Cables from the Rim
Barely visible on the canyon rim are the ruins of a
cableworks from the early 1900s. Mormon pioneers
in the Zion area needed lumber for construction, but
the good timer—ponderosa pine—was out of reach
on the mesa above. Settlers had to haul lumber by
wagon from as far away as Arizona's Kaibab Forest,
a two-week trip.
in 1900 Springdale resident David Flanigan began
looping 50,000 feet of telegraph wire through a
series of drums and pulleys in the cableworks above
and down to a second framework on the mound behind you.
When the cable system was completed, boards could
travel down from the clifftop in 2 1/2 minutes—not
two weeks. With the cable operation modern building
began in Zion. The park's original lodge and cabins,
and many of the buildings in Springdale, made use of
lumber lowered from the canyon rim.
Rough sawn lumber, and
sometimes workers, were
lowered to the canyon floor.
