Protecting Canyonlands: Anatomy of a National Park Struggle in Southeastern Utah, USA

National parks have been called “America’s best idea”, but their creation and management never fail to stir controversy. On September 12, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill creating Canyonlands National Park (CANY). Instead of a preservation climax, however, the establishment of CANY simply opened a new chapter in the long-term effort to protect a much greater percentage of southeastern Utah’s canyon country. Over the next several decades, park enthusiasts and wilderness advocates sought to expand the boundaries of CANY, while agricultural interests and extractive industries lobbied vigorously to limit the influence of the National Park Service. In this paper, we use archival data and methods to reconstruct the story of CANY’s creation and review attempts since then to extend protections beyond the original park’s borders, seeking to understand the different social, political, and economic forces that aligned to propose—as well as the forces that rallied to contest—these expansion efforts. While our findings indicate that the stakeholders involved and the issues that drive them have changed little over the past sixty years, we also cite several examples of successful collaboration that could serve as guideposts for future conservation efforts, both in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Green River overlook, Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah

The stream is still quiet, and we guide along through a strange, weird, grand region. The landscape everywhere, away from the river, is of rock—cliffs of rock, tables of rock, plateaus of rock, terraces of rock, crags of rock—ten thousand strangely carved forms; rocks everywhere, and no vegetation, no soil, no sand. In long, gentle curves the river winds about these rocks. These are the words Major John Wesley Powell used to describe what is called Stillwater Canyon along the Green River on July 17, 1869, on his way to the Grand Canyon during his famous journey exploring the canyons of the Colorado River and its tributaries (Powell, 1895). This same region is spectacularly displayedfrom the Green River Overlook in the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. The exposed rocks consist of Early Permian- (299 million years ago [Ma]) through Early Jurassic-age (176 Ma) rock layers that were uplifted and subjected to massive erosion. Changes in the color, thickness, and composition ofthe rock layers and erosive work of running water and gravity (i.e., mass wasting) created the magnificent landscape seen at the overlook today. The primitive and remote Maze District of Canyonlands National Park is the area west of the Green River. Prominent features viewed in the Maze District from the Green River Overlook include Ekker Butte, Turks Head, Elaterite Butte, and the Orange Cliffs (figure 2). On a clear day, the 11,000-foot (3350 m), Henry Mountains, which are cored by volcanic remnants (laccoliths) can be seen to the southwest. The Green River Overlook is one of Utah’s most iconic views, often appearing on book covers, scenic calendars, and postcards, and therefore it is fitting as a geosite for its beauty and the exposures of rocks that so much impressed John Wesley Powell over 150 years ago.

Late Quaternary loess and soils on uplands in the Canyonlands and Mesa Verde areas, Utah and Colorado

Thin loess deposits on the uplands of the southeastern Colorado Plateau have previously not been well studied. We sampled deposits and soils from trenches on Hatch Point (HP) mesa near Canyonlands National Park, Utah, and from two outcrops in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. At HP, the oldest buried unit yielded 2 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages of 10,370 and 7555 yr; the middle unit yielded 10 OSL ages from 6220 to 1385 yr; and the youngest unit had a single age of 1740 yr. At Mesa Verde (MV), three loess units are preserved in the two outcrops we examined; 6 OSL ages range from 51 to 17 ka. At least one buried soil is present between two units with ages of about 50 and 40 ka. The ages of the loess units in both study areas correspond well with OSL-dated dune sands in Canyonlands National Park and with dune sands on Black Mesa, Arizona. Particle-size distribution combined with chemical and magnetic data indicate that HP loess was derived mostly from nearby sandstone sources with a small component of far-traveled atmospheric dust, whereas MV loess was sourced both from the nearby sandstone and the San Juan River and its tributaries.