The Grand Canyon is a colorful, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, in northern Arizona. The canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is largely contained in the Grand Canyon National Park - one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the Grand Canyon area, visiting on numerous occasions to hunt mountain lions and enjoy the breathtaking scenery.
The canyon, created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6 to 29 kilometers) and attains a depth of more than a mile (1,600 m). Nearly 2000 million years of the Earth's history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateaus have uplifted.
The Grand Canyon was first seen by a European in 1540, García López de Cárdenas from Spain. The first scientific expedition to the canyon was led by U.S. Major John Wesely Powell in the late 1870s. Powell referred to the sedimentary rock units exposed in the canyon as "leaves in a great story book." However, long before that, the area was inhabited by Native Americans who built settlements in the canyon walls.
Geography
The Grand Canyon is a very deep - in places even a mile deep - 277 mile (446 km) long cut in the Colorado Plateaus that exposes uplifted Proteozoic and Paleozoic strata. The exposed strata are gradually revealed by the gentle incline beginning at Lee's Ferry and continuing to Phantom Ranch. At the point where the river crosses the Grand Wash Fault (near Lake Mead) the Canyon ends.
Uplift associated with plate tectonics-caused mountain building events later moved these sediments thousands of feet upward and created the Colorado Plateaus. The higher elevation has also resulted in greater precipitation in the Colorado River drainage area, but not enough to change the Grand Canyon area from being semi-arid. Landslides and other mass wasting events then caused headward erosion and stream capture - all of which tend to increase the depth and width of canyons in arid environments.
The uplift of the Colorado Plateaus is uneven, resulting in the North Rim of the Grand Canyon being over a thousand feet (about 300 meters) higher than the South Rim. The fact that the Colorado River flows closer to the South Rim is also explained by this asymmetrical uplift. Almost all runoff from the plateau behind the North Rim (which also gets more rain and snow) flows toward the Grand Canyon, while much of the runoff on the plateau behind the South Rim flows away from the canyon (following the general tilt). The result is much greater erosion and thus faster widening of the canyon and its tributary canyons north of the Colorado River.
Temperatures on the North Rim are generally lower than the South Rim because of the greater elevation (8000 feet/2438 m above sea level). Heavy snowfall is common during the winter months. Views from the North Rim tend to give a better impression of the expanse of the canyon rather than the views down which characterize the South Rim.
The Havasupai Indian Reservation is in a large tributary canyon on the south side of the Colorado River; it is administered by the Havasupai Indian Tribe.
Geology
The Grand Canyon as seen from Earth orbit. NASA
Geology of the Grand Canyon areaThe major sedimentary rock units exposed in the Grand Canyon range in age from the 2000 million year old Vishnu Schist at the bottom of the Inner Gorge to the 230 million year old Kaibab Limestone on the Rim. Most of the formations were deposited in warm shallow seas, near-shore environments (such as beaches), and swamps as the seashore repeatedly advanced and retreated over the edge of a proto-North America. The major exception being the Cococino Sandstone which was laid down as sand dunes in a desert.
The great depth of the Grand Canyon and especially the height of its strata (most of which formed below sea level) can be attributed to 5000 to 10,000 feet (1500 to 3000 m) of uplift of the Colorado Plateaus starting about 65 million years ago (which occurred in a series of uplift events rather than a continuous rise). This uplift has steepened the stream gradient of the Colorado River and its tributaries, which in turn has increased their speed and thus their ability to cut through rock.
The Colorado River drainage (of which the Grand Canyon is a part) has developed in the past 40 million years and the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than five to six million years old (with most of the downcutting occurring in the last two million years). The result of all this erosion is one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet. The river is still actively cutting deeper and is thus exposing older and older rock.
Wetter conditions during ice ages also increased the amount of water in the Colorado River drainage system. The ancestral Colorado River responded by cutting its channel faster and deeper.
Then the base level and course of the Colorado River (or its ancestral equivalent) changed 5.3 million years ago when the Gulf of California opened and lowered the river's base level (its lowest point). This increased the rate of erosion and cut nearly all of the Grand Canyon's current depth by 1.2 million years ago. The terraced walls of the canyon were created by differential erosion.
A million years ago volcanic activity (mostly near the western canyon area) deposited ash and lava over the area which at times even dammed the Colorado. These are the youngest rocks in the park.
With its current stream gradient, the Colorado River should cut another 1200 to 2000 feet (370 to 600 meters) into the rock of the canyon before reaching its base level.
History of the Grand Canyon area
The known history of the Grand Canyon area stretches back 10,500 years when the first evidence for human presence in the area started. Native Americans have been living at Grand Canyon and in the area now covered by Grand Canyon National Park for at least the last 4,000 of those years. Anasazi, first as the Basketmaker culture and later as the more familiar Puebleoans, developed from the Desert Culture as they became less nomadic and more dependent on agriculture. A similar culture, the Cohonina, also lived in the canyon area.
