WELCOME TO A WILD AND LITTLE-KNOWN WEST
November 2021, seven comrades* of the Grand Canyon traveled with me for a few days to get some notion of how the land lies in the not-much-visited northwestern Canyon — north of the Colorado, the Shivwits Plateau region. I returned chagrined at how much I learned and have yet to learn after 60 years. (An Arizona map will put the area in context.)
This and accompanying entries will explore and make suggestions on matters to do with presentation and protection of the Canyon “out there” beyond the usual vistas. In order to make sense of my ruminations, Ive written four essays, with different emphases, some overlap, and aimed at the general goal of a coherent understanding of this west portion of the Grand Canyon.
A simple description, I find, is not possible here where there are a number of issues to consider: Is the area to be considered describable exactly; what are its boundaries; where does the Canyon end; what can we do about the sparse, mostly unhelpful even inaccurate, naming; can we enrich our understanding by seeking relevant names; how to connect with the western end on the Canyon’s south side, left bank, of the Colorado; what guidance might be provided to enrich a visitor’s experience; what is the appropriate guidance for protection and presentation of an area less-known yet still an integral part of that landscape we revere as the Grand Canyon?
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
* First, on that 2021 trip: Ken Agnew, Hazel Clark, Mrill Ingram, Tom Martin, Melissa Rigg, Susette and John Weisheit. Much appreciation to them for their interest, knowledge, cooperative organization and outfitting, and company.
Second: sometimes, not much. In the Grand Canyon. ‘Dry’ or ‘Burnt’ are names that say little about any uniqueness in a canyon. In contrast, farther east, ‘Kaibab’ is rich in meaning and associations. This meditation on our visit to the west provides the opportunity to mull over some better-informed, creative naming and honoring, point out some irrelevancies and puzzles, and ponder the definition of the western end of the Canyon.
Some naming was done on the north side in the 19th and mid-20th centuries, many words appropriated by explorers or incoming settlers from what they heard used by members of the Southern Paiute bands, the Kaibab, Uinkarets, and Shivwits. In the west, there is the canyon/spring/point named “Tincanebitts”. The Sanup — also with a ring of authenticity — Plateau is the middle level of the western Canyon, below the Shivwits rims, topographically similar to the Esplanade and the Tonto Platform farther east. Still, such area-relevant naming for the original inhabitants is not common. We do not, as well and of course, find a lot of women’s names either. Is that a puzzle?
What I find also strange is that, for instance, there are five or more side canyons draining off the Sanup into the main stem of the Canyon that are nameless. Yet we find three instances of “Snap”, along with “Pearce” for places nearby, though actually these go off away from the Canyon drainage.
Among the puzzles are the labels “Fort Garrett (ruins)” and “Fort Garrett Point”. The latter is applied (with no basis) to what is, we shall see, a very important, but neglected, Grand Canyon landmark. These two names appear on the 1971 USGS quads, Snap Canyon East & Bat Cave. On the piece of map I copied below, they are, respectively, in the upper middle (thick white line) and running along the right side (thin one).
However, these “map names” are not in the U.S. Board of Geographic Names search system, nor in Will Barnes, Arizona Place Names, U of A Press, 1988.
In fact, there never was any “fort” or such structure; and “Garrett” seems as non-existent. What led the USGS map-makers to pick up these monikers? As I say, a puzzle. Later map-makers, like the National Geographic, dutifully copied these names -- provenance, sense, or no.
We can speculate. There were certainly cattle runners, mostly Mormon migrants, in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The Sanup had winter grazing into the 1980’s, on the G&F (Gubler and Frei, ranchers of Utah) allotment. Only in the 1980’s and after was grazing ended in the Canyon on the National Park System entities of Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Grand Canyon National Park.
Zooming about the aerials of Googlemaps, even with great magnification, no “Garrett” shows on the view below. However, we do come across a “(ruin)”, rocks on top of one another, maybe “walls”? It lies to the northeast of the diagonal rocky line (a makeshift barrier?). I suppose those empty “walls” could have been part of a shelter.
One visitor noted an absence of roads, then measured out a “crude 12x14 rock shanty”, and suggested a connection with one Bill Shanley, a real local rancher of the 20th century. Odd then that the rockpile is not for a mighty “Fort Shanley”; indeed his name does not appear.
