North Rim Entrance Road Corridor: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Grand Canyon National Park

Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: The North Rim Entrance Road Corridor component landscape is composed of the North Rim Entrance Road Corridor, and within it, the Entrance Station Sub Area. The generally north-south corridor encompasses the Entrance Road and its associated pull offs, the viewsheds— including adjacent meadow and forest areas—and other adjacent nodes and features, such as the 1939 park entrance sign and metal culverts with rubble headwalls. The corridor passes the Entrance Station, which is comprised of the checking/registration station, divided entrance and exit lanes, a parking lot, and a nearby employee residence and access roads, and extends in a series of gentle curves, traveling approximately ten miles in a southerly direction through scenic, largely undeveloped forests and meadows. The North Entrance Road and the Entrance Station were constructed as part of an NPS effort to make the North Rim of the Grand Canyon accessible to visitors. In 1927, the Utah Parks Company was named concessionaire for visitor facilities on the North Rim, and a year later in 1928, the construction of the first Grand Canyon Lodge was begun. To access these new amenities, the North Rim Entrance Station was built in 1928, and the Entrance Road was constructed between 1930 and 1931, improving upon an earlier rutted wagon road leading to Bright Angel Point. The original road alignment ran from the Entrance Station to the Bright Angel Peninsula by connecting to Cape Royal Road. When Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps arrived in the park in 1933, they further improved the road by focusing on fuel reduction practices, re vegetation efforts, and erosion prevention measures. All of these developmental, recreational, and conservation initiatives were typical of NPS practices during the period, and the effects of which continue to characterize the Entrance Road today. At the state level, the North Rim Historic Entrance Road is significant under Criteria A and C for important events and design efforts within the areas of Landscape Architecture, Transportation, Conservation, Entertainment/Recreation, and Politics/Government. The period of significance for the corridor extends from 1928 to 1942. This period begins when the Entrance Station was built in 1928, demarcating the official park boundary and entrance point as well as setting the initial alignment of the future North Rim Entrance Road. The period of significance ends in 1942 with the completion of New Deal era improvements within the road corridor. As with many other facilities on the North Rim, the Historic Entrance Road Corridor owes its form to NPS park planning principles and design aesthetics developed during the 1920s and 1930s.

North Rim Entrance Road Corridor: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Grand Canyon National Park

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