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Grand Canyon Pioneers Society - Monthly Bulletin |
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| Vol 4, No 4 | April 2000 |
Harvey Girls History
Nineteen Pioneers met at The Gathering Place at the Bethany Community Church in Tempe on March 19 to hear Maxine Edwards talk about the Harvey Girls.
Edwards, former curator of the State Capitol Museum, has been researching the Harvey Girls for 10 years, and is now the curator of the Harvey Girl exhibit in the History Room at Bright Angel Lodge, Grand Canyon.
Edwards began her research with oral histories of former Harvey Girls, the only ones done with the Harvey Girls. The first person she interviewed was Jeanne Schick, whose mother was a Harvey Girl.
According to Edwards, Fred Harvey started the fast food restaurants we have today. "Harvey was the first to have standardized food services," she explained. "He had a simplified menu, standard quality, and a standard price. He could deliver good meals in a fraction of the time it took other restaurants."
Very little is known about Fred Harvey's early life. He was born in London in 1835 and came to the United States in 1850. "We do know that he was an extremely hard worker," Edwards said. "He usually had several jobs at the same time." Harvey worked as a busboy and opened his first restaurant at the age of 19.
While Harvey was riding the St. Joseph and Missouri Railroad, he was struck by how hard it was to get good food at any of the stops; so he proposed to the Railroad that he operate a restaurant at the stops, but they declined. Harvey took his proposal to the Santa Fe Railway and they agreed on a handshake. His agreement with the Santa Fe required that Harvey supply the food and the employees. The Santa Fe would provide the restaurant site and free transportation for Harvey's supplies. He opened his first restaurant for the Santa Fe in 1876 and it was an instant success.
Adding to the success were the Harvey Girls. "The Harvey Girls were from families that needed the money," Edwards said. "Most were from rural areas." Harvey had strict standards and the Harvey Girls came to believe that they were a cut above the average waitress. "If you were trained as a Harvey Girl," Edwards explained, "you could get a job anywhere."
The Fred Harvey Corporation was very successful and at one time was the largest family-held corporation in the United States. It remained in family hands until the mid-1970s when it was sold to the AmFac Corporation
GCPS Meetings for 2000
| April 8: |
Dr. Michael Anderson will talk about the Administrative History
of the Grand Canyon. Time: 12:00 noon for lunch followed by the program Where: Maswick Lodge for lunch, Old Community Building for program, Grand Canyon Village |
| April 22 & 23: | Easter Sunrise Service and backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon led by Lee Albertson. |
| May 20: | Grand Canyon-Flagstaff Stage Coach Line field trip by Dick and Sherry Mangum at Flagstaff Visitor Center. |
| June 17: | Annual Picnic at Shoshone Point. Kim Besom will give a tour of the Grand Canyon Collection at 10 AM; meet at Albright Training Center parking lot. |
| July 15: | Lauzon Homestead and Bass Camp tour by Pat Lauzon. |
| August 19: | Phantom Ranch history by Keith Green at Albright Training Center, Grand Canyon Village. |
| September 16: | To be announced. |
| October 21: | Annual Board Meeting and a talk by river guide Tom Vail in Flagstaff. |
| November 18: | Kokopelli: The Mystery of the Flute Player by Jay Cravath at Poco Diablo Resort in Sedona. |
| December: | No meeting |
Lake Powell Celebration: March 14, 2000
Remarks: Stan Jones
If we had stood at this place on August fourth a hundred and thirty years ago, we could have waved to one-armed Major John Wesley Powell as he and his eight companions cruised far below us on the Colorado River in their three tiny rowboats.
Imagine - just for a moment - that Major Powell is here again TODAY - not seven hundred feet below us on the river, but in his boat out there on the surface of the lake that is named for him.
Would he be suggesting disapproval of this great man-made reservoir? The answer is certainly ''NO" - even though no one knew nor better appreciated the original river gorge that HE named ''Glen Canyon".
Why would he be enthusiastic about today's Lake Powell?
