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SANDY — Little Cottonwood Canyon's climbing routes have brought people into the canyon for decades, and now the area is officially a piece of U.S. history.
The National Park Service, which oversees the National Register of Historic Places, added Little Cottonwood Canyon Climbing Area to the long list of historic places last week. The Utah State Historic Preservation Office says it's the first rock-climbing route ever to be added to the list since it was created in 1966.
"This is the first listing that's like this," said John Flynn, assistant director of the American West Center at the University of Utah and author of a forthcoming article on the subject for Utah Historical Quarterly. "It recognizes that this is an important part of Utah history."
It also preserves a story about how Utah recreation changed over time.
A new outdoor fixation
It's difficult to think of Utah recreation without thinking of its mountains and national parks, but Flynn said that wasn't always the case. Utahns preferred places like the Great Salt Lake — including the Saltair Resort — and Utah Lake over anything else in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Mountains were generally considered obstacles that most Utahns avoided if they could. However, that started to change about a decade into the 20th century, as an explosion of hiking, rock climbing and skiing began to overshadow the valley lakes.
The Wasatch Mountain Club, which formed in the 1910s, is considered a driving force behind this shift.
"That group would do what we'd call nontechnical (mountain climbs) or hiking," Flynn said. "They'd go up Mount Timpanogos. Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak were really popular. ... The mountains becoming a 'place to play' happens in this time period."
Evidence of more technical rock climbing in Utah picks up in the 1930s, centering around Big Cottonwood Canyon, according to Kirk Huffaker, a historian brought on to compile a detailed report outlining the canyon's climbing history for the historic register. This was about the same time that it became more popular in the country's national parks, according to the National Park Service.
By 1942, the Wasatch Mountain Club would meet in Big Cottonwood Canyon every Thursday evening for practice and teaching. Other clubs formed afterward, primarily focusing on the same canyon.
Flynn said outdoor recreation in the mountains exploded after World War II, as more Utahns had time, money and tools to recreate in them.
A turn to Little Cottonwood Canyon
But rock climbing was sparse in Little Cottonwood Canyon because it was considered too difficult. That changed in the late 1950s when a group of high school climbers formed the Alpenbock Climbing Club, turning the canyon into one of the state's first technical climbing areas.
As noted by University of Utah historians, club members Robert Stout and Ted Wilson — who would later go on to become a Salt Lake City mayor — used the "Chickenhead Holiday" route to become the first two on record to climb to the top of the canyon. It ushered in a new era of climbing.
Several other routes were created in the ensuing years, while the group also advertised climbing to a wider audience, generating more interest in the activity. Huffaker's report lists 1962 to 1974 are the climbing area's period of significance, when Wilson and another climber, Larry Love, established many of the climbing routes and preached conservation efforts similar to Leave No Trace.
Legendary Utah climbers George and Jeff Lowe also established more ice-climbing routes in this era. Utah, including Little Cottonwood Canyon, was suddenly a global climbing destination.
A lasting legacy — and unclear future
Many of these routes are still popular today, drawing in recreational to Olympic-level climbers. Not long after winning silver in the 2020 Tokyo Games, climber Nathaniel Coleman even credited the canyon for helping him hone his climbing skills early in his life.
"It gave me perspective on what outdoor climbing really means. It's not about climbing grades, not about chasing any subjective aspect of climbing. It's about finding a challenge and then rising to it," he said at the time.
Many outdoor companies, such as Black Diamond Equipment and Petzl USA, moved into Utah as it became an outdoors hub. Climbing USA also moved its headquarters to Utah.
However, the future of at least some of the historic area is unclear.
(Little Cottonwood Canyon) puts Utah climbing on the map, so to speak. This was a hub of climbing and a lot of innovation came out of this in a lot of different ways.
–John Flynn, assistant director of the American West Center at the University of Utah
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance sought out historic designation after the Utah Department of Transportation started zeroing in on a plan to build a gondola in the canyon. UDOT's record of decision says the plan will have "low" impacts on climbing, which includes removing two climbing boulders.
Flynn explains the new historic designation ultimately won't stop these impacts if UDOT does move forward with the plan, but it gives some added weight to the canyon's climbing history and cultural significance. If parts of the new historic place are lost, the designation at least documents why the canyon's climbing area was so significant to the state.
"It puts Utah climbing on the map, so to speak. This was a hub of climbing, and a lot of innovation came out of this in a lot of different ways," he said. "It started a shift of locals doing this to becoming a site where people were actually moving here to climb and mountaineer."
