Colorado Gains New National Park

WASHINGTON, D.C.

More than a dozen years after the idea was first proposed, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River in western Colorado has become a national park. President Clinton recently signed the bill creating the first new national park in five years. In a prepared statement, Clinton said it was "a true national treasure."

The centerpiece of the 30,000-acre Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a canyon 2,900 feet deep and only 40 feet wide at its narrowest point. "It is called the Black Canyon because sunlight reaches the canyon floor only about an hour a day," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo.

The canyon, is about 250 miles southwest of Denver and became a national monument in 1933. It is renowned for trout fishing in the Gunnison River, rock climbing on the sheer canyon walls and hiking in surrounding areas.

The park is jointly managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. Of the 7,000 acres added to the former national monument, 4,400 will be managed by the bureau as wilderness.