Anglo Settlement

Human population growth in Arizona and New Mexico, 1870-1993 (data from U.S. Bureau of the Census 1975, 1994)

Anglo-American settlers considered the Colorado Plateau an obstacle to be avoided in their quest for California riches. As a result, Anglo settlement came late to the Plateau;  most human-induced change in the region has occurred since about 1870.

Although early Mormon pioneers struggled to bring agricultural settlement south to the Colorado Plateau from Salt Lake City, it was the development of market forces and the arrival of the railroad which finally initiated a period of rapid population growth and resulting transformation of the region's natural systems. Notable agents of change that accompanied this settlement include grazing, mining, fire suppression, logging, road construction, introduction of exotic plants and animals, and dams and water diversion. Although the region has so far escaped intense urbanization, it has provided much of the water, power, and mineral resources required by the great western cities that surround it, including Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles (see The Grand Plan, an essay by Ray Wheeler on resource development of the Colorado Plateau).

Resources:

Bancroft, H. H. 1890. History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888. The History Company Publishers, San Francisco.

Hughes, D. J. 1967. The story of man at the Grand Canyon. Bulletin #14. Grand Canyon Natural History Association, Grand Canyon, AZ, 93 pp.

Sheridan, T. E. 1995. Arizona: A history. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 434 pp.

Wilkinson, C. F. 1999. Fire on the plateau: Confict and endurance in the American Southwest. Island Press/Shearwater Books, Washington, D.C., 402 pp.