Drought in the late 13th century was the likely cause for both cultures to move on. Other cultures followed, including the Paiutes, Cerbat, and the Navajo, only to be later forced onto reservations by the United States Government.
Under direction by conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas led a party of Spanish soldiers with Hopi guides to the Grand Canyon in September of 1540. Not finding what they were looking for, they left. Over 200 years passed before two Spanish priests became the second party of non-Native Americans to see the canyon.
In 1869, U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell led the Powell Expeditions through the canyon on the Colorado River. This and later study by geologists uncovered the geology of the Grand Canyon area and helped to advance that science.
In the late 19th century there was interest in the region because of its promise of mineral resources‹mainly copper and asbestos. The first pioneer settlements along the rim came in the 1880s.
Early residents soon discovered that tourism was destined to be more profitable than mining, and by the turn of the century Grand Canyon was a well-known tourist destination. Most visitors made the grueling trip from nearby towns to the South Rim by stagecoach.
In 1901 the Grand Canyon Railway was opened from Williams, Arizona, to the South Rim, and the development of formal tourist facilities, especially at Grand Canyon Village, increased dramatically. The Fred Harvey Company developed many facilities at the Grand Canyon, including the luxury El Tovar Hotel on the South Rim in 1905 and Phantom Ranch in the Inner Gorge in 1922.
Although first afforded Federal protection in 1893 as a forest reserve and later as a U.S. National Monument, Grand Canyon did not achieve U.S. National Park status until 1919, three years after the creation of the National Park Service. Today, Grand Canyon National Park receives about five million visitors each year, a far cry from the annual visitation of 44,173 in 1919.
Native American inhabitation
Current archaeological evidence suggests that humans have inhabited the Grand Canyon area as far back as 4,000 years and at least were passers through for 6,500 years before that. Radiocarbon dating of artifacts found in limestone caves in the inner canyon indicate ages of 3,000 to 4,000 years.
In the 1930s artifacts consisting of split-twig animal figurines were found in the Redwall Limestone cliffs of the Inner Gorge that were dated in this range. These animal figurines are a few inches (7 to 8 cm) in height and made primarily from twigs of willow or cottonwood. This find along with other evidence suggests these inner canyon dwellers were part of Desert Culture; a group of seminomatic hunter-gatherer Native Americans.
The Basketmaker Anasazi (also called the Histatsinom, "people who lived long ago") evolved from the Desert Culture sometime around 500 BCE. This group inhabited the rim and inner canyon and survived by hunting and gathering along with some limited agriculture. Noted for their basketmaking skills (hence their name), they lived in small communal bands inside caves and circular mud structures called pithouses. Further refinement of agriculture and technology led to a more sedentary and stable lifestyle for the Anasazi starting around 500 CE. Contemporary with the flourishing of Azasazi culture, another group, called the Cohonina lived west of the current site of Grand Canyon Village.
Anasazi in the Grand Canyon area started to use stone in addition to mud and poles to erect above-ground houses sometime around 800 CE. Thus the Pueblo period of Anasazi culture was initiated. In summer, the Puebleoans migrated from the hot inner canyon to the cooler high plateaus and reversed the journey for winter. Large graineries and multi-room pueblos survive from this period.
There are around 2,000 known Anasazi archaeological sites in park boundaries. The most accessible site is Tusayan Pueblo, which was constructed sometime around 1185 and housed 30 or so people.
Anasazi food storage building ruins at Tusayan Pueblo.Large numbers of dated archaeological sites indicate that the Anasazi and the Cohonina flourished until about 1200 CE. Something happened a hundred years after that, however, that forced both of these cultures to move away.
Several lines of evidence led to a theory that climate change caused a severe drought in the region from 1276 to 1299, forcing these agriculture-dependent cultures to move on. Many Anasazi relocated to the Rio Grande and the Little Colorado River drainages, where their descendants, the Hopi and the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico, now live. The Hopi people believe they emerged from the canyon and that their spirits rest here.
For approximately one hundred years the canyon area was uninhabited by humans. Paiutes from the east and Cerbat from the west were the first humans to reestablish settlements in and around the Grand Canyon. The Pauite settled the plateaus north of the Colorado River and the Cerbat built their communities south of the river, on the Coconino Plateau. Sometime in the 15th century the Navajo, or the Dine, arrived in the area.All three cultures were stable until the United States Army moved them to Indian reservations in 1882 as part of the removal efforts that ended the Indian Wars. The Havasupai and Hualapai are descended from the Cerbat and still live in the immediate area. Havasu Village, in the western part of the current park, is likely one of the oldest continuously-occupied settlements in the contiguous United States. Adjacent to the eastern part of the park is the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States.
