The Topeka state journal., 1911-08-05
DUNE BY UNI MAN
How Ralph Cameron Built
Bright Angel Trail.
Undertook Work to Garry Cop
per From Grand Canon.
MET MANY OBSTACLES.
Long Fight With Railroad for
It's Control.
Builder Now Represents Arizona
in Congress.
MET MANY OBSTACLES.

Copyright, 1911. by Thavis & Colman.)
Washington, D. C., August Sway
ing against the perpendicular sides of
granite rocks, hundreds of feet IN
height suspended 'tWixt heaven and
earth by slender rope. drilling into the
rock with a bit of steel to make an
opening for the charge of giant pow
der that Is to tear that rock to pieces
In order to make a foot hold for man
and beast-facing death in a hundred
unexpected ways-such was the ex-
perience Of the little bard of men who
blazed the trail which now -eads into
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
How many of the hundred thousand
people who have ridden up and down
this trail in the safety afforded by
every device of human ingenuity, have
ever stopped to think of the dangers
and hardships faced by the men who
made II possible to visit his grandest
Of all canyons in the world?
And the history Of the man who was
primarily responsible for the under
taking and successful completion of
this giant task is as remarkable as the
task itself
The builder is Ralph H. Cameron,
now a delegate N Congress from the
Territory of Arizona. It Is a far cry
from q builder of trails to Il seat in
congress. But the pluck and perse-
Verance he showed in his fight to over
come the obstacles of nature have
dominated the later years of his life,
and his success in the fields of politics
has been as marked as was his success
in the early days of the Territory of
Arizona, those early days in new
country when a man had to be a man
to achieve success among his fellow
men.
Starting life as a fisherman in the
small town Of Southport, Maine, where
he was born in 1853, CamerOn's whole
life has been a romance of adventure
such as men in public life can lay title
to.
Cameron Is Modest.
He Is as modest as his deeds were
valorous. To read his simple autobi-
ography in the Congressional Direc-
tory it is difficult to conceive the in
trepid sheriff tracking desperate law
breakers to Justice; to recognize the
human ant who gnaWed and bit into
the rocks of the Canyon, defying death
IN horrible form that humanity might
journey from the clouds almost, at the
rim, to the tumbling Colorado River
$500 feet below and there pitched
their tents and camps among the Won
ders Of rature. to realize that the man
who, single handed fought a successful
fight for his own against a powerful
railroad corporation and all the i'm
mense interests it could bring to bear,
should write thus simply of himself:
of Flagstaff, was born at Southport
Maine. Oct. 81, 1868; received a COM
mon school education which was aug
mented later by night schools and
studies; is interested in mining and
stock raising and is the locator and
builder of the Bright Angel Trail into
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in
Arizona, which he is still maintaining;
moved to Arizona in 1855; was sheriff
of Coconino County for three terms
one term as chairman of the Board of
Supervisors of Coconino County; is
married. was elected Delegate to the
Sixty-first Congress. receiving 12,435
votes, to IL, 1921 for NJ. A. Smith, Dem
Ocrat 1912 for J. D. Cannon Socialist
118 for William B. Cleary Independ-
ence League, SO for J. ". Stewart, So
oialist-Labor and 106 fo- r. Roy Sib-
ley, PTohibitionist."
But the purpose of this article is
not to tell of him as a fisherman a dry
goods clerk, a. sheep herder or a cattle
man, q sheriff in a wild western coun-
try where every moment of his life was
fraught with danger. L is to tell OF
the herculean task of trail building
the building of the longest trail to the
deepest canyon in the world=the can
yon that is spoken of il. government
reports as one of the scenic -Tonders of
the world.
The idea of building the trail was
conceived by Mr.. Cameron in 1887
while on a prospecting trip with a
number of companions looking for
gold, silver. copper or any other valu-
able minerals that the Canyon might
contain. The story as to the difficulties
encountered in its building can best be
told in Mr.. Camerons own words:
How He Made Bright Angel Trail.
TT was while prospecting at Indian
Garden Creek. in the Canyon. that
figured out the idea of building the
trail. which is now known as Gamer
on Trail. It formerly was known as
the Bright Angel Trail, but the Geolo-
gical Survey changed its name Al this
t,Uae my only purpose in building the
tran was to use it in pursuing mining
operations, as myself and cOmpaniOns
had discovered a copper mine in the
Canyon. The idea of changing it into
a trail for tourists came to me later.
We located the trail under what is
known as the toll road law
I'VE started to build the trail down
into the Canyon Decem Der pa 1890,
and completed it in about y years.
And it was I 2 years Of hard work and
privation for the men engaged in its
construction. We did our own sur
veying and locating and altogether en-
ployed about 100 men. I might say
that the three elements that figured
most prominently in tho construction
of the trail were hard work, brains and
giant powder.
'-The trail. which beging at the rim
of the Grand Canyon is seven miles in
length and cost about 100000 to con-
sTuct. We have changed the grade
several times since the work was first
started so that now a mule can pack
45o pounds cut of the Canyon on its
back. When we first won't in there it
was q physical impossibF'ty for a mule
or any other four foored animal to get
down into the Canyon. Now tourist
can make the trip from the rim to the
bottom of the Canyon and return in
about seven hours.
.'The engineering obstacles that we
met and overcame were many and diff