THE TRAIN DEPOT

A lot of visitors to Grand Canyon National Park are surprised when they see a railroad train depot in the historic Grand Canyon Village, and even more surprised when they see a real live train parked in front of the depot. When you drive into the park from Williams, you get a few glimpses of track just outside of town, but if your drive brings you through Flagstaff, or in from the east, there's no indication of a railroad until you arrive in the park.

When the rails reached the south rim in 1901, a smaller depot served the public, about 1/2 mile west of where the current depot is located. As I posted yesterday, in 1905, the El Tovar Hotel was completed by the Santa Fe Railroad, but the train was stopping 1/2 mile away, and passengers were much closer to the lodging competitors. In 1909-10, the current depot was constructed, and the tracks were extended to within just a few feet of their Hotel, the El Tovar.

This made it much easier for passengers to utilize the lodging that was owned by the railroad.
As you might expect, there was a lot of grumbling by the competitors when the train started unloading passengers 1/2 mile away from their facilities.

When completed, the building was one of only a few log structures in the United States serving as a train depot, and today, it is the only remaining log depot building. In 1987, it was declared a National Historic Landmark, and is one of the first buildings seen by today's railway passengers. It's purpose today is more company oriented, as the need for a depot isn't what it used to be.
The South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park has several historic buildings like the Train Depot, and the El Tovar Hotel. Most of these buildings were constructed after the railroad arrived, and with the proper maintenance, and some renovation, they exist today as they did 100 years ago.