from time immemorial. We know that the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly known as the Anasazi) dwelled here, attested to by their cliff houses in Parunuweap (“water that roars”) Canyon, their rock art, the abundance of chipping sites throughout the Park, and caves that bear reminders of ancient fires. Archaeologists also believe that people of the Fremont culture may have lived in the northern reaches of the Park.
Prehistoric people lived here from about 500 until their departure around 1200 to 1300. During that time they evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers of corn, squash, and beans. Following their departure, the land we know as Zion remained largely unoccupied until the arrival of Mormon settlers during the mid-19th century. However, during that time scattered bands of Piutes inhabited the upper Virgin River valley, camping in areas that were later the sites of Mormon settlements, some of which remain as towns today. The Piutes utilized the Zion region for seasonal hunting and gathering forays, and some bands farmed in the valleys outside the Park. They did not, however, venture very far into the canyons.
It was the Piutes that early travelers and explorers encountered in southwest Utah. They contributed their geographical knowledge of the region, but were of little aid when Mormons later explored the forbidden (according to Piute superstition) depths of Zion Canyon. In 1850 a party of Mormons conducted explorations in the region to survey the possibility of establishing settlements on the Mormon frontier. The party returned with glowing reports of a mild climate and exceptional farmland, and Mormons were soon called upon by their leaders to settle the region.
During the early 1860s, a few Virgin River valley settlers began looking toward Zion Canyon in search of farmland. When Joseph Black visited the canyon during those years, he was impressed not only by the stark magnificence of the landscape, but also by the possibility of its cultivation.
As time passed, more settlers began to look toward Zion Canyon, not only for home sites but for its resources as well. Isaac Behunin is credited with bestowing the name “Zion” upon the canyon. Having endured Mormon persecution from the time the Mormons were driven from New York to their arrival in the proposed State of Deseret (Utah), he recognized the canyon as a final, safe refuge from harassment and persecution—hence the name Zion, “peaceful resting place.”
Following the exploration of Zion and Parunuweap canyons by Major John Wesley Powell in 1872, the virtually unknown region was finally put on the map, and that sparked interest in its unusual and spectacular landscape. But travel was difficult in those days, and only a handful of hardy travelers made the trek to Zion.
During the early years of Mormon settlement along the Virgin River, homes were built of stone supplemented by wood hauled in from northern Arizona. Extensive forests of ponderosa pine were near at hand atop the cliffs of Zion, but were virtually inaccessible. Brigham Young, the Mormon prophet, visited the Virgin River settlements in 1863 and proclaimed that one day a means would be discovered to transport timber from the plateaus to the valley below “like a hawk flies.”
The Draw Works atop Cable Mountain
After a youthful foray onto the plateau from Zion Canyon near Springdale, young David Flanigan and his three companions explored the forests of the plateau. With the knowledge of Young’s prophecy, Flanigan was to set in motion a series of events that would ultimately fulfill Young’s declaration and provide much-needed lumber to the Mormon settlements. Bales of wire were carried to the rim, and David Flanigan, with the help of his brother, began the long trial-and-error process of laying the wire for a lumber cable, attaching it to pulley structures at both the top and the bottom of the cliff. A year later they began sending loads down from the plateau via the cable.
The cable fell into disuse for lumber hauling between 1901 and 1904, but soon thereafter, Flanigan purchased a sawmill and moved it to the East Rim Plateau, probably near Stave Spring. During the following two years, 200,000 board feet of lumber were sawed on the plateau and transported over the cable to the canyon bottom. This lumber helped build structures along the Virgin River from Springdale to St. George, including the original Zion Lodge and its cabins. The cable was finally removed in 1930, and with the completion of the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel that same year, the cable works became obsolete.
After the turn of the century, Zion gained increased attention, and the idea spread of preserving it for future generations as a showcase of exceptional scenic and scientific value. First, Mukuntuweap National Monument was established on June 25, 1909. Soon after the establishment of the National Park Service in 1917, an automobile road, improving upon the old wagon road, was constructed as far as The Grotto. Finally in 1919, a bill was signed by President Wilson that changed the unpopular name of Mukuntuweap National Monument to Zion National Park and enlarged the area to 120 square miles. In 1937 the Kolob Section was established as Zion National Monument, and in 1956 it was added to the Park.
The road to Temple of Sinawava was completed in 1925, as were a number of foot trails. One problem remained—that of linking Zion by road with other scenic wonders in southern Utah and northern Arizona, including Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon. The 1.1-mile long Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, truly a great engineering feat, was completed in 1930, cut just inside the Navajo Sandstone cliff face. Five galleries in it allowed early travelers to stop and enjoy rock-framed vistas of incomparable beauty, but today, stopping inside the tunnel is not allowed, for safety reasons.
Plants and Animals of Zion
Zion is home to 670 species of flowering plants and ferns, 95 species of mammals, 30 species of reptiles, and 125 species of birds. This vast array of life in Zion helps dispel the myth that a desert is barren and lifeless. True, the region is semiarid, with annual precipitation ranging from slightly more than 15 inches in the canyon to an estimated 21 inches atop the plateaus. But despite searing summer heat, Zion more than any other Utah national park has a relative abundance of water. More than a dozen canyons boast perennial streams, many nurtured by springs that issue from the Navajo Sandstone, a thick and porous layer that is a virtual stone