Human Landscape
Partners is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, dedicated to raising awareness and resources in support of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s scientific, interpretive, and educational programs.
"The monument has a long and dignified human history: it is a place where one can see how nature shapes human endeavors in the American West. In addition to occupations by the Anasazi and Fremont cultures, the area has been used by modern tribal groups, including the Southern Paiute and Navajo. John Wesley Powell’s expedition did initial mapping and scientific field work in the area in 1872. Early Mormon pioneers left many historic objects, including trails, inscriptions, ghost towns, rock houses, and cowboy line camps..." (Presidential Proclamation 6920, 1996)
The Monument has a long and dignified human history: it is a place where one can see how nature shapes human endeavors in the American West. In addition to occupations by the Anasazi and Fremont cultures, the area has been used by modern tribal groups including the Southern Paiute and Navajo.
Indeed, the distances, aridity, cliffs, and terraces have also shaped the communities which are located on the periphery of the Monument. It is these factors that severely limited historic settlement within the boundaries of GSENM and produced the landscape we see today.
The Monument is surrounded by a number of communities that were established between the 1860s and the 1880s by Mormon settlers looking for new resources and lands to support their families. Early Mormon pioneers left many historic objects and evidence of homes, developed dams, reservoirs and irrigations systems, and cemeteries around and within the Monument. While many of the historic sites are well known, many of the physical characteristics of the sites, the oral histories and folklore of the sites and landscapes remain largely undocumented.
For more information, visit the Cultural & Heritage page on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument website.
