Grand Canon

a remarkable gorge cut by the Colorado River. It is over 200 miles long, 10 to 20 miles wide, and a mile deep. It is situated in the northeast part of Arizona in a rainless region. The rocks are limestones, sandstones, quartzites, shales, slates, and schists, including strata gorgeously colored by minerals. The Grand Canon is not a crack or flaw in the strata, but an enormous canal or gorge cut by running water. The vast plain in which the Canon lies was traversed by the Colorado River. Internal forces began to raise the plain; a fraction of an inch per century is as good a guess as any. The stream cut its way as fast as the plain rose, until now it runs on archaean rock a mile below the surface. As a matter of fact the river is where it has been for geologic ages; the plain has risen on both sides of it.

The Grand Canon was seen first in 1540 by a party of Coronado's men. Catholic missionaries confirmed the reports, but no addition was made to a scientific knowledge before 1858. In 1869 Major Powell explored the region and shot the river for a distance of 1,000 miles, including not only the Grand Canon, but a canon above and a canon below. His reports are graphic and of astounding interest. The Canon may be reached by way of the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway. At first approach the valley is a confused but grand spectacle of gorgeously colored terraces, towers, pinnacles, and rocks. On attaining a favorable point of view the river may be seen like a slender ribbon far below. The stream runs between precipitous faces of rock, possibly 1,000 feet high; but above this immediate channel the valley is flaring. The view from the upper brink is panoramic. The observer at the water's edge looks up through a narrow, darkened slit and sees but a strip of the blue heavens infinitely high above his head. From the hotel on the upper level the pathway leading down to the river's edge is seven miles in length. The trip down and back is a severe day's trip for all but mountaineers. The gorgeous buttes across the chasm seem but a rifle shot away, the air is so clear; but, as a matter of fact, they are ten miles distant, and a visit would involve 150 miles of canon trails. The rainfall is so slight that the cliffs and needles stand practically as they were sculptured by whirling grains of sand impelled by the seething Colorado ages ago.