Anasazi in the Grand Canyon area started to use stone in addition to mud and poles to erect above-ground houses sometime around 800 CE. Thus the Pueblo period of Anasazi culture was initiated. In summer, the Puebleoans migrated from the hot inner canyon to the cooler high plateaus and reversed the journey for winter. Large graineries and multi-room pueblos survive from this period. There are around 2,000 known Anasazi archaeological sites in park boundaries. The most accessible site is Tusayan Pueblo, which was constructed sometime around 1185 and housed 30 or so people.Anasazi food storage building ruins at Tusayan Pueblo.
Large numbers of dated archaeological sites indicate that the Anasazi and the Cohonina flourished until about 1200 CE. Something happened a hundred years after that, however, that forced both of these cultures to move away. Several lines of evidence led to a theory that climate change caused a severe drought in the region from 1276 to 1299, forcing these agriculture-dependent cultures to move on.
Many Anasazi relocated to the Rio Grande and the Little Colorado River drainages, where their descendants, the Hopi and the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico, now live. The Hopi people believe they emerged from the canyon and that their spirits rest here.For approximately one hundred years the canyon area was uninhabited by humans.
Paiutes from the east and Cerbat from the west were the first humans to reestablish settlements in and around the Grand Canyon. The Pauite settled the plateaus north of the Colorado River and the Cerbat built their communities south of the river, on the Coconino Plateau.
Sometime in the 15th century the Navajo, or the Dine, arrived in the area.All three cultures were stable until the United States Army moved them to Indian reservations in 1882 as part of the removal efforts that ended the Indian Wars.
The Havasupai and Hualapai are descended from the Cerbat and still live in the immediate area. Havasu Village, in the western part of the current park, is likely one of the oldest continuously-occupied settlements in the contiguous United States. Adjacent to the eastern part of the park is the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States.
The Spanish
The first documented case of Europeans seeing the Grand Canyon occurred in September of 1540. That year Hopi guides led a group of 13 Spanish soldiers under Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola for his superior officer, the conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado.
The group arrived at South Rim of the Grand Canyon between Desert View and Moran Point and saw a river below. Pablo de Melgrossa, Juan Galeras and a third soldier descended one third of the way into the Canyon until they were forced to return because of lack of water. It is speculated that their Hopi guides must have been reluctant to lead them to the river, since they must have known routes to the canyon floor.
Cardenas greatly underestimated the width of the river below to be 10 feet (3 m). No Europeans visited the canyon for over 200 years
Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante were two Spanish Priests who, with a group of Spanish soldiers, explored southern Utah. The group traveled along the North Rim of the Canyon in Glen and Marble Canyons in search of a route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Monterey, California, in 1776.
The Americans
James Ohio Pattie and a group of American trappers and mountain men were probably the next Europeans to reach the Canyon in 1826. There is little in terms of documentation to support this, however.
The signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 ceded the Grand Canyon region to the United States. Jules Marcou of the Pacific Railroad Survey made the first geologic observations of the canyon and surrounding area in 1856.Jacob Hamblin (a Mormon missionary) was sent by Brigham Young in the 1850s to locate easy river crossing sites in the canyon.
Building good relations with local Native Americans and white settlers, he discovered Lee's Ferry in 1858 and Pierce Ferry (later operated by, and named for, Harrison Pierce) - the only two sites suitable for ferry operation. George Johnson lead an expedition by stern wheeler steam boat that reached Black Canyon in 1857.
The 54 foot (16 m) paddle wheeler Explorer in the Lt. Joseph Ives expedition up the Colorado River. Period engraving.A U.S. War Department expedition led by Lt. Joseph Ives was launched in 1857 to investigate the area's potential for natural resources, to find railroad routes to the west coast, and assess the feasibility of an up-river navigation route from the Gulf of California.
The group traveled in a stern wheeler steamboat named Explorer. After two months and 350 miles (560 km) of difficult navigation, his party reached Black Canyon some two months after George Johnson. In the process, the Explorer struck a rock and was abandoned. The group later traveled eastwards along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
A man of his time, Ives discounted his own impressions on the beauty of the canyon and declared it and the surrounding area as "altogether valueless", remarking that his expedition would be "the last party of whites to visit this profitless locality".
Attached to Ives' expedition was geologist John Strong Newberry who had a very different impression of the canyon. After returning, Newberry convinced fellow geologist John Wesley Powell that a boat run through the Grand Canyon to complete the survey would be worth the risk.
Powell was a major in the United States Army and was a veteran of the American Civil War, a conflict that cost him his right forearm in the Battle of Shiloh.John Wesley Powell in 1869.
More than a decade after the Ives Expedition and with help from the Smithsonian Institution, Powell led the first of the Powell Expeditions to explore the region and document its scientific offerings.
On May 24, 1869, the group of nine men set out from Green River Station in Wyoming down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. This first expedition was poorly-funded and consequently no photographer or graphic artist was included. While in the Canyon of Lodore one of the group's four boats capsized, spilling most of their food and much of their scientific equipment into the river. This shortened the expedition to one hundred days.
