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Celebrating a century on the rim<br>

Attending the ribbon cutting ceremony at El Tovar were (from left) Andy Wittlesey, son of El Tovar architect Charles Wittlesey, Xanterra engineering chief Bob Baker, Xanterra South Rim General Manager Bill Johnston and Park Superintendent Joe Alston.

The historic hotel and dining room reopened for business as usual last Wednesday following a ribbon cutting ceremony led by Park Superintendent Joe Alston and Xanterra South Rim General Manager Bill Johnston. But the evening before, 180 special guests enjoyed dinner and for those who weren’t local, accommodations at the newly-renovated hotel.

The guest list included Emery Kolb’s great-granddaughter, Jennifer Draper, and her two daughters; members of the Verkamp family, which predates El Tovar on the Rim; Andy Wittlesey, grandson of El Tovar architect Charles Wittlesey and Phyllis Kachinhongva who grew up in Hopi House.

Noted local authors included Al Richmond, who wrote numerous books on the Grand Canyon Railway and founded the Arizona State Railroad Museum; Christina Barnes who wrote the books accompanying the PBS Series “Great Lodges of the National Parks” and Arnold Burke, who wrote “Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest.”

Speaking in echoes from the past were Lee Stetson as naturalist John Muir and Keith McGough as President Theodore Roosevelt. Also present were the Winslow Harvey Girls, a group that includes former Harvey girls, descendants and those interested in the history of these young women who traveled west to work in Fred Harvey’s restaurants and hotels.

While the grand reopening was an event in itself, the real celebration was for what had gone a century before.

“When they built these old buildings, they never dreamed they would last,” said park Superintendent Joe Alston. “We are the beneficiaries of a lot of gratuitous luck and extraordinarily careful management. It’s so wonderful to see these buildings in almost mint condition.”

Guests were treated to a journey back in time and to the longstanding tradition of elegance that has been the hallmark of El Tovar since it was built in 1905 to provide affluent world travelers the opportunity to see the west in the luxury to which they were accustomed.

“When the train arrived in 1901 and pulled into the Bright Angel wash, passengers were attacked by the scent of trash pits burning and open pit toilets,” said historian Mike Anderson. “Affluent people were not used to effluent reaching their nostrils.”

He said that the Santa Fe Railroad and Fred Harvey Co. operated on a private mandate to “raise the bar” for U.S. travelers.

“This,” he said, referring to El Tovar, “was the kind of accommodation they expected in Europe.”

The seemingly small construction cost of $250,000 was actually a huge sum in those days, according to Barnes.

“The timbers were brought in from the Northwest,” she said. “It was a cross between a castle, a log cabin and a Victorian resort. It was a marriage of the known and the unknown.”

When it opened, guests could stay in style on the Canyon Rim for between $3.50 and $4.50 a day.

This was only one of the railroad’s contributions.

“The National Park Service owes a great debt to the railway,” said Richmond. “The railroad was the impetus behind explorations of the west and what was to become the great National Parks. The railroad was behind the battle to establish national parks.”

For many Americans, their first glimpse of western imagery came in the form of artwork commissioned by the Santa Fe and used in its advertising. They purchased work by Louis Akin, Thomas Moran, E. Irving Couse, Bertha Menzler Dressler, Bert Geer Phillips, Frank Paul Sauerwein and other noted artists of the day.

It was also the railroad that brought architect Mary Colter to the southwest where she pursued her lifelong interest in Indian culture, working it into many of her designs.

At the same time that El Tovar was being built, the Santa Fe Railroad brought Colter here to design the first of three Indian themed structures.

“Hopi House was one of three Indian-themed buildings Mary Colter did for the Fred Harvey Co.,” said Arnold Burke, who wrote “Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest.” The other two, he said were the El Navajo in Gallup, N.M., and the Desert View Watchtower here at Grand Canyon.

Santa Fe and the Fred Harvey Co. wanted an Indian building that would feed the American fascination with Native American culture and the architect obliged, delivering a copy of a building in a Hopi mesa town that also reflected Colter’s “calculated informality,” said Burke.

Hopi House was separated from El Tovar by a screen of trees. The intent was for guests to feel they were walking into a completely different realm as they went from one to the other.

Because of the Hopi House and other buildings like it, Burke said Colter was once disparaged for “pioneering the theme park approach.” But, he said, that wasn’t a fair characterization.

“Most theme parks derive from other regions, but she drew from the local region,” he said.

(Editor’s note: While the buildings have gotten much attention for standing for 100 years, equally important are the people who made Grand Canyon what it is today. See next week’s paper for more on the Verkamp family, Native American history of the Hopi House and contributions made by the Harvey Girls.)


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