Chapter   6    

Grand Canyon Journey, 1904

The following party left Williams Arizona by wagon and buggy at 10 A.M. Monday Sept. 5, 1904: Rev. Oliver, Mr. and Mrs. Smith Beck, Edgar Beck, Della Beck, Miss Minnie Pastor (Chicago), Mr. Tom Asbridge (Uncle Tom), and Ora Smith, the driver. Mrs. Oliver and Mollie Beck are to go on the train and meet us at the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

We leave Williams at 10 AM and journey along roads that are very rough on account of the recent rains. We travel along in good spirits measuring the miles in repartee and getting acquainted. At 1 o'clock we reach Red lake, 9 miles from Williams, where we eat dinner and getting water from a railroad tank, the water being very muddy, but Uncle Tom said, "it is the coloring", and Minnie began to wonder what camping would compel one to eat or drink.

At 2 o'clock, we start refreshed and find the roads somewhat better, though they are washed very badly in places. At 8 P.M. dark, we hunt for a place to camp. We make camp among pines, make a good fire and eat lunch already prepared.

We do not sleep much, especially the girls. We are all glad to get up at 4:30, eat a hastily prepared breakfast, hold family worship, thanking God for His protection and recommitting ourselves to His care, and proceed on our way. We make good headway and reach Anita Junction at 3 P.M., where we stay two hours, being 45 miles from Williams.

We leave Anita at 5 o'clock and sad to state, we take the wrong way, Ora being the cause, having professed to know all the turning points and their destinations, and infallibility of his sense of direction. After driving over rough roads for about six miles, we come to some long and fertile "draws" with much grass and water, and camp at 8 o'clock.

We sleep better tonight, but a number of us spend several hours studying astronomy.

Wednesday, Sept. 7 -- "Minnie snored so loud last night that she did not know whether she slept much or not," says Uncle Tom. Ora says he will wash himself again when he gets to the canyon and the crowd decide to raise no objection. We start at 7 o'clock and by 8 we lose the already indistinct wagon track, but we drive on, hoping against hope that we may strike a road again. It is heavy pulling and slow progress. Finally we stop and the men hunt for a trail and soon we find an old stage road and after an awful pull, we get into the road again and reach the canyon at "Bright Angel" at 9 o'clock. Had we not gone out of the way, we would have arrived Tuesday evening, instead of 64 miles, for us it must have been 80.

We find Mrs. Oliver and Mollie anxiously waiting for us at Cameron's Hotel. Mrs. O. nearly breaks down a tent trying to get to her minister! Soon we sit down and refresh ourselves with rest and refreshment. Uncle Tom gets one glimpse of the canyon as we go by, and says. "I am paid for the trip!"

We pitch our tent and camp across the track from Cameron's. Smith, Mattie and Uncle Tom take the buggy and go to "Rowe's Point", and come back full of enthusiasm and exclamations. We eat a hearty supper and retire. Mrs. O and self and baby sleep in the wagon.

Thursday, Sept. 8 -- We start for Grand View at 10 A.M. and after a long, tedious though delightful ride, arrive at 5 o'clock. Those who return tomorrow take the trip down to the "View" and up the "Old Trail". After supper we sit around the campfire and hold some service, after which we read the 90th Psalm and Uncle Tom leads us in a simple touching prayer of thanksgiving and confidence in God, a prayer made eloquent by earnestness. Minnie sleeps on the ground with the rest of the girls. She is developing into a westerner at a good "gait".

Friday, Sept. 9 -- We arise at 5 o'clock and hurry to get breakfast for Smith B., his wife and Uncle Tom who leave at 6:30 on the Grand View stage to catch the 9 o'clock train at Bright Angel. We hate to see them leave, as our association together has been very pleasant. Uncle Tom bids us goodbye with deep emotion. After their departure we load up to move a mile to where there is better feed. On the way we walk along the rim of the canyon in front of the Grand View Hotel, enjoying ourselves with using camera and glasses. We spend the rest of the morning writing, reading and in conversation. Mollie and I bake the best kind of bread in the "Dutch oven", and are self-appointed head cooks. It threatens rain after dinner so we pitch the tent and prepare for a storm, which fails to materialize. Della, Mollie, Edgar, Mrs. O and self and baby take a walk down the old trail and up the new. I carry the baby! What a sight we get of the canyon. What mountains, gorges, and canyons at depths we see enclosed by the sky reaching walls of the immense gorge. We walk around cliffs 1600 feet projecting into the canyon. We climb out and reach home at 6 o'clock where we get supper, and after stories and worship around the campfire, we retire.


Camp near Cameron's Hotel

Saturday, Sept. 10 -- Arising at 6 we hasten to the rim to see the sun rise. It is a most wondrous, if not holy sight, to see the sun reach the tops of the mountains and mountains bathed in the pure morning light of heaven and tinted with the golden light of heaven's strongest illuminator. To see the sparkle of color and note the change and scintillations of light is to think of heaven's diadems. The whole changing scene is a vision never to be forgotten.

