Zion: The Art that Made the Park

This is where art enters the equation, and the days before social media, even before television ads for vacation travel, paintings brought the wonders of faraway places to the masses. I'm Jason Epperson, and this is the America's National Parks Podcast.

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com to book your RV rental using the promo code PARKS30 for $30 off a $500 or more booking. Lyman Hafen, executive director of the Zion Natural History Association, wrote, people were drawn into an understanding of Zion by visitors whose eyes were tuned differently, with the objective of studying it, painting it, photographing it, or writing about it. In the process, they fell in love with the place, and they spared no words, paint, or film in evoking its beauty, not only for those who lived in the middle of it, but to the rest of the world. Nowadays, we think of chronicling our travel via cell phone photos. Back in 1871, when Major John Wesley Powell embarked on his second Colorado River expedition, he brought along the multi-talented Frederick Dellenbaugh, whose official role was assistant topographer and expedition artist.

Dellenbaugh was also a well-known writer and had a reputation as an explorer in his own right. While Powell documented his geologic study as a written treatise, Dellenbaugh captured the visuals. As much as Dellenbaugh recorded his impressions of the park during Powell's expedition, it was his return to Zion in 1903 that ultimately linked his work with the establishment of the park. Three decades after his first foray into the canyon and its surrounds, Dellenbaugh spent months there, taking photographs, keeping a journalist's diary, and making many sketches. He brought these raw materials back to his studio, where he produced a series of paintings of the park that were about to make a big splash on the world stage.

In January 1904, Dellenbaugh wrote an article for Scribner describing Zion to the publication's large readership. One hardly knows just how to think of it. Never before has such a naked mountain of rock entered into our minds. Without a shred of disguise, its transcendent form rises, preeminent. There is almost nothing to compare it to.

Niagara has the beauty of energy, the Grand Canyon of immensity, the Yellowstone of singularity, the Yosemite of altitude, the ocean of power. This great temple of eternity. With these words, Dellenbaugh began his dance of temptation to the country. Yellowstone and Yosemite had already been established as national parks, but the following year he proved that pictures speak louder than words. The paintings that Dellenbaugh created were exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair in St.

Louis, Missouri. From April through December, the paintings were viewed by throngs of people who could not believe. such scenes, with their towering canyon walls and vivid colors were real. Literally, skeptics declared that Dellenbaugh's paintings were fake, of an imaginary place. Although that disbelief would make his paintings no less beautiful, they would not have had the same impact if not for a young man named David Hershey, who grew up in the foothills outside Zion.

As a visitor to the fair, he was appalled at the viewer's disbelief and announced emphatically that he could attest that there was indeed such a place, and could point out locations in the paintings with personal stories of his escapades there. Hershey's testimony, if it can be called that, brought the realism and wonder back to Dellenbaugh's depictions of this place too beautiful to imagine. The popularity of Dellenbaugh's paintings and the words of his 17-page Scribner article helped influence President Taft to proclaim Makuntawip a national monument in 1909.. But the job of artists in bringing Zion to the American people did not end with Dellenbaugh. America's embracing of outdoor national treasures was heavily entwined with the railroad industry.

The emergence of national parks, which were far off the beaten path, tempted the railroad companies to build railroad lines that brought visitors to the park. It was not only train fare, they coveted, the railroads were very influential. Railroads built the lodges at many national parks. They offered tour trips. National parks became big business for the railroads, Zion included.

The Union Pacific Railroad contracted artists to create compelling images to lure visitors and their wallets to Zion. One such artist was Howard Russell Butler, who created seven stunning paintings of Zion for the railroad. Butler's use of color and light catched the eye in scenes including the Temple of Sinawava and the Narrows, both popular destinations in the park today. The paintings were used for travel exhibitions and museums in highly populated areas of the East Coast, such as the American Museum of Natural History and eventually the Buffalo Museum of Science, where the canvases would be retired and put into storage, never quite achieving the artistic pedigree of Dellenbaugh or other famous national park artists, such as Thomas Moran, famous for his paintings of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.

In 1999, 50 years after Butler's paintings arrived at the Buffalo Museum of Science, the museum donated them to the park, which had established its own museum way back in 1928.

. During the years of travel, exhibition, and storage, the canvases had sustained a variety of damage – tears, paint chips, abrasions, distortion, and accumulation of grime. The paintings have since been restored and are an integral part of the museum's collection, along with Dellenbaugh's 1903 oil painting titled simply, Zion Canyon, which was acquired via auction after the park superintendent verified that it was indeed one of Dellenbaugh's Zion paintings displayed at the 1904 World's Fair. The early art of Zion was not limited to drawings and paintings. By the mid-1800s, explorers did sometimes have photographers in their crew, but photography was a bulky, clumsy exercise.

at that time. The cameras were huge. The photographic plates that predated film were glass, heavy, and breakable. The chemicals were tricky to transport. It wasn't simply a matter of sending a roll of film off for processing.

