story of the grand canyon

The Rocks and Fault in Bright Angel Trail

This chapter discusses the rocks and fault present along the Bright Angel Trail. Distance is described in this chapter as "rods", which is a unit that was commonly used by surveyors at the time this book was written. It is equivalent to 16.5 feet.

Yavapai Point

This chapter discusses the views as seen from Yavapai Point.

From Hopi Point

This chapter explains the views of the Grand Canyon as seen from Hopi Point, not too far from El Tovar.

From El Tovar

This chapter describes the various geological views as seen from the historic El Tovar hotel.

The History of the Rocks

This chapter discusses a very general history of the formation and deformation of the rocks that form the walls of the Grand Canyon.

At the time this book was written, the term "Algonkian" was still being used to represent a period of time between the Archean and the Cambrian, despite the proposal (from at least 1908) to the Geological Society of America that the term "Proterozoic", which is used worldwide today, be used to identify this era of geological time. As far as I can tell, the term "Algonkian" was only ever used to describe rocks of this time in North America. You can download a pdf of the geological time scale from the Geological Society of America here. One should also note that today there are far more than the 12 divisions of geologic time mentioned in this book!

The Rocks

"Formations" or layers of particular types of rock. This section of the book covers the various rock formations and where they can be see in the Grand Canyon. The photo is not particularly helpful, so I recommend referencing the cartoon stratigraphy here on the USGS park website.

The Origin of the Grand Canyon

"How was it formed?"
The origin of the Grand Canyon is a story of uplift and erosion over vast expanses of geologic time.

Introduction

Explains the purpose of the book, by N.H. Darton, and the purpose of this podcast.

Preface

31st edition, published 1957
This is the preface of the book, there is no author listed for these two pages before the table of contents, but we can assume, based on Darton's name being used in the third person, that it was not written by him.