Tired of being constantly cold, wet and hungry and not knowing they had already passed the worst rapids, three of Powell's men climbed out of the canyon in what is now called Separation Canyon.
Once out of the canyon, all three were killed by Shivwits band Paiutes who thought they were miners that recently molested a female Shivwit. All those who stayed with Powell survived and that group successfully ran most of the canyon.
Two years later a much better-funded Powell-led party returned with redesigned boats and a chain of several supply stations along their route. This time, photographer E.O. Beaman and 17-year-old artist Frederick Dellenbaugh were included. Beaman left the group in January 1872 over a dispute with Powell and his replacement, James Fennemore, quit August that same year due to poor health, leaving boatman Jack Hillers as the official photographer (nearly one ton of photographic equipment was needed on site to process each shot).
Famed painter Thomas Moran joined the expedition in the summer of 1873, after the river voyage and thus only viewed the canyon from the rim. His 1873 painting "Chasm of the Colorado" was bought by the United States Congress in 1874 and hung in the lobby of the Senate.
The Powell expeditions systematically cataloged rock formations, plants, animals, and archaeological sites. Photographs and illustrations from the Powell expeditions greatly popularized the canyonland region of the southwest United States, especially the Grand Canyon (knowing this Powell added increasing resources to that aspect of his expeditions).
Powell later used these photographs and illustrations in his lecture tours, making him a national figure. Rights to reproduce 650 of the expeditions' 1,400 stereographs were sold to help fund future Powell projects. In 1881 he became the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey.Geologist Clarence Dutton (photo) followed up on Powell's work in 18801881 with the first in-depth geological survey of the newly-formed U.S. Geological Survey. Painters Thomas Moran and William Henry Holmes accompanied Dutton, who was busy drafting detailed descriptions of the area's geology.
The report that resulted from the team's effort was titled A Tertiary History of The Grand Canyon District, with Atlas and was published in 1882.
This and later study by geologists uncovered the geology of the Grand Canyon area and helped to advance that science. Both the Powell and Dutton expeditions helped to increase interest in the canyon and surrounding region.
Prospectors in the 1870s and 1880s staked mining claims in the canyon. They hoped that previously-discovered deposits of asbestos, copper, lead, and zinc would be profitable to mine. Access to and from this remote region and problems getting ore out of the canyon and its rock made the whole exercise not worth the effort. Most moved on, and some stayed to seek profit in the tourist trade. Their activities improved pre-existing Indian trails, such as Bright Angel Trail.
Tourism - Transportation
A rail line to the largest city in the area, Flagstaff, was completed in 1882 by the Santa Fe Railroad. Stage coaches started to bring tourists from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon the next year‹an eleven-hour journey. Tourism greatly increased in 1901 when a spur of the Santa Fe Railroad to Grand Canyon Village was completed.
The first scheduled train with paying passengers of the Grand Canyon Railway arrived from Williams, Arizona, on September 17th that year. The 64 mile (103 km) long trip cost $3.95, and naturalist John Muir later commended the railroad for its limited environmental impact.Competition with the automobile (see below) forced the Santa Fe Railroad to cease operation of the Grand Canyon Railway in 1968 (only three passengers were on the last run).
The railway was restored and reintroduced in 1990 and has since carried hundreds of passengers a day.
The first automobile was driven to the Grand Canyon in 1902. Oliver Lippincott from Los Angeles, California, drove his Toledo Automobile Company-built car to the South Rim from Flagstaff. Lippincott, a guide and two writers set out on the afternoon of January 4 that year anticipating a seven-hour journey.
Two days later, the hungry and dehydrated party arrived at their destination; the countryside was just too rough for the 10 horsepower (7 kW) auto. A three day drive from Utah in 1907 was required to reach the North Rim for the first time.Trains, however, remained the preferred way to travel to the canyon until they were surpassed by the auto in the 1930s.
By the early 1990s more than a million automobiles per year visited the park. Air pollution from those vehicles and wind-blown pollution from Flagstaff and even the Las Vegas area has reduced visibility in the Grand Canyon and vicinity.West Rim Drive was completed in 1912. In the late 1920s the first rim to rim access was established by the North Kaibab suspension bridge over the Colorado River.
Paved roads did not reach the less popular and more remote North Rim until 1926, and that area, being higher in elevation, is closed due to winter weather from November to April. Construction of a road along part of the South Rim was completed in 1935.
Activities
New hiking trails, along old Indian trails, were established during this time as well. The world famous mule rides down Bright Angel Trail were mass-marketed by the El Tovar Hotel. By the early 1990s, 20,000 people per year made the journey into the canyon by mule, 800,000 by hiking, 22,000 passed through the canyon by raft, and another 700,000 tourists fly over it in air tours (airplane and helicopter). Overflights were limited to a narrow corridor in 1956 after two planes crashed, killing all on board.
