Why Utah Tried To Rename Bryce Canyon

There was a time when the people of Utah wanted to change the name of Bryce Canyon. They even held a state wide contest to come up with new possibilities until a panel of judges ruled that the current name would remain.

The Quest for a New Name: A Brief History

Why would anyone want to change the name in the first place? This was in the 1920 before it was even a National Monument which happened in 1923 and gained park status in 1924. It was a tourist attraction then and people felt the name was boring and misleading.

It was named for Ebenezer Bryce who lived near the areal in the 1870s and famously said, it was "a hell of a place to lose a cow." A good description of a problem, but maybe left out the beauty of the place.

Crowdsourcing a Name: The Statewide Contest

In the 1920s they said the same about the name Bryce Canyon, that it didn't describe it well. It is also misleading as it isn't a canyon at all. Canyons are places rivers carve out and this is a series of amphitheaters.

brown rocky mountain in aerial shot — Photo by Oleg Chursin on Unsplash

They held a statewide contest where anyone could submit a new name. The winner would get a paid trip to see the area. Many names were submitted and the Salt Lake Tribune kept track of things.

It was also known as "Temple of the Gods", but residents didn't want to name it that because Colorado already had "Garden of the Gods" and they thought it would be confusing. In the end, they stuck with Bryce Canyon.

For a short time it was known as "Utah National Park" while congress was in the process of changing it from a National Monument to a National Park. Thank goodness that didn't stay. That is so generic it sounds like the Utah Hockey Club.