Because John Wesley Powell was a scientist, an extremely intelligent man, as well as a very practical American. He understood that - while there is a place in life for appreciating natural treasures like a river - to be enjoyed by a few, there must also be things to enhance the lives of the MANY.
In the West, that he explored so thoroughly, Powell determined that scarce water - when plentiful - should be saved, just like money is saved in a bank; saved for the good of the many who would some day want to live in this spectacular realm.
In short, John Wesley Powell was America's first serious conservationist. And the thing he knew MUST be conserved was water.
In his wildest dreams, though, the Major Powell of 1869 could never have envisioned a water-storage facility as vast and as important as Lake Powell. The foresight and the engineering of HIS time were not sufficient to plan for and build a Glen Canyon Dam.
But, if he really were out there in front of us on this lake today, he would marvel at what the minds and the machinery of OUR day have accomplished in the interest of a majority of Americans. And he would congratulate our generation for the insight that moved it to impound and save the precious Colorado River water that means so much to so many who have chosen to live in our arid West.
If indeed we can imagine that Major Powell is with us here today, why not imagine that we could ask him to comment on the Glen Canyon of the year 2000? Perhaps he would ask:
"Is it really true that three and a half million visitors have found another reason - RECREATION - to add to the importance of Lake Powell?"
And we would reply:
"Yes, Major, your spectacular lake, with its 252 square miles of water-surface, has become one of the most sought-after recreation sites in the West."
"But the lake occupies 186 miles of what once was river," he might reply. "Are there not people who want to experience the river as I did?"
"Of course, Major," would be our answer; "we still have fifteen miles of placid, pristine river between here and Lees Ferry downstream. Last year 39,673 people enjoyed float trips there. And below Lees Ferry are two hundred and eighty miles of thrilling, rapids-strewn river that saw nineteen thousand seekers of white-water adventure enjoy commercial cruises, as well as three thousand, six hundred and twenty-four people who were permitted to run their own boats over that same course. And above Lake Powell - between Moab, Utah and Hite Marina - there are a hundred more miles-of exciting river that carried six thousand people through its canyons in l999.
So, you see, Major, we have plenty of river for the sixty-nine thousand enthusiasts who prefer it. And we have a spectacular lake for the majority- the three and a half million who enjoy water sports of many other kinds.."
Major Powell might then express amazement at the WILDLIFE he would see in Lake Powell Country. He might say:
"When I came through here in 1869 - and again in 1871 - our expedition was close to starvation. We tried to fish and to find fowl and game, but to no avail."
And we could reply:
"Well, Major, Lake Powell has proved to be the best thing that could possibly happen for wildlife. There are at least four varieties of native fish and ten kinds of game fish in its waters. One hundred and seventy species of birds and fowl spend time here. And at least eighty breeds of mammals prowl the shores and canyons."
And if I - Stan Jones - were the one talking to Major Powell I would add:
"Speaking of canyons, sir: Lake Powell has ninety-six named, navigable ones and dozens more without names. Each is an upper-end sector of the ones you sighted on your river trips. And each contains some of the beauty and mystique of the lower ends now beneath the lake. I know this for a fact, major, because I have boated and hiked into every one of them. And I can prove their natural beauty in the 10,000 photographs I have taken during my thirty-four years here"
And then I would salute the Major because he was a heroic soldier, as well as so many other things.
Before he died in 1902, Major John Wesley Powell became director of the U.S. Geological Survey and director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian in our nation's capital. Today in Washington - and among presidential candidates and legislators EVERYWHERE - the word "conservation" is heard more often than any other. Here, where we stand today, we see CONSERVATION in action; we see precious water five hundred feet deep, conserved and available to the millions who, since Powell's day, have chosen to Live and to Play in the West.
