Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1920 — WONDERFUL WORK OF NATURE [ARTICLE]

WONDERFUL WORK OF NATURE

Grand Canyon of Arizona, Now a National Park, Called Most Sublime of Earthly Spectacles. Grand Canyon National park, In the northwest corner of Arizona, is the newest of our* national playgrounds, having been brought into the national park family by an act of congress In 1919. The canyon is a titanic gash in the earth’s crust, a stupendous chasm, in places 10 to 13 miles wide from rim to rim, over 200 miles long and more than a mile deep. This wonder of Nature, said to be the most sublime of earthly spectacles, Is a composite of thousands and tens of thousands of gorges. Long years ago bronzed savages built their dwellings on the sides of its cliffs. In 1540 one of the early Spanish explorers stood on its brink and gazed with awe at its vastness; a Franciscan priest 200 years later was the next white visitor; then for more than 80 years the big canyon remained unvisited except by Indians and an occasional herdsman or trappar. Now the skill of man has made It accessible both by train and by automobile, and every year thousands of tourists view this crowning wonder of the American west.