A History of Kane County

The land

CHAPTER 2 THE LAND T,he topography of Kane County is made up largely of moun­tainous peaks and plateaus, deep canyons, and stretches of unbroken land, some surfaced with sand so deep that traveling over it can be very difficult. The mountains are composed chiefly of red and white sandstone. The coloring, together with the beautiful configuration of some of the canyons and cliffs, helps make the county outstanding for its scenic beauty. The chief mountainous areas are the Vermilion Cliffs near Kanab, the Pink Cliffs in the northwestern corner of the county, the White, Pink and Gray Cliffs in the central part of the county, and the Red Bluffs of the southwestern corner. The chief plateaus are the Markagunt and Paunsaugunt to the north and the Kaiparowits and the Kaibab (Buckskin) Plateaus to the south. Other interesting natural features include a number of volcanic craters in the mountain ranges and plateaus. Red rock canyons and undulating valleys decorate Kane County. Wooded highlands are incised by deep canyons and contained by high cliffs. Wildlife roams amid vegetation adapted to the generally dry climate. Rivers are fronted by towering cliff walls. Layer upon 13 14 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY layer of rock tells the story of the land, and the story of this mainly uninhabited county continues with the landscape. A sparse popula­tion generally utilizes the canyons, mesas, and plateaus for undevel­oped grazing land. Here geography, climate, and geology are all done on a grand scale-high plateaus, deep dramatic canyon walls, and brillantly contrasting colors of rock and sand. Here the silence of the surroundings can engulf one. In the words of one report: "Terraced plateaus, cliff-bounded mesas, monoclinal ridges, and straight-sided canyons-all impressive for magnitude and ruggedness"-are found in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in the eastern portion of the county.1 That area found in the neighborhood of Lake Powell includes a maze of brilliant red-walled canyons cutting through the turquoise water. Side canyons at the edge of the lake offer natural marvels. This lake backs up into about 100 major side canyons. Natural arches and bridges, including Stevens Arch and LaGorce Arch, decorate the Escalante canyons. The Orange Cliffs and Romana Mesa are other attractions found at Lake Powell. Lake Powell, which was formed by Glen Canyon Dam in nearby Arizona after its completion in the mid-1960s, contains some 1,960 miles of shoreline, equivalent to the length of the west coast of the continental United States. The lake, named after early Colorado River explorer John Wesley Powell, has a capacity of 26 million acre-feet of water. Extending for miles up the former channels of the Colorado River and the San Juan River, Lake Powell provides access to scenery previously considered by many to be inaccessible in Kane and San Juan Counties. However, the lake also covered many historic and archaeological sites with water. Shaped like a triangle, with Lake Powell at its base, is the Kaiparowits Plateau. This plateau, in the eastern region of Kane County, is the county's highest landform; its westward-tilted top has an altitude of more than 7,000 feet for a distance of fifty miles. The vast plateau remains largely uninhabited and undeveloped except for relics of coal exploration, an oil field, and some use for cattle graz­ing. Much of it is included in the newly created Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument. The eastern portion of the Kaiparowits Plateau is called Fiftymile THE LAND 15 Mountain for the distance it stretches from south of Escalante to the Colorado River.2 The escarpment of the Straight Cliffs, rising about 1,000 feet, creates the eastern boundary of the Kaiparowits Plateau. Fiftymile Mountain contains at least two natural arches, as well as fossils, dinosaur tracks, and numerous archaeological sites, including pictographs, petroglyphs, cliff dwellings, and rock shelters. Vegetation is sparse. Rising from the arid landscape of the canyon, this plateau is the largest mesa still roadless in southwestern Utah.3 The Hole-in-the-Rock Road lies at the foot of the Straight Cliffs, another natural feature of Kane County. This route was established by a group of Mormon pioneers in 1879-80 on their way to establish a settlement in future San Juan County. They blasted and chipped a portion of the road out of the massive sandstone cliffs and then drove and lowered their wagons down through it. An almost unbelievable feat of imaginative construction and labor, the trail now is impass­able by either animal or vehicle, making it hard to imagine the wagon train traveling through it. The other portion of this road in San Juan County was also difficult to construct and travel. Lying some twelve miles from the eastern rim of