Glen Canyon

A small part of the lower end of Glen Canyon extends into northern Arizona and terminates at Lee's Ferry, near the Vermilion Cliffs.

Contrary to popular belief, Lake Powell was not the result of negotiations over the controversial damming of the Green River within Dinosaur National Monument at Echo Park; the Echo Park Dam proposal was abandoned due to nationwide citizen pressure on Congress to do so.

Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to dismantle the dam and drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon.

Studies indicate a chronology for the Lower Glen Canyon prehistory, "from pre-A.D. 1 to the 15th century and recorded history from 1776 to the present".

Basketmaker II is characterized by a lack of pottery, as well as above-ground and underground cists lined with slabs.

[2]: 65  In the highlands, granaries were near or incorporated into permanent pueblos, compared with smaller ones near temporary sites in the canyon.

"Stone tool manufacturing appears to have been an important industry for the entire Glen Canyon region, perhaps one of the major reasons for occupation".

There is a lack of siliceous material in the highlands, but tools are found there made from the gravel beds in the river.

Around 1956, archaeologists and biologists from the University of Utah and the Museum of Northern Arizona including Gene Field Foster, using National Park research grants, planned an emergency survey of Glen Canyon, which was soon to be flooded by the new Glen Canyon Dam.

To prove this thesis of seasonal habitation, criteria such as architectural units, locations of trail systems, occurrence of ceremonial structures, prevalence of burials, and position of natural and cultural strata were investigated.

Painted figures have been reported for both sides of the river.... Petroglyph panels of such quality are lacking from the highland regions adjacent to Glen Canyon".

The Sierra Club and many other conservation organizations were instrumental in blocking the proposed Echo Park Dam in Dinosaur National Monument.

In 1962, the Sierra Club's David Brower and many others floated the Colorado River through the canyon and realized the tremendous resource it was.

American writer Edward Abbey also documented his experience exploring Glen Canyon from the Colorado River prior to the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in his 1968 memoir Desert Solitaire, in the chapter titled "Down the River".