Get to know the characters, and the country

People

Ralph Cameron
Owned the mining claim where the brothers built the first part of their photography studio; later became a United States Senator from Arizona.

James Fagan
The brothers' assistant for the beginning of the "Big Trip." Fagan left after only a short time to return to his family in San Francisco.

Steven V. Jones
Veteran of John Wesley Powell's 1871-1872 expedition down the Colorado River; the Kolb brothers received a letter from Jones about the movie. Jones had not actually seen their film, but he said that "a member of our party recently wrote that he had and easily recognized Ashley Falls, Disaster Falls, Hell's Half Mile, Echo Rock, and many other places, saying in short that 'I lived over all that canyon experience again.'"

Blanche Kolb
Miss Minnie Blanche Bender, former Harvey Girl and wife of Emery Kolb. They met when she took a trip to the Grand Canyon. She worked closely with the Kolbs' photography business.

Edith Kolb
Daughter of Blanche and Emery Kolb.

Bert Lauzon
Second assistant to the Kolb brothers for the "Big Trip;" later became a park ranger at the Grand Canyon.

Timothy O'Sullivan
First to photograph the Grand Canyon, in 1871.

John Wesley Powell
Led the first expedition down the Colorado River in 1869

Mr. Wolverton
Riverman the brothers met about 20 miles below Green River, Utah. Cautioned the brothers that although their experience in the upper rapids had been good training, it was no comparison to the rapids to come. He knew of seven parties that had failed to get through Cataract Canyon, most of them never being heard of again.

 

Places

Bright Angel Trail

Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsbugh
Emery Kolb presented the brothers' movie here.
As a child, Emery had boasted to his mother after a lecture they had seen at the Carnegie Music Hall that someday she'd see him up there on the same stage.

Green River City, Wyoming
Starting point for the brothers' "Big Trip" down the Colorado River

Hell's Half-Mile
Treacherous stretch of the Colorado River

Williams, Arizona
Location of the first Kolb brothers photography studio.

Fred Harvey hotels
Fred Harvey's chain of hotels served railroad passengers as they traveled across the American West from the 1880s through the 1950s. The women who worked at those hotels were known as "Harvey Girls."

El Tovar Hotel
Completed in 1905, was billed as the most luxurious hotel in the country. Part of the Fred Harvey hotels.

Needles, California
Emery and Ellsworth arrived in Needles, California on January 18, 1912 - after 101 days and 1200 miles on the river.

 

 

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Excerpts and information from:

Garrison, Lon. "A Camera and a Dream: The Story of the Kolb Brothers of Grand Canyon." Arizona Highways, January 1953.

Kolb, E. L. Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1914.

McCoy, Ron. "Kolb Brothers: Pioneer Photographers of the Grand Canyon." Arizona Highways, May 1997.