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Zion National Park is located in the
Southwestern United States, near
Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile (590 km2) park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored
Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the
Virgin River. The lowest elevation is 3,666 ft (1,117 m) at Coalpits Wash and the highest elevation is 8,726 ft (2,660 m) at Horse Ranch Mountain. Located at the junction of the
Colorado Plateau,
Great Basin, and
Mojave Desert regions, the park's unique
geography and variety of
life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of
bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park's four life zones:
desert,
riparian,
woodland, and
coniferous forest. Zion National Park includes
mountains,
canyons,
buttes,
mesas,
monoliths,
rivers,
slot canyons, and
natural arches.
Human habitation of the area started about 8,000 years ago with small family groups of
Native Americans; the semi-nomadic
Basketmaker Anasazi (300 CE) stem from one of these groups. In turn, the
Virgin Anasazi culture (500 CE) developed as the Basketmakers settled in permanent communities.
[4] A different group, the
Parowan Fremont, lived in the area as well. Both groups moved away by 1300 and were replaced by the Parrusits and several other
Southern Paiute subtribes.
Mormons came into the area in 1858 and settled there in the early 1860s. In 1909 the
President of the United States,
William Howard Taft, named the area a National Monument to protect the canyon, under the name of
Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1918, however, the acting director of the newly created
National Park Service changed the park's name to
Zion, the name used by the Mormons. According to historian
Hal Rothman: "The name change played to a prevalent bias of the time. Many believed that Spanish and Indian names would deter visitors who, if they could not pronounce the name of a place, might not bother to visit it. The new name, Zion, had greater appeal to an ethnocentric audience."
[5] The
United States Congress established the monument as a National Park on November 19, 1919. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate
Zion National Monument in 1937, but was incorporated into the park in 1956.
The
geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine
formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly
Mesozoic-aged
sedimentation. At various periods in that time warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments covered the area. Uplift associated with the creation of the
Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3,000 m) starting 13 million years ago.
[6]
Source: Wikipedia
This model is created at a scale of 1:200,000 with 2.5x vertical exaggeration. It features a built-in base, so it sits perfectly on a desk or in a frame.
Model Data Sources: USGS, FSA