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Several times in the past few years, I have had the privilege to visit a number of new national parks in Chilean Patagonia. They are extraordinarily beautiful but nearly devoid of infrastructure. They haven’t had the time or resources to build the facilities and services that visitors to U.S. national parks, like the Grand Canyon, have come to expect. We expect hotels with plumbing and running water, well-maintained trails that provide access to most areas within the park, and to be safe and secure.
When Grand Canyon National Park was established on February 26, 1919, nearly a half-century had passed since it had been “discovered” by the first European-Americans. There hadn’t been much in the way of regulation. As a result, forests were cut down, mining despoiled ecosystems, and indigenous inhabitants were killed or removed.
Fortunately, the writings of John Wesley Powell and the paintings of such artists as Thomas Moran and Gunnar Widforss brought national attention to the sublimity of the Canyon, a railroad to the South Rim was built as were fine hotels, and the first automobiles traversed the plateau to the canyon edge.
As annual visitation has increased (38,000 in 1919 to 108,000 in 1924 to 4.7 million in 2022), park administrators, most notably Superintendent Miner Tillotson (1922-1938), have had to remain nimble as they built infrastructure, negotiated with concessionaires, and responded to the changing national political climate. Today, visitors have access to a broad range of experiences from luxury (well, national park style) to the most rugged, dangerous wilderness.
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Painter Thomas Moran near El Tovar Point - 1903
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Credit: Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 04969
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
Shortly after his Second Expedition in 1873, John Wesley Powell invited Thomas Moran to accompany him back to the Grand Canyon. British-born Moran’s 1872 painting, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, solidified his reputation as a world-class landscape painter. Two years later, Moran painted The Chasm of the Colorado which was purchased by the government for $10,000. Both paintings hang in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. His paintings made a significant contribution to American culture as they helped create a conservation ethos that ultimately led to the creation of the National Park Service in 1916.
John Muir and John Burroughs near Bright Angel Trailhead - 1909
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Credit: Library of Congress LC-USZ62-25975
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
Naturalist and Sierra Club founder John Muir’s first visit to the Canyon was in October, 1896, a camping trip to write a report on western forests with U.S Forest Service Director Gifford Pinchot. Their report led to the establishment of the Department of Forestry within the Department of Interior in 1897. Muir returned to the Canyon in 1909 with his friend, naturalist and poet John Burroughs. About Muir, Burroughs wrote, “He is a poet and almost a Seer. Something ancient and far-away in the look of his eyes. He could not sit down in the corner of the landscape, as Thoreau did, he must have a continent for his playground.”
Horse Crossing Kaibab Suspension "Swinging" Bridge - c. 1921
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Credit: Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 13103
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
As the challenges of mining in the Canyon became too great, the number of tourists arriving increased and they needed facilities and conveyances to provide the expected comfort. Once the national park was established in 1919, the NPS decided to build a suspension bridge near Bright Angel Creek to benefit tourism but also improve fire control and wildlife management on the north rim. It replaced the cable and winch system, built in 1907 by David Rust, that moved a large cage across the Colorado (it could carry one mule or several humans).To build the suspension bridge, nearly 40 tons of materials and supplies had to be packed in from the rim including multiple cables each 550’ long and weighing 1,000 lbs which were carried on the shoulders of 15 Havasupai men placed at 20’ intervals.
Painter Gunnar Widforss at Yavapai Point - 1924
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Credit: Alan Petersen, Gunnar Widforss Catalogue Raisonne Project
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone 2023
One of the most prolific and well-known painters of Grand Canyon landscapes, Swedish-born Gunnar Widforss first arrived to the Canyon in 1923. He had earned early recognition for his paintings of Yosemite where he befriended National Park Service Director Stephen Mather. Mather urged Widforss to focus his eye on the national parks and by 1929, the Grand Canyon became his most regular home. Widforss painted many western parks including Sequoia, Death Valley, Yellowstone, Zion, and Mesa Verde. He became known as the “Painter of the National Parks.”
Upper Tram Havasupai Gardens Pipeline - c. 1931
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Credit: Photographer: George Collins Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 00074
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
Prior to the construction of a pipeline from Garden Creek near Havasupai Gardens to the South Rim, water was transported 100 miles in tank cars by the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1927, the railroad company was able to improve the flow of springs in the Gardens to about 576,000 gallons per day. The Santa Fe Railroad partnered with the National Park Service, which had just taken legal control of the Gardens from Ralph Cameron and built a pipe to pump that water from the springs to the South Rim. A cable car system was constructed to move men and materials down 3,000’ to the Gardens.
