The Grand Canyon of Arizona was first seen by white men in 1540. An expedition of Spaniards under Francisco Vasques de Coronado had been sent from Mexico by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza to explore the country north of Culiacan in an effort to find the seven rich cities of Cibola. The Spaniards had heard rumors of these cities since 1530. In that year Nuno de Guzman had attempted to reach them by an overland route north through Mexico, but found the mountains of the province of Culiacan too difficult to pass through.
In 1919 the national government of the United States created the Grand Canyon of Arizona into a national park. Today hundreds of thousands of people from the four corners of the world visit this great natural wonder. To these tourists it is a playground, preserved solely for their enjoyment and that of generations to follow them.
The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was the first to use the Canyon as a commercial asset. When their line was completed to California in 1883, it approached at one point within twenty-five miles of the Canyon's rim. From this point. Peach Springs, Arizona, stages were run to the Canyon. The terminus of the stage line was west of the boundary of the National Park. The view of the Canyon from here is considered inferior to that from points within the Park area.
Nevertheless, this route continued to be used until about 1901, because it was an all year route. After the railroad was built to the head of the Bright Angel trail it was abandoned.Besides the stages running out of Peach Springs and Flagstaff there was one out of Williams, which started operating in 1891, the year before the regular one was organized in Flagstaff. W. W. Bass laid out the route and established the stage line w^hich started functioning in the fall of 1891. This route terminated near the present Grand Canyon Village. The following year the stage line was run by Sanford Rowe, a livery man from Williams. Bass then started a second line from Ash Fork, Arizona, which led to his camp.
After acquiring the Grand Canyon Railroad in 1901, the Santa Fe completed the line to the Canyon's rim, where on September 17, the first train arrived. During the first part of September, 1901, the Santa Fe surveyed the boundaries for the station grounds. It had been allotted the usual twenty acres as specified in the act of 1875, granting railroads the right of way through public lands. Plans were immediately begun for the erection of tourist accommodations within the surveyed boundaries. A log cabin which was servicing as a hotel was added to and tent cabins built around it. It was named BRIGHT ANGEL CAMP.
The El Tovar Hotel was opened to the public on January 14, 1905. The first curios at Grand Canyon were brought up from Flagstaff to the Canyon by J. G. Verkamp for Babbitt Brothers Trading Company. Verkamp rented one of the Bright Angel tents as his display room. However, business was slow and after a few weeks the stock was sold to Martin Buggein, the proprietor of Bright Angel Hotel.
The Fred Harvey Company entered the curio business in 1905. That year the El Tovar hotel and the Hopi House were completed.
J. G. Verkamp returned to the Grand Canyon in 1905 to construct a building a little east of the Hopi House. Here he went into the curio business for himself. The store was opened in January, 1906.
In 1903 Emery and Ellsworth Kolb started a photograph studio. They too started in a tent, with a finishing room in the Canyon at Indian Gardens. These two men did not confine themselves entirely to the photograph work. They spent many years exploring canyons and walls of the Grand Canyon. Their crowning achievement was the navigationof the Colorado River from Wyoming to the Gulf of California in 1911. They were the first to cover this entire distance in one trip.
Although they made the trip from a love of adventure, the Kolb brothers did not overlook the commercial possibilities. They went equipped with cameras, still and movie, and films. They made a pictorial record of their trip which has been shown to thousands since.
Nothing at the Grand Canyon caused as much bitter controversy between the citizens ofCoconino County and the railroad, and the county and the federal government as did the Bright Angel Trail. The conflict over this trail was carried on from 1901 until 1928, creating hard feeling and mistrust on all sides.
With the creation of the Grand Canyon National Park in 1919, the United States government began negotiations to buy the Bright Angel trail from the county ofCoconino. The first propositions were made through W. H. Peters, National Park engineer. He attempted high-handed methods with the Board of Supervisors, and greatly antagonized that body.
Further negotiations were then dropped until 1923. In that year some of the business men of Flagstaff began to urge the sale of the trail to the federal government. The Hayden Bill creating the park had a section which provided authorization to the Secretary of the Interior "to negotiate with the said county for the purchase of said Bright Angel Trail (toll road) and all rights therein." The business men wanted to sell the trail for $1,000,000.00 to be expended on a road between Main, Arizona and the south boundary of the park. A temporary agreement was reached, subject to referendum to the voters. The question of the sale of the trail was put on the ballot for the general election of November 4, 1924. The vote went against the proposal.
