We have spent much of the day getting from Grand Canyon AZ to Kanab, UT, travelling through stunning scenery. We stopped at various points along the way simply to gaze in awe at red and ochre cliffs, buttes, pink and grey desert lands, charming pine forests, snow capped mountains, and rolling plains of sage coloured scrub - the route up via Cameron's Trading post to Jacob's Lake and thence to Fredonia and Kanab is not to be missed. When we got to tiny Jacob's Lake, we found that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon won't be open until May, and the road in is closed, so we sat down in the little motel, cafe and shop, and had our lunch there, sitting up at the counter in the old American style which pleased the three of us mightily. Arriving in Kanab, a pleasant little town with well tended fields and homes, we checked in at about 5:00 pm local time, and later had a decent evening meal at Grandma Tina's cafe, which serves home cooked Italian style food, and can rustle up a glass of wine (for me) and a glass of beer for Oksy (but only when he produced ID to show he was over 21 years of age - this is Utah, after all!).
Before leaving the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, we made a couple of stops to see some of the older viewpoints we'd not covered before: Grand View, the site of the old copper mining operation, and Desert View, established as a tourist attraction by Fred Harvey of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad company - a great entrepreneur who practically invented tourism in the American West. He employed Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (1869-1958) to design a number of focal points for tourists. Born in the east, but exposed to travel on the western frontier by her father at an early age, she studied at the California School of Design in San Franciso and then got her job with Fred Harvey in 1901. She designed La Posada (where we had dinner the other night), Hermit's Rest (a sort of folly and gift shop at the Western end of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon), Phantom Ranch deep in the Canyon, and about 30 other projects including the Watchtower at Desert View, which we enjoyed visiting this morning.
The history of the American West is so rich in interesting, creative, highly educated and brilliant individuals. Mary Colter deserves study. Each of her projects was so carefully researched and excuted lovingly with great craft and artistry, avoiding kitsch, which must have been a risk in the kind of projects she undertook. And as I think of Mary Colter, I remember Sarah Lemmon who got to the top of Mount Lemmon in 1881 with the help of Native American guides and mules: I have not been able to discover more about her but do imagine a female botanist striking out in the "Wild West" on her own at the time bad old Tombstone was at its most disreputable...!
Which brings me onto another intriguing character: George W. Parsons (1850-1933). Born in Washington and groomed for the family law business, this restless soul had several odd careers, before he rolled up unemployed in Tombstone in 1880. He's well-known because of his diaries which cover people like the Earps, and events like the gunfight at the OK Corral. But he was also a keen amateur dramatics man, as far as I can make out, and he became Tombstone's first librarian in 1885 - he must have been a real mover and shaker in Tombstone's cultural life. He left Tombstone in 1887 when it started to decline and ended his days in California. What did he do next , I wonder.
We are all fit and well and plan to have a look at Zion National Park tomorrow.
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