Canyon Crossing

By Kristy McCaffrey

Last month Prairie Rose Publications celebrated ‘Christmas in July’ with a collection of short story releases. Included in this promotion was my tale, Canyon Crossing.

The idea for the story came from a hike I took in the Grand Canyon a few years ago with my husband and my dad. Grandview Trail, from the South Rim, is an access route from the rim to the Colorado River that’s been in use since 1890 when miner Pete Berry began working the Last Chance Mine. Before that, Hopi Indians gathered mineral paints in the area (Horseshoe Mesa) long before Berry arrived, creating early pathways.

The view from Grandview Trail.

Day hiking in Grand Canyon doesn’t require a permit, so on a chilly morning in March we set out to descend and climb back out before the sun set. Grandview Trail isn’t a beginner’s hike: the uppermost sections are steep, grueling switchbacks, and because long stretches were covered with ice and snow, very dangerous. One slip could easily lead to a plunge over the side. So, having my heroine tumble into the canyon was very realistic.

Me on one of the more precarious passages.

We spent three hours dropping 2500 feet in elevation. The scenery was breathtaking and I was amazed at the sheer cliffs we descended. We were forced to cling to the rocks like mountain goats in some parts, aided by micro-spikes attached to our hiking boots to tackle the icy patches.

My husband.

We made it as far as Horseshoe Mesa, a total of 3.2 miles. Several old copper mines are located in the area and the paths are fairly well-marked, along with signs warning of radiation. (Excessive amounts of radon are present.) We had hoped to continue out onto the Mesa and enjoy a view of the Colorado River, but were forced to turn around and head back to the top so we wouldn’t get caught on the trail after dark.

My dad and I close to Horseshoe Mesa.

A section of the trail.

Some of the trail was on rock.

In search of her brother, Annabel Cross enters Grand Canyon with a guide and a mule. When circumstances have her hanging from a cliff side, her rescue at the hands of U.S. Deputy Marshal Angus Docherty is fortuitous in more ways than one. He’s chasing the notorious Red Bandit, and it soon becomes clear that Annabel’s brother is mixed up with the criminal as well. While the marshal believes she may be in on a double-cross, she has a more pressing secret to hide. She can talk to deceased spirits, and she wonders whether to tell Angus about the old Apache ever near to him.

(This story previously appeared in the LASSOING A GROOM anthology.)

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Buckey Owens & the Grand Canyon

William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill

Twenty-five years after my first visit to the Grand Canyon and my husband's declaration made on the way home, "Next year, we need to come back and take the train up to the Grand Canyon," we finally made it. This train ride introduced me to William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill, the "mover and shaker" behind getting this rail line built between Williams and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Buckey O'Neill cabin today

William Owen O'Neill was born on February 2, 1860 in Missouri. During the Civil War, his father, John, served as a captain in the 116th Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Irish Brigade and was severely wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Buckey O'Neill moved out west in 1879 at the age of 19 and settled in Tombstone, Arizona during the era of the Earp brothers and the Clanton-McLaury Gang. It is claimed Mr. O'Neill earned his nickname "Buckey" for his ability to buck the odds in the card game of faro. There he started a career as a journalist when he joined the Tombstone Epitaph which was a pro-Earp newspaper. Although he might have reported on it, he did not stay in Tombstone long after the O.K. Corral shoot-out.

Buckey O'Neill cabin today

Buckey next went to Prescott, Arizona in the spring of 1882 where he continued his career in journalism and founded his own newspaper about the livestock industry, the Hoof and Horn. he also became captain of the Prescott Grays in 1886, the local unit of the Arizona Militia. In April of 1886, he married Pauline Schindler. They had a son who died shortly after being born prematurely.

In 1888, while serving as a judge for Yavapai County, he was elected as the county sheriff. He was noted as being part of a four man posse that chased four masked robbers of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The posse captured the four men who eventually were convicted and sent to the prison in Yuma. The only casualty was O'Neill's horse. After his term as sheriff was up, Buckey O'Neill was unanimously elected as the mayor of Prescott.

Photo of plaque in front of Buckey O'Neill Cabin, Grand Canyon Village

In 1890 he built a cabin for himself in the small Grand Canyon Village. Today it is part of the Bright Angle Lodge, functioning as a two room suite for guests. It has the distinction of being the oldest continuously standing structure on the South Rim. 