the Kaiparowits Plateau, the Escalante River flows in a channel bed lower than 4,000 feet.4 The region of the Escalante River Canyon, the lower section of which is in Kane County, is a labyrinth of narrow and deep-sided canyons. The canyon country is characterized by different layers of sandstone, mudstone, siltstone, gypsum, and reddish shales. Wind and water have worked on these rock layers to produce a varied col­lection of fins, domes, buttes, cliffs, arches, bridges, and deep canyons.5 Canyon walls tower over the floor between them. The 100- mile-long main Escalante River Canyon can at times prove to be dan­gerous to the unwary due to flash floods racing through the narrow passages, sweeping up everything in their path. The river is generally shallow, however, with the deeper water near the lower end and Lake Powell. The deeply entrenched Hackberry Canyon lies between the Upper Paria River Gorge and Cottonwood Canyon. Several smaller canyons branch off the larger canyons. The colorful layers of the "ascending staircase" of cliffs in southwestern Utah expose millions 16 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY i* ^m**0**e mmmM The Lower Escalante River and its junction with the Colorado River. (Utah State Historical Society) of years of geological history as a result of the cliff-and-terrace type of physiography. The Kaibab Plateau extends into Utah across the Arizona Strip area of northern Arizona north of the Grand Canyon, rising from 2,000-4,000 feet above the plateaus to the east and west. Covered with rich forest land, it spreads for miles at a height of more than 8,000 feet. The northern edge of what has been called Grand Canyon country is a series of terraces, separated by lines of cliffs oriented east-west, formations called "Terrace Plateaus" by John Wesley Powell. In the distance, between St. George and Lees Ferry, they rise vertically, forming a rainbow of colors and strata of rock. Although this land generally faces south, it tilts to the north, ascending from the Shinarump, to the Vermilion, to the White, and finally to the Pink Cliffs, like the steps of a giant staircase-and, in fact, the name "Grand Staircase" has been applied to the whole expanse. In many ways, the key to these canyons is the movement of water. THE LAND 17 Four principal waterways carved out the region's main canyons over millions of years: the Virgin River draining the southeastern face of the Markagunt Plateau; Kanab Creek moving through both narrow canyons and open valleys of the White, Vermilion, and Shinarump Cliffs regions; the Paria River, which heads through the Pink Cliffs on the eastern rim of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, for the most part through Bryce Canyon; and the Escalante River, with its headwaters also north in Garfield County in the region of Boulder Mountain. In the Markagunt and Paunsaugunt Plateaus 152,559 acres of the Dixie National Forest extend into the county. The Virgin River and its tributaries have carved through many layers of strata, eroding the land into deep and narrow canyons tow­ered over by mesas and other dramatic sandstone formations. The main flow, moving through the Parunuweap, impedes all but the most daring travelers. Below Zion National Park, the Virgin River flows through the Hurricane Cliffs and leaves behind the Colorado Plateau. Kanab Creek, however, flows entirely within the Colorado Plateau. Just a few miles below Kanab and Fredonia, Arizona, Kanab Creek enters a canyon before it joins the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon toward the middle of its length. Located toward the center of Kane County, running north to south, is the Paria River. Named with a Paiute Indian word meaning "muddy water," the Paria River lives up to its name, racing through vast canyons and past enormous cliffs collecting sediment. The river's headwaters begin in the Table Cliffs Plateau of the Dixie National Forest and the Pink Cliff formations of Bryce Canyon National Park. It flows into the Colorado River at Lees Ferry. Along the Paria River, in the heart of Paria Canyon, is a 200-foot-long natural arch, Indian ruins, abandoned ranch sites, and canyons as much as 1,500 feet deep and only twelve feet wide. Historian C. Gregory Crampton described the Paria River's movement in his book Land of Living Rock: "Through a succession of narrow, straight-walled canyons, lined with cottonwoods, the Paria makes its fantastic way through the White and Vermilion cliffs and through a tortuous fifty-mile-long gorge across the back of the Paria Plateau. It breaks out into the open for a few miles and then at Lee's Ferry its waters join those of the Colorado to begin the long run through Grand Canyon."6 The Paria River near Paria townsite. (Allan Kent Powell) The Paria Canyon Primitive Area in Kane County and in Arizona was designated in 1969 and includes