This beautiful area of America is reservations by the United States Government . Early residents soon discovered that tourism was destined to be more profitable than mining, and by the turn of the last century Grand Canyon was a well-known tourist destination.

The Grand Canyon area stretches back 10,500 years when the first evidence for human presence in the area started. Native Americans have been living at Grand Canyon and in the area now covered by Grand Canyon National Park for at least the last 4,000 of those years. Anasazi, first as the Basketmaker culture and later as the more familiar Puebleoans, developed from the Desert Culture as they became less nomadic and more dependent on agriculture. A similar culture, the Cohonina, also lived in the canyon area. Drought in the late 13th century was the likely cause for both cultures to move on.

A little over a century ago ( 1869) explorer John Wesley Powell led a small group of men down the Colorado River to explore the Grand Canyon. For three months they floated down the river in their heavy , boats past the steep red walls of canyon. In some places the river was slow and peaceful; in others there were dangerous rapids . they went by places where Indians sometimes crossed the river or made camp.

During the trip Powell kept a diary . In this diary of his he described the river, the great canyon, waterfalls, plants and animals, but also the dangers. Once when the explorers camped for the night , Powell decided to climb up the steep cliff with one of his men .When they were about twenty meters up the cliff, Powell could go no farther , up or down.

" I call to Bardley for help. he finds a way by which he can get to the top rock above my head , but cannot reach me. He looks around for a stick or a branch , but finds nothing .The moment is critical. If I lose my hold, I shall fall to the bottom .Then Bradley quickly takes off hos trousers and swings them down to me . I catch hold of the legs and , with his help , climb to the top ."


The explorers went on but they had many problems. They were often clod and wet, and they didn't have enough food . They lost one of their boats . Many times they had to carry their boats along the river bank because of dangerous rapids or waterfalls.Three of the men left them. Finally they came to the end of their successful thousand-mile trip down the Colorado River .

Today the Grand Canyon is national park , and many tourists visit it every year. Some of them go down the river in much safer then a hundred years ago .