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Kimes Entry Number
245
Original Date
11-1-1902
Publication
The Century Magazine, v. 65, no. 1
Page/Column
pp. 107-116
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "The Grand Canon Of The Colorado." (1902). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes, 1986 (Muir articles 1866-1986). 278.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/278
William and Maymie Kimes Annotation
In commenting on the modern conveniences of travel that make the ""earth's wonders"" available to all, Muir deplores the desolation that accompanied progress in the building of roads and railways. He writes: ""Fortunately, nature has a few big places beyond man's power to spoil-the ocean, the two icy ends of the globe, and the Grand Canon."" Believing that he ""cannot tell the hundredth part of the wonders"" of the canyon, nevertheless he delineates its great depth, its vast spaces, and its ""gigantic architectural rock forms gorgeously colored and adorned with towers and spires like works of art."" In urging visitors to descend to the bottom of the chasm, Muir writes: ""Walking quietly about in the alleys and byways of the Grand Canon City, we learn something of the way it was made .... In no other part of the continent are the wonders of geology, the records of the world's auld lang syne, more widely opened . . . . The whole canon is a mine of fossils ... forming a grand geological library-a collection of stone books .... And as we go on and on, studying this old, old life in the light of the life beating warmly about us we enrich and lengthen our own.""