"I have come here to see the Grand Canyon . . ."

We all have seen the 1911 Kolb Studio photograph of President Theodore Roosevelt, resplendent in vest and watch fob, astride a mule on Bright Angel Trail, our formal portrait of the conservational hero of the Grand Canyon. And we all have read, time and again, his admonition to the citizens of 1903 to preserve the Grand Canyon: "Leave it as it is." It is probably the one line most quoted by champions of the Canyon to this day. But there are a few little mysteries about the president's first visit, on Wednesday, May 6, 1903: how long did he stay, where did he give his speech--what did he say?

The Coconino Sun on May 9th carried a full report of the president's visit, which shines a little light on just how brief was his trip to the Canyon; the same trip from which we have derived nearly a century's worth of inspiration about the protection and wise use of the Canyon. It was Roosevelt's first trip to Arizona, part of a nearly three-month excursion through the American West. According to the newspaper, he spent just 8-1/2 hours at the Canyon, a surprising harbinger of more "modern" lengths of stay at the Canyon by tourists.

Just after 4 a.m. on May 6th, President Roosevelt spirited through Flagstaff, asleep on his special train, headed for the Canyon up the new rail line from Williams. The train stopped for water, and an anxious crowd of hopeful greeters lined up, but to no avail. At 6 a.m., a five-car train left Flagstaff with 301 people in pursuit of the president.

The president's time was totally used, so it is all the more amazing that he had the time to write the speech for which he has become so well known to Grand Canyon aficionados. He arrived at 9:30 a.m., went on a horseback trip, met the train from Flagstaff at 11:00, gave his speech, received some local honors and gifts, handed out high school diplomas, went on a rim excursion to Grandview Point, held a reception for his fellow Rough Riders at 5:30 p.m., and left promptly at 6:00 p.m.--all this according to the newspaper, that is. Even if one wonders whether Roosevelt didn't stay over until the next day, he didn't; on May 7th he gave speeches in Barstow and San Bernardino, California.

Roosevelt lauded the indescribable scenery in his Canyon speech. He probably had written parts of it beforehand, but he did include some comments that are best interpreted as having been written after seeing the Canyon. The paper does not mention what time the speech was given, but it was apparently just after the arrival of the Flagstaff train. So, sometime between 9:30 and 11 a.m., during which time, remember, he had gone riding, he had the spin on his speech.

It was partly a very personal speech, acknowledging his fellow Rough Riders who had turned out to meet him, and saluting Buckey O'Neill. He went far out of his way, too, in such a short presidential speech, to expound on the plight of the Native Americans. And an amazingly large crowd (for the time and place) turned out at the end of track to see and hear him.

The Coconino Sun reported that "The President held his reception at the Grand Canyon Hotel, from the balcony of which he addressed about eight hundred of as appreciative auditors as a public speaker ever confronted." There are two hotels with which we have to contend--Bright Angel Hotel and the Cameron Hotel. The old Red Horse Station had been moved by Ralph Cameron to the head of Bright Angel Trail around 1902, with the addition of a second story, which competed directly with Martin Buggeln's Bright Angel Hotel. The Cameron Hotel apparently did not have a balcony, or for that matter even a porch, as seen in a photograph of it taken near the railroad.

On the other hand, early pictures of Bright Angel show no porch on the second floor, but these are views from the Canyon side. Considering the first-floor porch roof line, a second-story doorway would be just a few feet high beneath the main roof. A photograph of the president, ostensibly taken during his speech, shows him on a full-height porch. A raised first-story porch, as viewed from the crowd below, might have been described as a "balcony," as the reporter had written it.

The reporter's use of the name "Grand Canyon Hotel" could have been a mistake for a hotel of the same name in Williams, also owned by Martin Buggeln. But, in all probability, the Bright Angel Hotel was Roosevelt's pulpit; after all, Buggeln operated the hotel with the cooperation of the Santa Fe Railroad, over whose tracks the president was travelling. It would have been politically incorrect (as we say today) to snub the host by catering to the Cameron Hotel.

Fortunately, there is what seems to be a complete transcript of his Grand Canyon speech, taken down by a reporter from The Coconino Sun (who even went so far as to note all of the times the president was interrupted by applause). But the collected presidential addresses and state papers of Theodore Roosevelt record a rather different speech. We may assume that the "official," written version of the speech had been filed away and later collated into the collected papers published in an undated (1905?) volume in New York. To compare the two versions makes for interesting reading, and a little insight into the dynamics of the Canyon's favorite president.

Some newspapers across the country also picked up the speech, but the transcriptions may be less reliable, having passed through more hands in order to appear in so many places. Instead, I rely only on the version in The Coconino Sun (presumably delivered by hand from the reporter) and the "official" version to which probably many historians have referred as gospel.

It is especially interesting to note that, whereas Roosevelt liberally ad-libbed throughout his speech, the part about leaving the Canyon "as it is" is virtually identical between the two versions. Had Roosevelt just written that part? Or, did he want to be sure that a very clear, precise message came across?

