Editor's note: This has been previously published on the author's website.
The Narrows at Zion National Park are undoubtedly one of the premier hikes in all of Utah. Unique, stupendous, awe-inspiring are among the words used to describe them.
But who were the first to traverse the Narrows?
The Native Americans generally avoided the upper portion of Zion Canyon, considering it too dark and narrow — almost a devilish place to them.
• Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert was the first recorded man to travel the Zion Narrows, in 1872 as part of a government survey expedition led by Maj. John Wesley Powell. Gilbert made the trip on horseback, and it is believed he was the first to use the term "the Narrows."
The name of the Virgin River, which created the Narrows, has an uncertain origin. Virgin itself is likely of Spanish origin, in honor of the Virgin Mary. However, some records claim Thomas Virgin, an 1820s explorer/mountain man, is where the name came from.
(The river also had three other names in the 19th century or before.)
• William H. Flanigan, a Cedar City resident, became a popular explorer of southern Utah. He first hiked the Narrows in June 1900 at age 23, going the entire length from northeast to Springdale in a single day.
(Later, he and a brother, Dave, became well known for establishing the cable system on Cable Mountain in Zion.)
Horseback trips through the Narrows were fairly common over the decades, but were officially banned there by the 1960s.
Flanigan told the Iron County Record newspaper on Aug. 29, 1913, about the Narrows. He then recommended travel by foot.
"The entire distance would be through a stream of water from a few inches to two or three feet in depth, in a few places. At some points the canyon partakes of the nature of a tunnel, owing to its winding course and the overhanging ledges above. At no point is the canyon more than 100 yards in width and in many places it is little more than a crevice in the solid rock," the newspaper report stated.
Walls of rock up to 3,000 feet high and a narrow canyon 12 miles in length were its dimensions.
• By 1909, the area was a national monument, and it became Zion National Park in 1919, with visitors flocking there.
"Upper Zion has greatest thrill, declares party" was an Aug. 24, 1925, headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.
Thirteen men spent two days exploring the Zion Narrows.
"Never could one see more than a few hundred yards ahead," their report said.
"The most notable discovery of the trip was the comparative ease as which the course can be presently traveled. Excepting for log jams, which might be easily dispensed with, the journey could be made on horseback," the report said.
"Those making the trip declare that Upper Zion Canyon holds thrills for the tourist not dreamed of. …"
• The next big development on the Zion Narrows was the opening of a formal "Gateway to the Narrows" trail in August 1929.
According to the Iron County Record newspaper of Aug. 21, 1929, the trail was 5 feet wide and covered with tar and pea gravel.
"It eliminates the old narrow sand path and does away with the great many sharp pitches and hard climbs, enabling the tourists more easily to go to the upper reaches of the canyon," the story said.
• Another key item of note was the organization of a "Zion Narrows Club" in 1941. The Iron County Record of Sept. 25, 1941, stated that Flanigan was named "Chief Scout" of this group of 20 men in the club. The new group had planned a big hike through the Narrows in the summer of 1942, though the outbreak of World War II likely canceled that.
• What apparently no one realized was the tremendous flood danger that hiking the Zion Narrows presented. It could storm dozens of miles away and out of sight of Zion Park and still flood the narrow canyon. Sheer luck seemed to prevent such a tragedy for decades, until September 1961, when four Boy Scouts from the Salt Lake area were killed in a flash flood there.
Two of the boys' bodies were never found. After that, the Park Service began to take extra precautions with flash-flood warnings.
• The next development came in September 1965, when a prominent side canyon of the Zion Narrows, Orderville Gulch, was first hiked. Three Leigh brothers, Ralph, Edwin and Douglas, made what might be the first hike through that narrow canyon into the Zion Narrows. They had to lower themselves over six waterfalls.
Lynn Arave worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 40 years. He is a retired Deseret News reporter/editor, from 1979-2011. His email is lra503777@gmail.com. His Mystery of Utah History blog is located at: http://mysteryofutahhistory.blogspot.com