Location of El Tovar. The West has several unique and picturesque hotels,
but I question whether it possesses one more so than that bearing the name
of the gallant Spanish cavalier, Coronado's lieutenant, the Ensign Tovar.
Built upon the very edge of the Canyon, in latitude 35 degrees 55 minutes
30 seconds, it is the arc of a rude curve of an amphitheatre, the walls of
which are slightly higher than the elevation of the hotel. Its location
affords the most intimate views of the great gorge, attracting spectators
from all over the civilized world. Indeed, were it not for these visitors,
El Tovar would never have been built. Its existence came out of a crying
necessity. It was built by the Santa Fe Railway, and furnished and equipped
by Fred Harvey, whose hotel and dining service for over a quarter of a
century has made the Santa Fe noted as giving the best food service of any
railway system in the world.
The Building. And what of the building itself? Stand away a little distance
--say half a mile or more, for it is large enough to be seen and well
described that far away--and it presents the appearance of a three-storied
bungalow, though later you find that in some points it is four stories
high. Its base is of solid, native limestone rock, well built up and
continued in the massive outside chimneys, one of which stands at each end
of the dining-room. The first story is of solid logs, brought from faraway
Oregon, and the upper stories are of heavy planking and shingles, all
stained to a rich brown or weather-beaten color; that harmonizes perfectly
with the gray-green of its unique surroundings. It is pleasant to the eye,
artistic in effect, and satisfactory to the most exacting critic. Its
width, north and south, is three hundred and twenty-seven feet, and from
east to west, two hundred and eighteen feet. The main building and entrance
face the east.
Architecture. Its lines are in harmony with the simplicity of the
surroundings. The architect has followed, in admirable proportions, the
Swiss chalet and the Norway villa. Here are expressed a quiet dignity, an
unassuming luxury, and an appreciation of outing needs. Not a
Waldorf-Astoria--admirable as that type is for the city but a big, country
clubhouse, where the traveler seeking high-class accommodations also finds
freedom from ultrafashionable restrictions. You may wear a dress suit at
dinner or not. You may mix with the jolly crowd, or sit alone in a quiet
nook. You may lunch at almost any hour of the day or night. You may dine
with other guests, or enjoy the seclusion of a private dining-room. Good
fellowship perhaps best expresses the motto of El Tovar.
The hotel contains more than a hundred bedrooms. Ample accommodations are
provided for two hundred and fifty guests, and more can be comfortably
housed in the annex, at Bright Angel Camp. Outside are porches and roof
gardens, from which one has wide views in every direction. The inside
finish is mainly of peeled slabs, wood in the rough, and tinted plaster,
interspersed with huge wooden beams. Triple casement windows and generous
fireplaces abound. Indian curios and trophies of the chase are used in the
decorations. The furniture is of special pattern.
El Tovar is more than a hotel; it is a village devoted to the entertainment
of travelers. Far from the accustomed home of luxury, money has here
summoned the beneficent genii who minister to our bodily comfort. Merely
that you may have pure water to drink, it is brought from a mountain spring
ninety miles away! And that is only one of the many provisions for
unquestioned excellence of shelter and food. The hotel is conducted on the
American plan. The rates are four dollars a day and upwards.
The Rendezvous. Leaving the train at the station, a short distance from the
hotel, you proceed up a winding road to the main entrance, a hasty glimpse
through low cedars revealing the far canyon wall.
Above the wide steps, and in front of the Norway gable, hospitably swings
the Tovar coat-of-arms. On the broad porch are numerous rocking-chairs and
small tables, with a push-button handy for ordering light refreshments. The
porch corners are of solid rough masonry, built in old mission style, the
arches wide and low. The first impression is one of good cheer. Once
inside, the traveler will willingly linger a few moments in the Rendezvous
or Nimrod's Cabin. This is a large room, forty-one by thirty-seven feet,
notable for uneven walls of dark stained fogs and bulky rafters. In a huge
corner fireplace, pine knots burn cheerily when the air is chilly. Electric
lights are placed in log squares, swinging from the low roof at the end of
long chains. Gray Navaho rugs cover the brown floor. There are cosy
tete-a-tetes and easy chairs. On an upper shelf repose heads of the deer,
elk, moose, mountain sheep, and buffalo, mingling with curiously shaped and
gaudily tinted Indian jars from the southwest pueblos. An old-fashioned
clock ticks off the hours. Several small escritoires remind you of letters
to be written to the home people. Recessed window-seats, partly hidden by
red curtains, complete the picture.
What wonder that every morning and evening most of the guests gather in
this room--the ladies to read and gossip; the gentlemen to smoke and tell
of their latest adventures. Few country clubs have as pleasant a meeting
place; yet it is only one of El Tovar's many allurements.
