Grand Canyon Turns 90

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - The Grand Canyon is celebrating its 90th year as a national park.

Congress established the canyon as the country's 17th national park on Feb. 26, 1919.

Some 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon each year, known for its colorful landscape and immense size. In 1919, around 44,000 people visited the park.

Park Superintendent Steve Martin says the main draw for people around the world remains the remarkable landscape that touches people's souls in a way that few other places do.

Martin is expected to speak at a brief ceremony Thursday commemorating the anniversary and the opening of Verkamp's Visitor Center, which explains what it's like to live at the Grand Canyon and the history of the family that operated a gift shop out of the building for more than a century.

Grand Canyon Facts : 

• The Grand Canyon National Park encompassed 1,218,375 acres on the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona.
• The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and 5000 feet deep.
• The Grand Canyon cuts through the Colorado Plateau that is between 5000 and 9000 feet above sea level.

How the Grand Canyon came to be the Grand Canyon: 

• The Grand Canyon began forming six million years ago with the beginning erosion of the Colorado River.
• The Grand Canyon has been created in general because of the downward cutting of the Colorado River which flows thru the canyon.
• Another factor that has caused the Grand Canyon to form is the Kaibab Plateau (which is the north rim) is about 1200 feet higher then the Coconino Plateau (which is the southern rim). Water from the northern plateau flows into the canyon creating stream and eroding the earth, but the stream from the southern plateau flows in a southern direction away from the north therefore the canyon never fills with water it just continues to erode.

Life and Ecosystems in the Grand Canyon: 

• The Grand Canyon contains several major ecosystems.
• The Grand Canyon hosts five of the seven life zones and three of the four desert types in North America. If you were to travel from Mexico to Canada you would see the same five life zones represented in the Grand Canyon.
• The five life zones represented are the Lower Sonoran, Upper Sonoran, Transition, Canadian, and Hudsonian.
• Over 1,500 plant, 355 bird, 89 mammalian, 47 reptile, 9 amphibian, and 17 fish species are found in the park.
• Since the entire canyon has little soil there is very little vegetation is seen except on parts of the rims. The northern rim is partly forested with evergreens. In the depths of the valley very little grows except desert plants and Spanish bayonet.