History
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Native American habitation[edit]
Little is known about early human habitation in the area. Archaeological surveys of the Paunsaugunt Plateau indicate that people have lived in the area for at least 10,000 years. Basketmaker Anasazi artifacts thousands of years old were found south of the park. Other artifacts from the Pueblo-period Anasazi and the Fremont culture (up to the mid-12th century) were found.
The Paiute Native Americans moved into the area around the time that the other cultures left. These Native Americans hunted and gathered for most of their food, while supplementing their diet with cultivated plants. The Paiute developed a mythology surrounding the hoodoos. They believed that they were the Legend People whom the trickster Coyote turned to stone due to their bad deeds. One older Paiute said his culture called the hoodoos Anka-ku-was-a-wits, which is Paiute for "red painted faces".
European American exploration and settlement[edit]
Ebenezer Bryce and his family lived in this cabin below Bryce Amphitheater (c. 1881).
In the late 18th and early 19th century the first European Americans explored the area. Mormon scouts visited in the 1850s to gauge its potential for agriculture, grazing, and settlement. The first major scientific expedition was led by U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell in 1872. Powell, along with a team of mapmakers and geologists, surveyed the Sevier and Virgin River area as part of a larger survey of the Colorado Plateaus. His mapmakers used many Paiute place names.
Small groups of Mormon pioneers followed the explorers and attempted to settle east of Bryce Canyon along the Paria River. The Kanarra Cattle Company began grazing cattle there in 1873. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent Scottish immigrant Ebenezer Bryce and his wife Mary to settle land in the Paria Valley to apply his carpentry skills. The Bryce family settled right below Bryce Amphitheater—the main collection of hoodoos. Bryce grazed his cattle inside what are now park borders, and is reputed to have said that the amphitheaters were a "helluva place to lose a cow". He built a road to the plateau to retrieve firewood and timber, and a canal to irrigate his crops and water his animals. Other settlers soon started to call the canyon at the end of road "Bryce's Canyon", and the name stuck.
A combination of drought, overgrazing, and flooding eventually drove the remaining Paiutes from the area and prompted the settlers to attempt to build a water diversion channel from the Sevier River drainage. That effort failed, leading most settlers, including the Bryce family, to abandon the area. Bryce moved his family to Arizona in 1880. The remaining settlers dug a 10-mile (16 km) ditch from the Sevier's east fork into Tropic Valley.
Creation of the park[edit]
Bryce Canyon Lodge was built between 1924 and 1925 from local materials.
These scenic areas were first described to the public in magazine articles published by Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads in 1916. Forest Supervisor J. W. Humphrey among others promoted the scenic wonders of Bryce Canyon's amphitheaters, and by 1918 additional articles helped generate public interest. Ruby Syrett, Harold Bowman, and the Perry brothers later established lodging and "touring services". Syrett later served as the first postmaster. By the early 1920s, the Union Pacific Railroad became interested in expanding rail service into southwestern Utah to accommodate tourists.
Visitor center in winter
Conservation advocates became alarmed by the damage overgrazing, logging, and unregulated visitation was inflicting on the canyon. A protection effort soon began, and National Park Service Director Stephen Mather responded by proposing that Bryce Canyon be made into a state park. However, the governor of Utah and the Utah State Legislature lobbied for national protection. Mather relented and sent his recommendation to President Warren G. Harding, who on June 8, 1923, established Bryce Canyon National Monument.
A road was built the same year on the plateau to provide access to outlooks over the amphitheaters. From 1924 to 1925, Bryce Canyon Lodge was built from local timber and stone.
Members of the United States Congress started work in 1924 on upgrading Bryce Canyon's protection status from national monument to national park to establish Utah National Park. A process led by the Utah Parks Company for transferring ownership of private and state-held land to the federal government started in 1923. The last of the land was acquired four years later, and on February 25, 1928, Bryce Canyon National Park was established.
In 1931, President Herbert Hoover annexed an adjoining area south of the park, and in 1942 an additional 635 acres (257 ha) was added. This brought the park's total area to the ultimate 35,835 acres (14,502 ha). Rim Road, a scenic drive from the northern entrance to Rainbow Point, was completed in 1935.
Post-1950[edit]
The USS Bryce Canyon, named for the park, served as a supply and repair ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet from September 15, 1950, to June 30, 1981.
Park administration was conducted from Zion National Park until 1956 when Bryce Canyon's first superintendent started work.
Bryce Canyon Natural History Association (BCNHA) is a non-profit organization, established in 1961. It runs the bookstore inside the park visitor center and support interpretive, educational, and scientific activities.
Bryce Canyon Lodge achieved National Historic Landmark status in 1987, preserved as an example of National Park Service architecture from the 1920s.
Responding to increased visitation and traffic congestion, NPS implemented a voluntary, summer-only, in-park shuttle system in June 2000. The Rim Road was reconstructed between 2002 and 2004. As part of that reconstruction, the roadbed was revegetated with native grasses, to fight invasive species.
In 2019, Bryce Canyon was given Dark Sky Park status by the International Dark-Sky Association.
