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Utah: 1920’s - 1950’s
National Forests, Parks and
Monuments
World War II: Topaz and Navajo
Code Talkers
National Forests, Parks, and
Monuments
Fun Facts
 Government wanted to protect natural land
thus they created national parks and
monuments.
 The first in the nation: Wyoming’s
Yellowstone National Park
 Now, Utah has 13 parks and monuments
 The newest is the Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument--1996
Fun Facts Continued
 Dinosaur National Monument: Earl Douglass,
a geologist and fossil collector working in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, came to Utah each
summer to explore the Uinta Basin. While
here, he discovered a complete skeleton of a
dinosaur exposed by erosion.
 Over the next 15 years, more than 700,000
pounds of dinosaur bones were removed
from the site.
 Longest one: Diplodocus 84 feet long.
Fun Facts Continued
 Utah’s first national monument: Natural
Bridges National Monument--1908
 Utah’s first national park: Zion National
Park--1918
History of Lake Powell
 John Wesley Powell was the first person to fully
explore and write about the canyons of the
Colorado River. On the first of two trips down
the Colorado, he found Glen Canyon. It was still
unknown to many in the early 1950's when the
Bureau of Reclamation proposed building a
dam, there for the Colorado River
 Construction of the dam began in 1956. It was
completed in 1962, but the lake did not
completely fill until 1980. Lake Powell, which
covered most of Glen Canyon, was named,
ironically, after the man who had first written of
the canyon's many charms.
Effects on Glen Canyon
 Unserviceable prehistoric, historic, and religious
sites of value lost.
 The Navajo lost at least two sacred places. The joining
of the San Juan and the Colorado was a meeting place
where two Navajo deities, embodied in theses rivers,
met to create water children of the cloud and rain
people. Now flooded over with Lake Powell
 Rainbow Bridge, an arch with a span of 278 feet. Said to
be male and female holy beings who created clouds,
rainbows, and moisture, this site, like the site above, is
no longer used for worship. The waters of Lake Powell
are eroding the foot of the rainbow.
 Even the glen in which John Wesley Powell stood
in awe and for which the canyon and dam took its
name, is covered beneath 500 feet of water.
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How can you preserve Utah’s
national forests and other
public lands?
World War II in Utah
Why the U.S. joined the war?
 While the U.S. was dealing with the Great
Depression, countries in Europe and Asia
were at war.
 Germany and Japan were both trying to take
over other countries.
 America didn’t agree with this.
 Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was bombed and the
U.S. declared war on Japan. A few days later,
Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.
Topaz from the Textbook
Navajo Code Talkers
 Both Japan and the U.S. used codes to keep secrets.
 What language do you think they used?
 At the start of the war, many Navajos from Utah and
Arizona volunteered for the Marine Corps. They
soon discovered the advantages of the Navajo
language.
 It was different from any Asian or European
language.
 A group of Navajos were sent to the Pacific to act as
code talkers. After being trained, they used birds,
fish, and other animals to serve as different military
terms. The Japanese were so confused.
 Total of 350 Navajo Code Talkers