Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Park History
Sourced
Behind the Bureau of Reclamation’s Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River and its tributaries back up about 185 miles to form Lake Powell, set among buttes, mesas and cliffs where Navajo sandstone is the dominant rock. Work on the concrete arch dam began in 1956; its last two generating units came on line in 1966, and the lake reached full pool in 1980, 1983 and 1984. The brochure calls the dam a project born amid controversy and compromise. [1] A 2000 historic structures report’s chronology dates the recreation area’s establishment, by agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Park Service, to April 18, 1958; [3] the 2014 Foundation Document dates its establishment by Congress to October 27, 1972. It covers more than 1.25 million acres of northern Arizona and southeastern Utah, its southern boundary runs beside the Navajo Nation for almost 500 miles, and it borders Rainbow Bridge National Monument, proclaimed in 1910. [2]
Its Foundation Document says the area preserves a record of more than 10,000 years of human presence. About 2,500 cultural sites have been recorded, though only 3 percent of the land has been surveyed, and some boaters damage shoreline sites through unauthorized excavation, artifact collecting and pervasive graffiti. [2] Some of that history now lies under water: the Crossing of the Fathers, where the Spanish priests Domínguez and Escalante cut steps into the sandstone at Padre Creek on November 7, 1776, is beneath Padre Bay, and the ferry town of Hite was flooded by the lake. John Wesley Powell, who named Glen Canyon on his 1869 voyage, is the lake’s namesake. [1]
Indigenous peoples
Park staff consult regularly with the Hopi Tribe, Kaibab Paiute Tribe, Navajo Nation, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Pueblo of Zuni, San Juan Southern Paiute and Ute Mountain Ute. For many indigenous peoples of the Four Corners region, Rainbow Bridge is, in the Foundation Document’s words, a spiritually occupied landscape inseparable from their cultural identities. [2] In 2011 research, Hopi cultural advisors identified 33 cultural resources with traditional Hopi associations; Hopi people use Itaakuku, “our footprints,” for places where the ancestors lived. Rainbow Bridge, Namiqw’wunu to the Hopi, is tied to six clans. A Hopi shrine there was submerged during high water in Lake Powell; clan members still visit to leave prayer feathers. [4]
Southern Paiute traditional lands, a 1994 study reports, are bounded by more than 600 miles of Piapaxa, the Colorado River, which, by traditional belief, the Creator charged Paiute people to protect and manage; one San Juan Southern Paiute elder likened the river to the veins of the world. [5]
Climate & environment
The park’s resources and visitor experiences depend on water, the 2014 Foundation Document says, and its lake levels fluctuate widely; projections, it adds, indicate there may be longer or more frequent droughts. Writing in 2014, it cited climate-change models projecting higher temperatures, no increase in precipitation, reduced runoff and reduced storage in Lake Powell by 2021. Fluctuating levels force frequent moves of marina infrastructure, and at very low levels launch ramps may become unusable; at lower reservoir levels lake water does not reach beneath Rainbow Bridge. As drought persists, the document notes, parties with water rights are seeking to install pipelines to draw water from the lake. [2]
Sources
- NPSHistory.com: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area archive page — overview (NPS brochure text)
- Foundation Document, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument (NPS, 2014)
- Graham & Kupel, Historic Structures Report: Lee's Ferry and Lonely Dell Ranch, Glen Canyon NRA (Alliance Architects for NPS, September 2000) — chronology, p. 69
- Hopkins, Koyiyumptewa, Kuwanwisiwma & Ferguson, Comprehending Hopi Footprints: Hopi History and Traditions at Glen Canyon NRA and Rainbow Bridge NM, Journal of Arizona Archaeology 4(1), 2016, pp. 50–59
- Stoffle, Halmo, Evans & Austin, Piapaxa ’Uipi (Big River Canyon): Southern Paiute Ethnographic Resource Inventory and Assessment (University of Arizona BARA for NPS, June 1994), Executive Summary
FLAGGED FOR REVIEW: Interpretive materials
At Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the natural world tells its own story. Decades of scientific observation have documented changes to this landscape — changes that are visible to every visitor who walks these trails. The interpretive materials now under review present this documented scientific record.
From the internal review records: “Lone Rock 3P - The wayside says Climate change and increased water needs to support agriculture and power has altered this water playground. In 2022, this iconic geologic feature lived up to its name and water receded from its base. A year plagued with drought and low snowpack painted a bleak and dry scene. But as the seasons change the mountains filled with snow again. The following spring the ...”
Why this matters: The environmental changes documented at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are based on decades of scientific observation and measurement. Visitors can see these changes with their own eyes. Removing references to documented science from interpretive materials doesn't reverse the changes — it only leaves visitors without the information they need to understand what they're witnessing.
Lone Rock 3P - The wayside says Climate change and increased water needs to support agriculture and power has altered this water playground. In 2022, this iconic geologic feature lived up to its name and water receded from its base. A year plagued with drought and low snowpack painted a bleak and dry scene. But as the seasons change the mountains filled with snow again. The following spring the water rose, and boater’s paradise reemerged. Fluctuating lake levels are as common as the changing of the seasons...
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