thirty-five miles of magnificent canyon. It features a popular backpacking trek, although frequent flash floods are a lingering danger and at times make the narrows impassable. A journey through the rugged area usually begins or ends at Lees Ferry, just south of the border in Arizona.7 Spectacular rock formations full of saturated color gave Kodachrome Basin State Park its name. Great lithic spires jut up from the valley floor-different in rock composition and color from the rock bases that support them. The slender stone columns, or "chim­ney rocks," are made of a hard, gray, stratified limestone. Some geol­ogists believe "the unusual stone formations are actually petrified geysers, or sandpipes, and that Kodachrome Basin once was some­what similar to Yellowstone National Park today with its geothermic activity. The ancient springs and geysers are thought by those scien­tists to have filled with sediment and then solidified. Unlike the deli­cate, red sandstone formations of nearby Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome's structures are made of calcite and sandstone, resulting in a hard, cementlike composition. Bryce was formed by the THE LAND 19_ continual freezing and thawing of the seasons, explain park rangers, while Kodachrome's slickrock structures were formed by water and wind.8 Forces of erosion formed and continue to mold peculiar-shaped pinnacles and rocks called "hoodoos," especially at areas like Kodachrome Basin. Layers of soft pink and white siltstone, sandstone, dolomite, and limestone were deposited in a Paleocene lake system, creating the lay­ers of the rock formations of Bryce Canyon. Geologists think these deposits were laid down some 60 million years ago, when lime-rich sand and mud carried along by streams and rivers was deposited into shallow lakes, with the lighter silt and clay particles settling to the lake bottoms farther from shore. Through millions of years, wet and dry cycles created limestone rock layers of different hardness that are known today as the Claron Formation.9 Bryce Canyon is a series of amphitheaters carved into the Paunsaugunt Plateau and spreading from north to south more than twenty miles. The otherworldly formations of Bryce Canyon are the result of erosion that has occurred over millions of years. A fabulous assemblage of rock spires and temples make up Bryce Canyon National Park. The southern part of Bryce Canyon lies in Kane County. Visitors to Bryce Canyon find it unlike any place they have ever been before and some scramble to find apt images or allusions to depict its beauty. Its formations have been described as sentinels on castle walls, as monks and priests in their robes, and as cathedrals and congregations. Onlookers have seen motifs reminiscent of win­dows, minarets, gables, pagodas, pedestals, and temples. Many nine­teenth- century references are to the medieval, the supernatural, or the exotic in building and art, including grotesque beasts, gargoyles, lions, dragons, idols, and heathen gods, nave and architrave, pagoda, pantheon, and mosque. Early pioneer Ebenezer Bryce (after whom the park was named) was more prosaic in describing the canyon when he said, "It's a hell of a place to lose a cow."10 Bryce, a Mormon immigrant from Scotland, established his homestead near the little town of Tropic in 1875 at the base of the canyon, where he grazed livestock and tried to survive. A Paiute Indian, called by local whites "Indian Dick," in 1936 told a National Park Service naturalist the Paiute tradition of how Bryce 20 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY Canyon was formed. He explained how the most ancient peoples, known to the Paiutes as the Legend People, had the capability to take on the forms of birds, mammals, and lizards. "For some reason the Legend People in that place were bad; they did something that was not good, perhaps a fight, perhaps some stole something.... Because they were bad, Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now, all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding onto others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks," he related.11 Navajo myths recounted in the book Grand Canyon Country tell of the creation of the Grand Canyon. According to one legend, dur­ing the time of an extensive rainfall the sea rose to great heights and finally made an outlet for itself by carving the gigantic chasm into the depths of the earth. Another legend tells of a brave chief who mar­ried a beautiful young girl whom he loved very much but who died soon after their marriage ceremony. The gods loved this chief because he revered them and because he was a wise and generous leader. He was so sad over the loss of his wife that the hearts of the gods were touched and they decided to make a special concession and let him visit the spirit world. The one thing they required of him was that