Arizona Strip

As the Arizona Strip north-west of the U.S. state of Arizona is known, which is separated by the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River from the rest of the state. To the north it borders Utah, Nevada on the west. The Arizona Strip belongs politically to the Mohave County in the west and Coconino County in the east. It is sparsely populated, large parts of the area are protected.

Description

The northwestern Arizona is dominated by the climate of a semi-desert on the high plains of the Colorado Plateau. Sandstone in various shades of red dominate the landscape. The northwest of the strip is cut from the Virgin River. The Kaibab Plateau in the east of the Arizona Strip is the only forested part. In the high plains cut a canyon. In them, only two rivers, the Kanab Creek and the Paria River run water all year round. There are also a number of so -called washes, streams that are only seasonally or even only sporadically after exceptional rainfall to streams.

Almost all the land is cared for in the possession of the federal government, the areas along the Colorado River are the National Park Service, the Kaibab National Forest from the U.S. Forest Service, and the rest by the Bureau of Land Management. In addition, the Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation is the Paiute Indians in the Arizona Strip.

Settlements in the Arizona Strip are Fredonia, Kaibab, Moccasin, Colorado City and Littlefield, as well as the dependent settlement Jacob Lake. Because the Grand Canyon can not be bridged, there are road connections to the rest of Arizona in the West only Nevada and with two bridges in the far east of the Arizona Strip at Lee 's Ferry and Page. In Page of U.S. Highway 89 intersects a few kilometers to the Arizona Strip, his daughter Route 89A crosses the Colorado on the Navajo Bridge at Lee's Ferry and performs under the Vermilion Cliffs on the Jacob Lake to Fredonia and on to Utah. At Jacob Lake branches off to the south on the paved road Arizona State Route 67 to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon from. In Fredonia branches off to the west, the Arizona State Route 389 from which an arc through the central north of the Strip strikes before she crosses the border into Utah. In the extreme north-west of Interstate 15 intersects the Arizona Strip at Littlefield.

History

Originally, the water-deficient area was sparsely inhabited by Indians of the Basket Maker culture. Later Anasazi settled in the region. Their buildings, forerunner of the pueblos, petroglyphs, pottery and other artifacts are found everywhere in the Arizona Strip in large numbers. The first white men in the area were the members of the expedition of two Spanish Franciscan priests, Francisco Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Antanasio Escalante, the most northern edge of the Grand Canyon in 1776 moved along. Only in the 19th century, the Paiute Indians were forced by the intrusion of the whites from the east into the largely barren area. The region was settled by whites until the second half of the 19th century by followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints ( " Mormons " ) of Utah.

They lived as a rancher of cattle, at the beginning of the 20th century, the forests of the Kaibab area were used for forestry. Some abandoned ore mines are scattered in the area. After World War II, large uranium deposits were found. They were selectively degraded in the 1950s and 1960s, the mines have sometimes leave significant environmental damage. New techniques of uranium mining and the development of prices made ​​the deposits in the 21st century again interesting. Because of the threats to the protected areas of the region and the tourism, the exploitation of the deposits is controversial. In January 2012, the Ministry of Interior of the United States enacted a moratorium of uranium mining on an area of ​​around 4000 km ² for 20 years.

Culturally, the region was always rather Utah as belonging to Arizona because of the divisive effect of the Grand Canyon, but they also played a role as a route from northern Arizona to southwestern Utah, in particular for the St. George Utah Temple in St. George, Utah, the oldest and long -time central temple of the Mormons for the entire region. The small Pipe Spring National Monument, an enclave in the reservation of Paiute Indians, is a memorial to the history of the Indians and the early settlers in the Arizona Strip.

Although the northern edge of the Grand Canyon is much less visited than the more accessible South Rim, which tourism plays a role in the economy of the region today.

Conservation

Downstream from north -east to west, following the large-scale nature reserves are located in the Arizona Strip: The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area begins at the Glen Canyon Dam, which impounds Lake Powell. It lies almost entirely in Utah and extends only in the Arizona Strip. At Lees Ferry on the river begins the Grand Canyon National Park, across the river, the Vermilion Cliffs, which include, along with the high plateau and the canyon of the Paria River to Vermilion Cliffs National Monument rise. To the west, on the high plateau, Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, down by the river of the National Park merges into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Partially inside the other protected areas are a total of nine Wilderness Areas in the Arizona Strip, the most severe class of protected natural areas in the United States. Seven of them on land by the Bureau of Land Management, two in the National Forest and thus under management of the U.S. Forest Service.

In Arizona Strip California condors are reintroduced since 1996, which had died out in the 1980s in the wild and the subject of the largest conservation breeding and reintroduction program of the United States. In the region live again 61 copies of this largest bird of prey of the New World (December 2007).