GRAND CANYON, AZ — President Joe Biden visited the Grand Canyon Tuesday, but he's not the first Commander in Chief to visit Arizona's biggest tourist attraction.
Over the past 30 years, former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama visited the monument while in office.
In September 1991, H.W. Bush introduced a new agreement to reduce the amount of air pollution in the Grand Canyon. The new regulations required a coal-fired plant about 15 miles from the canyon to install new pollution-reducing equipment to eliminate the haze it caused in the Grand Canyon.
In January 2000, Clinton visited the South Rim where he announced several new monuments including the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument and the Agua Fria National Monument, about 40 miles north of Phoenix. The Agua Fria monument contains some of the most extensive prehistoric ruins in the U.S. Southwest.
In August 2009, The Obamas took a private tour of the Grand Canyon. Obama did not have any official business as president while he was there, however, he did fly in on Air Force One.
On August 8, 2023, President Biden visited the South Rim after he announced plans for a new national monument to preserve about 1,562 square miles (4,046 square kilometers) just outside Grand Canyon National Park.