Buckey O'Neill owned several mining claims along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Although his claims promised wealth, because of the distance and terrain involved, he did not have a cost-effective way to transport the ore out of the area. For five years he lobbied for funding to build a rail system to connect the South Rim with the rest of Arizona. It was his vision of building a railroad to accomplish this that led to the September 17, 1901 completion of the first steam engine train between Williams, Arizona and Grand Canyon Village to carry passengers and supplies.

Engine GCR No. 29 purchased 1989 when service restarted.

The Railway revolutionized the Canyon by making the Grand Canyon Railway accessible to the general public. It was part of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company. It started with two scheduled arrivals each day at the South Rim, plus special trains might be added to the schedule. The train ran until 1968 when it shut down due to more people visiting the Grand Canyon by automobile. However, twenty years later, the train Buckey O'Neill envisioned and set in motion was started up again and offers daily service between the two communities.


Unfortunately, Buckey O'Neill did not live long enough to see the completion of his dream for the railway. In 1898, war broke out between the United States and Spain. O'Neill joined the Rough Riders organized by Teddy Roosevelt. He became Captain of Troop A, which he did his best to organize into a regiment of Arizona cowboys. He died on July 1, 1898, one day before the charge on San Juan Hill. He was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Part of plaque outside Buckey O'Neill Cabin, Grand Canyon Village

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, A Christmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. The first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, are now available.

The author currently lives with her husband in California near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She enjoys family history and any kind of history. When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.

Please visit the Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.

 

Mary Jane Colter

By Kristy McCaffrey

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter

A visit to the Grand Canyon is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which are the various buildings designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. In 1902, she became an architect, designer, and decorator for the Fred Harvey Company. At the time, American architecture followed the fashions of Europe, but Mary preferred to let her conceptions grow from the land, paying homage to the Native Americans who inhabited the area. Her designs include Hermit’s Rest, Lookout Studio, Bright Angel Lodge, Hopi House and the Watchtower—all located on the South Rim of Grand Canyon—along with Phantom Ranch, situated at the bottom of the canyon.

Lookout Studio

Mary Jane Colter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and while her family lived briefly in Texas and Colorado, the Colter’s finally settled in St. Paul, Minnesota when Mary was eleven, and she always considered this her home. She desired to pursue art as a career but couldn’t due to family opposition. It wasn’t until the death of her father that she moved toward following her dream.

From inside Hermit's Rest

Mary attended the California School of Design in San Francisco, studying art and design. Few universities taught architecture, so she apprenticed with a practicing architect. This was unusual for a woman, but Mary was determined. In 1890, as a new graduate, her biggest concern was finding a job to support her mother and sister. She returned to St. Paul as a teacher. In 1892, at the age of 23, she began a 15-year teaching career at the Mechanic Arts High School, an all-boys institution. Mary taught freehand and mechanical drawing, and after eight years her salary rose to 90 dollars a month. Ambitious, she also lectured at the University Extension on world history and architecture, and participated in the Century Club lectures in Minnesota and Iowa. In addition, she reviewed books as the literary editor of the St. Paul Globe. On her own, she studied archaeology. To her delight, she would eventually receive a job offer from the Fred Harvey Company.

Bright Angel Lodge

The Fred Harvey Company operated gift shops, newsstands, restaurants, and hotels of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway beginning in 1876. Mary’s first assignment was to decorate the Indian Building which was adjacent to a new hotel built in Albuquerque. Once that job was complete, however, the company had no more work for her and she returned to St. Paul to teach.

The Watchtower

Photo of my dad from inside the Watchtower.

In 1904, when the Santa Fe Railway determined to extend a line to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the Fred Harvey Company decided to build a hotel at the edge. Plans were commissioned for El Tovar, and Mary was hired to design an Indian building across from the hotel, which resembled a Swiss chalet. Her building, Hopi House, was based on Hopi dwellings located in Oraibi, Arizona. Once again, with this project complete, Mary returned to St. Paul and to teaching, needing the steady income it provided. Soon thereafter she took a job in Seattle to develop a decoration department for the Frederick and Nelson Department Store, and her mother and sister accompanied her. Tragically, her mother died within a year after becoming ill from pernicious anemia.

