Grand Canyon, Arizona USA

The Grand Canyon is a geological process that has played out over unimaginable time spans.

 

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It is 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide and 1 mile deep.  It has sustained people materially and spiritually over thousands of years.

 

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The Paleo-Indians inhabited the area up to 12 000 years ago using spears to hunt larger mammals.  In the Archaic Period (up to 9 000 years ago) hunter-gatherers were dominant.  Basketmakers, 2 500 years ago, introduced bows and arrows, pit houses, pottery and agriculture.  Up to 1300 AD, Ancestral Puebloans grew corn, beans and squash.  In 1500 AD ancestors of the Hualapai, Havasupai, Southern Patiute and Navajo moved into the area.

 

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As early as 1540 Hopi Indians guide Spanish explorers to the South Rim.  In the 1900s the railroads brought tourists and in 1908 it was declared a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt.  The Grand Canyon became a National park in 1919.

 

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