100 Years of the Grand Canyon National Park

The Grand Canyon rang in 100 years as a national park yesterday. The striking landscape was carved out by the Colorado river in what is today northern Arizona. People have inhabited the desert landscape for thousands of years, with the oldest human artifact dating back 12,000 years.

The area is the second most visited national park with 6,380,495 visitors in 2018, falling behind the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While millions visit the park, there are currently two other indigenous tribes living in the Canyon: the Havasupai and Hualapai.

Yellowstone, a national park north of the Grand Canyon, was the first section of land to be established as a national park in the United States. About two years before the establishment of the Grand Canyon, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act creating the National Park Service, which manages federal land established as a park.