In 1991 nearly 400 search and rescues were performed, mostly for unprepared hikers who suffered from heat exhaustion and dehydrated while ascending from the canyon (normal exhaustion and injured ankles are also common in rescuees). An IMAX theater just outside the park shows a reenactment of the Powell Expedition.
The Kolob Brothers, Emery and Ellsworth, built a photographic studio on the South Rim at the trailhead of Bright Angel Trail in 1904. Hikers and mule caravans intent on descending down the canyon would stop at the Kolob Studio to have their photos taken. The Kolob Brothers processed the prints before their customers returned to the rim. Using the newly-invented Pathe Bray camera in 191112, they became the first to make a motion picture of a river trip through the canyon that itself was only the eighth such successful journey.
From 1915 to 1975 the film they produced was shown twice a day to tourists with Emery Kolob at first narrating in person and later through tape (a feud with Fred Harvey prevented pre-1915 showings).
Grand Canyon Wikipedia
Grand Canyon Gorge Is 9 Times Older Than Thought National Geographic - April 9, 2008
Grand Canyon Dam MSNBC - April 8, 2008
Grand Canyon Glass Bridge Rolled Out National Geographic - March 9, 2007
The all-glass, balcony-like "Skywalk" extends over the edge of the Grand Canyon, 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above the Colorado River. Grand Canyon West will be on the western edge of Grand Canyon National Park, about 120 miles (about 200 kilometers) from Las Vegas. But perhaps not even the Las Vegas Strip's over-the-top attractions will be a match for this glass-bottom walkway over the world's biggest gorge.
On April 5, 1909, the Arizona Gazette published an article detailing the discovery of a great underground citadel located in the Grand Canyon. The discovery was purportedly made by G. E Kinkaid (or Kincaid as both spellings are used), while he was traveling down the Colorado River.
The southwest is home to many ancient ruins from cultures such as the Hopi, the Chumash and the Anasazi, but the city described in the Gazette article is clearly different. The article states that the race who once inhabited the cavern were of oriental origin, possibly from Egypt.
Upon entering the cave, Kinkaid describes finding mummies as well as a shrine containing: "Šthe idol, or image, of the peoples god, sitting cross-legged, with a Lotus flower or Lily in each hand. The cast of the face is Oriental, and the carving shows a skillful hand, and the entire is remarkably well preserved, as is everything in this cavern. The idol most resembles BuddhaŠ"
Kinkaid also finds what he believes to be hieroglyphic writing similar to that found in the peninsula of Yucatan. Two animals are depicted in the pictorial writing. Curiously, one is of prehistoric type.
An idea of the scale of the discovery can be determined by Kinkaid¹s estimate that upwards of 50,000 people could have once lived in this system of tunnels and caves.
Was the story faked?
The article mentions two people by name: G. E Kinkaid/Kincaid and Professor S. A. Jordon from the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian records from 1900 to 1914 do not mention either individual. Inquiries posed directly to the Smithsonian by other researchers have yielded consistent denials of any records of a G. E. Kinkaid or a professor S. A. Jordan ever having worked for the Smithsonian.
The 1909 article also describes G. E. Kinkaid as ³the first white child born in Idaho.² I followed up on this lead with the Idaho State Historical Society and received the following response: "Regrettably, we find no word of a G E Kincaid in any of the pre-1900 federal, state (Idaho) or local (Idaho) records we consulted. There appears to be some confusion about Mr. Kincaid's status as the first European American child born in Idaho. That distinction belongs to Eliza Spaulding, the daughter of missionaries Henry Harmon Spaulding and Narcissa Spaulding, who was born at Lapwai, Idaho, in 1837."
It is possible that Kinkaid believed he was the first Caucasian child born in Idaho and he was merely mistaken. It is also possible that further research will reveal additional details of Kinkaid¹s past, but so far this lead has turned into a dead end.
Could the Story be True? There are a few points that would seem to indicate that the 1909 article describes a genuine discovery. If the article were a late April Fool¹s joke or merely a fictitious article created to fill space on an otherwise slow news day, one would assume that the mention of the story would be a one time occurrence.
The article begins: "The latest news of the progress of the explorations of what is now regarded by scientists as not only the oldest archaeological discovery in the United States, but one of the most valuable in the world, which was mentioned some time ago in the Gazette."
There was a previous story printed in the Gazette about the explorations of G. E. Kincaid. On March 12, 1909 a short, mundane description of Kincaid's journey is given. Only the last sentence, "Some interesting archaeological discoveries were unearthed..." gives any indication of the fantastic discoveries made on his trip. It seems unlikely that such a short, straightforward article would have been fabricated to set up a fictional story that would not be printed for another three weeks.
The March 12 article states that Kincaid traveled the entire length of the Colorado River and that he was the second man to make this journey. So what of the first man to make this journey? That honor goes to John Wesley Powell who explored the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon from 1869 to 1872.
