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Founded in 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument, Zion National Park was enlarged and raised to the status of National Park by the United States Congress in 1919, encompassing the original national monument that protected the 15 mile (24 kilometer) long Zion Canyon, or Mukuntuweap Canyon, and the surrounding lands. The name of the land in the Southern Paiute Language, Mukuntuweap, or “straight canyon,” was chosen for the initial national monument, but this was changed to the anglocentric “Zion,” which the place was dubbed by the Mormon settlers of the region in the mid-19th Century, due to fears by federal officials that tourists would avoid places they could not pronounce.
The park covers 229 square miles (593 square kilometers), and includes Kolob Canyon, as well as the aforementioned Mukuntuweap-Zion Canyon. The canyon was settled by indigenous people thousands of years ago, and then by European-American Mormons in the 1850s and 1860s, whom founded the towns of Virgin and Springdale near the canyon. The Mukuntuweap-Zion Canyon itself was settled by three families in the 1860s, whom lived seasonally in the canyon and farmed the bottomlands until the establishment of the National Monument. The area was visited by John Wesley Powell in 1872, whom documented the canyon and the Southern Paiute name for the canyon, Mukuntuweap.
The landscape of the park includes many sandstone formations, canyons, cliffs, mesas, mountains, and rugged slopes, which tower over the canyons and valleys below. Through Mukuntuweap-Zion Canyon flows the Virgin River, which empties into a broad valley at the lower end of the park through the town of Springdale, flowing southwest towards Lake Mead and the Colorado River in Nevada. The river and its tributaries carved through the plateau over the eons, forming the rugged landscape of the park and its many scenic geological formations.
The park is traversed by a road through the canyon, which is only open to shuttle buses, and the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, which connects Springdale with the east side of the park, both of which travel through scenic landscapes. The park also contains many hiking trails, a lodge in the canyon, campgrounds, and picnic areas. The park today is one of the most-visited National Parks in the United States, and sees over 4.6 million visitors annually.