The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1920-04-22
ZION: RIVAL OF YOSEMITE
Zion Canon Southern Utah One of the Most Beautiful
Spots on the Continent
By John Dickinson Sherman

The fierce Mormon zealot named it Little
Zion" because of its heavenly beauty. Away
back in the seventies John Wesley Powell of
Grand canon fame was tempted far out of
his way by the exceeding beauty of temple
of rock lifting its opalescent shoulders
against the eastern sky" 1t was the YER
million body and shining white dome of the
West Temple of the Virgin at the entrance
to Munkuntuweap.
Again we are impressed with the mar
velous beauty of outline, the infinite compli-
cation of these titanic buttes. 1t is doubtful
if in this respect the valley has its equal.
Not even the Grand canon offers more
varied spectacle; yet all is welded together
in superb ensemble" F. S. Dellenbaugh,
topographer of the Powell party, wrote this
on his second visit.
Nothing can exceed the wondrous
beauty of Zion canon" wrote c. E. Dutton.
In its proportions it is about equal to Yose-
mite, but in the nobility and beauty of its
sculptures there is no comparison. 1t is
Hyperion to Satyr."
Jack Lait wrote characteristic appre-
citation of Zion canon for a railroad admins
tration booklet, in which he said:
"Zion canon is an epic, written by
Mother Nature in her most ecstatic humor,
illustrated by Creation in its most majestic
manifestations, published by God Almighty
as an inspiration to all mankind. Zion canon
is the most beautiful spot on this continent.
I think have seen all the famed show-places
that the evolution of the earth's formation
has made. And of them all Zion to me
stands first, stands alone"
Zion has the double charm of form and
color, and it is hard to say which is the more
appealing. The entrance to the canon is
spacious and impressive. The course up the
Rio Virgin is tortuous and the variation of
view and of formation of the lofty walls is
great. At the end of six or seven miles of
canon the wall narrows to the stream. What
there is beyond is practically unknown. Thus
from the plateau above the visitor may look
down thousands of vertical feet into the
painted canon with its river. From the
river bank he may look up thousands of feet
with a changing view at every turn of the
canon
The entrance to the canon is most i'm
pressive.- To the west rises the West Tenn
pie (7,65O feet), Aanked by the Towers of
the Virgin. The guardian to the east is the
East Temule (7,OOO), Aanked by the
Watchman (6,350), and Bridge mountain
(6,650). Then come the Streaked Wall on
the west side and the Brown Wall on the
east side, topped respectively by the Three
Patriarchs and the Mountain of the Sun.
Extraordinary features of the wall forma-
ton include El Gobernador, the Great Or
gan and the Temple of Sinawava.
The visitor finally comes to a point
where the chasm is more than 1000 feet
deep and the walls so nearly touch that he
looks up to see no sky. The walls are prac-
tically vertical and parallel and warp in and
out, thus cutting off the blue above.
Here is revealed the secret of the Max
ing of Zion, as is pointed out by DIR. G. K.
Gilbert of the United States geological sur
vey. This chasm is an example of downward
erosion by sand-bearing water, which acts
like the marble saw. The cut is not entirely
vertical, because the current has carried the
cutting sand to one side or the other, and the
cut undalates both in its vertical and hori-
zontal sections.
The forms along the canon walls are
extraordinary And the colrs are ven more
striking. The famous Vermilion Cliff of
the Painted Desert here combines with the
White Cliff and we see thousand feet of
white superimposed on two thousand feet of
red. But this stratling combination is but
the BEGINNING of veritable riot of color.
The Vermilion Cliff rests on the Painted
Desert stratum feet Of a deeper red
set off by purple and n1auve shades. Below
this is hundred feet of brown and gray
conglomerate. The crowning touch is the
coloring of the upper SUBMITS of the White
Cliff. Here there are in places several hun
dred feet of varicolorcd shades and lime
stones whose scepage fantastically stains the