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South Rim October 20, 2008 |
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It seems common enough that a visitor to the Grand Canyon might imagine the perplexed expressions on the faces of pioneers
on wagon trains heading West as they arrived at the edge of the Canyon. This is spurious, of course, as word will have spread, and
the trains passed further North. But, it's an amusing thought.
The first known discoverers of the Grand Canyon were the Anasazi or their predecessors, the Basketmakers. But they left little historical trace in the Canyon, and besides, I've discussed them at length above. Spaniards and Mexicans also had little interest, though there were several aborted expeditions, e.g., Coronado's search for the Seven Cities of Cibola. The Canyon seemed accessible only going up the Colorado, and soon the extreme heat and lack of food, and the difficulty of navigating upstream against the rapids stymied any investigative curiosity. Against the Spanish, the Canyon and the North Rim offered a certain amount of refuge for some Indians. |
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