Glen Canyon
Glen Canyon in 1873, near the confluence of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers
Glen Canyon is a natural canyon mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah covering a 169.6 mile length of the Colorado River. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River. A small part of the lower end of Glen Canyon extends into the northern part of Arizona and terminates at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, near the Vermilion Cliffs area in the United States. Like the Grand Canyon to the south, Glen Canyon is part of the immense system of canyons carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries.
In 1963, a reservoir, Lake Powell, was created by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam,
in the Arizona portion of Glen Canyon. This dam backed water into Utah,
putting much of Glen Canyon under water hundreds of feet in depth. Lake
Powell was not the result of negotiations over the controversial
damming of the Green River within Dinosaur National Monument at Echo Park. The Echo Park Dam proposal was abandoned due to country wide citizen pressure on Congress to do so. Glen Canyon dam remains a central issue for modern environmentalist movements. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to dismantle the dam and drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon.
Today, Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Glen Canyon Before Glen Canyon Dam
Pre-Glen Canyon Dam Geographical and Cultural Features
right:Tapestry Wall in Glen Canyon
Hole in the Rock at Mile 84.4
Hidden Passage Canyon Mile 76
The following is a list or geographical and cultural features along
the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. River mileage is derived from the
USGS 1921 Plan and Profile maps. River Mile Zero is at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, and goes upstream to Mile 169.6 at the confluence with the Dirty Devil River.
| River Mile | Points of Interest |
|---|---|
| 169.6 Right | Dirty Devil River Confluence |
| 162.9 Left | White Canyon (San Juan County, Utah) and White Canyon Uranium Mill |
| 162.3 | Hite Ferry (Chaffin Ferry, Chaffin Ranch, Dandy Crossing) Hite Crossing Bridge |
| 150.1 Left | Red Canyon and Bert Loper Cabin (The Hermitage) and Blue Notch Canyon |
| 148.4 Right | Ticaboo Creek and Cass Hite grave |
| 136.2 Right | Tapestry Wall (136.3-135.4) |
| 132.1 Right | Smith Fork |
| 121.5 Right | Robert Brewster Stanton Dredge |
| 120.5 Right | Bullfrog Creek and Bullfrog Rapid Bullfrog Marina |
| 119.0 | Halls Crossing, Utah |
| 88.25 Right | Mouth of Escalante River |
| 84.4 Right | Hole-In-The-Rock crossing Hole in the Rock (rock formation), Hole in the Rock Trail |
| 78.0 Left | San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) confluence |
| 76.1 Right | Hidden Passage (alt name Narrow Canyon) |
| 75.8 Left | Music Temple |
| 68.6 Left | Forbidden Canyon, Aztec Creek and Rainbow Bridge Canyon, Rainbow Bridge National Monument |
| 39.9 Right | Padre Creek, Crossing of the Fathers |
| 19.7 Left | Antelope Creek and Antelope Canyon |
| 15.5 | Glen Canyon Dam |
| 0.0 | Lee's Ferry |
Glen Canyon Archaeology
Glen Canyon below Glen Canyon Dam
Around 1956, archaeologists and biologists from the University of Utah and the Museum of Northern Arizona,
using National Park research grants, planned an emergency excavation of
Lower Glen Canyon, which was soon to be flooded by the new Glen Canyon
Dam. Between 1958 and 1960, four investigative phases, combined with
other surveys prior to 1957, discovered 250 archaeological sites within
the canyon. The Lower Glen Canyon survey was completed in 1958.
Excavations
Excavations
began during the summer of 1958 on 16 sites. A thesis emerged that
prehistoric people living permanently on the highlands south of Glen
Canyon, and on the Cummings Mesa,
farmed the Lower Glen Canyon on a seasonal basis, and gathered raw
materials. To prove this thesis of seasonal habitation, criteria such as
architectural units, locations of trail systems, occurrence of
ceremonial structures, prevalence of burials, and position of natural
and cultural strata. Four types of sites are described in the survey
classified as either open sites situated on rock terraces; talus sites
on broken material below cliffs; shelter sites in protected areas under
overhanging cliffs; and cliff sites beneath ledges or in caves and
canyon walls. Open sites are the majority on both sides of the river.
The majority of sites, mostly Navajo camps, feature lithic garbage or ceramics, or both. Talus sites are rarely recorded.
Most of the cultural remains found are chipped stone tools
(lithic materials), including projectile points, scrapers, drills,
knives, choppers, and ground stone tools and manos (grinders). The collection of sherds are mostly Tusayan Gray Ware and Tusayan White Ware. Petroglyph
panels are found throughout Glen Canyon. "Pecked and incised figures
depict mountain sheep, human figures, birds, human handprints and animal
tracks. Geometric figures range from circles and spirals to highly
complex rectilinear patterns. The human figures have triangular bodies.
Painted figures have been reported for both sides of the river....
Petroglyph panels of such quality are lacking from the highland regions
adjacent to Glen Canyon"
Prehistoric cultural periods
Studies
indicate a chronology for the Lower Glen Canyon prehistory, "from
pre-A.D. 1 to the 15th century and recorded history from 1776 to the
present".
- A Late Basketmaker II Era (generally AD 50-500) is represented by several sites. Radiocarbon dates from charcoal material are from A.D. 250 to 440 (plus or minus 80 years). Basketmaker III is not found in the Lower Glen Canyon, but is documented in Navajo Canyon, a large left bank tributary of the Colorado River, within the geographical area of the Lower Glen Canyon. Basketmaker III introduces fired pottery, mostly Lino Black-on-gray and Lino Gray, and some small amounts of Lino Fugitive Red and Obelisk Gray. The Basketmaker culture is believed to have lasted later than Pueblo I.
