History of Bryce Canyon Country

The land around present-day Bryce Canyon has been home to human beings for thousands of years. The Ancestral Puebloans (sometimes called Anasazi) lived throughout the Colorado Plateau, farming the canyon floors and leaving behind pottery, rock art, and structures that still survive today. The Fremont Culture also occupied portions of the region.

By the time European explorers arrived, the area was home to the Southern Paiute people, who called the hoodoo formations "Unka-timpe-wa-wince-pock-ich"—roughly translated as "red rocks standing like men in a bowl-shaped canyon." The Paiute have lived in and around this landscape for generations and maintain a connection to it today.

The Domínguez–Escalante Expedition of 1776 passed through southern Utah attempting to find a route from Santa Fe to Monterey. Though they did not reach the Bryce Canyon area directly, their journey opened knowledge of the Colorado Plateau to the Spanish colonial world.

In the following decades, fur trappers and mountain men worked the rivers of the region, and the broader area began appearing on early American maps. The landscape remained remote, wild, and largely unknown to non-Native people.

Following the arrival of Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, settlers began pushing south into what is now Garfield and Kane counties. The towns of Panguitch, Cannonville, Tropic, and Escalante were established in the 1870s and 1880s as farming and ranching communities.

Tropic itself was settled in 1891 by families who diverted water from the East Fork of the Sevier River to irrigate the otherwise dry valley. The town's name reflects the settlers' hope that the climate and soil could support lush, tropical-like crops—a small optimism in a demanding landscape.

Scottish immigrant Ebenezer Bryce and his wife Mary settled in the area in 1875 and built a cabin near the base of the canyon that now bears his name. He ranched cattle in the area and is said to have described the canyon as "a hell of a place to lose a cow"—a quote that has endured as one of the more colorful pieces of Western folklore.

Bryce and his family moved away within a few years, but the canyon retained his name. The local community continued to use the canyon for grazing and timber.

The scenic formations around what would become Bryce Canyon attracted increasing attention in the early twentieth century. In 1923, President Warren G. Harding proclaimed Bryce Canyon a National Monument. Five years later, Congress established it as a National Park.

The Union Pacific Railroad played a significant role in early tourism, building a network of lodges and transportation links to bring visitors from across the country. The original Bryce Canyon Lodge—still operating today—was completed in 1925 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As Bryce Canyon's reputation grew, the surrounding towns evolved to support the growing number of visitors. Families who had farmed and ranched for generations found new livelihoods in hospitality, guiding, and services for tourists.

Happy Trails Bed & Breakfast is part of this living history. The original structure on the property dates to the 1930s, and the family has been welcoming guests since 1990—carrying on a tradition of Southern Utah hospitality that stretches back generations.