Ralph Cameron fought the sale of the Bright Angel Trail to the bitter end. Many of his motives were personal, but he foresaw that the people of Coconino County would not really benefit by the sale in the long run. He wanted the trail to be paid for in cash, deposited in the county treasury. He knew that the government would have to keep up an approach road to the park regardless of whether or not the sale of the trail was made. He also knew that Congress had already appropriated the money for such a road. The sale of the trail simply saved the federal government the money of the first appropriation. The government no longer maintains the approach road, but has turned it over to the State of Arizona. Now the people of Coconino County continue to pay for the approach road they thought they received in exchange for the trail.
Ralph Cameron tried to warn the people of this outcome, but he had so many personal interests connected with the trail, they did not realize that his motives were not entirely selfish.
6 May 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon. People from the entire Territory of Arizona went to the Canyon to welcome him. Amid the cheers of the crowd of about eight hundred Arizonans he mounted a white horse and rode out to the Grand Canyon Hotel, sixteen miles east of the depot. He dined with John H. Page at Grand View, where he was served regular miner's fare.
Roosevelt was much impressed by the Canyon. He found on its rim a thriving little community.
A post office had been established in 1902 with Martin Buggein as Postmaster. There were two voting precincts. It was no longer isolated as it had been for so many years. But in spite of the progress made here toward organized community life, Roosevelt's attention was called to the fact that there was a great deal of disorder. The quarrels over the Bright Angel Trail and over the Cape Horn and Golden Eagle mining claims were well under way. Men carried guns wherever they went, and the population was well divided into two camps, the railroad and its adherents versus the miners and theirs.
There was need of automobile roads along the rim. The first automobile was driven to the Canyon in 1902 by Oliver Lippincott. The success of the trip encouraged J. G. Verkamp to take a trip East to investigate the practicality of the automobile, then in its infancy. He thought, that if possible, he might establish a motor-bus line to the Canyon from Flagstaff. But it was still too early in the life of the automobile to hope for successful operations of such a line.
However, by 1910 the automobile was becoming a popular public carrier. Flagstaff's automobile club began a movement for a permanent automobile road to the Canyon, via Grand View Point. The wagon roads along the rim were being improved by the Santa Fe, but there was still need for a great deal of work and the government refused to appropriate funds for it.
On 26 February 1919, the act creating Grand Canyon National Park was passed. By this act Grand Canyon became the (17) of the (25) national parks in the United States. Its area is 1,009 square miles or approximately 645,000 acres. It stretches for (56) miles to the west, starting at the junction of the Grand Canyon and Marble Canyons. Through it winds the Colorado River for (105) miles.
In the winter of 1927-1928 a rigid suspension bridge was built across the Colorado River, replacing the swinging bridge which had been built. This same winter the Kaibab Trail was completed up Bright Angel Canyon to the North Rim. This part of the trail was built to accommodate the visitors approaching the Canyon from the north.
The action on the part of the national government which aroused protest from the people of northern Arizona in (1940) is its attempt to take possession of William B. Hearst's property on the Canyon's rim. It is feared that this is but one step toward the seizure of all private property within the park boundaries. There are only four such pieces of property besides that owned by the railroad, (MARTIN BUGGELN estate, WILLIAM R. HEARST, DANIEL HOGAN, and ED HAMILTON estate) but the county does not want to lose the tax revenue derived from them.
Grand Canyon National Park is now one of the best known of the nation's parks. Every effort is made to preserve it in all of its natural beauty. Nature lovers with no technical knowledge will find countless opportunities for pleasure in this great natural and scenic vacation land.
THIS MATERIAL ON GRAND CANYON HISTORY WAS OBTAINED THROUGH THE COURTESY OF MISS MARGARET M. VERKAMP IT WAS WRITTEN BY MISS VERKAMP IN (1940).
POPULATION OF GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK. PERMANENT POPULATION 600
POPULATION DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS 12,000
Ed note: This account is as it appeared in the history compiled by J. A. Metzger (ca 1964) except for corrections of misspellings and typos.