We take some pictures and return to breakfast, after which we spend some time reading. After dinner we load up and wend our way to Bright Angel. We enjoy the ride immensely and being in fine spirits, liven the time with songs and jokes and laughter. Miss Minnie laughs until she gets a headache. She is the butt of nearly all the jokes, and the boys show their respect for her by denying it. We reach Bright Angel at 6 o'clock, pitch camp and after supper have song service.

Sunday, Sept. 11 -- Arising at 6:30, we get breakfast, have worship, visit the Kolb boys and sit on the rim of the canyon and read descriptions of it by noted scholarly men. After dinner, wife and I visit and are shown over the new 250-roomed hotel and enjoy it immensely. The girls go with the Kolb boys and Edgar a little way down the trail. As they return and sit on the porch, Emery says to Minnie, "Will you be at leisure in a half an hour?" To which she answers, "Yes." "Well I want to shave then", says Emery and Minnie "tries to beat him senseless!"

After supper we inquire at Cameron's about Mollie and Della and Edgar going down in the canyon tomorrow. They arranged to go down and as we return, we call on Ellsworth Kolb and invite him to the camp, he and Jas. Whittington return. Mr. Kolb has an eye to business and appreciation and easily sides up to Mollie to escort her over. The fun in camp is fast and furious, thanks to Minnie, Della, Kolb and Mollie. Minnie sits on Mollie's lap and Mr. Kolb gallantly holds her on! All this despite the fact that there has been no declaration of rule supension! We retire, thanking God for his continued mercies.


Rev. O. and Wesley

Monday, Sept. 12 -- After arising, we hasten to get the girls (Mollie and Della) off down he canyon Edgar walks and goes on ahead. After we have watched about fifty persons go on horse and muleback down the canyon, Ora, Minnie, Mrs. O and myself hitch up the horse and go down to Rowe's Point, where three ladies beautifully gowned in silk take Wesley's picture as he sucks his bottle on the edge of the canyon. These tourists are from special trainloads of Shriners that come in during the day. One wife watching her husband going gingerly down the trail on a mule says: "I'll meet you below, dear!" and he replies, "I don't know: I may meet you above." In the afternoon, Mrs. O, Minnie and baby ride to O'Neil's Point and I walk. We think this is the most inspiring view of all, though not the most extensive. Over the cliff on which we stand, we can drop a stone 3000 feet, and from the point gorges, gulches, colonnades, battlements and palaces of rock are arranged in serial order. We shudder at the awful grandeur of the scene and Mrs. O says she will be glad to be out of sight of the canyon as it is too awful to behold. As we return, we pass ten or fifteen teams driving loads of excursionists to the point.













Returning to camp, we find Mollie and Della back from their trip and enthusiastic over the way they were treated and the sights they had seen. Edgar returns an hour later, tired but "still in the ring". He walked clear to the river and back.

In the evening, the Kolb boys came over to a candy pulling. Mollie seems to have quite a pull, but not with the candy. Emery spends most of his time teasing Minnie; teasing is what she calls it. Minnie and Ellsworth pull their candy back to sugar. They had to do most of the work alone for some unaccountable reason. During this candy pulling the rules have a hard time, as do the chaperones, especially Bro. Oliver, and the Decalogue is almost wrecked. We retire before midnight.

Tuesday, Sept. 13 -- We arise at 5:30 A.M. and hurry up to get loaded to start home. Yet we do not get started until nearly nine o'clock. Mrs. O and baby return by train. Mollie and Minnie ride in the buggy and soon we meet an excursionist train coming in and Billy gets excited. Billy's nerves and Minnie's seem to work automatically for Minnie hits the ground the moment Billy hits the air. Mollie gets out and holds on to Billy, and proves herself to be the heroine of the party, for though the horse lifts her off the ground twice, she does not let go. The horse is finally controlled and Edgar rides on with Minnie, which arrangement seems "perfectly zorch." Later in the day, when Ora rides in the buggy with the Chicago young lady, it seems "perfectly agonizing".

We get over the bad part of the road by noon, and make about 28 miles by evening, when we camp and have another adventure: for during prayer, Billy tries to feed with the mule, who objects with grunts and kicks. All are startled and Minnie runs and grabs Bro. Oliver and says "O, a hear, a hear!" Peace is restored and we retire. Bro. O vomits everything that went down, "even the moon."

Wednesday, Sept. 14 -- We eat a hasty meal and start at seven, hoping to make Williams by night -- 36 miles. The roads are good and we travel along merrily, reaching a point about 1 1/2 miles North of Howard's Lake for dinner. We pass through two sharp rainstorms which impede progress by making the roads heavy. We reach Red Lake by 5:30 and rest until six and start on the last nine miles to Williams. The roads are exceedingly rough and several times we get out to feel the way, especially as we repeatedly cross the railroad.

We arrive at Williams and home, (home, sweet that word!) at 9 o'clock. This writer as he passes the church, sees a group of people in the lecture room and among them a familiar figure. She exclaims as we tread the boardwalk, "Why, bless his heart, here he is!"

And because of our intense modesty, we draw the curtain on the rest.

-- Reverend John Oliver, September 15, 1904, Williams, Arizona Territory


Mrs. O



Baby Wesley


Editor's note: "Decalogue" is the Ten Commandments

         



Copyright © 2018 John Oliver II