The Grand Canyon Pioneers Society's visit to the Hull cabin was an interesting trip. The group met at Moqui Lodge and took the back road that wound through pine and oak trees from Tusayan to the cabin near the canyon rim. The forest was a luscious green, and wild flowers were in bloom everywhere. We stopped several times just to look and enjoy the fresh spring air and disturbed a beautiful bull elk at one place. The old fellow didn't appreciate all the attention and took off into the depths of the forest before we could take his picture.

The Hull cabin as it appears today.

The U.S. Forest Service had recently restored the cabin, replacing the logs, siding, and shingles that years of exposure had damaged, using the same type of material William Hull and his brother Phillip used in 1884. We have little knowledge of the Hulls who established the ranch just south of the Grand Canyon but they, like John Hance, W.W. Bass and Pete Berry were an integral part in the canyon's early history. William Hull and his brother at first kept cattle at the ranch but later raised sheep. The arrival of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad through Northern Arizona changed their way of life. They started a stage line to bring tourists from the railroad in Flagstaff to Grand Canyon. Once they arrived at the canyon rim another old timer, Captain John Hance, housed their guests in an array of tents at his site a short distance north of the Hull place. Hance used his cabin as a dining room where he served good wholesome food, and for a few dollars offered guided tours into the gorge. Among these early visitors were Edward E. Ayer, a wealthy Chicago lumberman who had established a sawmill in Flagstaff, and his wife. Mrs. Ayer is credited as being the first white woman to make the trip to the foot of Hance's trail near Hance Rapids at the bottom of Grand Canyon.

A group of Pioneer Society members at the old barn located east of the main cabin.

Hull's cabin, storage shed and barn stand in an open meadow surrounded by virgin pines close to a water tank constructed in 1888 to supply water for both livestock and tourists. According to old documents the Hulls reworked a pond used by the Anasazi Indians, but there is no indication today that the Anasazi were there.

The Hance Cabin near the rim of Grand Canyon ca. 1895. The cabin no longer exists.

For additional reading see Teri Cleeland's To Hull And Back.

Used by permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society.

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Copyright © Grand Canyon Pioneers Society, 1999, all rights reserved. This publication and its text and photos may not be copied for commercial use without the express written permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society, PO Box 2372, Flagstaff, AZ 86003-2372.