when he returned he never tell anyone of his route. The gods then turned the route into the Grand Canyon and filled the lower part with water-the Colorado River.12 As a gateway to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Kanab in particular and Kane County in general share to some extent the romance of the Grand Canyon, particularly the Kaibab Forest and Plateau of the North Rim. In 1927, M.R. Tillotson, superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, Frank J. Taylor of the National Park Service, and Horace M. Albright, director of the National Park Service collaborated on an account of their time spent in the Grand Canyon region. The book, Grand Canyon Country, recounts the his­tory of the park, describes the geology and terrain, and identifies the wildlife that inhabits the area. The authors described the trail along the North Rim, called the "Kaibab Trail," as being particularly rich in animal and bird life: THE LAND 21 The Kaibab Forest-an important source of timber and grazing area for Kane County residents. (Utah State Historical Society) To the traveler approaching the North Rim of the Grand Canyon from Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, and from southern Utah, the limitless Kaibab Forest is a welcome transition from the tropic climate of the desert and the Prismatic Plains, crossed in the vicinity of Kanab and Fredonia, or Pipe Spring National Monument. The high, dry, bracing, pine-laden air, the dim forest aisles, and the frequent glimpses of wild deer and white-tailed squirrels make the road to the North Rim a fitting prelude to the silent symphony of the Grand Canyon itself. Kaibab is a Piute Indian word meaning "mountain-lying-down," a description that fits it well. It is a vast plateau, some 50 miles long and 35 miles wide, containing approximately 500 square miles of Yellow Pine, White and Douglas Fir, Engelmann and Colorado Blue Spruce- one of the most beautiful virgin forests in the United States. The picturesque charm of this dense forest of dark evergreens is greatly enhanced by an understory of quaking aspen, with its white, birch-like bark and light green leaves attached to the twigs in such a manner that even the slightest breeze sets t h em all to "quaking," or 22 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY trembling. This picture is even more beautiful in the early fall after the first frosts have touched the quaking aspens, turning these leaves to every shade, from a bright golden yellow to a deep burnt orange. A strip of the Kaibab Forest extending northward from the rim of the Canyon for a distance of from ten to twelve miles is within Grand Canyon, but is actually part of the National Forest.13 The area we now call the Colorado Plateau was created more than 10 million years ago. Pressures within the earth later fractured the plateau and erosive forces then separated it into a series of lesser plateaus, including the Paunsaugunt Plateau where Bryce Canyon is located. From desert to high alpine meadows, deep and colorful canyons separate the plateaus and mountains in the Dixie National Forest, and parts of this national forest lie along the northern border of Kane County. Predominantly a series of plateaus, the forest area is better supplied with moisture than is most of southern Utah.14 Navajo Lake lies in the northwest corner of the county in the Dixie National Forest atop the Markagunt Plateau, which reaches 10,000-11,000 feet in elevation. This natural lake is home to four types of trout-cutthroat, rainbow, brook, and German brown.15 At the easternmost extension of the White Cliffs (composed of Navajo Sandstone) is the Paria River. The white and yellow sandstone cliffs were created as the river flowing down the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau sliced through the rock layers, helping scoop out an area that eventually resembled an amphitheater. The Paria also helped created the unique beauty of Bryce Canyon by eroding weak rock layers while leaving more enduring rock formations.16 At the base of the Vermilion Cliffs is Kanab. The landscape includes the cliffs, benches, moderately entrenched canyons, and badlands beneath the cliffs, as well as Long Valley-the valley of the East Fork of the Virgin River. Two thousand acres of pink sand sweep across the basin floor of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The sand has blown in from nearby rock formations over the millenia. Cactus and an occasional cedar tree decorate the dunes. After rain, ephemeral ponds collect in the area, which was formed in a sheltered depression along the 200- mile-long Sevier Fault. The dunes rise to heights of twenty feet or more.17 Adjacent to the sand dunes is Moquith Mountain, near the THE LAND 23 Arizona border. Ponderosa pine, pinyon, juniper, and Gambel oak cover the slopes of this small mountain. The canyons located