Hopi House

In 1910, at the age of 41, Mary was finally offered a permanent job with the Fred Harvey Company. She would design and decorate the new Fred Harvey hotels, restaurants, and union station facilities, a coveted position, especially for a woman. She wasn’t without her detractors, as a railroad man once complained of her “poorly illuminated buildings.” Mary often used soft lighting to create a restful atmosphere.

Those who knew Mary Colter describe her in many ways. To her critics, she was a small woman with piercing violet eyes and hair that was never combed. She chain-smoked, was outspoken, and even cruel at times. To her friends, she was tall and stately, a wonderful woman, fun to talk with, and a happy person interested in life around her. Once her designs of Phantom Ranch were constructed—individual cabins, a large dining hall, and a recreational hall at the bottom of Grand Canyon—she took the mule trip down to view her new buildings. At 53, she remained in good health.

Phantom Ranch

My mom, myself and my daughter Kate
at Phantom Ranch in 2011.

For 30 years, she worked as an architect (few women did) and completed 21 projects for the Fred Harvey Company. She considered the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona her masterwork. It still stands today.

The La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona ~ then and now.

In 1948, Colter retired to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and passed away in 1958 at the age of 88.

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Work Cited

Grattan, Virginia L. Mary Colter: Builder Upon The Red Earth. Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1992.

Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Colter>

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I welcome comments and apologize in advance for not responding in a timely manner. I’m currently in Baja Mexico viewing the calving lagoons of the Pacific Gray Whale, and anticipate having no internet access. A small price to pay for interacting with these magnificent and gentle giants. My very best to everyone ~ Kristy

Grand Canyon: Part IV ~ Women of the Canyon

Post by Kristy McCaffrey

This is the final installment of a 4-part series on the Grand Canyon.

Read Part I: Description & Early Exploration here.

Read Part II: Important Men of the Canyon here.

Read Part III: Native Americans of the Canyon here.

In 1938, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter became the first women to descend the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Clover, a botany professor at the University of Michigan, and Jotter, a close friend and former roommate of Clover's who was a graduate student in botany at the same university, planned the trip to “botanize” underexplored parts of the canyon.

Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter

The journey lasted 43 days and covered over 650 miles. Though the botanical collections were not as comprehensive as originally planned, the two women made history by becoming the first females to successfully descend the Colorado River through its major rapids.

The Clover-Jotter expedition

Georgie White was the first woman river guide in the Grand Canyon. In 1955 she began taking customers down the Colorado River in a large rubber raft of her own design. These rigs were 37 feet long, 27 feet wide and consisted of strapping three large inflatable boats together, then mounting a 10-horsepower outboard motor on the rear of the middle boat. This mode was controversial, as those who ran the rapids in wooden dories held disdain for her methods. However, she was able to take paying customers en mass, introducing the rapids and the Grand Canyon to an entirely new group of people. Her effect on the river was tremendous. In 1955 only 70 people floated down the Colorado. By 1972, the number had risen to an astounding 16,400.

Georgie White's river rafting design.

Twice divorced, White first ventured into the canyon after the tragic death of her 15-year-old daughter in a hit-and-run accident. She kept her river-guiding business going for 45 years. At the age of 73, she could be seen holding her motor rig’s tiller with one hand and a beer with the other, wearing a full-length leopard-pattern leotard.

Georgie White, the first female river guide
on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon.

A famous and unsolved mystery in the Grand Canyon involves a young couple named Glen and Bessie Hyde. They married in 1928 and shortly thereafter embarked on a grand adventure—a boat trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon on a homemade scow. Bessie would be the first woman to attempt to ride the river. In November of 1928, about a month after they had set out, their scow was found floating and empty. No trace of them has ever been found.

Glen and Bessie Hyde

The Hyde's homemade scow. They disappeared just short
of their goal to traverse the Grand Canyon.

Several theories have been put forth as to what may have happened. It was said that Glen was a controlling husband and that perhaps Bessie had killed him, then hiked out of the canyon to start a new life. Some thought the famous river-runner Georgie White was Bessie Hyde, fueled when friends went through White’s belongings after her death in 1992. They found the marriage certificate of Glen and Bessie Hyde, along with a pistol similar to one they’d carried on their journey. This theory has been disputed because Bessie didn’t like river-running, so it’s unlikely she would return to Grand Canyon and make it her vocation. The most likely outcome was that Glen and Bessie drowned, and the bodies simply disappeared.