Lower Tram Havasupai Gardens Pipeline - c. 1932
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Credit: Photograph: George L. Collins Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 00080
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
A tractor moves lengths of water pipe below the lower terminus of the Havasupai Gardens Tramway. I wondered how the workers got the heavy and large tractor down the steep and rugged 4.5 mile Bright Angel Trail to this point. The answer is that the heavy equipment was taken in pieces down the tramway from the South Rim and put back together on site. It is the same way that most of the daily workers were transported down to the worksites. They didn’t have to hike each way.
Yavapai Station Auto Caravan - 1932
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Credit: Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 00711
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
The Fred Harvey Company conducted auto tours whereby a group of cars would drive one behind the other to scenic spots where a park ranger or other expert would regale the tourists with stories and information about that locale. Naturalist Edwin McKee was a naturalist and geologist at the park who prepared and installed educational exhibits, including a topographical model for the Yavapai Point observation station and museum.
CCC Men Hang Trans Canyon Telephone Line - 1935
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Credit: Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 00201
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
During the 1934-35 season, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the trans-canyon telephone line. It was strung from tree to rock and was frequently out of commission. Often, workers had to dangle from ropes on cliffs to install poles in the cliffsides. The line provided instantaneous communication between the North and South Rims, but could handle only one call at a time.
CCC Building the River Trail - 1935
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Credit: Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 09216
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
The Colorado River Trail was one of the trails Troop 818 built by the CCC. Described by one CCC enrollee, Louis Purvis, as “probably the most hazardous of any trail that had ever been built” in the park, it was two miles long, cut out of schist and granite cliff to connect the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails.
African-American Trail Crew CCC - 1936
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Credit: Photograph: NPS Photo Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 04052
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
African-American workers were active members of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The Act that created the CCC stated “That in employing citizens for the purpose of this Act, no discrimination shall be made on account of race, color, and creed.” However, in some states, even with large Black populations, no Black people were selected to join the CCC. The Federal Government had to step in and, in some cases, formed all Black companies. Those were often relocated to remote areas to avoid the protests of their communities.
Company 818 was an integrated group that worked on the North Rim during the Summer and in the Canyon during the Winter. 818 was responsible for building the Clear Creek Trail, east of Phantom Ranch.
Photographer’s Note: Clearly, the photos don’t line up but sometimes I decide to go ahead and use such unaligned photos because the story is too important to leave untold. To get to the location where I took the “Now” photo, I hiked four miles up the Clear Creek Trail from Phantom Ranch (1300’ elevation gain). At that point, I realized that an accurate pairing of the then and now photos would have required an additional 2 miles before returning to the Ranch. So, a 12 mile hike in 90°+ heat and then a climb up to Havasupai Gardens, an additional 5+ miles and 1300’ elevation gain. It certainly helps me respect the men of the CCC who worked day after day in tough conditions.
Shoveling Snow on the Bright Angel Trail - c. 1949
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Credit: Photograph: J.M. Eden Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 01650
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
While it snows less than 1” on average at Phantom Ranch (2,460 feet elevation) near the Colorado River, the North Rim at 8,297 feet averages 142” of snow per year with a record snowfall of 272.8” in 1978. The South Rim, at 7,000 feet elevation averages 58” of snow.After heavy snowfalls on the most popular hiking trails, such as the Bright Angel and South Kaibab, trail crews have to dig out the path. In the 2022-23 winter season, the North Rim received 228” of snow and the South Rim received 148”, believed to be the second-snowiest winter on record.
Mather Point - c. 1963
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Credit: Photograph: NPS Photo Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 04476
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
Mather Point, located a short walk from the Visitor Center, was named for the first Director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather. Mather had become a millionaire as a businessman, mostly from Borax. He was instrumental in unifying all of the national parks into one system, the National Park Service. While he was a strong advocate for visitor education, a key component of his agenda was to partner with business interests to transform remote and financially “worthless” lands into “commodities that could be sold repeatedly without degradation.”
Trans-Canyon Pipeline Helicopter Transport - 1965
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Credit: Photograph: Dan Cockrum Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 81008
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
More than a half century ago, the Park Service determined that the water pumped from Havasupai Gardens to service the South Rim was insufficient for the growing population of visitors. A pipeline carrying water down from Roaring Springs on the North Rim, across the Kaibab Suspension Bridge, and up to the South Rim was built. A Bell 47B helicopter was used to transport pipe sections from the Yaki Point staging area to the inner-canyon work site. The project was delayed and the cost more than doubled when nearly 40% of the project was wiped out by a 1,000 year flood in 1966 when 15” of rain fell in the Canyon.That pipeline has long outlasted its projected life. Since 2010, over 85 major breaks in the pipeline have disrupted service to the South Rim. In March, 2023, anew $208 million contract was awarded to replace the waterline, to be completed in 2027.
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