in the eastern part of the area also contain some cottonwood and box elder trees. Vegetation Twisted juniper trees and pinyon pine, the source of pine nuts, an important food resource of early people in the area, dominate the vegetation in Kane County. The semiarid mountains and plateaus are ideal for the pinyon-juniper forests. Some ponderosa pine trees can be found in suitable habitats, including canyon rims in the Paria River Valley, Hackberry Canyon, and Zion National Park. Sagebrush, bunchgrass, and ephedra (Mormon tea) all thrive in much of the county. In the Glen Canyon area, plant life has been divided by many botanists into five principal associations. (1) Streamside. Common species include sandbar willow, tamarisk, arrowweed, common reed, and saltgrass, and may include Gambel oak, hackberry, Fremont cot­tonwood, cheatgrass, and cattail. (2) Terrace. Common species include greasewood, rabbitbrush, sand sagebrush, dropseed grass, and Indian ricegrass, and may include arrowweed, shadscale, hack­berry, blackbrush, and snakeweed. (3) Hillside: This association con­sists mainly of widely spaced low shrubs. Species include snakeweed, shadscale, hackberry, and blackbrush, and may include Indian rice-grass, prickly pear, and hedgehog cactus, serviceberry, silver buf-faloberry, and cliff rose. Flowers include sego and mariposa lilies, eriogonium, prickly poppy, prince's plume, gaillardia, lupine, locoweed, euphorbia, globemallow, blazing star, evening primrose, gilia, penstemon, Indian paintbrush, and golden aster. (4) Hanging gardens. These are areas where moisture seeps from canyon walls. Common species include maidenhair fern, columbine, red mon-keyflower, cardinal flower, false Solomon's seal, and evening prim­rose. (5) Plateau. The pinyon-juniper association, which includes bitterbrush, cliff rose, galleta, blue grama grass, and Indian ricegrass.18 Hackberry Canyon plant life includes pinyon, juniper, ponderosa pine, sagebrush, bunch-grass, and Mormon tea. The Paria River Valley vegetation is typical of semi-desert regions. Pinyon and juniper 24 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY with occasional ponderosa pine dominate canyon rims. Heavy clay soils support sparse stands of dropseed, shadscale, and prickly pear. Looser sandy soils support fair stands of Indian ricegrass as well as buckwheat, rabbitbrush, and saltbrush. Riparian tree species include cottonwood, willow, and box elder.19 In Kodachrome Basin, common plants include those of the pinyon-juniper association. Plants associated with the upper Sonoran life zone include yucca, prickly pear, sagebrush, snakeweed, evening primrose, and beeplant. In Bryce Canyon, plant life includes big sage­brush on the valley floor and pinyon and juniper below the rim. A ponderosa forest surrounds the campground and visitor center; it includes greenleaf manzanita, Rocky Mountain juniper, and antelope bitterbrush. South toward Rainbow Point, species include spruce, fir, and bristlecone pine. At Moquith Mountain, plant life include pon­derosa pine, pinyon, juniper, and Gambel oak. The canyons hold cot­tonwood and box elder. Stands of Douglas-fir may be found on south-facing canyon walls. Ponderosa pine can grow near the local sand dunes.20 Wildflowers in the county include sego lily, star lily, ceanothus, antelope bitterbrush, arrowleaf balsamroot, yarrow, bush cinquefoil, wax currant, yellow evening primrose, wild iris, Indian paintbrush, penstemon, wallflower, twinpod, Oregon grape, wild rose, blue columbine, Arizona thistle, scarlet gilia, aster, clematis, blue flax, rab­bitbrush, goldenrod, gumweed, and senecio.21 Geology A vast amount of Kane County's landscape is dominated by lay­ered rocks. The layers come in many different colors and arrange­ments, being formed from as much as 2 billion years ago to sediment being laid down today. From the sheer cliffs of pastel Navajo Sandstone rising more than 2,000 feet in Zion National Park to the pink hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, these rock formations inspire the imagination. Kane County's landscape has been variously laid down, uplifted, and shaped by wind and water erosion for the past hundreds of millions of years. The county's topographical features developed in sedimentary rocks on surface slopes extending from the high plateaus southeast THE LAND 25 to the Colorado River. Water is carried down these slopes into the canyons. Streams, typical of the region, run intermittently, flowing for short distances for most of the year; but during seasonal rains and local showers they flow more constantly. Despite the fact that there are few beaches or large areas of sand in dunes, sand piles are located between steam channels and at various places along the rivers' courses. Although the area feels like desert land, there actually are no stretches of salt and alkali except for the lower