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Grand Canyon Pioneers Society - Monthly Bulletin - June 1999 |
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GCPS Meetings for 1999
| June 12: |
Annual Picnic at Shoshone Point and a tour of the Grand Canyon Cemetery by Stew Fritts prior to the picnic. Everyone should bring their own individual table service, drinks, a dish (i.e. casserole) to share and, if desired, some meat to barbecue. Tablecloths and briquettes for the barbecue will be provided. Fred Schick will have the barbecue going by noon.
Bring along your favorite pictures of the Grand Canyon and Canyon Pioneers to show to others. The cemetery is located just west of the Visitor's Center and the tour will begin at 10:30 AM. The turnoff to Shoshone Point is on Highway 64 (Desert View Drive) between mileposts 244 and 245. There is a yellow gate on the north side of the highway here and a dirt road leading to the picnic area. The gate will be unlocked shortly after 11:30 AM as soon as the person with the key can get there after the cemetery tour. |
| July 17: | We'll meet at the Albright Center at the Grand Canyon South Rim at 1:00 PM to hear Transportation Director Jim Tuck. He has been involved in the implementation of the General Management Plan since its approval in 1995. Concentrating on the transportation and regional information aspects of the plan, Jim manages the day-to-day shuttle system contract, has brought alternative fuels (back) to the park and is helping plan for the greatly expanded transit system. He will cover all aspects of the implementation of the General Management Plan. If you want to avoid the crowds in the Village eateries, bring a picnic to the patio of Albright at noon. |
| August 14: | This outing to Chavez Pass is being arranged by Ron Werhan. Meet at 10:10 AM at Two Guns, Interstate-40 Mile Marker 230 (35 miles east of Flagstaff) for a discussion of the local history including Canyon Diablo Trading Post, Two Guns, Indian trade route, and view of the original Old Trails Highway and old U.S. highway 66. From there we're off on quite an adventure -- past Meteor Crater to Chavez Pass and a 1/2 mile hike up and down hills to some ruins. We'll drive through a beautiful old growth ponderosa forest and past lakes and meadows. The trip mileage is 134 miles round trip from Flagstaff. The entire trip will take 7 hours. We should be back to Flagstaff by 5:00 PM. Much of the trip is on gravel roads and is suitable for passenger cars in good weather. You may want to carpool out of Flagstaff. |
| September 18: | John Westerlund, our scholarship awardee for last year and this year, will show slides and tell us about his doctoral project on the World War II prisoners at Navajo Depot and the Japanese internees at Leupp. We'll meet for lunch at Furr's Cafeteria in Flagstaff at 11:30 AM and afterwards make our way to the meeting room. The presentation will be in the Liberal Arts Building at Northern Arizona University at 1:00 PM in Room 135. In case you do not come to the lunch, the Liberal Arts Building is on the north campus, Building 18. Parking is in Lot 10. Room 135 is on the north end of the building, first floor. Maps are available at most campus entrances. |
| October 16: | Annual Meeting |
| November 13: | Plans are in the making for a first ever meeting of the Grand Canyon Pioneers in Tucson. We'll start with our own personally guided tour of the Arizona State Historical Society museum from 10:30 to 11:30 AM. After lunch in a nearby restaurant, we'll gather in the Historical Society Board Room for two presentations. Ruth Stephens Baker will talk about her climb of Shiva Tempe with Emery Kolb. Then Betty Leavengood will show slides from the Bass Collection that is housed at the Historical Society and talk about Ada Bass. We'll come up with some plans for folks staying overnight, so mark your calendar for a visit to the Old Pueblo. |
| December: | No meeting |
A Letter from Dr. Robert C. Euler
I just wanted to let you and the readers of The 0l' Pioneer that I really enjoyed Gale Burak's article about visiting Phantom Ranch after the December 1966 mud flow and flood. Gale and the rest of you may wish to know that the "official" report of that catastrophe was published as U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 98O, entitled "Effects of the Catastrophic Flood of December 1966, North Rim Area, Eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona'' by M.E. Cooley, B.N. Aldridge, and R.C. Euler, 1977.
The three of us spent severa1 weeks examining all the tributaries from Saddle Canyon westerly to Deer Creek by helicopter and on the North Rim heads of those tributaries, the first two authors doing the hydrology and surficial geology and I responsible for the archaeology.