- Pueblo I Era (AD 750-900) remains are found at Rock Creek in Lower Glen Canyon, and in Navajo Canyon. The pottery types are Kana-a Black-on-white, Deadmans Black-on-red, and Kana-a Gray, made from deposits found in Lizard Alcove. Pueblo I is the best documented period of Navajo Canyon, beginning in 800 A.D, lasting 200 years. "Pueblo II in Navajo Canyon is represented by the absence of Kana-a Black-on-white and the dominance of Black Mesa Black-on-white".
- Pueblo II (AD 900-1100) and early Pueblo III is the best documented cultural area in Lower Glen Canyon corresponding with habitation on Cummings Mesa. Pottery includes mostly Tusayan varieties, Black-on-white, Black-on-red, and Red Wear Polychromes.
- Hopi people from the Jeddito area came into the canyons in the 14th century, represented by Yellow Wares, mostly Jeddito Black-on-yellow, and Jeddito plain.
Most of the ceramic material found in the main canyon was probably
made in the highlands, although it is possible some pottery was
manufactured in Lower Glen Canyon. Clay deposits are found along the
river, and some crude pottery specimens, that may have been made there.
Only four burials were found in Lower Glen Canyon at three sites. Trash
dumps are not very common at most sites. This is more evidence to
suggest the seasonal occupation of hunters and farmers.
Cultural similarities are based on the presence, or absence, of certain types of ceramic wares. Group types of pottery including Kayenta (Tusayan and Tsegi Orange Ware), Virgin (San Juan Red and White Wares), with Fremont, and Mesa Verde or Anasazi
types of White and Desert Gray Ware were found mostly on the right bank
of the Colorado. Basketmaker II is characterized by a lack of pottery,
as well as above ground and underground cists lined with slabs.
There is very little evidence of permanent occupation except at Talus Ruin, a small pueblo with a kiva,
a ceremonial structure, made mostly of masonry, featuring jacal walls
of sticks and reeds set in mortar in a single row of masonry. The
presence of metates are evidence that campsites with slab-lined hearths
being inhabited for longer periods. Agricultural structures are not
found in the main lower canyon, and no formalized fields are found in
the main canyon because of alleviation and slope wash burying.
Houses, when found, were mostly sandstone slab with mortar, having one
to seven rooms. "Well constructed mealing bins which usually denote
permanency were lacking in the Lower Glen Canyon. In contrast, on
Cummings Mesa at Surprise Pueblo, there was one entire room devoted to
mealing bins…".
In the highlands, granaries were near or incorporated into permanent
Pueblos, compared with smaller ones near temporary sites in the Canyon.
"Home Base" pueblos in the nearby highlands on Cummings Mesa and Paiute
Mesa are believed to support the temporary farming and the hunting
parties who used an extensive trail system in the main canyon, still in
use today.
Hite Crossing Bridge of State Route 95 at Glen Canyon
Natural resources for tool-making
"Stone
tool manufacturing appears to have been an important industry for the
entire Glen Canyon region, perhaps one of the major reasons for
occupation". Cryptocrystalline rocks fill the Pleistocene
gravel beds on the Carmel platforms. Scattered lithic tools and
materials indicate workshops of various sizes. There is a lack of
siliceous material in the highlands, but tools are found there made from
the gravel beds in the river.
There are very few ground stone artifacts, such as manos,
metates, and scrapers, found in the main canyon, since these tools are
mainly found in the highlands. In the main canyon, a large number of
chipped implements, ranging from small arrowheads to large knives, are
found. Finished tools, and possibly blanks taken to the mesa, were
probably used for trade.
Historic period
The recorded history of the canyon begins with the Dominguez-Escalante expedition in 1776, during which Spanish explorers first documented the existence of Glen Canyon.
Trapper Denis Julien may have visited upper Glen Canyon in the 1830s.
In 1869 and again in 1871, expeditions led by John Wesley Powell traveled through the canyon, resulting in the first formal surveys of the main channel and many of the side canyons.
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A bend in Glen Canyon of the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, ca.1898
In the 1890s, hundreds of miners panned for flour gold in Glen Canyon. Their main camp was at Dandy Crossing, also called Hite, Utah, after Cass Hite. Between 1898 and 1901, mining engineer Robert Brewster Stanton
was employed by mining magnate Julius Stone to design, build and
operate a dredge in an attempt to recover Glen Canyon's flour gold. The
effort failed.
Glen Canyon Dam
In the 1950s, with the proposal of a dam upstream of the Grand Canyon for water storage and hydroelectric
power generation, many environmentalist groups rallied to prevent the
inundation of the largely undeveloped canyons in the upper Colorado
River watershed. The Sierra Club and its leader, David Brower, were instrumental in blocking the proposed Echo Park Dam
in Dinosaur National Monument, but ignored Glen Canyon in the process.
Before Glen Canyon was flooded in 1963, but after the struggle in
Congress, Brower and many others floated the Colorado River through the
canyon and realized the tremendous resource it was. The experience
transformed Brower's attitude towards environmental preservation, making
him more radical and less likely to compromise. It was very similar to
the experience of John Muir with the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. For Brower, it steeled him for the battle over a proposed dam in the Grand Canyon.
American writer Edward Abbey
also documented his experience exploring Glen Canyon from the Colorado
River prior to the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in his 1968 memoir Desert Solitaire, in the chapter titled "Down the River".