Escalante Valley, called the Escalante Desert by locals. The stretch of land between Wahweap and Rock Creeks has no water and only sparse, highly specialized types of vegetation that have adjusted over time to low rainfall levels and thin soil. In Glen Canyon, according to one study, soil, in the true sense of the word, is rare in the area. On flat-topped mesas and plateaus the soil, weathered from the underlying rock, forms a thin mantle, but even here the soil cover is not continuous. On the plateau edges the areas of disintegrated shale and sandstone have no agricultural value. In general the conditions are unfavorable for making and retaining soils. Scanty vegetation, absence of sod, sudden showers, and rapid runoff favor removal of the soil as rapidly as it is formed. Large areas of bare rock are exposed. Most of the soil that is present in this region is transported soil. It has been brought to its present position by streams and wind. Some depressions on the surface and some rock cracks have been filled with debris washed from nearby places. A number of former canyons and tributary valleys are flanked with soil deposited at high-water stages. Similar soil is displayed here and there at the bases of cliffs, on open flats, and within canyons.22 Like Bryce Canyon and other area canyons, Glen Canyon was carved out of sedimentary rock by a river-here the Colorado River wound its way over millenia through Navajo Sandstone and other rock deposited scores of millions of years before. Much of Glen Canyon and its side canyons are now submerged by the waters of Lake Powell, a loss bitterly lamented by many. The Glen Canyon region is actually a series of canyons of various sizes-deep, steep-walled, and separated by narrow ridges or broad mesas. The eleva­tion generally varies from the level of Lake Powell at about 3,700 feet 26 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY to mesas of more than 6,000 feet in elevation. The highest local ele­vation is 7,451 feet. The walls of the canyons, the mesas and buttes, and the rock that runs for miles and miles all feature only sparse vegetation. Wind sweeps across such areas, further stripping them of the plant covering that exists along creek beds or on the tops of plateaus. The colors of this land in great part are those of the rocks and canyons them­selves- reds and browns, with occasional bursts of gold or orange against darker walls of greys. Climate Kane County's aridity has impacted the land and its people in dramatic ways, making it difficult to farm and limiting sites for set­tlement. Hard local showers are characteristic of rainstorms, and the summer months of July, August, and September are the season of maximum precipitation. Rainshowers can drop large quantities of water on the ground, causing flat surfaces to become lakes and dry washes to run torrents. Plants, however, obtain only a small portion of this moisture due to subsequent rapid evaporation. Clear skies are normal more than 80 percent of the time. Snow may fall on the Kaiparowits Plateau any time between the middle of September to the middle of May and may stay on the ground for weeks or months. Snow rarely remains long enough to interfere with grazing on the lower lands drained by the Escalante River, Wahweap Creek, Warm Creek, Kanab Creek, and other streams near the Colorado River, however. Wildlife The Glen Canyon region and other riparian areas of the county abound in wildlife. Seasonal birds include western, eared, and pied-billed grebes; American white pelican; great blue heron; snowy egret; Canada goose; mallard; green-winged and cinnamon teals; shoveler; ring-necked duck; common goldeneye; turkey vulture; red-tailed and Swainson's hawks; northern harrier; prairie falcon; American kestrel; American coot; American avocet; black-necked stilt; killdeer; long-billed curlew; spotted, least, and Wilson's sandpipers; California, ring-billed, Franklin's, and Bonaparte's gulls; mourning and rock THE LAND 27 doves; black-throated, gray, and MacGillivary's warblers; red-winged blackbird; Cassin's finch; house, vesper, sage, and chipping sparrows; gray-headed junco; great horned and long-eared owls; black-chinned, broad-tailed, and rufous hummingbirds; downy woodpecker; west­ern and Cassin's kingbirds; Say's phoebe; dusky flycatcher; western wood-pewee; horned lark; violet-green and cliff swallows; American crow; mountain chickadee; pygmy nuthatch; and mockingbird. Mammals include pika, whitetail and blacktail jackrabbits, and mountain and desert cottontails. Abert, red, and rock squirrels are found in various areas. Spotted, antelope, and golden-mantled ground squirrels can also be found in the county. Whitetail prairie dog; least, Uinta, Colorado, and cliff chipmunks; northern and val­ley pocket gophers; five species of wood rats; muskrat; heather and Mexican voles; and porcupine are among the