In his book Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons, Powell describes his journey through the Grand Canyon. As he is passing through an area known as Marble Canyon, Powell sees in the canyon walls great numbers of caves that are hollowed out, and carvings are seen which suggest architectural forms, though on a scale so grand that architectural terms belittle them.²Powell may be using the term architectural forms to describe the beauty of the natural formations, but the fact that he includes mention of a great number of caves in the same sentence is certainly curious when viewed in the context of the 1909 Gazette article.
Later on, Powell describes a curious discovery. He wrote
Compare Powell's discovery to the entrance described by G. E. Kinkaid:
"There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards from what was at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river."
Both accounts describe stone steps carved into the rocks. The Gazette article also describes Kinkaid's discovery of 'tablets engraved with hieroglyphics.'
Powell also speculates that the creators of the steps he found were a race of people who came before the Indian races. He does not speculate on their origin, but it appears possible that both Powell and Kinkaid are describing discoveries that point to the same culture.
The Smithsonian
The 1909 article clearly states that the Smithsonian is involved with studying and excavating the site. However, the Smithsonian denies that any such discovery ever occurred. This brings up the larger question that if this was a true story, why would the Smithsonian have covered up what certainly would be one of the most significant archeological finds of the twentieth century? Believe it or not, there is precedence for the Smithsonian losing information about discoveries that are deemed to not fit in with currently accepted dogma about the history of America and its interaction or lack thereof with other ancient civilizations.
Archeological Coverups by David Hatcher Childress
Perhaps the most amazing suppression of all is the excavation of an Egyptian tomb by the Smithsonian itself in Arizona. A lengthy front page story of the Phoenic Gazette on April 5, 1909, gave a highly detailed report of the discovery and excavation of a rock-cut vault by an expedition led by a Professor S.A. Jordan of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian, however, claims to have absolutely no knowledge of the discovery or its discoverers.
The World Explorers Club decided to check on this story by calling the Smithsonian
in Washington, D.C., though we felt there was little chance of getting any
real information. After speaking briefly to an operator, we were transferred
to a Smithsonian staff archaeologist, and a woman's voice came on the phone
and identified herself.
I told her that I was investigating a story from a 1909 Phoenix newspaper
article about the Smithsonian Institution's having excavated rock-cut vaults
in the Grand Canyon where Egyptian artefacts had been discovered, and whether
the Smithsonian Institution could give me any more information on the subject.
She said, "The first thing I can tell you, before we go any further, is that no Egyptian artefacts of any kind have ever been found in North or South America. Therefore, I can tell you that the Smithsonian Institute has never been involved in any such excavations."
She was quite helpful and polite but, in the end, knew nothing. Neither she nor anyone else with whom I spoke could find any record of the discovery or either G.E. Kinkaid and Professor S.A. Jordan. While it cannot be discounted that the entire story is an elaborate newspaper hoax, the fact that it was on the front page, named the prestigious Smithsonian Institution, and gave a highly detailed story that went on for several pages, lends a great deal to its credibility.
It is hard to believe
such a story could have come out of thin air. If this story
is true it would radically change the current view that there was no transoceanic
contact in pre-Columbian times, and that all American Indians, on both continents,
are descended from Ice Age explorers who came across the Bering Strait.
Is the idea that ancient Egyptians came to the Arizona area in the ancient
past so objectionable and preposterous that it must be covered up? Perhaps
the Smithsonian Institution is more interested in maintaining the status quo
than rocking the boat with astonishing new discoveries that overturn previously
accepted academic teachings.
Historian and linguist Carl Hart, editor of Word Explorer, then obtained
a hiker's map of the Grand Canyon from a bookstore in Chicago.
Poring over the map, we were amazed to see that much of the area on the north side of the canyon has Egyptian names. The area around Ninety-four Mile Creek and Trinity Creek had areas (rock formations, apparently) with names like Tower of Set, Tower of Ra, Horus Temple, Osiris Temple, and Isis Temple.
In the Haunted Canyon area were such names as the Cheops Pyramid, the Buddha Cloister,
Buddha Temple, Manu Temple and Shiva Temple. Was there any relationship between
these places and the alleged Egyptian discoveries in the Grand Canyon?
We called a state archaeologist at the Grand Canyon, and were told that the
early explorers had just liked Egyptian and Hindu names, but that it was true
that this area was off limits to hikers or other visitors, "because of dangerous
caves."
Indeed, this entire area with the Egyptian and Hindu place names in the Grand
Canyon is a forbidden zone - no one is allowed into this large area. We could
only conclude that this was the area where the vaults were located. Yet today,
this area is curiously off-limits to all hikers and even, in large part, park personnel.
I believe that the discerning reader will see that if only a small part of
the "Smithsoniangate" evidence is true, then our most hallowed archaeological
institution has been actively involved in suppressing evidence for advanced
American cultures, evidence for ancient voyages of various cultures to North
America, evidence for anomalistic giants and other oddball artefacts, and
evidence that tends to disprove the official dogma that is now the history
of North America.
