Deseret News archives: Grand Canyon became a national park in 1919

On Feb. 26, 1919, the canyon received full national protection. We have always marveled at its uniqueness

Published: Feb 26, 2025, 10:02 a.m. MST

A perspective from the South Rim at Grand Canyon Village offers views of formations like The Battleship and Cheops Pyramid. While snow can pile up in winter on the plateau edges, precipitation turns to rain in the warmer canyon below. It was February 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson declared the Grand Canyon a national park. Ray Boren, Deseret News

Chris is assistant editor with the Politics and the West team, and also writes a daily Deseret News archives story.

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.

On Feb. 26, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act making the Grand Canyon a national park.

Evidence of human life is evident from the spear points found around the Colorado Plateau, which indicate people lived in the area during the Pleistocene era (from 9,500 B.C. to 6,500 B.C.), according to Arizona State University and the Grand Canyon Association. In particular, hundreds of twig figurines dating between 2000 and 1000 B.C. were found in ten caves in the Grand Canyon.

The Kolb brothers look for a good photograph, Grand Canyon. Ellsworth and Emery Kolb established their photographic studio on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1902. Their bread-and-butter trade consisted of photos of tourists riding mules to the bottom and back — with the pictures developed and ready for sale when the group returned. But they also embarked on a number of expeditions into the canyon to get dramatic shots of the canyon from places no one had ever dared go before. | Grand Canyon National Park Museu

President Theodore Roosevelt made the area a game preserve in 1906 and created Grand Canyon National Monument in 1906, according to ASU and Grand Canyon Association. Grand Canyon National Park was dedicated by Congress in 1919.

Nowadays, as many as 6.5 million tourists a year sneak peeks over the popular South Rim into the gorge a mile deep, navigate river rapids, hike the trails and camp under the stars.