Bryce Canyon National Park
Park History
Sourced
Bryce Canyon is not a canyon. Below the east rim of Utah’s Paunsaugunt Plateau, frost and rain have carved more than a dozen horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters into the colorful, weak limestone of the Claron Formation, leaving fins, windows and spires called hoodoos. [1] On about 180 days a year temperatures swing between freezing nights and warm afternoons, so meltwater freezes and expands in the cracks again and again; the park’s 2016 brochure says the forces of weathering and erosion never rest, not even for a day. Its Pink Cliffs are the top step of the Grand Staircase, a sequence of rock layers recording 525 million years. [2]
For thousands of years, the 2014 foundation document says, Native peoples passed through, and more recent groups such as the Southern Paiute drew sustenance from the area. [1] Pioneer settlers followed: Ebenezer Bryce, who came to the Paria Valley settlement of Clifton in 1875 or 1876, dug a seven-mile irrigation ditch and built a timber road ending in the amphitheater locals called “Bryce’s Canyon,” then left for Arizona in 1880. In 1916 Forest Service supervisor J. W. Humphrey and his crew began publicizing the canyon, and Ruby and Minnie Syrett homesteaded nearby and began inviting friends from Panguitch to see it. [3] Bryce Canyon became a national monument under the Forest Service on June 8, 1923, and a national park in 1928. [2]
The park covers about 35,835 acres between 6,600 and 9,100 feet, spanning three climate zones from pinyon-juniper to spruce-fir forest. The foundation document calls it one of the darkest publicly accessible places in North America, where views often extend more than 100 miles. [1]
Indigenous peoples
The 1985 historic resource study by Nicholas Scrattish, written in language now dated, says that as earlier peoples’ activity faded after A.D. 1200, Paiutes filtered into the area; their arrowheads and obsidian tools, found in relative abundance, imply hunting and gathering there. In 1936, by the study’s account, an elderly Paiute man of the Kaibab Reservation — recorded there as “Indian Dick” — told the Zion–Bryce park naturalist that before there were Indians the Legend People lived there; because they did something bad, Coyote turned them all into rocks, standing in rows, their faces still painted. The place, he said, is Angka-ku-wass-a-wits, translated by his nephew as “red painted faces.” He also said the Paiute never used a name for the canyon often cited as theirs. [3] The 2014 foundation document names the Southern Paiute among those who drew sustenance from the area, and says descendants of those who came before still make cultural connections to the landscape. [1]
Climate & environment
Bryce’s long views depend on regional air quality, and the 2014 foundation document says air pollution comes principally from beyond the park’s boundaries, from regional sources; the park is a Class I area under the Clean Air Act, which gives the Park Service an affirmative responsibility to protect its visibility. From 2005 to 2009 average visibility was 3.7 deciviews above natural conditions, short of the park’s goal, and haze on the haziest days did not improve over 2000–2009. Temperature in the surrounding area rose significantly from 1901 to 2002, and the document warns that a warmer, drier climate could raise windblown dust and that more stagnant weather could increase ozone. [1] A 2025 assessment of the park’s East Creek water supply rated it moderately vulnerable to climate change; in a hot, dry future, runoff and recharge could fall by 41 percent, and the risk of severe wildfire is projected to increase. [4]
Labor & the New Deal
A 1994 National Register submission says Civilian Conservation Corps and relief crews were at work by October 1933 and that, with CCC labor, the park finished the last segments of the Rim Trail and part of the Fairyland Loop and completed the Under-the-Rim and Riggs Spring Loop trails. [5] According to the 1985 historic resource study, Bryce’s own camp, NP-3, opened in May 1934 when CCC Company 962 moved over from Zion; in 1934–36 the company summered at Bryce and wintered at Zion. In its first season its more than 200 enrollees took on campground improvement, 18 miles of roadside cleanup, an 18.8-mile fire trail below the rim from Bryce Point to Rainbow Point and 325 log check dams. In 1935 they began the park’s first CCC buildings, among them the Sunset Point comfort station, and in 1936 crews felled and burned 1,617 Douglas firs and 890 ponderosa pines to fight a bark beetle outbreak. [3]
Sources
- Foundation Document, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (NPS, 2014)
- NPSHistory.com: Bryce Canyon National Park archive page — overview (from the 2016 NPS brochure) and establishment block
- Scrattish, Historic Resource Study: Bryce Canyon National Park (NPS, September 1985)
- Cognac, Willi, Mothes, Gilkerson & Lawrence, Water for People: Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for Water Supplies at Bryce Canyon National Park (NPS/CSU, 2025)
- National Register of Historic Places, Bryce Canyon National Park Multiple Property Submission (1994), Section E
REPLACE / REMOVE: Exhibit panels (1 items)
In 1874, Mormon settler Ebenezer Bryce homesteaded in what is now southwestern Utah, reportedly saying the colorful amphitheaters were a 'helluva place to lose a cow'—a comment that would name the canyon.
Not a true canyon but a series of giant natural amphitheaters along the Paunsaugunt Plateau created by erosion. Designated as Bryce Canyon National Park on February 25, 1928; expanded through 1942 to reach 35,835 acres. Contains over one million hoodoos—distinctive tall, thin spires of rock—creating one of Earth's most otherworldly landscapes.
The administration has ordered replaced or removed content that includes the language: “Gases and tiny particles in the air cause haze. Windblown dust and soot from wildfires are natural causes of haze. Human-caused sources come from burning fossil fuels that release nitrogen and sulfur gases.”, “You can help keep the air clear. Conserve energy, use renewable resources, switch to cleaner technologies, and support programs that do the same.”, and “...What happens outside the park - Winds carry pollution into the park from a coal-fired power plant 60 miles (98 km) away in Page, Arizona”.
The administration has directed that this content be replaced or removed, not merely revised but eliminated from the visitor experience at Bryce Canyon National Park.
Why this matters: Bryce Canyon's hoodoos demonstrate how wind, frost, and water can sculpt rock into the most fantastical formations. Over 1.2 million people visit this site each year.
Visitor Center exhibit on Air Quality. Text block reads "Gases and tiny particles in the air cause haze. Windblown dust and soot from wildfires are natural causes of haze. Human-caused sources come from burning fossil fuels that release nitrogen and sulfur gases.“
Side panel text: ”You can help keep the air clear. Conserve energy, use renewable resources, switch to cleaner technologies, and support programs that do the same. “
Includes inset photo of coal fired power plant with caption ”...What happens outside the park - Winds carry pollution into the park from a coal-fired power plant 60 miles (98 km) away in Page, Arizona".
Most practical way to make change, if needed, would be removal and replacement of panel with different text.
Photographs attached to this park's records in the leaked NPS review database.
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