The Smithsonian's Board of Regents still refuses to open its meetings to the
news media or the public. If Americans were ever allowed inside the 'nation's
attic', as the Smithsonian has been called, what skeletons might they find?
Mysteries of Immense Rich Cavern being brought to light
The latest news of the progress of the explorations of what is now regarded
by scientists as not only the oldest archeological discovery in the United
States, but one of the most valuable in the world, which was mentioned some
time ago in the Gazette, was brought to the city yesterday by G.E. Kinkaid,
the explorer who found the great underground citadel of the Grand Canyon during
a trip from Green River, Wyoming, down the Colorado, in a wooden boat, to
Yuma, several months ago.
According to the story related to the Gazette by Mr. Kinkaid, the archaelogists
of the Smithsonian Institute, which is financing the expeditions, have made
discoveries which almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited
this mysterious cavern, hewn in solid rock by human hands, was of oriental
origin, possibly from Egypt, tracing back to Ramses. If their theories are
borne out by the translation of the tablets engraved with heiroglyphics, the
mystery of the prehistoric peoples of North America, their ancient arts, who
they were and whence they came, will be solved. Egypt and the Nile, and Arizona
and the Colorado will be linked by a historical chain running back to ages
which staggers the wildest fancy of the fictionist.
A Thorough Examination
Under the direction of Prof. S. A. Jordan, the Smithsonian Institute is now
prosecuting the most thorough explorations, which will be continued until
the last link in the chain is forged. Nearly a mile underground, about 1480
feet below the surface, the long main passage has been delved into, to find
another mammoth chamber from which radiates scores of passageways, like the
spokes of a wheel.
Several hundred rooms have been discovered, reached by passageways running
from the main passage, one of them having been explored for 854 feet and another
634 feet. The recent finds include articles which have never been known as
native to this country, and doubtless they had their origin in the orient.
War weapons, copper instruments, sharp-edged and hard as steel, indicate the
high state of civilization reached by these strange people. So interested
have the scientists become that preparations are being made to equip the camp
for extensive studies, and the force will be increased to thirty or forty
persons.
Mr. Kinkaid's Report
Mr. Kinkaid was the first white child born in Idaho and has been an explorer
and hunter all his life, thirty years having been in the service of the Smithsonian
Institute. Even briefly recounted, his history sounds fabulous, almost grotesque.
"First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance
is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall. It is located on government land
and no visitor will be allowed there under penalty of trespass. The scientists
wish to work unmolested, without fear of archeological discoveries being disturbed
by curio or relic hunters. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor
would be sent on his way. The story of how I found the cavern has been related,
but in a paragraph: I was journeying down the Colorado river in a boat, alone,
looking for mineral. Some forty-two miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal
canyon, I saw on the east wall, stains in the sedimentary formation about
2,000 feet above the river bed. There was no trail to this point, but I finally
reached it with great difficulty.
Above a shelf which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the
cave. There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards to what
was, at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river. When I
saw the chisel marks on the wall inside the entrance, I became interested,
securing my gun and went in. During that trip I went back several hundred
feet along the main passage till I came to the crypt in which I discovered
the mummies. One of these I stood up and photographed by flashlight. I gathered
a number of relics, which I carried down the Colorado to Yuma, from whence
I shipped them to Washington with details of the discovery. Following this,
the explorations were undertaken.
The Passages
"The main passageway is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet toward
the farther end. About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side-passages
branch off to the right and left, along which, on both sides, are a number
of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today, though some are
30 by 40 feet square. These are entered by oval-shaped doors and are ventilated
by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about
three feet six inches in thickness.
The passages are chiseled or hewn as straight as could be laid out by an engineer.
The ceilings of many of the rooms converge to a center. The side-passages
near the entrance run at a sharp angle from the main hall, but toward the
rear they gradually reach a right angle in direction.
The Shrine
"Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred
feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people's god, sitting
cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face
is oriental, and the carving this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha,
though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents.
Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this
worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet.
Surrounding this idol are smaller images, some very beautiful in form; others
crooked-necked and distorted shapes, symbolical, probably, of good and evil.
There are two large cactus with protruding arms, one on each side of the dais
on which the god squats. All this is carved out of hard rock resembling marble.
In the opposite corner of this cross-hall were found tools of all descriptions,
made of copper. These people undoubtedly knew the lost art of hardening this
metal, which has been sought by chemicals for centureis without result. On
a bench running around the workroom was some charcoal and other material probably
used in the process. There is also slag and stuff similar to matte, showing
that these ancients smelted ores, but so far no trace of where or how this
was done has been discovered, nor the origin of the ore.
