The Grand Canyon Of Arizona: How To See It
By
George Wharton James
Author of "In and Out of the Old Missions," "The Wonders of the Colorado
Desert," "Through Ramona's Country," etc.
Revised Edition
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company
Kansas City: Fred Harvey
1912
Because of the completion of a new driveway along the Rim of the GrandCanyon, and of a new trail to the Colorado River, a second edition of thisbook is deemed necessary.
These improvements, which have recently been made by the Santa Fe Railway,are known as Hermit Rim Road and Hermit Trail. The first, said to be themost unique road in the world, is nine miles long on the brink of theCanyon, and the other, a wide and safe pathway down the south wall.
The contents of the volume has been revised, and descriptions of Hermit RimRoad and Hermit Trail have been added. There are also new portionsdescribing the drives and trips that may be taken through the forest on theRim and in the Canyon itself, each carefully planned so that the travelermay devote to sightseeing whatever amount of time he desires.
With these additions and alterations, the original plan to provide aconvenient handbook for all travelers to the Grand Canyon is more complete.
Upwards of ten years ago I sat on the south rim of the Grand Canyon andwrote "In and Around the Grand Canyon." In that book I included much thatmore than a decade of wandering up and down the trails of this great abysshad taught me. At that time the only accommodations for sightseers werestage lines or private conveyance from Flagstaff and Ash Fork, and, onarrival at the Canyon, the crude hotel-camps at Hance's, Grand View, BrightAngel, and Bass's. The railway north from Williams was being built.Everything was crude and primitive.
Now the railway is completed and has become an integral part of the greatSanta Fe System, with at least two trains a day each way carrying Pullmansleepers, chair cars and coaches. At Bright Angel, where the railwaydeposits its passengers at the rim of the Canyon, stands El Tovar Hotel,erected by the railway company at a cost of over a quarter of a milliondollars, which is equipped and conducted by Fred Harvey. Yet El Tovar ismore like a country club than a hotel, in many respects, and, to thatextent, is better.
Hence while nothing in the canyon itself has changed, and while my book,"In and Around the Grand Canyon," is still as helpful to the traveler andgeneral reader as ever, there has been a growing demand for a new bookwhich should give the information needed by the traveler who comes underthe new conditions, telling him how he may best avail himself of them. Thisbook is written to meet this demand. It therefore partakes more of thecharacter of a guide book than the former volume, so it has been decided tomake it lighter in weight and handier in form, so that it can be slippedinto the pocket or handbag, and thus used on the spot by those who wish aready reference handbook.
Used in connection with the earlier volume or alone for it is complete initself in all its details—it cannot fail to give a clearer and fullercomprehension of this "Waterway of the Gods,"—the most incomparable pieceof rugged scenery in the known world.
George Wharton James
El Tovar, Grand Canyon,
September, 1909.