1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Salt Lake Temple
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The Salt Lake Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. At 253,015 square feet, it is the largest LDS temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the temple completed by the church, requiring 40 years to complete. The Salt Lake Temple is the centerpiece of the 10-acre Temple Square in Salt Lake City, in 1912, the first public photographs of the interior were published in the book The House of the Lord, by James E. Talmage. Since then, various photographs have been published, including by Life magazine in 1938, the temple grounds are open to the public and are a popular tourist attraction. Due to its location at LDS Church headquarters and its historical significance, the Salt Lake Temple is also the location of the weekly meetings of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As such, there are meeting rooms in the building for these purposes, including the Holy of Holies. The official name of the Salt Lake Temple is also unique, in 1999, as the building of LDS temples accelerated, the church announced a formal naming convention for all existing and future temples. For temples located in the United States and Canada, the name of the temple is generally the city or town in which the temple is located, followed by the name of the state or province. For temples outside of the U. S. and Canada, however, for reasons on which the church did not elaborate, the Salt Lake Temple was made an exception to the new guidelines and was not renamed the Salt Lake City Utah Temple. The temple also includes some elements thought to evoke Solomons Temple at Jerusalem and it is oriented towards Jerusalem and the large basin used as a baptismal font is mounted on the backs of twelve oxen, as was the Molten Sea in Solomons Temple. At the east end of the building, the height of the pinnacle to the base of the angel Moroni is 210 feet, or 120 cubits. The temple is located in downtown Salt Lake City, with mountain peaks close by. Nearby, a stream, City Creek, splits and flows both to the west and to the south, flowing into the Jordan River. There is a wall around the 10-acre temple site, the surrounding wall became the first permanent structure on what has become known as Temple Square. The wall is a uniform 15 feet high but varies in appearance because of the southwest slope of the site. The location for the temple was first marked by Mormon prophet Brigham Young, in 1901 the apostle Anthon H. Lund recorded in his journal that it is said that Oliver Cowderys divining rod was used to located the temple site. The temple site was dedicated on February 14,1853 by Heber C, groundbreaking ceremonies were presided over by Young, who laid the cornerstone on April 6 of that year
3.
Salt Lake Tabernacle
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The Salt Lake Tabernacle, also known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Tabernacle was built from 1864 to 1867 to house meetings for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, because of the growth in the number of conference attendees, general conference was moved to the new and larger LDS Conference Center in 2000. In the October 1999 General Conference, church president Gordon B, Hinckley gave a talk honoring the Tabernacle and introducing the new Conference Center. Now a historic building on Temple Square, the Salt Lake Tabernacle is still used for overflow crowds during general conference, the Tabernacle is the home of the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and was the previous home of the Utah Symphony Orchestra until the construction of Abravanel Hall. It is the historic broadcasting home for the radio and television known as Music. In 2005, the Tabernacle was closed for two years of renovations that greatly increased its ability to withstand earthquakes. It was reopened and rededicated by Hinckley during the Saturday afternoon session of the general conference on March 31,2007. The Museum of Church History and Art opened a display on the Tabernacle as part of the rededication of the historic edifice. The Salt Lake Tabernacle was inspired by an attempt to build a Canvas Tabernacle in Nauvoo, Illinois and this tabernacle was to be situated just to the West of the Nauvoo Temple and was to be oval shaped, much the same as the Salt Lake Tabernacle. However, the Nauvoo edifice was to have amphitheater-style or terraced seating, the Tabernacle was built between 1864 and 1867 on the west center-line axis of the Salt Lake Temple. The roof was constructed in an Ithiel Town lattice-truss arch system that is held together by dowels, the building has a sandstone foundation, and the dome is supported by forty-four sandstone piers. The overall seating capacity of the building is around 7,000, henry Grow, an LDS civil engineer oversaw the initial construction of the Tabernacle, the domed roof being the most innovative portion of the building. Brigham Young, president of the LDS Church at the time, wanted the Tabernacle roof constructed in an elongated dome shape with no interior pillars or posts to obstruct the view for the audience. When Young asked Grow how large a roof he could construct using the style of lattice that he had used on the Remington bridge, Grow replied that it could be 100 feet wide, eventually, Grow engineered the Tabernacle roof to be 150 feet across and 250 feet long. Skeptics insisted that when the scaffolding was removed, the whole roof would collapse. The roof structure was nine feet thick, formed by a Remington lattice truss of timbers pinned together with wooden pegs, green rawhide was wrapped around the timbers so that when the rawhide dried it tightened its grip on the pegs. When the roofs structural work was completed, sheeting was applied on the roof, the interior was lathed and then plastered, the hair of cattle was mixed with the plaster to give it strength. Construction of the Tabernacle began on July 26,1864, Grow rapidly built the roof structure from the center out, but encountered difficulty engineering the semicircular ends of the roof
4.
