NEW!

MARCH 2026

Ties To the Edge of the Earth: The Bibliographical Record of Railroads To the Grand Canyon of Arizona

Not until 1887 were serious ideas had for rails to the rim of the Grand Canyon—and there really was only one rim of consideration in those days, the south, not far off one of the principal continental railways that ran through fledgling towns and waystations south of the canyon. These plans were in lockstep with rather uneasy early tourist ventures by wagon from the railroad, first at Peach Springs into Peach Springs Wash to the river at Diamond Creek with Julius Farlee’s cheerless, windowless board-lumber “hotel,” then from Flagstaff to the hostelry of John Hance at Glendale Springs on the rim and Pete Berry’s more recognizable hotel at Grand View. And the early tourists wrote gloryingly of the canyon and their hosts. Finally, entrepreneurial businessmen convinced the Santa Fe Railway to extend its spur line from Williams, which had been built to service mines near Anita, all the way to the canyon rim. The first train arrived there in 1901, when at last the more remote “hotelmen” were finally outcompeted by the construction of the Bright Angel camp of cabins and tents, and, in 1905, the Santa Fe Railway’s rustically posh El Tovar. The first years, before E.T., were decidedly adventurous for many visitors, both on the rails and at “Bright Angel” as the village was sometimes known.

               Rail traffic to the South Rim ended in 1968, having succumbed to the ever-present and more independently-minded automobilist­—and the fact that water no longer had to be hauled by rail to Grand Canyon village after the completion of the Trans-Canyon Pipeline from Roaring Springs in Bright Angel Canyon. But in the 1980s Arizona entrepreneurs were game to rebuild the Grand Canyon line for tourist traffic, creating the Grand Canyon Railway between Williams and the canyon, which remains in operation.

               This comprehensive, augmented bibliography presents a history of railroading to Grand Canyon—as recorded in articles and books. It is divided into geographic sections, one each for the South Rim and North Rim, plus a separate compilation devoted to the Denver, Colorado Cañon & Pacific Railroad that was a survey only, following the Colorado River in 1889-1890, though significant in the history of Grand Canyon. No such devoted compilations have been available before. Appended to the bibliography is a list of convention and exposition visits to the canyon by rail, and a comprehensive, illustrated accounting of more than a hundred advertisements by the Santa Fe Railway. With these ads one may gain some idea of how the railroad promoted its service and amenities, and of the outstanding hospitality of the Fred Harvey organization.

... and Their Driving Machines: Historic Motoring to the Grand Canyon of Arizona: The Bibliographical Record to the Second World War

In the early 20th century, there was a new phenomenon, later memorialized with a catchy song by Ron Goodwin in 1965—“Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.” Beneath them, another form of machine—the automobile—had already been moving about, first within towns and soon enough daring to cross the country on what often were rudely rutted roadways, sometimes only suggestions. In 1902 they discovered the Grand Canyon for them­selves, and soon afterward daring drivers pursued them on motorcycles. These magnificent men even found their ways to the bottom of the canyon. The pioneer drivers and riders all were men—but women soon joined them, and some of them even were “women without men in their parties”!

               Exciting adventures at first, in due time the drivers’ escapades became routine, not especially newsworthy except for not-unexpected encounters with bad roads. After the First World War and during the enthusiastic years of the ’20s, the national highways saw greatly increasing numbers of motorists and clamor for better roads. Many drivers stopped at the new Grand Canyon National Park, the first inkling of the wave of motor vehicles that would eventually surpass those arriving by rail—and clog the seemingly always too small parking areas. The lean times of the Depression years curtailed some of this, which then fell into another great wartime that all but stopped long distance road travel (and which stopped the trains to the canyon as well). The circumstances of the years following the Second World War are well recognized as inaugurating America’s explosive devotion to automobile travel; and no longer was it novel. So for this reason this bibliography cuts off there.

               This comprehensive, augmented bibliography is divided into geographic sections, one each for the South Rim and North Rim, plus a separate compilation devoted to the pioneering trips down Peach Springs Wash and Diamond Creek to the Colorado River—before the Diamond Creek Road. No such devoted compilations have been available before.