Moreover, and most relevant for our discussion about where we are, the little ruin is not even in the Grand Canyon or its drainage. It sits in the upper end of Pearce Canyon, as shown on the topo above. Pearce runs near due west through the Grand Wash Cliffs into the Basin & Range country and Lake Mead. Even if a label like “rock wall ruin” appeared on maps, why bother with a jokey “fort” or a long-disappeared Garrett? A bit of erasure and change is called for on future map edits.
YET SOMETIMES A NAME MATTERS
Particularly we should want to be clear about this entry because the vacuous label “Fort Garrett Point” is stuck on the USGS quad in a most important, strategic location: It is atop the last, westernmost, high-rim feature of the Grand Canyon! And indeed, of the Grand Canyon National Park. This distinctive peninsula has the stature to be celebrated and designated as a marker and viewing platform.
So in getting clarity in our understanding of this area, we will ignore the two “garrett”s and focus on the white-circled feature as it runs down the map’s right side. It is the rightfully important, but nearly ignored, — and I offer a temporary designation — Westernmost High Point (WHP) of the Grand Canyon.
To me, it then seems obvious public understanding and presentation of the Canyon’s topography will be enhanced if this WHP, this singular feature of the Grand Canyon, is given a name that respects both the Canyon, and the people originally inhabiting it, of the Southern Paiute.
I do not know what the Paiute word for “westernmost high point” might be. But in a spirit of “just making suggestions”:— I was reading about the Shivwits man on whom J W Powell relied during the latter’s 19th-century exploration of the area. His name as it comes down to us — Chuarumpeak — has a definite ring to it. (Reference USGS Prof. Paper 670, “John Wesley Powell and the anthropology of the Canyon Country”, D Fowler, R Euler, C Fowler).
A NAME — IN ITS CONTEXT — SMELLS SWEETER
To understand and see the western Canyon’s regional context, the BLM Arizona Strip map is wonderful. Below is just the part showing the southern-running points of the Shivwits plateau, the object of our November trip. On the left, I did add the green line to highlight the divide between washes flowing west away from the Canyon, and elevations that drain into the Grand Canyon in this part of the Park. My line first runs down along the WHP’s western edge, then curves across the Sanup, and finally drops down to the River. Across the river, that line continues south on the divide above Cave Canyon, the Grand Canyon’s next to last.
Actually, naming the Westernmost High Point is just the start of the opportunity to give some sparkle and relevance, some authenticity, a fresh look, at the names for the western Canyon’s features. Here is a quick survey going east from the WHP of what we now have: first comes the uninspired Dry Canyon, hedged by the next projection or peninsula (colored yellow) of Tincanebitts Point (and Canyon).
Then Burnt Point/Canyon is worth pointing out — as shown in the photo below — not for its name, but for the striking Hermit-shale Red Point that stretches out from it across the Sanup.
The photo was taken from far-extending Twin Point,— an obscure name that deserves upgrading to highlight its excellence as the area viewing platform. This view looks out over Red Point to the east rampart of the WHP, so that the designation “Chuarumpeak” shows its dignity and punch.)
Back on the map, next east is the kinked Suicide (whose? or meant to be suggestive?—bad idea) Point, and then the longest peninsula of all: 25 miles out to Kelly Point. Along the way are other named points — Amos, Price — for viewing west and east, although no vehicle trails show to them. This peninsula as an entity deserves a grand name, and more, better markers for its viewing treasures.
This quick survey suggests the value of re-thinking the mostly lackluster labels, giving impetus to seeking out in a cooperative consultative way appropriate names to memorialize the Southern Paiutes who made this area their home for some centuries before being chased away, enslaved, and sickened by such as the Utes, Navajo, Spanish, Mormons, Powell and friends, et al.
Yet If we get some momentum up to freshen and dramatize this singular and neglected area, why not do more? Opportunities show up from a close look at the middle level, the Sanup Plateau, and the canyons that drop from it to the river. Here is another aerial from way high:
Locate the WHP (and it is a suggestive feature, isn’t it?), and we can see its “snout”, its “nose”, points south, and from there going west, we can count one, two, three, four, even five unnamed side canyons. They are markedly incised in the Sanup, and carry the rim of the Canyon itself right above the river. Yet, none are distinguished by names: no cowboys, women, Paiutes, explorers, exotic gods, not anything. Seems like an opportunity.
However, there is a problem: The Grand Canyon’s drainage divide, its natural delineator, and the boundary of the National Park are out of whack west of the WHP. So in order to see where we are and what there is to know, I want to back up and in a second essay take a good look at how to best delineate the divides that mark out this wild west of the Grand Canyon.
Next: 002. Toward the Westernmost Canyon
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