94 North 100 West
From 1870 to 1878, John
Wesley Powell and Almon H. Thompson of the Colorado River Expeditions
established headquarters in Kanab.
In 1872, they erected a large tent in which housed a telescope. The roof
of the tent was folded back so the telescope of the transit could be brought to
bear on the stars. By this means
and a time connection by telegraph with Salt Lake City, the meridian was
exactly established. The first baseline between the Colorado State Line and the
Sierra Nevada Mountains, was the one which the Powell survey established.
The first preliminary map of
the Grand Canyon region was made in this tent on a lot in Kanab during the
winter of 1872/83.
Major John Wesley Powell and Frederick S. Dellenbaugh and
were the first to put the name ”Grand Canyon” on a map, which happened in that
tent in Kanab in January 1873.
Frederick Dellenbaugh said that a monument should be erected
in Kanab designating this spot from which the geological survey of the Rocky
Mountain Region started, he gave Rose Hamblin, the Daughters of the Utah
Pioneer Historian, the inscription to be placed on the monument. The top rock is an original marking
made by the survey team. This monument was dedicated May 13, 1955.