| 18th Century History |
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Articles and Products of History Grand Canyon development in the 1700sThe 4.7 million visitors who see the Grand Canyon every year may know about the way that the Colorado River has cut the canyon into the beautiful geographical display that it is today. Those visitors probably don't know, however, how many people have moved about the canyons in its historical past. At the same time the colonies were fighting to become the United States, two Spanish priests were traversing the Grand Canyon trying to find a better way to get to California from New Mexico. Father Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante moved along the southern portion of Utah, making their way around the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Finding a route along the canyon would have meant much shorter treks to California, but the two did not provide encouragement to many other would-be travelers. In fact, few other Europeans traveled the canyons until the 1820s. Dominguez and Escalante are considered the first white people, meaning Europeans, to have moved across the Utah portion of the Grand Canyon. About three-quarters of a million people will visit the North Rim of the Canyons. This part of the canyon is not as popular as the South Rim, which will get close to 75 percent of the annual visitors. Those people may travel the Colorado Plateau in the same way as these priests in the 1700s. Escalante recorded the pair's travels in his journals, which survive as early descriptions of the canyons. Those accounts included their travels through the canyons and along the Colorado River. Visitors may explore the canyon by hiking along it or riding mules through it. Camping in the canyons is an option as well. Modern visitors also can ride along the river in small watercraft so that they may get a bottom-up view of the landmark's splendor. Today's visitors have a few advantages over Dominguez and Escalante, as modern travelers we can even fly over the Grand Canyon and see its magnificence from the skies.
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