The National Park Service * * * * 133 



time teachers from Indiana, took a party of people through the Yellow 

 stone via the Wylie Camps, or "Wylie Way," as they were known for 

 years. When the Currys came to California a year or two later, they 

 started business in Yosemite Park along the lines of Mr. Wylie's camps 

 in Yellowstone. The Curry Camping trips eventually grew into Camp 

 Curry, one of the most successful undertakings in any of the parks. 



Many years later, in 1917, Mr. Wylie, then an old man, pioneered in 

 establishing camps in Zion Park and on the North Rim of the Grand 

 Canyon of the Colorado. The last Wylie Camp was purchased in 1927 

 by the Utah Parks Company, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific system, 

 to be operated as part of its utilities on the North Rim. Mr. Wylie, in 

 retirement, looks back with great pleasure on the progress of the camp 

 ing idea that he originated years ago in the Yellowstone. 



Most of the other park concessions had equally humble beginnings. 

 The Longmire family and John Reese pioneered in Mount Rainier Park. 

 Will G. Steel and Alfred L. Parkhurst first developed service at Crater 

 Lake. Visitors to Grand Canyon for many years camped out overnight 

 on the long trip overland from Flagstaff to the Canyon at crude lodges 

 built by W. W. Bass and Captain Hanse. Improvements in automobiles 

 and the building of new roads and railroads have brought new thousands 

 demanding accommodations. Many of the pioneers in the business of 

 entertaining guests at the parks have had to sell out to great companies 

 with sufficient capital to meet present-day demands. Whenever difficul 

 ties have forced the retirement of these pioneers, the National Park 

 Service has insisted that they be paid fair value for their properties, 

 though failure to render service under terms of the franchises meant 

 forfeiture of concessions. These pioneers labored against great natural 

 difficulties, short seasons, remote distances, and uncertain travel, and 

 they deserve both sympathy and praise. 



Present-day operators likewise have their problems. In Grand Can 

 yon Park, for instance, the operators of El Tovar Hotel must haul 

 water for hotel use, gardening, and other purposes in tank cars for one 

 hundred miles by rail at a cost of three dollars per thousand gallons. 

 On the North Rim, water is pumped thirty-five hundred feet, more than 

 half a mile, from a stream in the Canyon. This stream first generates the 

 electric power which operates the pumps to force the water to the rim. 

 Many of the hotels and lodges are great distances from railroads. 

 Hauling perishable foodstuffs to these establishments was extremely 

 difficult in the days of horse-drawn vehicles. It is still costly, even with 

 motor trucks, and must be taken into consideration in the fixing of rates 

 for service at the park hotels and lodges. In many of the more remote 

 camps, supplies must be packed in on mules over high mountain trails 

 a process which naturally runs up expense. 



