It’s hard to imagine a time in which the Grand Canyon was not regarded as one of the most exquisite and awe-inspiring natural wonders of the United States. But it has only recently become the revered national landmark that we know it to be today. For much of U.S. history, it was over-looked at best, exploited at worst. In The Story of the Grand Canyon’s Establishment 100 Years Later, you’ll discover the adventurous and tumultuous road that eventually led to the Grand Canyon’s success as a national landmark, tourist attraction, and home to all sorts of flora and fauna. From its ties to Native American culture and Teddy Roosevelt’s campaign for preservation to the encroaching railroad tyrants and daring explorations into its mysterious, mystical ravines, the Grand Canyon’s history is filled with as many twists and turns as the gorges’ themselves. After exploring the canyon’s history, study the present preservation and environmental efforts that will hopefully ensure the canyon’s glory for years to come. The future is yet unknown, but the Grand Canyon has stood long before our time and will stand long after we are gone, steadfast and magnificent.

The Grand Canyon is one of America’s loveliest landmarks. That’s a pretty noncontroversial statement, right? Wrong — at least if you lived 100 years ago. Teddy Roosevelt, the Wild West-loving wanted the Grand Canyon to be a national park — an untarnished natural beauty that every American could have the chance to admire. Yet a lot of people just didn’t think the Grand Canyon was that charming. The isolation and barrenness appalled some early visitors. What was pretty about the jagged cliffs and bare rock with their garish colors and terrifying abysses? It wasn’t just aesthetics that made the Grand Canyon’s path to becoming a national park rocky. Minors wanted to keep searching for potential fortunes in the nooks and crannies of the canyon. A handful of independent-minded settlers, who had made makeshift houses near the rim to enjoy the peace and solitude, weren’t excited about the prospect of tourists. Railroads had already built their own hotels and didn’t want the National Park Service to benefit from an influx of visitors. But somehow these hurdles were overcome, because the Grand Canyon became a national park on February 26, 1919.

"A guide to the best parks in the United States and Canada, including activity and accommodation information; information on nearby attractions; top ten lists; and information on local fare"--

Arizona is proud to have one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World--the Grand Canyon. With the arrival of the Santa Fe and Union Pacific Railroad in the early 20th century, the development of the canyon began in earnest. The railroads, along with the Santa Fe's business partner, the Fred Harvey Company, greatly promoted the Grand Canyon as a tourist destination through books, pamphlets, and magazine advertisements. On February 26, 1919, Congress established the Grand Canyon National Park, and the federal government became a promoter of the Grand Canyon, too. But perhaps the best promoters of the Grand Canyon were the people who wrote home on picture postcards telling their friends and families about the amazing canyon. A number of the postcards published about the park can be found within the pages of this book.

Grand Canyon For Sale is a carefully researched investigation of the precarious future of America’s public lands: our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, and wildernesses. Taking the Grand Canyon as his key example, and using on-the-ground reporting as well as scientific research, Stephen Nash shows how accelerating climate change will dislocate wildlife populations and vegetation across hundreds of thousands of square miles of the national landscape. In addition, a growing political movement, well financed and occasionally violent, is fighting to break up these federal lands and return them to state, local, and private control. That scheme would foreclose the future for many wild species, which are part of our irreplaceable natural heritage, and also would devastate our national parks, forests, and other public lands. To safeguard wildlife and their habitats, it is essential to consolidate protected areas and prioritize natural systems over mining, grazing, drilling, and logging. Grand Canyon For Sale provides an excellent overview of the physical and biological challenges facing public lands. The book also exposes and shows how to combat the political activity that threatens these places in the U.S. today.

“A convincing case for Powell’s legacy as a pioneering conservationist.”--The Wall Street Journal "A bold study of an eco-visionary at a watershed moment in US history."--Nature A timely, thrilling account of the explorer who dared to lead the first successful expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon—and waged a bitterly-contested campaign for sustainability in the West. John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition—starving, battered, and nearly naked—they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before. With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John F. Ross tells how that perilous expedition launched the one-armed Civil War hero on the path to becoming the nation’s foremost proponent of environmental sustainability and a powerful, if controversial, visionary for the development of the American West. So much of what he preached—most broadly about land and water stewardship—remains prophetically to the point today.