The Office and Ladies' Lounging Room. Cross the western edge of the
Rendezvous, and you are in the rotunda, the centre of the hotel's many
activities and its very necessary hub. Whether bound for dining-room or
parlors, for guest chamber or amusement room; whether attracted by the
click of billiards below, or the brightness of the roof-garden above,--all
paths here intersect.
On the first floor is the office. A story above, reached by an easily
ascended stairway, is the ladies' lounging room, nestled around an
octagonal open space that extends from the office to the roof.
Just beyond are the art rooms, containing paintings and photographs of the
Canyon; on the walls hang paintings of southwest scenery from the brushes
of noted American artists, including some of Thomas Moran's masterpieces.
Yellow hangings and electric lights brighten the dark tones of the
woodwork.
The Sleeping-Rooms. There are more than a hundred of them. They are found
on all four floors. The Arizona sunshine generously enters each one at some
hour of the day. Steam heat (automatically regulated), electric lights and
office telephones are provided--willing servants quickly to do your
bidding.
On the first and second floors are forty-two rooms en suite. There are
twenty-one commodious bathrooms, white as snow and kept spotlessly clean.
On the office and first floors are two private parlors en suite. The
furniture is mostly of arts and crafts design.
Dining-Room. When travel stains are removed, you are directed to the
dining-room. It is quadrangular in form, ninety feet long by forty feet
wide, arched overhead, the roof supported by six huge log trusses. Walls
and trusses and roof are all finished in rough wood, and are as brown as a
coffee berry. The two fireplaces are built of gray sandstone.
A dozen electroliers of rustic pattern hang from the ceiling. Electric wall
lights and candelabra for the side tables complete the lighting.
Through any of the many triple windows may be seen the large-eyed stars;
for here the sky seems to bend closer to earth than in lower altitudes.
The tables are adorned with glass, silver and flowers. You also notice old
brass dishes, antique Dutch and English platters, and Indian ollas,
displayed on the plate rail.
Well-trained waitresses, in white uniforms, deftly serve the meal, which is
Harvey's best. While you are leisurely dining, it is pleasant to look
around and see who your neighbors are. They have come here from every
section--perhaps a New York or Chicago banker, a Harvard professor, an
Arizona ranchman, an English globe-trotter, and a German savant. Pretty
women and lovely children complete the picture.
The dinner itself is prepared under the direction of a capable Italian
chef, once employed in New York and Chicago clubs. He presides over one of
the most complete and up-to-the-minute hotel kitchens in the United States.
On the right of the main entrance is a small breakfast room, tastefully
decorated in fifteenth century style. On the left is a private dining-room,
whose wall decorations mainly consist of Indian deer hieroglyphics,
reproduced from old pictographs in Mallery Grotto.
The Music-Room and Solarium. At the end of the north wing, on the office
floor, fronting the Canyon's abyss, is a spacious room devoted to refined
amusements. The wall decorations are of gold, trimmed in old ivory,
imitating fifteenth century leather. Sunshine streams in from numerous
windows. The music-room is so admirably located and so daintily furnished,
that it is a favorite resort for lovers of music, cards, and dancing.
Where the south wing terminates, and on the office floor, is a sunny,
glass-enclosed nook, open on three sides and sheltered from cool north
winds. It is called the solarium or sun-parlor. To this retreat come the
ladies, with sewing baskets and books. It is quite the fad to take a
sunbath here.
On the top floor, and out of doors, are two roof gardens, where light
refreshments are served.
The Amusement Room and Clubroom. On the ground floor, easily reached from
the office and from the rim pathway, is the amusement room, fitted with
billiard, pool, and card tables, and shuffle-boards. Adjacent is the
clubroom.
Water Supply. For fire purposes, there is a Knowles high-duty underwriter's
fire pump, which is regularly used for the transportation of water to the
high steel water-tank, capable of holding three hundred and twenty thousand
gallons. Pure spring water is hauled in tank cars from Bellemont, ninety
miles away, about seven cars a day being required for all purposes. Every
drop of water, before entering the hotel, passes through two quartz
filters, and drinking water is distilled twice and then aerated.
Sewerage. The sewerage system of a large hotel is a matter of primary
importance. At El Tovar the matter was given more than usual care and
foresight. An antiseptic system was installed, at a cost of over twenty
thousand dollars. The sewage is conveyed by underground pipes a long
distance to solid concrete tanks, where the solids are disposed of by
natural processes. The liquids pass through eight filter beds, and then
enter the ditch colorless and odorless.