John Wesley Powell - if he really were here today would applaud the vision and the stupendous effort that has made his - and our - lake a reality
Back Issue Search Request
Fellow GCPS members:
At NAU Cline Library Special Collections and Archives (SCA), we now have what we think is a complete set of GCPS's Newsletter, O'Pioneer, Ol'Pioneer, and The Bulletin. Our Serials Cataloger asked me about the title Rimmin', a pre-cursor (with some overlap) to the Newsletter. Al Richmond brought by some issues that will be part of the GCPS Manuscript Collection here; I copied two issues of Rimmin' for us from that set. Bill Suran has some at home, one of which we don't have.
Below is a list of the issues we now have, including the one Bill will provide. If any of you have other issues, I would greatly appreciate your sending them to me at the address below. Please indicate if you want to donate them to SCA, to the GCPS Collection, or want them returned after photocopying.
Now Have:
#1??, ca July 1985 ??
1(2)(Fall '85)
2(2)(May '86), 2(3)(Sum '86)
3(1)(Feb '87), 3(2)(May '87), 3(2)(Sep '87), 3(3)(Nov-Dec)
4(1)(Mar '88), 4(2)(May '88), 4(3)(Aug '88), Special Bulletin (10/07/88)
5(1)(Feb '89), 5(2)(Mar '89), 5(4)(May '89), 5(5)(Jun-Jul '89), 5(6)(Aug'89), 5(7)(Sep-Oct '89)
6(1)(Dec '90, Jan '91), 6(2)(Spr + Sum '91)
7(1)(Spr-Sum '92)
Thank you for any information or assistance.
Richard Quartaroli
P.O. Box 6022
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6022
Coronado was at the Grand Canyon !
Discovery of a diary long suppressed in the historical archives of Spain has solved a mystery that has puzzled Grand Canyon researchers for more than four hundred and fifty years. When Capt. Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to the South Rim in 1540, three men tried to reach the Colorado River. One was Juan Galeros and one was Pablo de Melgosa. The name of the third man remained a mystery until the diary, written by expedition chronicler Pedro de Sotomayor, turned up in Madrid late last year.
Historians learned that Emperor Charles V ordered the diary hidden from public view for a very good reason. There can be no doubt that the third man was Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado! Hey, everyone needs a vacation. Tacky as it was Coronado had secretly left his Seven Golden Cities of Cibola expedition in New Mexico to take a side trip to Arizona.
Here is how the trick was worked. When Coronado and his army reached Zuni, they easily conquered the first six of the seven Cibola cities-Hampasawan, K'yakime, Hawikuh, Matsaki, K'yanawe and Kwakina, finding nothing but poverty along the way. At the seventh also impoverished city, Halona, the Indians put up a fight and an arrow pierced Coronado's leg.
Fearing that the arrow was tipped in poison, Coronado went into seclusion, but his physician quickly determined that the wound was harmless.
Coronado had already realized that the idea of golden cities was a hoax perpetrated by Franciscan priest Marcos de Niza, who he had sent back to Mexico in disgrace. He knew that disgrace also awaited him. Hoping to rescue himself from that calamity by personally reaching the great river to the northwest that the Zuni Indians had told him about, he decided to join Cardenas in disguise. The rest of the conquistadors remained at Halona, the leader supposedly still in seclusion with a life-threatening wound.
On reaching the Grand Canyon, Coronado descended with Galeros and Melgosa, desperately wanting to stand on the bank of the Colorado and personally dedicate the river to the Spanish Crown. However, an impassable cliff stopped the men, and Coronado-the mystery third man until now-forlornly returned to the South Rim.
Note: Guess what? The author wrote the above article on April 1.
Submitted by Jack Hefley
Outings Contacts Information
Outings Coordinator:
Betty Leavengood
6045 Edison St.
Tucson AZ 85712
520-885-3570
HikerBetty@aol.com
April 22/23 Outing:
Lee Albertson
email: Albertson1213@msn.com
The Bulletin welcomes comments, stories, or Reflections and Remembrances.
Please send them to
|
Diane Cassidy
8540 North Central Avenue #27 Phoenix, AZ 85020 |
or e-mail them to Diane@grandcanyonbooks.com
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