Group's Grand Canyon Creationist Claim Shown Bogus

Claims by the Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) that Grand Canyon National Park employees had been ordered not to offer an estimate of the geologic age of the canyon appear to have been proven false.

On January1, 2007, we reported on this PEER press release charging that the Bush administration had ordered the action in order to appease creationists, and complaining that a book contending that the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's Flood was still being sold in the Grand Canyon Park gift shop.

However, it has become clear that PEER's claims are at least misleading if not completely false. In a statement reported by Skeptic Magazine, National Park Service Chief of Public Affairs, David Barna refers to a Parks Service document instructing employees on how to respond to questions about the age of the Grand Canyon. "If asked the age of the Grand Canyon, our rangers use the following answer," said Barna, "The principal consensus among geologists is that the Colorado River basin has developed in the past 40 million years and that the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than five to six million years old. The result of all this erosion is one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet. The major geologic exposures in Grand Canyon range in age from the 2 billion year old Vishnu Schist at the bottom of the Inner Gorge to the 230 million year old Kaibab Limestone on the Rim."

According to Barna, the same answer is used on all of the park's "interpretive talks, way-side exhibits, visitor center films, etc.," to explain the age of the canyon.

And while PEER's claim that the creationist book Grand Canyon: A Different View, by Tom Vail being sold in the park's bookstore is true, the book, as pointed out by RangerX in our comments section, is sold only in the "Inspiration" section of the store, where it shares shelf space with books detailing Native American lore and myth concerning the creation of the canyon.

Needless to say, press releases from the Employees for Environmental Responsibility will no longer be reported here.

Photograph courtesy of National Parks Service