James Thurber built the first lodging on this spot at the head of Bright Angel Trail in 1896, a modest hotel that grew into a sprawling, aging tent-and-cabin camp over four decades of additions. By the early 1930s the Santa Fe Railway wanted something better, and architect Mary Colter spent years designing a replacement meant to undercut the pricier El Tovar Hotel up the rim.
She insisted on saving two of the original 1890s structures rather than demolishing them: the Buckey O’Neill Cabin, built by a Rough Rider who helped establish the Grand Canyon Railway before dying in Cuba, and the Red Horse Cabin, moved here in 1902 and later used as the park’s post office. Colter’s finished lodge, dedicated June 22, 1935, used native stone and peeled-log construction throughout, including a fireplace in the History Room built to mirror the canyon’s actual rock strata. It’s a National Historic Landmark and joined Historic Hotels of America in 2022.