One of the toughest things to understand for some tour guides is that what we do can change lives. Or at least impact them. People are on our tours and are open to learn new things and sometimes it’s not what they may expect to learn. I had that lesson taught to me again this past week when I was coming back from the Grand Canyon National Park and played the documentary The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound.
And a more recent tour to the Grand Canyon, I had a great group, having fun and with a little more free time, so I took them to the Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery. The cemetery is an often overlooked piece of Grand Canyon history as well as American History. While walking around and telling the stories of some of the people buried there, a National Park Ranger stopped nearby as we were both watching some talk to my side. As I was doing my narration, I got a thumbs up from the Ranger. Taking it that he liked my narration. To some, that may not seem like a whole lot, but you usually don’t get positive feedback as a guide from a Park Ranger at the Grand Canyon National Park. They are usually wanting to bust you for something!!
Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound showed these young women that they can change their lives, that there are women who came before them who broke the mold, broke the rules and made a new life for themselves while helping to settle the American West at a time when most women had no rights, no future or freedoms as they know them today. It’s a purely inspirational and education documentary that the women on my tour loved and applauded.
Fred Harvey and his Harvey Grills are an important part of the story of the Grand Canyon National park as much as it is an important story of how we settled the west and made it livable for future generations.
Kudos from a Park Ranger?
Something a tour director just doesn’t get every day. Especially at the Grand Canyon National Park. I know, I’ve heard other tour “professionals” try to tell just the simplest story of the Grand Canyon and wonder where they got that information from?? I have talked to other Rangers who have asked me the same thing about where we get our information? As if we all get it from he same source (NOT!) . So to watch him watch me then walk away while giving me the thumbs up and smiling?? Yea, I liked that!
The Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetary is filled with people who lived and worked on the Canyon or had a major impact on its creation and growth. From Harvey Girls, to Park Rangers to soul mates to Senators as well as a memorial to those who died in the June 30, 1956 plane crash over the Grand Canyon that led to the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
I think I am one of the few tour guides who even know it’s there and even fewer who know any of the stories of the people who are buried there.Which makes the thumbs up from a Ranger even more impressive.
Enjoy the video and leave me your comments and questions.
Thanks!
- 11 Talking Harvey Girls with Katrina Parks
- 04 Stephen Fried Talks Fred Harvey
- Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery (Amazon)
- Book Your Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon tour and Save 10% with Promo Code: TVT