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26 Time Lines
Pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson took this photograph of the Grand Canyon of the Yellow-
stone River during the 1871 United States Geological Survey of the Territories, lead by Ferdiand Hayden, in
the region that would become Yellowstone National Park. (William Henry Jackson/National Archives And
Records Administration via AP)
Something Grand
Grand Canyon: 100 years as a National Park
Grand Canyon was designated as a
national park on February 26, 1919
by President Woodrow Wilson after
35 years of dedicated efforts to pro-
tect this impressive landscape.
In 1903, President Theodore Roos-
evelt visited the site and said: “The
Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It
is beyond comparison—beyond de-
scription; absolutely unparalleled
through-out the wide world... Let this
great wonder of nature remain as it
now is. Do nothing to mar its gran-
deur, sublimity and loveliness. You
cannot improve on it. But what you
can do is to keep it for your children,
your children’s children, and all who
come after you, as the one great sight
which every American should see.”
Despite Roosevelt’s enthusiasm and
strong interest in preserving land for
public use, the Grand Canyon was not
immediately designated as a national
park. The first bill to establish Grand
Canyon National Park was intro-
duced in 1882 by then-Senator Benja-
min Harrison, which would have es-
tablished Grand Canyon as the third
national park in the United States,
after Yellowstone and Mackinac. Har-
100 Years Ago - The Grand Canyon