In a bit of irony, after Roosevelt had pleaded for the cessation of rimside construction, a short item appeared in The Coconino Sun next to the article about the president's visit: "A New Hotel--To be Erected at the Head of the Grand Canyon Mine Trail." This was to be the Grand View Hotel. The article also noted that "the Santa Fe will go ahead with the building of its magnificent hotel there, to be managed by Mr. Harvey. The need of such a hotel is great, as travel to the Canyon has increased eight hundred per cent. in two years." It's ironic that today we idolize the history, but to Roosevelt it was encroaching growth looming in the calendar.

Mr. Governor, and you my Fellow Citizens, My Fellow Americans, Men and
Women of Arizona:

I am glad to be in Arizona today.  It was from Arizona that so many
gallant men came into the regiment which I had the honor to command.
Arizona sent men who won glory on hard-fought fields, and men to whom
came a glorious and an honorable death fighting for the flag of their
country, and as long as I live it will be to me an inspiration to have
served with Bucky [sic] O'Neill.  (Applause.)  I have met so many
comrades whom I prize for whom I feel only respect and admiration, and I
shall not particularize among them except to say that there is no one
for whom I feel more of respect than for your governor.  (Applause.)  I
remember when I first joined the regiment that all of us were new to one
another, but as soon as I saw the colonel (he was then major) I made up
my mind I could tie to him.  (Cries of `Good!'  Applause.)

     It is a pleasure to be in Arizona.  I have never been in it
before.  Arizona is one of the regions from which I expect most
development through the wise action of the national congress in passing
the irrigation act.  (Applause.)  The first and biggest experiment now
in view under that act is the one that we are trying in Arizona.  I look
forward to the effects of irrigation partly as applied through the
government, still more as applied by individuals, and especially by
associations of individuals, profiting by the example of the government
and possibly by help from it--I look forward to the effects of
irrigation as being of greater consequence to all this region of country
in the next fifty years than any other movement whatsoever.  I think
that irrigation counts for more toward the achieving of the permanent
good results for the community.

     I shall not try to greet in particular the members of my regiment
now.  I shall see them at half past five in my car.  I have come here to
see the Grand Canyon of Arizona, because in that canyon Arizona has a
natural wonder, which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely
unparalleled throughout the rest of the world.  (Applause.)  I shall not
attempt to describe it, because I cannot.  I could not choose words that
would convey or that could convey to any outsider what that canyon is.
I want you to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own
interest and in the interest of the country--to keep this great wonder
of nature as it now is.  (Applause.)  I was delighted to learn of the
wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build their
hotel on the brink of the canyon.  I hope you will not have a building
of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else to mar the
wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the loneliness and beauty of the
canyon.  Leave it as it is.  Man cannot improve on it; not a bit.  The
ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.  What you can do
is to keep it for your children and your children's children and for all
who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American, if
he can travel at all, should see.

     Keep the Grand Canyon of Arizona as it is.  We have gotten past the
stage, my fellow citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we simply treat
any part of our country as something to be skinned for two or three
years for the use of the present generation.  Whether it is the forest,
the water, the scenery, whatever it is, handle it so that your
children's children will get the benefit of it.  Handle it that way.  If
irrigation, apply it under circumstances that will make it of benefit,
not to the speculators to get profit out of it for two or three years,
but handle it so that it will be of use to the homemaker; to the man who
comes to live here and to have his children stay after him; handle it so
as to be of use to him and those who come after him.  Keep the forests
in the same way.  Preserve them for that use, but use them so that they
will not be squandered; will not be wasted; so that they will be of
benefit to the Arizona of 1952 [sic] as well as the Arizona of 1903.

     I want to say a word of welcome to the Indians here.  In my
regiment I had a good many Indians.  They were good enough to fight and
to die, and they are good enough to have me treat them exactly as square
as any white man.  There are a good many problems in connection with the
Indians.  You have got to save them from corruption, save them from
brutality, and I regret to say that at times we have to save them from
the unregulated Eastern philanthropist, because in everything we have to
remember that although perhaps the worst quality in which to approach
any question is hardness of heart, I do not know that it does so much
damage as selfishness of head.  All I ask is a square deal for every
man.  Give him a fair chance; do not let him wrong anyone, and do not
let him be wronged.  Help as far as you can, without hurting in helping
him, for the only way to help a man in the end is to help a man to help
himself.  Never forget that you have to have two sets of qualities; the
qualities that we include under the names of decency, honesty, morality,
that make a man a decent husband, a good father, a good neighbor, fair
and square in his dealings with all men, and in his dealings with the
state: and then, furthermore, the qualities that have to be shown by
every man who is to do this work in the world.  Virtue is good, but the
virtue that sits at home in its own parlor and talks about how bad the
world is, never did anything and never will.  I want to see the
qualities that the men of '61 to '65 had, my comrades.  You had to have
a man patriotic in those days, but it did not make any difference how
patriotic he was, if he did not fight he was no good.  So it is with
citizenship.  I want to see decency and then I want to see the hardy
virtues; the virtues we speak of when we describe anyone as a good man.
I am glad to see you today.  I wish you well with all my heart.  I know
that your future will justify all the hopes we have.  (Cheers and
applause.)

Used by permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society.

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