Work of the Ages
The photographs on this page were taken in Grand Canyon National Park.  The Grand Canyon is
considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.  When Pres. Theodore Roosevelt first
visited the Canyon in 1903, he said:  "The Grand Canyon is beyond description, it has a natural
wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world.  I hope no one
will ever mar the grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the Canyon.  It is the
work of the ages and man cannot improve it.  We must keep it for our children, our children's
children and all who come after us."
In 1906, he created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve and, two years later, the Grand Canyon
National Monument.  In 1918, Congress designated it a National Park.  The creation of the Park was
an early success for the environmental conservation movement.  In 1979, UNESCO declared Grand
Canyon National Park a World Heritage Site.
The quotes on this page, with the exception of the first, as noted, are from President Theodore
Roosevelt.  -- Nancy
You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a
changeless spectacle.  To see it, you have to toil from month to
month, through its labyrinths.  -- John Wesley Powell
At nightfall, the face of the country seems to alter marvelously.  The river
gleams like running quicksilver and the land seems to be stranger and wilder
than ever, the setting sun turning the country into a kind of grim fairyland.
Nothing could be more lonely or more beautiful than the view at nightfall
across the Canyon, when the lengthening shadows merge into one and
the faint afterglow of the red sunset fills the west.
The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of
its lonely freedom.  There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of
the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.
We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources.  But the time has
come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal,
oil and gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and
washed into the streams, polluting the rivers and denuding the fields.
Here in the United States, we turn our rivers into dumping-grounds, we
pollute the air, we destroy forests and exterminate fishes, birds and
mammals.  It is vandalism to wantonly destroy what is beautiful in nature,
whether it be a cliff, a forest or a species of mammal or bird.
The beauty of the wilderness is there for the asking, the edges of the
wilderness lie close beside the well-traveled roads of the present.
Rejecting the joy in nature is as real a misfortune as rejecting the joy in books.
We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each of us must
do our part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.  I recognize the right
of this generation to use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to
waste them or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.
Life is a great adventure...accept it in such a spirit.
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http://www.thepastwhispers.com/Grand_Canyon.html
Music:  Seven Spanish Angels

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