How the Canyon Became Grand: A Short History

It's a really interesting story of the Canyon's history, also providing rich insights into Arizona history, to say nothing the "psychology" of discovering unknown landscapes. Well documented, highly readable.

A Zen saying: "More Words Mean Less." When three words are adequate this author uses seven or eight or more. This book easily would have made a decent journal article. Skip this book if you can! A far more interesting read is Ann Zwinger's "Downcanyon; A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon."

the story is much more complicated than we ever imagined

This book is full of excellent info for those traveling to the Canyon. Knowing the history of the Canyon through explorers, scientists and those with political interest helped to appreciate the value of this Grand and thought provoking American icon.

Good experience

This is one of those books I bought a long time ago ― about 16 or 17 years ago I think ― and that I started reading then before setting it aside temporarily, as I supposed, and turning to other matters. When I stumbled across it again a few weeks ago I decided to have another go at it: the planets were in alignment and, after all, it's only 199 pages long, including the end matter.The 1998 book is Stephen J Pyne's How the Canyon Became Grand: A Short History, the canyon in question being, of course, northern Arizona's Grand Canyon. I was not far into my recent second attempt at this book before remembering why I set it aside the first time, after about 35 pages. The book title is deceptive ― at least, it had deceived me ― and this is not the book I thought it would be. From the title I'd expected a geo-centric text, one spanning millions of years of successive continental depositions of sediment and magmatic intrusions, to be followed likewise by millions of years of erosive activity in which the canyon was duly carved and sculpted by the wild Colorado River and supplementary erosive forces. In brief, I thought I'd bought a book about the canyon itself.That's not what we have here, except in relatively brief passages. Instead, this curious book concerns itself with the impact of human consciousness and aesthetics on the canyon and its geomorphology, and the inevitable feedback loop of the vice versa. Pyne is concerned with the Grand Canyon of the mind and how Homo sapiens, with its ever-evolving philosophies and perceptions, became conceptually capable of perceiving of a canyon as being grand. It therefore becomes a book of historical encounters with the canyon by various larger-than-life personalities with unique perspectives. The book reads sometimes as biography, sometimes as an adventure story, sometimes as scientific analysis and synthesis, sometimes like a travelogue, sometimes as a chronicle of political conflict, meaning the usual clash between short-sighted financial gain vs. the ageless potency of wilderness.Once I'd recognized that this is not the book I wanted it to be, I commenced reading it for the book it is. Although it seems to me an unusual artifact among Grand Canyon literature, it is an interesting one. And Pyne is a very good writer too, blending an impressive vocabulary with his unfamiliar abstract connections. I found the graphs at the end to be of little use, but they are easily ignored if you feel the same way.Don't be deceived by the title as I was. Perhaps it might more fittingly have been titled something along the lines of: Grand Canyon of the Mind: How Perceptions of the Canyon Have Evolved.

"How the Canyon Became Grand" is is a wonderful intellectual history of the Canyon, in other words, an overview of how non-Native American people have thought about it, conceptualized it, and struggled to depict it over the course of American History. It is the story of how the Grand Canyon evolved over time from nothing but a big obstacle to getting somewhere else (for the first Spanish explorer) to the place Teddy Roosevelt said every American MUST see in their lifetime. As such, it is a short but fascinating read. Pyne's deep love for the canyon is evident, but this is NOT a work of nature writing, natural history, personal experience, spiritual reflection, or a coffee table book/souvenir. All the previous negative reviews I've read seem to result from the fact that those readers were looking for something entirely different.The "Grand" Canyon is deeply embedded in our American identity now, but Pyne details how Europeans and European Americans initially struggled to comprehend, portray, or paint the Canyon. The magnitude and type of landscape was so outside of "Old World" experience and understanding that artists struggled to see or capture it through old paradigms (which didn't work), and over time had to develop entirely new ones to make any sense of it artistically. Pyne traces the long term development of painting and drawing of the Canyon, through to the commodification of the area by Mary Colter and others, and the nationwide advertising campaigns by railroad companies to turn it into THE great family destination. Through these combined cultural forces, the Southwest and the Grand Canyon were transformed in a few decades from a remote and frightful wilderness to the nation's most heralded tourist attraction."How the Canyon became Grand" would not be the book to introduce someone to the Canyon for the first time, nor is it a personal or descriptive account of the life-changing splendor of that incredible place. But if you love American History, the history of painting, or just deeply love the Canyon and want to expand your thinking about it, this is absolutely one of my favorite books.