A Grand Canyon rattlesnake.

Finally, to end my 4-part series, I'll share the story of river guide Teresa Yates Matheson. In her short essay "Slithering Company," (There's this River... Grand Canyon Boatman Stories, edited by Christa Sadler, This Earth Press, 2006) she describes a trip she took on the Colorado River with her mother. Having set up camp along the shoreline earlier in the day, Teresa was shocked to find a guest at the bottom of her sleeping bag that evening. What felt like a coiled rope soon began moving up the length of her body. In an effort not to alarm her mother, and possibly startle the snake, she remained still and quiet until the reptile exited her bag, the rattles brushing past her face. Thankfully, they soon corralled the critter and moved him upstream.

Summer storm over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. 

Grand Canyon both entrances and tests the human spirit. As Arizona author Leo W. Banks says, "...the Canyon is overwhelming...a far world, unknown, and unknowable."

Thank you for joining me on this armchair adventure through the history and people of Grand Canyon.

Kristy at the Canyon last summer.

Photo Credits

www.prod.lsa.umich.edu

www.canyoncountryzephyr.com

www.grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu

www.npr.org

www.archive.azcentral.org

www.pbase.com

Don't miss Kristy's short stories in Prairie Rose's summer anthologies. In Lassoing A Groom, U.S. Deputy Marshal Angus Docherty enters Grand Canyon in search of a fugitive, and instead finds a woman who can talk to the dead. In Cowboy Cravings, Mesquite Joe Riordan knows he isn’t the man for Lily Kingston, but in the Arizona desert his past finally catches up to him. And so has Lily. For more info, visit Kristy's website.

Grand Canyon: Part III ~ Native Americans of the Canyon

Post by Kristy McCaffrey

This is the third installment of a 4-part series on the Grand Canyon.

Read Part I: Description & Early Exploration here.

Read Part II: Important Men of the Canyon here.

The Havasupai Indians have lived in the Grand Canyon for the past 800 years. Known as the Blue Water People, they’ve turned their land, consisting of richly colored waters and awe-inspiring waterfalls, into a famous tourist attraction that draws thousands of people each year. They live primarily above and inside the southwest end of Grand Canyon in a place known as Cataract Canyon. In the 1700’s they had little contact with the Spanish, and during the U.S. westward expansion the same was also true with white people, but this changed when silver was discovered in 1870 within Cataract Canyon. Relations with other Native American tribes have been generally mixed, but they have maintained a strong bond with the Hopi people.

 

Havasu Falls

A Havasupai family in front of a home in Havasu Canyon,
circa 1883.

Today the town of Supai, located at the bottom of Grand Canyon, is the capital of the Havasupai Indian Reservation. It is home to around 500 of the tribe members, and is one of the most remote cities in the U.S. It can be accessed by taking the old Route 66 about 60 miles to the trailhead. An 8 mile hike leads to the town of 136 houses, a café, a general store, a tourist office, a post office, a school, and several churches.

The Hualapai Indians live along a stretch of the southern rim of Grand Canyon. Their reservation was created in 1883, and they’re closely related to the Havasupai Indians. They traditionally lived in wikiups, structures formed from cedar boughs.

 

Wickiup

The Grand Canyon Skywalk, built in 2007, is owned by the Hualapai Indian Tribe. It’s a transparent, horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge on the edge of a side canyon of the Grand Canyon. This tourist attraction, easily accessed from Las Vegas, offers views from an elevation of 4,770 feet. While this attraction has caused some controversy regarding over-development, the skywalk brings in much needed revenue for the reservation.

 

Grand Canyon Skywalk, managed by the
Hualapai Indians.

The Hopi Indians, while not based in Grand Canyon proper, consider the area sacred and home to the original sipapu. In Hopi mythology this is the entrance through which the Hopi entered this world from the previous one. The Hopis construct kivas—underground chambers used for religious ceremonies—with a small hole in the floor at the north end to symbolize the sipapu. It’s considered bad luck, especially for white people, to trek to the original opening (located off the Little Colorado River, a tributary connected to Grand Canyon). Stories abound of ensuing misfortune.

