--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Rust, D. D. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 3 published: 1908-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'D. D. Rust, "The Bright Angel," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 3 (January 1908): 175.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1103unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1103unse start_page: 175 end_page: 175 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1103unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Bright Angel THE BRIGHT ANGEL. BY D. D. RUST. When President Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon of Arizona, in 1903, he was escorted along the rim by Capt. Hance, the "Old Timer," the noted story teller. Near the close of the •lay, after they had seen most of the points of interest, the President turned to the captain and said, "Who named all these places?" Cap. replied, '*! named one thing in the canyon, and have been ashamed of it ever since." Names, as a rule, do not add to the magnificence of natural wonders. In the matter of geography, I suppose they are necessary evils; but to the artist — and that is everyone who is impressed by the beautiful, the awful, whether he puts it on canvas or keeps it only in his soul — they are likely to be in the way. There are names, however, that brighten the object, that blend with it, and seem a part of it. Among the thousands of canyons which together make the canyon of canyons, known as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, the one least known and most talked about is "The Bright Angel." This canyon and stream were discovered and named by Major Powell in 1869. They were named in honor of the Messiah, and jn contrast to "The Dirty Devil," a small muddy river that rolls into the Colorado fifty miles below the junction of the Green and Grand . The latter was named for the Angel of Darkness; the former for the Angel of Light. This clear stream, which cuts its way from the north rim to the river, is not a creek; it is not a river, — it is either. The canyon which belongs with it, and which has been fashioned by it.