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Grand Canyon National Park celebrates 96th birthday

Grand Canyon National Park served cake at the visitor’s center Feb. 26. Photo/NPS

Grand Canyon National Park served cake at the visitor’s center Feb. 26. Photo/NPS

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - On Feb. 26 Grand Canyon National Park celebrated its 96th birthday as a national park.

The Grand Canyon is more than 270 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and one mile deep. It is internationally known for its natural beauty, ancient cultures, plunging depths and one of America's greatest rivers - the Colorado winding its way the entire length of the Canyon.

The park contains more than 2,600 documented prehistoric ruins. Tribes related to the Grand Canyon include Paleo - Indian, Archaic cultures, Basketmakers, Ancestral Pueblo, Cohonina, Cerbet, Pai, Southern Paiute, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo and Euro-American. It is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, which include the Aurora Borealis, the Grand Canyon, Paricutin, Victoria Falls, the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest and the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. (sevennaturalwonders.org)

Timeline of Grand Canyon's journey to become a national park

1540 - First Europeans to see the Canyon is Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, travelling through Arizona with Spanish explorer Coronado.

1869 - Geologist John Wesley Powell made his first journey through the Canyon on the Colorado River.

1893 - Grand Canyon is given federal protection as a Forest Reserve.

1901 - Arrival of the Santa Fe railroad allowed visitors a quicker route to see the Canyon.

1908 - More than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon are designated a national monument by Theodore Roosevelt.

1919 - Grand Canyon officially designated a national park by President Woodrow Wilson, three years after the National Park Service was established. The park is divided into the North and South Rims.

Today - Grand Canyon encompasses more than one million acres of land and receives over five million visitors a year. Facts and information from explorethecanyon.com, nps.gov and history.com.


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