Nothing quite like speaking about Fred at the very rim of the Grand Canyon at sunset—and that’s what we did Saturday evening in the Thunderbird room, which has a balcony overlooking the Divine Abyss. Talk was delayed slightly by technical complications—the staff was unable to locate the projector we needed to show the slides. So Jon Streit, the new general manager of the entire South Rim, in a very Freddish gesture, ran down the steps, hopped into his car, and ran to get a project himself.

He saved the day, we finished watching the stunning sunset, and we talked Fred with a diverse group that included guides at the canyon (some of whom have to slightly tweak their standard speeches because of new facts in the book) and an elderhostel group that came up from Flagstaff. It was the highlight of three days in and around the canyon, with a press group visiting for the 100th anniversary of the Grand Canyon Railway depot there. Thanks to everyone from Xanterra that made the visit possible, especially Bruce Brossman, but we’ve now made so many friends at the South Rim that when we walk into El Tovar we feel like Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate” getting the full “Mr. Gladstone” treatment.

After the lecture, I wandered the rim in the dark as the moon began rising over El Tovar. There were a few clouds just over where it was breaking the horizon, so I found myself—along with a handful of other visitors—standing in the dark outside of Bright Angel Lodge waiting for the moon to creep up over the clouds, like a very slow motion fireworks display. After about four minutes of quiet anticipation, the moon exploded out, lit the sky and the canyon walls, and we all oohed and aahed. Which is pretty much how I always feel when I look at the canyon.

Had several discussions with people about whether Fred himself ever saw the canyon—since the train to the rim was completed several months after his death in 1901. I know he was pretty ill during the late 1890s, when tourism at the rim was slowly rising, but I really hope he got to see it, since his spirit is now so alive there.

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