"Among the other finds are vases or urns and cups of copper and gold, made
very artistic in design. The pottery work includes enameled ware and glazed
vessels. Another passageway leads to granaries such as are found in the oriental
temples. They contain seeds of varous kinds. One very large storehouse has
not yet been entered, as it is twelve feet high and can be reached only from
above. Two copper hooks extend on the edge, which indicates that some sort
of ladder was attached. These granaries are rounded, as the materials of which
they are constructed, I think, is a ver hard cement. A gray metal is also
found in this cavern, which puzzles the scientists, for its identity has not
been established. It resembles platinum. Strewn promiscuously over the floor
everywhere are what people call "cats eyse', a yellow stone of no great value.
Each one is engraved with the head of the Malay type.
The Hieroglyphics
"On all the urns, or walls over doorways , and tablets of stone which were
found by the image are the mysterious hieroglyphics, the key to which the
Smithsonian Institute hopes yet to discover. The engraving on the tables probably
has something to do with the religion of the people. Similar hieroglyphics
have been found in southern Arizona. Among the pictorial writings, only two
animals are found. One is of prehistoric type.
The Crypt
"The tomb or crypt in which the mummies were found is one of the largest of
the chambers, the walls slanting back at an angle of about 35 degrees. On
these are tiers of mummies, each one occupying a separate hewn shelf. At the
head of each is a small bench, on which is found copper cups and pieces of
broken swords. Some of the mummies are covered with clay, and all are wrapped
in a bark fabric.
"The urns or cups on the lower tiers are crude, while as the higher shelves
are reached, the urns are finer in design, showing a later stage of civilization.
It is worthy of note that all the mummies examined so far have proved to be
male, no children or females being buried here. This leads to the belief that
this exterior section was the warriors' barracks.
"Among the discoveries no bones of animals have been found, no skins, no clothing,
no bedding. Many of the rooms are bare but for water vessels. One room, about
40 by 700 feet, was probably the main dining hall, for cooking utensils are
found here. What these people lived on is a problem, though it is presumed
that they came south in the winter and farmed in the valleys, going back north
in the summer.
"Upwards of 50,000 people could have lived in the caverns comfortably. One
theory is that the present Indian tribes found in Arizona are descendants
of the serfs or slaves of the people which inhabited the cave. Undoubtedly
a good many thousands of years before the Christian era, a people lived here
which reached a high stage of civilization. The chronology of human history
is full of gaps. Professor Jordan is much enthused over the discoveries and
believes that the find will prove of incalculable value in archeological work.
"One thing I have not spoken of, may be of interest. There is one chamber
of the passageway to which is not ventilated, and when we approached it a
deadly, snaky smell struck us. Our light would not penetrate the gloom, and
until stronger ones are available we will not know what the chamber contains.
Some say snakes, but other boo-hoo this idea and think it may contain a deadly
gas or chemicals used by the ancients. No sounds are heard, but it smells
snaky just the same.
"The whole underground installation gives one of shaky
nerves the creeps. The gloom is like a weight on one's shoulders, and our
flashlights and candles only make the darkness blacker. Imagination can revel
in conjectures and ungodly daydreams back through the ages that have elapsed
till the mind reels dizzily in space."
An Indian Legend
In connection with this story, it is notable that among the Hopi Indians the
tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the
Grand Canyon till dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people
of one heart and the people of two hearts. Machetto, who was their chief,
counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief
then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then
the people of one heart climbed out. They tarried by Paisisvai (Red River),
which is the Colorado, and grew grain and corn.
They sent out a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking the blessing of peace,
good will and rain for people of one heart. That messenger never returned,
but today at the Hopi villages at sundown can be seen the old men of the tribe
out on the housetops gazing toward the sun, looking for the messenger. When
he returns, their lands and ancient dwelling place will be restored to them.
That is the tradition.
Among the engravings of animals in the cave is seen the image of a heart over
the spot where it is located. The legend was learned by W.E. Rollins, the
artist, during a year spent with the Hopi Indians.
There are two theories of the origin of the Egyptians. One is that they came
from Asia; another that the racial cradle was in the upper Nile region. Heeren,
an Egyptologist, believed in the Indian origin of the Egyptians. The discoveries
in the Grand Canyon may throw further light on human evolution and prehistoric ages.
Conclusions: It is interesting to speculate about ancient Egyptians or Tibetans flying to the Grand Canyon in Vimanas - but that does not seem likely. If this were true - additional archeological evidence would suport those facts - photographed and uncovered by 21st century - as humanity searched for its ancient ancestors.
Native Americans tribes - perhaps the Anasazi who entered the region around 500 AD - lived in the mountains and caves much like the African Dogon. Caves were often used as burial chambers. Anasazi groups, widely scattered across the southern Colorado Plateau and the upper Rio Grande drainage, defined their similarities and their differences largely in terms of their multi-storied, multi-room pueblo Great Houses or cliff dwellings. It is what tied them together, even though the individual groups themselves often bore more differences than similarities. Perhaps this is what the explorers found and misinterpreted as ancient Egyptian mummies.
In any case - without physical proof - there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that ancient Egyptian and Tibets visited the area long ago. Yet for some people - their souls tell them that there is a truth here somewhere.
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