Open spring to fall, the Zion Human History Museum is Shuttle Stop 2 on the Zion Canyon Line and the one spot on Highway 9 where the West Temple, the Sundial and the Altar of Sacrifice line up together. Its permanent exhibit includes a Puebloan pottery jar whose corn kernels are about 1,200 years old. Southern Paiutes have lived across more than 30 million acres of what is now southern Utah, northern Arizona, southern Nevada and southeastern California, and the Shivwits, Cedar, Indian Peaks, Kanosh and Koosharem Bands are federally recognized today. The 1918 proclamation lists the area's archaeology as a reason for its protection. NPS renders the name Zion as ancient Hebrew for sanctuary or refuge. Drinking water is available here. Zion Canyon shuttles stop at the museum only on the way down-canyon.
On your left in about two hundred yards, the Zion Human History Museum, open spring to fall. Pull in if you're stopping, and head left after. The West Temple and the Towers of the Virgin line up only here, so look west. In the Shivwits Band's words, Southern Paiutes have been in this country since time immemorial, and five Paiute bands are based in southern Utah today. A Puebloan jar in the museum's exhibit held corn about twelve hundred years old. In nineteen oh nine this became a national monument called Mukuntuweap. The nineteen eighteen proclamation that renamed it Zion says settlers chose that name because the canyon was regarded as a safe refuge in the event of Indian attacks on neighboring settlements. Ask who the refuge was for.
Photo: NPS Photo / Rebecca Alfafara · Public domain