Salt Lake Assembly Hall
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The Salt Lake Assembly Hall is one of the buildings owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the southwest corner of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. It has seating capacity for an audience of approximately 1,400 people, the Salt Lake Assembly Hall is a Victorian Gothic congregation hall. Rough granite walls are laid out in cruciform style making the exterior look like a small gothic cathedral. Twenty-four spires mark the perimeter of the footprint and a tower rises from the intersection of the floor plans apparent crucifix. The cruciform layout is complemented by Stars of David circumscribed high above each entrance and these symbolize an LDS perception that they are a re-gathering of Biblical Tribes of Israel. However, the deceptively gothic exterior conceals a more modern interior lacking vaulted ceilings, although built of quartz monzonite rock from the same quarry as the Salt Lake City Temple, the Assembly Halls unhewn exterior looks much different. The stones for the Assembly Hall were not cut as exactingly as the Temples and this accounts for the buildings dark, rough texture and the broader masonry joints between stones. Seagull Monument sits directly in front of the building to the east, construction of the Assembly Hall began on August 11,1877. Building began on the southwest corner of Temple Square on the site of what was called the Old Tabernacle, the old structure, an adobe building determined by the Church to be inadequate, was built in 1852 and seated 2500. The Old Tabernacle is not to be confused with the still-extant Salt Lake Tabernacle, the domed Tabernacle sits directly north of the Assembly Hall. During the first two years of construction, the Assembly Hall was confusingly called the new tabernacle, john Taylor, then president of the church, cleared up the confusion by naming it the Salt Lake Assembly Hall in 1879. Obed Taylor was commissioned as architect, and designed the structure in Victorian Gothic style, using mostly discarded granite stone from the ongoing construction of the Salt Lake Temple, builder Henry Grow completed construction in 1882 at a total cost of $90,000. After the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall was the permanent structure completed on Temple Square. It has been modified several times since completion, however, a four-foot flying-angel weather vane like one that topped the older Nauvoo Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois was removed. Additionally, the ceiling murals depicting ancient and modern prophets in the LDS Church were painted over. The most comprehensive renovations occurred from 1979 to 1983 to correct weaknesses in the buildings tower. While rebuilding the tower, each of the Halls 24 spires were replaced with fiberglass moldings, additionally, all the softwood benches were refinished, and a new 3,489 pipe organ with a German accent was installed. Acoustics in the building were enhanced by installing hundreds of small speakers, currently, the Assembly Hall hosts occasional free weekend music concerts and is filled as overflow for the Churchs Annual and Semiannual General Conferences
5.
Salt Lake City
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Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city lies at the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This region is a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along an approximately 120-mile segment of the Wasatch Front and it is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin. The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young, Isaac Morley, George Washington Bradley and numerous other Mormon followers, who extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was originally named Great Salt Lake City—the word great was dropped from the name in 1868 by the 17th Utah Territorial Legislature. Today, however, less than half the population of Salt Lake City proper are members of the LDS Church. It was traversed by the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, in 1913, Salt Lake City has since developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing, and hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is the banking center of the United States. Before Mormon settlement, the Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute had dwelt in the Salt Lake Valley for thousands of years. The land was treated by the United States as public domain, the first U. S. explorer in the Salt Lake area is believed to be Jim Bridger in 1825, although others had been in Utah earlier, some as far north as the nearby Utah Valley. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845, the Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, had traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley in August 1846. The first permanent settlements in the date to the arrival of the Latter-day Saints on July 24,1847. Upon arrival at the Salt Lake Valley, president of the church Brigham Young is recorded as stating, This is the right place, Brigham Young claimed to have seen the area in a vision prior to the wagon trains arrival. They found the broad valley empty of any human settlement, four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young designated the building site for the Salt Lake Temple, which would eventually become a famous Mormon and Salt Lake City landmark. The Salt Lake Temple, constructed on the block that would later be called Temple Square, construction started in 1853, and the temple was dedicated on 6 April 1893. The temple has become an icon for the city and serves as its centerpiece, in fact, the southeast corner of Temple Square is the initial point of reference for the Salt Lake Meridian, and for all addresses in the Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon pioneers organized a new state called Deseret and petitioned for its recognition in 1849, the United States Congress rebuffed the settlers in 1850 and established the Utah Territory, vastly reducing its size, and designated Fillmore as its capital city. Great Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the capital in 1858
6.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations, according to the church, it has over 70,000 missionaries and a membership of over 15 million. It is ranked by the National Council of Churches as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States and it is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Adherents, often referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, less formally, Mormons, view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion. The church has a canon which includes four scriptural texts, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants. The current president is Thomas S. Monson, individual members of the church believe that they can also receive personal revelation from God in conducting their lives. The president heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations, Bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Male members, after reaching age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood, Women do not hold positions within the priesthood, but do occupy leadership roles in some church auxiliary organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes, faithful members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6,1830, Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion. In 1831, the moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers brutally expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County, the Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections. Smith regrouped with the church in Far West, Missouri. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that the Saints be exterminated or driven from the State, in 1839, the Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the churchs new headquarters. Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo, meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates. He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow people to become gods in the afterlife. He also introduced the church to an accounting of his First Vision. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in history since the resurrection of Jesus
7.