county's mammals. Coyote, red and gray foxes, black bear, ringtail, longtail and shorttail weasels, badger, striped and spotted skunks, river otter, bobcat, and mountain lion are among the area's carnivores and omnivores. Mule deer, pronghorn, and elk are larger game animals. Reptiles include striped whipsnake, western patch-nosed snake, gopher snake, common kingsnake, and western diamondback rat­tlesnake. Lizards include chuckwalla, collared, leopard, lesser earless, side-blotched, eastern fence, desert spiny, western whiptail, plateau striped whiptail, and desert horned.23 In the Paria River Valley no official inventory has been made of wildlife, but observed bird species include eagles, raven, hawks, dove, killdeer, white-throated swift, and cliff swallow. Mammals include raccoon, fox, beaver, bobcat, and mule deer. In Kodachrome Basin, observed birds include the golden eagle, raven, pinyon jay, mourning dove, robin, loggerhead shrike, moun­tain and western bluebirds, blue grosbeak, and lazuli bunting. Mammals include mule deer, mountain lion, coyote, spotted skunk, gray fox, bobcat, kit fox, kangaroo rat, and antelope ground squirrel. Bryce Canyon seasonal birds include the common nighthawk; white-throated swift; black-chinned, broad-tailed, and rufous hum­mingbirds; northern flicker; western wood pewee; horned lark; vio­let- green swallow; Steller's jay; common raven; mountain chickadee; white-breasted, red-breasted, and pygmy nuthatches; robin; Brewer's 28 HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY blackbird; and vesper and chipping sparrows. Mammals include long-legged and small-footed myotis, big brown bat, striped skunk, badger, gray fox, mountain lion, bobcat, yellowbelly marmot, golden-m a n t l e d g r o u n d squirrel, red and rock squirrels, Colorado chip­munk, n o r t h e r n pocket gopher, beaver, deer mouse, Utah whitetail prairie dog, coyote, mule deer. Reptiles and amphibians include tiger salamander; northern sagebrush, side-blotched, tree, and mountain s h o r t - h o r n e d lizards; s t r i p ed whipsnake, Great Basin rattlesnake, Rocky M o u n t a i n toad, Great Basin spadefoot toad, a n d leopard frog.24 One might travel through the seemingly desolate, isolated, and dry county and miss the incredible diversity which lies hidden or just beneath the surface. This is an area which speaks richly to the shifting currents of time and earth-its history is w r i t t e n on canyon walls and in river gorges. Nature here needs to be understood and appreci­ated for its great beauty and the lessons it can teach about strength and endurance. One of the most sensitive historians who has written about the area in his description of the Grand Canyon captures this essence: The unity and oneness, the wholeness of the Grand Canyon country is not apparent to the casual observer; it is fragmented by a profusion of manmade boundaries: state, county, national park, national monument, national forest, national game preserve, national recreation area, Indian reservation, to say nothing of township, and range. . . . The political boundaries that cut up the Grand Canyon tend to cause people to consider it politically rather than in terms of its history or its natural regions. . . . Man-made boundaries serve the purpose for which they were intended, but in the Grand Canyon country they never define or entirely encom­pass the natural geographical or physiographical unities, and they have little to do with the larger chapters of history.25 The "larger chapters of history" span millions of years of change, leaving traces, which speak to the cycles and rhythms of the natural world that h u m a n beings are powerless to change. THE LAND 29 ENDNOTES 1. "The Glen Canyon Survey in 1957," Anthropological Papers, University of Utah, No. 30.1, March 1958, 3. 2. Allan Kent Powell, The Utah Guide (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1995), 302. 3. John Perry and Jane Greverus Perry, The Sierra Club Guide to the Natural Areas of Colorado and Utah (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1985), 285. 4. "The Glen Canyon Survey in 1957," 4. 5. Powell, Utah Guide, 303. 6. C. Gregory Crampton, Land of Living Rock (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 38. 7. Perry and Perry, Sierra Club Guide, 296. 8. Ibid. 9. Powell, Utah Guide, 374. 10. Perry and Perry, Sierra Club Guide, 247. 11. Powell, Utah Guide, 37A. 12. See M.R. Tillotson, Frank Taylor, and Horace Albright, Grand Canyon Country (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1929). 13. Ibid., 85. 14. Powell, Utah Guide, 266. 15. Ibid., 320. 16. Ibid., 375. 17. Ibid., 366. 18. Perry and Perry, Sierra Club Guide, 276-77'. 19. Ibid., 277. 20. Ibid., 292. 21. Ibid., 248-49. 22. "The Glen Canyon Survey in 1957," 5. 23. Perry and Perry, Sierra Club Guide, 276. 24. Ibid., 247. 25. Crampton, Land of Living Rock, 6.