Cables from the Rim

In the early 1900s, Mormon pioneers in the Zion area needed lumber for construction, but the good timber, ponderosa pine, was on the mesa above and out of reach, forcing settlers to haul lumber by wagon from Arizona's Kaibab Forest on a two-week trip. In 1900, Springdale resident David Flanigan began looping 50,000 feet of telegraph wire through a series of drums and pulleys in a cableworks on the canyon rim and down to a second framework on the mound below. When the system was completed, boards could travel down from the clifftop in 2½ minutes instead of two weeks. With this cable operation, modern building began in Zion, and the park's original lodge and cabins, along with many buildings in Springdale, used lumber lowered from the canyon rim.

Utah · United States