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The Grand Canyon
By: Erin, Jessica, Diamond, and Hillary

Would you like to visit the Grand Canyon that has overwhelming size and a colorful landscape? You should hop on the next flight to this amazing tourist attraction located in Arizona. This park is one of the first national parks to ever be discovered. It has fantastic landscape and is made up of rocks, valleys, cliffs, and hills. The rocks were built millions of years ago by water, ice and wind which is all a part of erosion and had the biggest impact on the Grand Canyon. This fantastic site is 5,000 feet deep and is 227 miles long. There are seventy-five different species who call this park home. The weather varies all the time with cold winters and mild peaceful summers.

Today scientists still don’t understand how the Grand Canyon was created. The area surrounding this park became a national monument on January 11, 1908. The national park was carved by the Colorado River over 6 million years ago. The first Europeans to spot the Grand Canyon were the Spanish Conquistadors. Also, long ago Native Americans lived in this area. These people built settlements within the Canyon. In the late 19th century there was great interest in the Grand Canyon because of its mineral resources, but pretty soon people discovered tourism would make more money than mining. The first luxury hotel was the El Tovar and it was located on the south rim in 1905. Today the Grand Canyon National Park has about five million visitors each year. Back in 1919 the park received only about 4,4oo vistors each year. The first train ride that brought paying passengers to the Grand Canyon was on the Santa Fe Railroad. The cost for the long 64 mile trip was $3.95. The first automobile to drive to the Grand Canyon was in 1902.

There was an extremely large part of the Grand Canyon that was unexplored. Then, after the civil war, in 1869 Major John Wesley Powell, a one- armed civil war veteran, who loved adventure, made the first record journey through the Canyon, the Colorado River. He was able to accomplish this 'journey" with several men in four small wooden boats, but only six men completed the journey.There are several historical buildings located around the South rim, but most of them are in the Grand Canyon village. * Buckey O'Neil Cabin was built by a man named William Owen O'Neil. The cabin was built because of a copper deposit nearby. This man had a wide variety of occupations. The cabin was the longest continually standing structure in the South Rim. Also, * Kalb Studio - This studio was built in 1904 by two brothers. Their names were Ellsworth and Emery Kalb. They filmed their journey down the Colorado River. This movie was shown in the studio until 1976 until Emery died at the age of 95 years old.

A major effect of force on the Grand Canyon is the Colorado River, which is where most of the Canyon's water supply is located. Since this national park has a very shallow root system when it rains all of the soil and plants wash away into the Colorado River. What happens next? Flash floods that move rapidly down the sides moving and taking what’s ever on the ground including rocks, soil and plants.

The Grand Canyon isn't the largest or deepest canyon in the world but it is valued for its spectacular size, depth, and the exposed layering of colorful rocks dating back to the Precambrian times. It was created through the incision of the Colorado River and it's tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted and the Colorado River system developed along its present past.

In conclusion the Grand Canyon is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States. It is considered to be one of the major natural wonders of the world!!!