Human Settlements
Human settlement in the region dates back 12,000 years, and hundreds of Native American pueblos are spread across this National Monument. The remains of the natives' villages, with houses, granaries, burial areas, and associated ruins, can be found here. This National Monument also contains one of the largest number of rock art sites in any nationally-protected area. Many of these petroglyphs are believed to be among the oldest in the United States.
The first white explorers into the region were Spanish missionaries and explorers from the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Expedition. Later, Mormon explorers searched the region during the 1860s, some of them settling on land that is now within the monument. They built one of the first ferry crossings on the Colorado River in 1871. That same year, John Wesley Powell ventured through this region during his scientific explorations of the Colorado River plateau.
Below the Vermilion cliffs runs the historic "wedding trail", a wagon route for Mormons who journeyed to have their marriages sealed in the temple at St. George, Utah, and then to return. The route, through remote country, was otherwise seldom used. Historical markers denote this history.
Today, the region surrounding the monument is relatively unspoiled with virtually no permanent inhabitants remaining and limited road access.
Read more about this topic: Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or settlements:
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“That those tribes [the Sac and Fox Indians] cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)