Читать книгу One Best Hike: Grand Canyon. Everything You Need to Know to Successfully Hike from the Rim to the River—and Back онлайн

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The tourism business required more than tour guides, and many settlers found profitable niches. Among them, Ellsworth Kolb and his brother Emery began a South Rim photography business in 1902, building a studio, today’s Kolb Studio, near the start of the Bright Angel Trail. They photographed parties descending the trail and then rushed to Indian Garden—the closest source of freshwater—to develop the photographs so that people could purchase prints on their return later than day.

Tourism was helped along by the fact that the Santa Fe Railway had completed tracks across northern Arizona in 1883, stopping in Williams just 65 miles from the South Rim and thereby providing relatively easy access for visitors from across the U.S. Before long, plans were in progress to build a spur line to the South Rim. William O’Neill, an early South Rim entrepreneur, organized funding and began to construct the route in 1897, laying tracks due south to meet the Santa Fe Railway’s tracks in Williams. Following his death in 1898, the Santa Fe Railway purchased the tracks and constructed the last 10 miles of track to the canyon. Opened in 1901, it ferried visitors in comfort—especially once the railway company and concession partner, the Fred Harvey Company, constructed elegant hotels and restaurants on the canyon rim. The construction of the new road to the South Rim during the 1920s triggered the demise of the train service, and the railway ceased to run in 1968. In 1989, the historical route was resurrected and the historical depot in Williams refurbished.