"No language can fully describe, no artist paint the beauty, grandeur, immensity and sublimity of this most wonderful production of Nature's great architect. [Grand Canyon] must be seen to be appreciated."
C.O. Hall, Grand Canyon visitor, 1895.
Reports like this from early tourists aroused curiosity and stimulated Grand Canyon tourism.
The year is 1898, and you have come to decide whether the lofty reports you've heard about Grand Canyon are true. Pete Berry, miner-turned-hotel-manager, greets you here at his Grand View Hotel and escorts you to the canyon rim. Awestruck, you quickly forget your bone-jarring, 12-hour stagecoach ride from Flagstaff. You begin to ponder tomorrow's mule ride into the canyon.
Thus began Grand Canyon tourism. Mining proved only briefly profitable, so a few entrepreneurs like Pete Berry turned to tourists for profits. In 1893 Berry offered crude lodging in a cabin here at Grandview, and began guiding eager, mule-riding patrons into the canyon. In 1897 he built a two-story log hotel, and later added a large frame building.
Until 1901 Grandview was Grand Canyon's most popular tourist destination. Grandview boasted the best hotel, and some said, the best trail. After 1901 when the Santa Fe Railroad reached Grand Canyon Village, 11 miles west of here, few tourists opted for the jolting stagecoach ride to Grandview. Today little remains of Pete Berry's hotel on the rim.
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