 

The Sipapu, the entryway from the lower world that
all Hopi traversed to enter the current Fourth World.

 

A young Hopi girl.

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Kristy’s short story in Lassoing A Groom features U.S. Deputy Marshal Angus Docherty as he hunts a fugitive in Grand Canyon, but he’s saddled with an unwanted companion when he rescues a young woman who may not be what she seems. To learn more, visit Kristy’s website.

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Photo Credits

desertusa.com

grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu

mygrandcanyonpark.com

cpluhna.nau.edu

old-picture.com

bobbordasch.com

Grand Canyon: Part II ~ Important Men Of The Canyon

Post by Kristy McCaffrey

This is the second installment of a 4-part series on the Grand Canyon.

Read Part I: Description & Early Exploration here.

One of the most colorful characters in Grand Canyon history was Captain John Hance. Born in 1840, he served in both the Confederate and Union armies, and is thought to be the first non-Native American resident of the Grand Canyon. Arriving in 1883, he first attempted mining asbestos, but failed due to the expense of removing it. He soon started giving tours, opening the first tourist trail in the late nineteenth century. He’s credited with carving a number of trails, which often followed old American Indian paths.

Captain John Hance

John Hance loved Grand Canyon and remained until his death in 1919. In his memory, there is a Hance Trail, Hance Creek, Hance Canyon, Hance Spring, Hance Mine, Hance Rapid, and a Hance’s Cove. He was famous throughout Arizona for his tall tales. In one, he stated that the Colorado River got so muddy that the only way to quench his thirst was to cut a piece of water off and chew it.

Robert Brewster Stanton

Robert Brewster Stanton (1846-1922) was a civil engineer who conducted a survey of the Colorado River to determine the possibility of building a railroad through the river’s canyons from the Green River in Utah to the Gulf of California. In 1889, hired by a Denver realtor named Frank M. Brown (who hoped to invest in a railroad opportunity), Stanton and a group of men, including Brown, attempted to traverse the Colorado River. But instead of using heavy wooden boats, as John Wesley Powell had done fifteen years prior, Brown decided the expedition should go light. The boats were fragile, the men inexperienced at rowing, and a fatal decision to go without life jackets resulted in the drowning deaths of Brown and two other men within the first few miles of entering Marble Canyon, generally considered to be the beginning of Grand Canyon. Shaken, Stanton and the remaining crew climbed out of the canyon, but soon returned with heavier and deeper boats made of oak, and completed the survey in less than three months. Stanton’s efforts, however, never became a reality, as anyone who’s been to the Canyon can attest—there is no railroad in Grand Canyon.

The Kolb Photographic Studio at the South Rim of Grand Canyon.

Emery and Ellsworth Kolb founded a photographic studio at the Bright Angel trailhead, on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, in 1903. At first, it was nothing more than a small cave in the side of the canyon wall, but later they erected a two-story wooden structure overlooking the Canyon. They began a very profitable and adventuresome career as commercial photographers, snapping photos of tourists on mules as they rode down the trails. In the process, they provided historical records of early tourism in Grand Canyon National Park.

The Kolb Brothers, circa 1913

The Kolb brothers recorded the first adventure movie down the Colorado River in 1912. The movie ran at the Grand Canyon from 1915 until 1976—the year Emery Kolb died—making it the longest-running movie in history.

The Kolb Brothers

The Kolb brothers were active participants in the promotion of Grand Canyon, photographing visitors, viewpoints, and areas of the park, establishing the park as a site of national pride and a worldwide icon.

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In addition to setting her 1877 historical western romance, The Sparrow, in Grand Canyon, Kristy will also have a short story featuring this natural wonder in Lassoing A Groom, an anthology coming May 20^th from Prairie Rose Publications. In “Canyon Crossing,” a U.S. Deputy Marshal hunts a fugitive in Grand Canyon, but is saddled with an unwanted companion when he rescues a young woman who may not be what she seems. To stay up-to-date, visit Kristy's website.

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Photo credits

www.nps.gov

www.raftgrandcanyon.com

www.pbs.org

www.grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu