This area's human history reaches beyond memory. The Southern Paiute called Cedar Breaks umapwich, or “the place where the rocks are sliding down all the time.” Ungkaw Pekonump is another Paiute name that translates into red-cove. Settlers later called it “Cedar Breaks,” by misidentifying the area’s juniper trees as cedars. “Breaks,” is a geographic term to describe a sharp/abrupt change or “break” in topography. As western tourism began to explode in the early 1900s, the lands which today comprise national park were included within the boundaries of Sevier National Forest in 1909, and subsequently incorporated into the Dixie National Forest. Management responsibility transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Interior and the National Park Service on August 22, 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Cedar Breaks a national monument.
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 “Paa” ute means water ute, and explains the Southern Paiute preference for living near water sources. The Spanish explorer Escalante kept detailed journals of his travels in the Southwest and made notes concerning Southern Paiute horticulture, writing in 1776, that there were “well dug irrigation ditches” being used to water small fields of corn, pumpkins, squash, and sunflowers.  The Paiutes have overcome insurmountable challenges and devastation as a people. Their long struggle to preserve the Paiute way and flourish continues. But they will not give up. Instead, they celebrate their achievements, promising that while “[t]he struggle is long and difficult… the Paiute will survive.”  In 1934, on July 4th, the CCC made their first appearance at Cedar Breaks, “acting as traffic directors, assisting in getting many of the stalled cars up to the Breaks and serving a barbecue to some 3,000 people” at the official dedication ceremony and celebration for the new national monument. That, of course was just the beginning of the Cs’ involvement at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  As part of the New Deal Program, to help lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The CCC or C’s as it was sometimes known, allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests, and parks.
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