Parenthetically, I had done an intensive archaeological survey in those canyons in June and July 1966 (also by helicopter) and was able to determine after the flood that only two structures (roasting pits) dating from ca. A.D. 1050--1150 were damaged or destroyed; the prehistoric Anasazi certainly must have been aware of potential flooding and constructed their living areas out of danger.
Sincerely,
Bob Euler
Planes of Fame Air Museum
Grand Canyon
By Tom Carmony
Having passed by this place many times, I finally stopped in after the May GCPS outing.
The museum opened in May 1995 and is part of the world famous Planes of Fame Museum collection, based in Chino, California. Planes of Fame was established in January 1957 and was the first permanent flying museum west of the Rockies. The Air Museum strives to restore to flying condition as many as possible of the 140 aircraft in the collection. Currently about 40 of the aircraft are flyable, including many of the exhibits at the Grand Canyon facility.
Aircraft of WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War are on display. Besides the B-25 and Constellation on display outside on the ramp, there are many more aircraft inside the large air-conditioned museum building. Included in the collection are WWII German and Japanese fighters and even a Soviet counterpart of the United States F-86. Non-military aircraft include the Bede-5V, a tiny homebuilt pusher airplane and a Pitts S-2B aerobatic biplane which can take off and land upside down. Exhibits include a Link Trainer flight simulator.
The museum is located in Valle just south of the intersection of US Highways 180 and 64 about 25 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park. Admission is $5 for adults. The museum is open every day except Christmas and Thanksgiving. They have a website at www.planesoffame.org.
For this "retired" pilot and aircraft history buff, the visit was rewarding and educating.
The Grand Canyon-Flagstaff Stagecoach Line
GCPS members Richard and Sherry Mangum have written another book, "The Grand Canyon-Flagstaff Stagecoach Line." A brief description and history of the stagecoach line follows.
The Grand Canyon - Flagstaff Stagecoach Line opened the Grand Canyon to tourism and made Flagstaff "The Gateway to the Grand Canyon." There were other stage lines to the Grand Canyon operating in the 1890s, from Williams, Ash Fork and Peach Springs, but only the Flagstaff line was affiliated with the railroad, enjoying its advertising and support.
The line operated from 1892 through the close of the 1900 season, running during the spring, summer and fall. Tourists were taken to John Hance's Camp, where the company had a couple of small buildings. The tourists were housed in tents. John Hance acted as a guide, taking travelers into the Canyon on the Old Hance Trail, and later the New Hance trail. The stage line was a regular commercial operation, with a published timetable and professional personnel.
Before the stage began operating, it took travelers two days to reach the Canyon, requiring an overnight camp along the road. The stage made the seventy-two mile trip in one day, leaving town at 7 AM and reaching Hance's Camp at 7 p.m. This could be accomplished only by running six-horse teams at a fast trot. The horses had to be changed every twenty miles, which required the establishment of three relay stations along the route.
The book was exhaustively researched. Although written for the general reader, it is studded with over 400 footnotes for the benefit of scholars to support our debunking of many old myths. There are over 100 photographs, some published for the first time. The authors, who have published northern Arizona hiking guides since 1992, have been out over the ground, locating the roads used by the stage, the sites of the relay stations and other points of interest. Descriptions and maps are included to self-guide the interested reader who may want to do some exploring.
The book is 81/2 x 11, 100 pages, and sells for $14.95. It is published by Hexagon Press, Inc. Flagstaff. It should be available early in June 1999 from Five Quail Books-West [(602) 861-0548)] and other booksellers.
Canyon View Information Plaza
A ground breaking ceremony for the Canyon View Information Plaza took place Friday April 23, 1999 at the Shrine of the Ages. The ceremony was open to the public and almost 400 people attended. Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior, was the key speaker at the event. Other speakers were Eleanor Towns, Regional Forester Southwestern Region USFS, Mark McDermott, Director Arizona Office of Tourism, and Arthur Hamilton, National Program Manager Federal Lands Highway Administration.
After a short program presided over by Superintendent Arnberger, members of the Grand Canyon community, representing different user groups, presented the ground breaking shovels to the Superintendent and other dignitaries.
The ceremony was originally scheduled to take place at the Mather Point site, but due to stormy weather it was held at the Shrine of the Ages.
(From the April 1999 issue of "Uplift & Erosion", the newsletter of the Grand Canyon National Park General Management Plan implementation Team)
The Bulletin welcomes comments, stories, or Reflections and Remembrances.
Please send them to
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Tom Carmony
206 W. Caroline Lane Tempe, AZ 85284-3021 |
or e-mail them to carmonys@extremezone.com
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