A photographer might take a few images, carrying the plates along for the duration of the journey, hoping they would survive the trip. As photography matured, photographic images of Zion piqued the interest of more people. Even the most famous nature photographer, Ansel Adams, created a small portfolio of Zion National Park, capturing the contrast of sunlight against the cliffs and the unique shapes of Zion in his unique sense of perspective. But most of the historical art canon of Zion is paintings, the infusing of an artist's experience and yearning into the magical reality of what the eye can see. Since Dellenbaugh's time and Butler's advertising paintings, what is the state of Zion art now that it is no longer needed to promote the park?

The answer is that art is alive and well in Zion. In the past century, Zion remains a source of inspiration to artists who strive to capture the magic that is Zion in the stroke of their pencil or paintbrush. The works range from realistic portrayals to dreamlike images, to abstract art. The imagination knows no limits. One prominent current Zion artist is Roland Lee, a Los Angeles native, who transplanted himself to Zion, where he owns a cabin near the rim of the canyon.

His paintings are stunning, capturing the majesty of every nook and cranny of the park, including the familiar scenes of the Watchmen, Temple of Sinawava, the Sentinel, the Great White Throne. But Lee's paintings have a softness about them, an intimacy, as if he wraps the beauty of Zion in a shroud of love. He refers to Zion as God's artistic impression. Perhaps Frederick Dellenbaugh best expressed the need to capture the beauty of Zion on canvas, boiling it down to an artist's model. This immense prodigality of color is startling, perhaps painful.

It seems to the inflexible mind, unwarranted, immodest, as if nature had stripped and posed nude, unblushing before humanity. Zion National Park is in southwest Utah, one of the earliest national parks. It's a favorite, ranking third in popularity among the 63 U.S. national parks behind Great Smoky Mountains and the Grand Canyon. And with good reason.

The park has something for everyone, whether you're a wilderness adventurer, a casual hiker, or someone who prefers scenic drives or beautiful vistas from a comfortable lodge. Zion has several distinct sections, the Zion Canyon, Kolob Canyons, and Kolob Terrace. Zion Canyon is the most heavily visited. It includes the scenic drive, with its iconic towering views and hikes, the visitor center, and Human History Museum. And East Zion, with its own spectacular landmarks, such as the mile-long tunnel cut into the rock, the checkerboard mesa, a stone hill with a crosshatch pattern in the rock, a landscape of petrified sand dunes, and a series of thrilling switchbacks through the mountains that separate the east entrance from the scenic drive.

Kolob Canyons is in the northwestern corner of the park, about an hour's drive from Zion Canyon, and is formed by narrow, deep red box canyons with cliffs towering 2,000 feet above the canyon floor. Kolob Terrace is a high plateau west of Zion Canyon and consists mostly of wilderness trails. Two of the famous and difficult hikes in Zion Canyon are Angels Landing and the Narrows. Angels Landing is a steep, 5.5 mile hike with a very narrow ridge leading to the summit. The Narrows Trail is literally in the Virgin River, through cold, fast-moving water.

There are many types of activities in Zion, aside from hiking. Biking is very popular, and there are bicycles available at the park. Other popular things to do include backpacking, canyoneering, camping, birding, rock climbing, horseback riding, floating, and stargazing. Both Zion Canyon and Kolob Canyons have visitor centers. Geology enthusiasts will find many layers of rock and paleontological discoveries.

Zion is comprised of many ecosystems, from riparian and aquatic to desert. Among the plentiful wildlife at the park include endangered and threatened species such as the Mexican spotted owl and Mojave Desert tortoise, as well as the California condor and peregrine falcon. Wildflowers abound, ponderosa pines grow out of cracks in the rocks, and the park has forests of juniper, aspen, and mixed conifers. Zion National Park is worth a visit on its own merit, but can be combined with other parks for a fabulous adventure on a grand scale. It's part of the collection of national parks in Utah nicknamed the Mighty Five – Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks.

The parks are connected via some of the many Utah scenic byways, making the drive between them quite spectacular, passing through and near national forests, national monuments, and state parks.

America's National Parks Facebook group, and if you're interested in RV travel, we hope you'll also check out our RV Miles podcast and YouTube channel. Today's show was sponsored by RV Share. Visit rvshare.com to rent an RV for your next national park adventure, and use promo code PARKS30 for $30 off a $500 or more booking.