The Throne

Karl A. Baumgaertel

Zion National Park is Utah’s first National Park. It is located within three separate counties in southwestern Utah. Within its 232 square miles, are high plateaus, a maze of sandstone canyons, and the Virgin River and its tributaries. The park is distinguished by Zion Canyon’s steep red cliffs. On 31 July 1909 Taft set aside approximately 16,000 acres for Mukuntuweap National Monument to preserve its “many natural features of unusual archaeologic, geologic, and geographic interest.” In his proclamation, the President noted the “labyrinth of remarkable canyons with highly ornate and beautifully colored walls, in which are plainly recorded the geological events of past ages.” In 1918 Munkutuweap National Monument became Zion National Monument, and in 1919 the named changed again to Zion National Park. On 22 January 1937 President Roosevelt established a second Zion National Monument, preserving over 36,000 acres. The second Zion National Monument, which is now referred to as Kolob Canyons was incorporated with Zion National Park in 1956. On 30 March 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act into law designating 124,406 acres of Zion National Park as Wilderness. Visitors to the wilderness can enjoy backpacking, canyoneering, hiking, rock climbing, horseback riding, and river rafting. Over four and half million people visited Zion in 2023.

The Throne is a vintage chlorobromide photograph taken by Karl A. Baumgaertel in about 1930. He was a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America and exhibited in the Pittsburgh Salon of Photographic Art, the Chicago Camera Club Century of Progress Photographic Art, and the Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles. According to the National Portrait Gallery, a chlorobromide print is a black and white print with a warm, brownish black tone, made from paper coated with a mixture of silver chloride and silver bromides. With his photograph, Baumgaertel captured the Great White Throne of Zion. It is a monolith composed of white Navajo Sandstone and rises to the height of 2,394 feet above the canyon floor and towers over the Virgin River.