A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN UTAH
and
ITS NATIONAL PARKS
By Angus M. Woodbury[1]
[1]Angus M. Woodbury was born of pioneer parents in St. George, Utah, July 11, 1886. His early education was obtained in the schools of his native town and Salt Lake City, and he was graduated from Brigham Young Academy, Provo, in 1906. Two years later he joined the U. S. National Forest Service, and in the varied employments of this work, gradually developed the dominant interest of his life, the natural history of the West. For a brief season, 1920-21, he tried stock-breeding on his father’s farm at St. George, but soon returned to his major interest, pursued further studies at Dixie College, and was active in the naturalist service of Zion National Park from 1925 to 1933. In 1928 he received his Master’s degree from the University of Utah, and in 1931 his doctorate from the University of California. He has been a member of the faculty of the University of Utah since 1927, and has done much to develop and strengthen its biological and zoological departments while keeping in close touch with field work in Southern Utah. He has published numerous monographs and studies dealing with the biota, fauna and flora of the West, and has achieved national recognition for the scientific accuracy of his reportings. His interest in the history of Southern Utah has always been keen, and in 1931 he published in the Utah Historical Quarterly (Vol. IV, pp. 35-46) a study entitled “The Route of Jedediah S. Smith in 1826 from the Great Salt Lake.” This present work is a summary of data, most of which was accumulated for use in his work as naturalist in Zion Canyon, but which has been checked and elaborated since. In January, 1909, Dr. Woodbury married Grace Atkin, descendant of Charles L. Walker, pioneer St. George wit and poet. Together they make their home in Salt Lake City, and are the parents of six children.
The Indian Heritage
Zion Canyon had already been carved half-a-mile deep in the brilliant Navajo sandstone and most of its geological history had passed long before the eyes of man beheld its glory. One of the world’s rare beauty spots, lying within Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, it serves as a striking example of the thousands of flaming gorges or red box canyons eroded through millions of years on the edges of the plateaus along the Colorado River in southern Utah and northern Arizona.
Prehistoric man came and left his ruins, relics and pictographs strewn along the floor of the canyon, hidden under sheltering arches and boulders, buried in mounds or etched on the faces of the cliffs. Myths, legends and traditions played their part in linking the ancient inhabitants with the modern Indians.
In spite of the fact that primitive cliff dwellers used to live in Zion Canyon, the Indians of more recent date appear to have avoided it as a camping ground. There seems to have been something mysterious and foreboding in the gloomy depths of twilight and darkness that appalled these semi-savages. So far as can be determined from both Indians and early white settlers, the natives especially avoided the canyon after sundown. O. D. Gifford, a pioneer of Springdale, says they never camped above its mouth. They would go up the canyon in the daylight but invariably would come back before dark.
E. C. Behunin, who lived in Zion Canyon from 1862 to 1872, says he never saw an Indian come above Springdale, and although his father tried to induce Indians to work for him, they could never be persuaded to venture into the upper part of the canyon. John Dennett, who farmed in Zion for many years after 1875, says the Indians never raised crops in Zion, except the little they did for the white settlers; and that they were very superstitious about the canyon. Other early settlers add the same testimony.
Tony Tillohash, an educated Shivwits Indian, says an Indian would not dare go alone into Zion Canyon. The solitary traveler might be killed without warning. Kai-ne-sava was not the main spirit in the supernatural hierarchy of the Paiute, an honor reserved for the Wolf-god, variously rendered as Shin-na′-wav or Sin-na′-wava. Rather, Kai-ne-sava was a mysterious being of changeable moods. There was no assurance of his friendship and he had to be propitiated. He might whistle or yell at any moment while remaining invisible. Again, he might reveal himself in the distance in human form and then disappear when approached. His movement might stir up a whirlwind of dust and then trail away into nothing. Sometimes he built fires (lightning) on the West Temple or other places inaccessible to human beings. The smoke from fires on the West Temple could be seen for many miles in every direction. Kai-ne-sava then was sending a message.
He pushed the rocks that fall down in Zion. His mood might be capricious. If so, the Indians must keep out of the way. Then it was no use to hunt, for Kai-ne-sava would frighten the deer before the Indian could get close enough to shoot. Sometimes he would tantalize by taking the form of a big buck deer with spreading antlers, and would hide and jump out in front of the Indians with such great bounds that they could not pierce him with their arrows no matter what their skill. On such days it was better to go home.