Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Collection (GSENM)

Collection

Identifier: MS-130

Scope and Contents

From its spectacular Grand Staircase of cliffs and terraces, across the rugged Kaiparowits Plateau, to the wonders of the Escalante River Canyons, the Monument's size, resources, and remote character provide extraordinary opportunities for geologists, paleontologists, archeologists, historians, and biologists in scientific research, education, and exploration. That research is included in this collection in the form of bibliographies, abstracts of articles, published papers, theses, and oral histories.

Dates

Creation: 1968-2021

Biographical / Historical

In September of 1996, President Clinton designated this huge national monument, which at 1.9 million acres dominates any map of southern Utah. It is unique in that it is the first monument to be administered by the Bureau of Land Management, rather than the National Park Service. The monument is a geologic sampler, with a huge variety of formations, features, and world-class paleontological sites. The Grand Staircase is a geological formation spanning eons of time and is a territory of multicolored cliffs, plateaus, mesas, buttes, pinnacles, and canyons. It is divided into three distinct sections: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante.