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 rto 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 brporch 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 . 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 r 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 railrtrack, 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 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 br 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.
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