Where Is The Grand Canyon

Where Is The Grand Canyon

Knowing so many things about a place except its location is like going to a battle armed only with a shield. How many people can blurt out facts about the Grand Canyon with their eyes closed? And just how many of them know exactly where it is?

Colorado River's Grand Canyon is located northwest of Arizona. There was only little information on the Grand Canyon's geography up until the later half of the nineteenth century. Because its location is secluded, the Europeans were not able to extensively explore and map out in details the area surrounding the canyon. It was believed however, that the place had probably been visited by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas' and the rest of the members of the Spanish expedition in 1540.

Later on, around 1776, the Spanish priests Silvestre de Escalante and Francisco Dominguez were said to have explored the area while crossing the Colorado River. But unfortunately, they were not able to pass on a great amount of knowledge regarding the region to the succeeding generations. Hence, the main source of all the canyon's information were those that were taken from oral accounts of traders, fur trappers, and the mountain people, who were mostly led and guided along the canyon's rugged territory by the Native Americans.

Among the canyon's early guests, only Warren Augustus Ferris was able to create a map of the Grand Canyon. Even if he drew it in 1836, the map was only published in 1940, which never served a purpose to the explorers and geographers who trekked through the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River in the later part of the nineteenth century. However, Ferris was able to write, as well as publish a lot of articles during the 1840's. One of these was about the Grand Canyon, and became an additional source of information regarding the canyon's location.

The United States Geological Survey in 1907, created a compilation of the explorer's expedition routes from 1541 to 1844. This "map" showed the canyon's information prior to the official exploration made by the United States government. Another summary map in 1908 was produced by Robert Brewster Stanton, and includes the expeditions done from 1540 until the time of the map's publication.

Due to the earlier accounts about the Grand Canyon's impressive topography, several others have become interested to explore it. And even if it took quite a long time for people to make known its exact location, it has now become a landmark all by itself.