History of Utah
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The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States. Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of Native Americans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, paleolithic people lived near the Great Basins swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to water sources. Over the centuries, the d, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed. Red meat appears to have more of a luxury, although these people used nets. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, about 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years, the Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people, the ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and they were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the created and cultivated fields of maize, beans. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems and they also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals. These two later cultures were contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their history and these two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE
8.
President of the Church (LDS Church)
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In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the President of the Church is the highest office of the church. It was the held by Joseph Smith, founder of the church. The President of the LDS Church is the leader and the head of the First Presidency. Latter-day Saints consider the president of the church to be a prophet, seer, and revelator, and refer to him as the Prophet, when the name of the president is used by adherents, it is usually prefaced by the title President. The President of the Church serves as the head of both the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes and the Council of the Church, the President of the Church also serves as the ex officio chairman of the Church Boards of Trustees/Education. The concept that the Church of Christ would have a single presiding officer arose in late 1831, initially, after the churchs formation on April 6,1830, Joseph Smith referred to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the church. However, there was another apostle—Oliver Cowdery—and several other elders of the church, for he receiveth them even as Moses. This established Smiths exclusive right to lead the church, in early June 1831, Smith was ordained to the high priesthood, along with twenty-two other men, including prominent figures in the church such as Hyrum Smith, Parley P. Pratt, and Martin Harris. As high priests, these men were higher in the hierarchy than the elders of the church. However, it was unclear whether Smiths and Cowderys callings as apostles gave them superior authority to that of other high priests. And again the duty of the President of the priesthood is to preside over the whole church. Smith was ordained to this position and sustained by the church on January 25,1832, at a conference in Amherst, in 1835, the Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ were revised, changing the phrase an. Elder of the church to the first elder of this Church, thus, subsequent to 1835, Smith was sometimes referred to as the First Elder of the church. The 1835 revision also added a verse referring to the office of president of the high priesthood, in 1844, while in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob. Hyrum Smith, his successor, was killed in the same incident. Smith had not indisputably established who was next in line as successor to President of the Church, several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Young would not be ordained President of the Church until December 1847, thomas S. Monson is the 16th and current President of the LDS Church. As president, Monson is considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, a printer by trade, Monson has spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and in public service
9.
Brigham Young
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Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877 and he founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah, Young was dubbed by his followers the Lion of the Lord for his bold personality and was also commonly called Brother Brigham by Latter-day Saints. Young was a polygamist and was involved in controversies regarding black people and the Priesthood, the Utah War, and the Mountain Meadows massacre. Young was born to John Young and Abigail Nabby Howe, a family in Whitingham, Vermont. Young was first married in 1824 to Miriam Angeline Works, though he had converted to the Methodist faith in 1823, Young was drawn to Mormonism after reading the Book of Mormon shortly after its publication in 1830. He officially joined the new church in 1832 and traveled to Upper Canada as a missionary, after his wife died in 1832, Young joined many Mormons in establishing a community in Kirtland, Ohio. In 1844, while in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith, several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Young opposed this reasoning and motion, the majority in attendance were persuaded that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was to lead the church with Young as the Quorums president. Many of Youngs followers would later reminisce that while Young spoke to the congregation, he looked or sounded exactly like Smith, Young was ordained President of the Church in December 1847, three and a half years after Smiths death. Rigdon became the president of a church organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Repeated conflict led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, then to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico. Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24,1847, Youngs expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks. On August 22,29 days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, after three years of leading the church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was declared president of the church on December 27,1847. As colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City, Young was appointed the territorys first governor, during his time as prophet, Young directed the establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, Young organized the first legislature and established Fillmore as the territorys first capital. Young organized a Board of Regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley and it was established on February 28,1850, as the University of Deseret, its name was eventually changed to the University of Utah
10.
