Go Santa Fe Direct to the South Rim

This 1950 brochure is much like yesterday’s Land of the Pueblos brochure, with a color cover and mostly black-and-yellow photos. It does include one color photo of the Grand Canyon, but it is so washed out that it is no wonder they mostly used monotone pictures.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of this brochure.

The brochure describes motor trips and trail trips, with a one-day motor coach tour costing $12.75 (about $100 today) that includes three meals at El Tovar as well as the bus trip. An overnight trail trip to Phantom Ranch–another building designed by Mary Colter–included the mule ride, four meals, and lodging at the ranch for $32.75, or about $260 in today’s dollars. Today, that same trip is about $550 for one, $960 for two.

The Santa Fe Railway had built and owned El Tovar and other lodging facilities in Grand Canyon Park. It continued to do so until 1954, four years after this brochure was issued, when it sold the facilities to Fred Harvey Company for $2 million. Santa Fe continued to advertise trips to the Grand Canyon, though perhaps with less enthusiasm as ridership declined.


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