2007 Grand Canyon History Symposium Richard F. Fleck and J. Donald Hughes Fleck's most pertinent relatedness to the Grand Canyon is a very well-received book which he edited entitled COLORADO RIVER READER (University of Utah Press, 2000). The book contains numerous essays and writings on the Grand Canyon as well as writings from upstream. It was selected in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Humanities to be the reader for a seven-states project called Moving Waters: The Colorado River. The second most pertinent thing is that Fleck has hiked from the North Rim down to the river and back as a young man in 1960. Hughes received the John Evans Distinguished Professor of History, University of Denver. He is the author of In the House of Stone and Light: Introduction to the Human History of Grand Canyon (Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1978 and reprints) and its precursor, The Story of Man at Grand Canyon (1968). Hughes served as seasonal ranger-naturalist at Grand Canyon, summers 1960-1968. He participated in the John Wesley Powell Centennial observance, 1969, and participated in the Grand Canyon History Symposium, January 2002. Presentation Abstract... John Muir's Historic Visit to the Grand Canyon:   John Muir (1836-1914), the renowned naturalist and conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club, first visited the Grand Canyon with Gifford Pinchot in 1896. He had never seen anything quite like it before and remained under its spell even though he did not write about it. In 1898 he was urged by fellow conservationists C.S. Sargent, Robert Underwood Johnson and Walter Hines Page to compose a descriptive essay on the Grand Canyon in order to encourage the government to preserve this natural wonder. Muir obliged his friends in 1902 by writing a truly significant essay on the Canyon for the influential Century Magazine. His written piece stirred the passions of his readers by calling attention to the marvels of the Grand Canyon. Within a few years John Muir felt compelled to write to his friend President Theodore Roosevelt advising him to protect the Grand Canyon from commercial exploitation. As we know, President Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon as a National Monument by presidential proclamation in January, 1908. This paper will examine the unique features of Muir's essay "The Grand Canyon" in light of its environmental importance.