LDS Conference Center
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The Conference Center, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the premier meeting hall for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is believed to be the largest theater-style auditorium ever built, the 1.4 million square foot Conference Center seats 21,200 people in its main auditorium. The auditorium is large enough to hold two Boeing 747s side by side, all seats in the audience have an unobstructed view of the pulpit because the roof is held up by radial trusses. The balcony is supported by a series of 34 cantilevers and this construction method allows the balcony to sink 5⁄8 inch under full capacity. Behind the podium is a 7, 667-pipe and 130-rank Schoenstein pipe organ, underground is a parking garage that can hold 1,400 cars. A modernist, three-story chandelier hangs in a skylight in the interior of the building, a waterfall descends from the spire. The waterfall utilizes water from a spring found underneath the building during construction. City Creek flows in a riverbed, complementing the Conference Center. On the third floor of the Conference Center there are busts of current and past presidents of the church and photographs of LDS leaders, photographs of female LDS leaders were added in 2014. Because the building sits near the base of Salt Lake Citys Capitol Hill, the roof is landscaped for attractiveness, about 3 acres of grass and hundreds of trees have been planted on the roof. Twenty-one native grasses were employed to conserve water and showcase local foliage, the landscaping is meant to echo the mountains and meadows of Utah. Attached to the building on the northwest corner is the 900-seat Conference Center Theater that can be used as a dedicated theater or as an overflow room. The designs were solicited by LDS Church architect Leland Gray in the early 1990s, Hinckley was then a counselor in the First Presidency, but became President of the Church in 1995. The LDS Church originally sought a 26, 000-seat building no more than 75 feet high in accord with zoning regulations for the LDS Church-owned 10 acre block immediately north of Temple Square, Hinckley publicly announced the project in the April 1996 general conference. The final plans, completed in late 1996, featured 21,200 seats in the hall with 905 in the side theater. Contracting for the building was done by three Salt Lake City firms, Jacobsen, Layton, and Okland construction companies which submitted a joint bid in order to compete with national firms, the companies jointly operated under the name Legacy Constructors after winning the contract in late 1996. Demolition of existing LDS Church properties on the site began May 1997, deseret Gym—a YMCA-like gymnasium—and a Mormon Handicraft store had to be razed for the project. Ground was broken July 24,1997 and this date coincided with the 150th anniversary of Mormon pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley, an event celebrated in Utah as Pioneer Day
11.
Grand Canyon
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The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the U. S. state of Arizona in North America. President Theodore Roosevelt was a proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, since that time, the Colorado River has driven the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs, simultaneously deepening and widening the canyon. For thousands of years, the area has been inhabited by Native Americans. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, the first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540. It is not the deepest canyon in the world, however, the Grand Canyon is known for its visually overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. Geologically, it is significant because of the sequence of ancient rocks that are well preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers record much of the geologic history of the North American continent. Uplift associated with mountain formation later moved these sediments thousands of feet upward, 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. The uplift of the Colorado Plateau is uneven, and the Kaibab Plateau that Grand Canyon bisects is over a one thousand feet higher at the North Rim than at the South Rim. Almost all runoff from the North Rim flows toward the Grand Canyon, the result is deeper and longer tributary washes and canyons on the north side and shorter and steeper side canyons on the south side. Temperatures on the North Rim are generally lower than those on the South Rim because of the greater elevation, heavy rains are common on both rims during the summer months. Access to the North Rim via the route leading to the canyon is limited during the winter season due to road closures. The Grand Canyon is part of the Colorado River basin which has developed over the past 40 million years, a recent study places the origins of the canyon beginning about 17 million years ago. Previous estimates had placed the age of the canyon at 5–6 million years, the study, which was published in the journal Science in 2008, used uranium-lead dating to analyze calcite deposits found on the walls of nine caves throughout the canyon. There is an amount of controversy because this research suggests such a substantial departure from prior widely supported scientific consensus. In December 2012, a study published in the journal Science claimed new tests had suggested the Grand Canyon could be as old as 70 million years, the canyon is the result of erosion which exposes one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet. The major geologic exposures in the Grand Canyon range in age from the 2-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist at the bottom of the Inner Gorge to the 230-million-year-old Kaibab Limestone on the Rim
12.
Yellowstone National Park
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Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the U. S. states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U. S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1,1872. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U. S. and is widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many features, especially Old Faithful Geyser. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant and it is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion. Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years, aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park fell under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior. However, the U. S. Army was subsequently commissioned to oversee management of Yellowstone for a 30-year period between 1886 and 1916, in 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles, comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years, half of the worlds geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earths northern temperate zone, hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous location in the Continental United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park, the Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the each year, in the large forest fires of 1988. Yellowstone has numerous opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing
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