Bright Angel Camp. To accommodate those desiring less expensive quarters,
Bright Angel Camp--old Bright Angel Hotel remodelled--is operated on the
European plan. Rooms are one dollar a day each person; meals are obtained
at Harvey cafe. The lodgings and fare here are of a much simpler kind than
at El Tovar, but clean, wholesome, and thoroughly comfortable.
This Camp supplements the higher class service at the big hotel.
Transportation Facilities at El Tovar. Travelers who visit the Grand Canyon
will be pleased to find an up-to-date livery service maintained in
connection with El Tovar Hotel and Bright Angel Camp. They are thus able
easily and comfortably to take pleasant sightseeing tours away from the
hotel to obtain different views of the Canyon. Most visitors here do not
realize that the granite gorge district of Grand Canyon alone is about
seventy miles in length, ranging from ten to fifteen miles in width, and
that from every accessible point along the rim a different outlook may be
had, each unsurpassed of its kind. The transportation department is only
one of the many pleasing details provided for the comfort of those who come
to the Grand Canyon. It is thoroughly organized and equipped.
Trips to Take. At both El Tovar and Bright Angel, throughout the day and
evening, will be found an agent representing this department. By means of
telephonic communication between the hotels and the stables, these agents
can provide in a surprisingly short time saddle-horses for a ride down one
of the many bridle-paths, turnouts for a drive along the shady roads near
the rim, or sure-footed animals for a descent into the Canyon on Hermit
Trail (now nearing completion), or Bright Angel Trail.
The Buildings in Detail. The several buildings of the transportation
department, which are located among the trees a short distance from the
hotel, across the railroad track, are all new and well built, being models
in design and construction, and are thoroughly systematized for rapid
service.
That portion of the stables where the animals are kept, and which
accommodates about one hundred and fifteen head, is thoroughly equipped
with the most approved methods for the care of the stock, including a
complete system-for drainage and cleanliness; vermin proof, zinc-lined
storage bins, and automatic self-recording feeding apparatus. Other
departments are a blacksmith, carpenter and paint shop; harness, storage,
and repair rooms, offices for the stable manager and his assistants; and a
large wagon-room where the carriages, wagons, and other conveyances are
housed. Visitors to this part of the stables will note an interesting
feature in the painting of the vehicles, namely, that each is in the El
Tovar colors, the body being dark yellow, and the wheels lighter yellow,
striped with red. Each coach bears, in addition to the coat of arms of
Pedro del Tovar, an individual name, selected from tribes of the Southwest
Indians. For instance, visitors will recall having driven to various points
on the rim in stages named "Navaho," "Supai," "Walpi," etc.
A large corral provides for the turning out of stock not in use.
Employees' Quarters. There is also a building devoted to the accommodation
of the employees of this department, comprised of kitchen and dining-rooms,
sleeping quarters, and a smoking, reading and recreation room.
The grounds around the employees' building, commonly called the mess house,
are laid off into walks and gardens. Owing to the quantity and quality of
the soil being superior to that around El Tovar (which is near the rim and
therefore on almost naked rock), the grass, and the domestic and wild
flowers, which are cared for by the men, thrive abundantly.
The Mallery Grotto. This is a small and rather insignificant cave just
under the rim, to the extreme left (west) of El Tovar amphitheatre, wherein
a number of interesting Indian pictographs are to be seen. The overhanging
rock makes a rude cave or grotto, and it has been named Mallery Grotto,
after Garrick Mallery, the great authority on the pictographs of the North
American Indians. His latest monograph takes up the whole of one of the
large volumes of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, and in its nearly
eight hundred pages there are one thousand two hundred and ninety
illustrations. To this illuminating book, therefore, the curious student is
referred for further information regarding the pictographs themselves.
Trail to Mallery Grotto. Leaving El Tovar, the visitor can easily walk to
and from Mallery Grotto in half an hour: Keeping on the rim, he passes the
old Bright Angel Hotel, and all the buildings, about as far past the log
house as, that is from El Tovar. There, in a slight depression, he will see
the foot-trail leading down from the rim to the Grotto. It is a place about
forty to fifty feet long, and with an overhanging wall of from five to
fifteen feet high, and ten to twenty feet broad. The shelf upon which one
walks is narrow, but I have slept there many a time in cold and rainy
weather.
The pictographs are mainly in a rich brownish-red, and are of deer,
mountain-sheep, men and women, serpentine lines suggesting the course of
rivers, rain-clouds, lightning, and many-legged reptiles,--or what seem to
represent these things. They were here, exactly as one now sees them, when
I first camped here with some friendly Havasupais, nearly twenty years ago,
and I was then informed that some of the designs represent great hunts, in
which their ancestors had been successful.
Of the genuineness of the pictographs no one need have the slightest
question. They afford a good opportunity to those who have never before
seen such specimens of aboriginal art, to examine a fairly representative
lot of them.