Secretary of the Interior Haaland appointed a committee to find and re-name inappropriate, or worse, names on features in national parks. I recently put out a post praising the change in Grand Canyon from the old Indian Gardens to Havasupai Gardens. Here is my suggestion for another deserving name change.
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Sent June 22,2023
To: Andrea DeKoter, Committee Manager
Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names
Subject: Replacing an Inappropriate Name in Grand Canyon National Park
In the west end of the Park, there is a false, misleading name on a most significant, if little-known, feature. The existing name for this point -- Fort Garrett -- totally ignores the long history of the Southern Paiute in the Canyon and its vicinity. It needs to be removed and replaced by a name honoring the Southern Paiute.
There is not in the vicinity, nor ever has been, a fort or any military structure, or so far as I know, any military activity. The use of the word “fort” is a slur on those who lived here for centuries, and peacefully, and on the Grand Canyon as an environmental icon and world-wide attraction, itself with no military connections. “Garrett" is unidentified, possibly that of an itinerant cow hand. A ruin of a shack to the west down in Pearce Canyon also carries the false name.
The Point at issue, shown on the attached maps, reaches 6251’ at its southern end. With a distinctive outline as seen from above, it is the Westernmost High Point (WHP) of the main rim of the Grand Canyon. As such it should be recognized and publicized for its location and viewing platforms. Just as important, I believe, this WHP should be graced with an appropriate name from the Southern Paiute.
I have attached three maps to provide orientation and clarity for my suggestion.
The first, the USGS National Map, shows the topography, with green lines tracing the boundary of the Park, as well as Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument. The WHP is circled. An “x” marks the location in Pearce Wash off the ruined shack.
The second map is an enlargement of the National Map to show where “Fort Garrett Point” appears.
The third, Google map contains location data for the Point, as well as depicting the WHP in its setting above the Sanup Plateau.
The Point under consideration is, as I say, of geologic, topographic, and public significance. It overlooks the Grand Canyon’s mid-level, here called the Sanup Plateau, and the Colorado River’s inner gorge. It is also relevant that the Sanup Plateau is a Southern Paiute word for the sap of the piñon pine, common in the plateau’s nooks. Daniel Bulletts, cultural resource director of the Southern Paiute Tribe, explains: “We pronounce it ‘SUE-nupp,’ our word for pine pitch. You can use it as a glue or a skin salve.” (from Tyler Williams, “Coming to an End”, Arizona Highways,)
(The nearby Snap Point, although used as a boundary marker for Grand Canyon National Park, is not actually part of the Grand Canyon, draining west into Grand Wash and Lake Mead.)
I have no expertise in the language or history of the Southern Paiutes, but I have read that a man named Chuarumpeak was a main source of information for John Wesley Powell when he was carrying out his studies of the area after having run the Grand Canyon in 1869. It is a name of this sort that I would urge your committee to research with the Southern Paiute people, so that the most appropriate could be selected for the formal re-naming of the WHP.
The WHP is approached on an unpaved track, which does not go on out to the end of the point. One major attraction is that the Arizona Strip is the hinterland of, and contains major back-country approaches to, the Grand Canyon’s north side. Many of us familiar with the Arizona Strip and its remoteness and attractions believe that major decisions will have to be made by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U. S. Forest Service as to what quality of development, or the abstaining from development, will most suit this region’s conditions, current uses, and overall place as a now-exciting approach to the Grand Canyon.
In conclusion, I urge your committee to undertake as a priority an appropriate re-naming of the Grand Canyon’s Westernmost High Point honoring the Southern Paiute, giving prominence and recognition to this now little-known marker of the Canyon’s grand sweep.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jeffrey Ingram
Tucson AZ
Map 1. Location of the Grand Canyon’s Westernmost High Point (circled) showing boundary lines for National Park,
Recreation Area, and Monument.
Map 2. Close-up of Westernmost High Point, showing inappropriate name. “X” indicates location of ruin of line shack in
Pearce Wash, outside the Grand Canyon drainage
Map 3. Google locator aerial view with WHP circled in red
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