The Kolb Brothers - Grand Canyon Explorers and Photographers

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No Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History can be complete without mentioning the Kolb brothers, who maintained a photo gallery on the South Rim for decades. The two were among the very first to accomplish double crossings of the Canyon and did more exploring up Bright Angel Canyon and its side canyons than anyone of their era. They were early guides for those who wanted to cross and, knowing the canyon well, were involved in many rescues and searches for missing persons in the inner canyon. But they were best known for their daring antics to obtain spectacular photos in places others had never seen before and mastered the “selfie” 120 years ago.

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Ellsworth “Ed” Leonardson Kolb (1876-1960) and Emery Clifford Kolb (1881–1976) were born and grew up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Their parents were Edward Kolb (1850-1945) and Ellan Nelson Borland (1851-1944). Their father worked as a sales agent of medicine. The Kolb family was of German ancestry. There were four sons in the family, Ellsworth being the eldest. Later, a daughter was adopted.

Coming to the Grand Canyon

In 1900, at the age of 24, Ellsworth went west to see the world. He had experienced an accident working in a steel mill and wanted to have lighter work. First, he worked putting up telephone lines in Colorado and then operated a snow plow at Pike’s Peak. He had plans to sail to China but went to view the Grand Canyon first and then didn’t want to leave. He first got a job chopping wood at Bright Angel Hotel for Martin Buggeln (1867-1939), an Arizona pioneer railroader and rancher who had recently bought the new hotel. Ellsworth worked hard and was soon promoted to a porter. After earning money for a year, in 1902, he sent money back home to bring his adventuresome younger brother, 21-year-old Emery, to join him at the Canyon. Ellsworth initially found a job for him at John Hance’s asbestos mine, but it closed by the time Emery arrived.

Emery, who had been learning photography, arrived at Williams, Arizona, 60 miles south of the South Rim, on October 10, 1902, with only his camera, harmonica, guitar, and the clothes on his back. While waiting to catch the train to the Grand Canyon, he went into a photographic store that was up for sale. The unsuccessful gallery had been operated for a few months by O. Arbogast.

The Kolb brothers saw the opportunity ahead of them and bought the gallery for $425 on a payment plan. It was described as a little “clapboard shack.” They advertised to take interior photos of homes, and took group photos posed against a painted scenery, but surely there were better photography opportunities. They wanted to establish a photography business at the Canyon to take pictures of mule parties, but the Santa Fee Railroad, who had most of the control on the South Rim, would not let them open a studio.

Kolb Studio on South Rim Established

In October 1903, the Kolb brothers were finally allowed to establish a full-time gallery at the Canyon with a business arrangement between Ralph Henry Cameron (1863-1953) who controlled the Bright Angel Trail and other facilities on the South Rim and Indian Garden (now called Havasupai Gardens). They initially set up a photography tent near the Cameron Hotel. Emery recalled decades later, “Our first dark room was a blanket over one of Ralph Cameron’s prospect holes. We had no water to develop our pictures, so we hauled water from a muddy cow pond eleven miles out in the woods. We would wash our pictures by hand in that muddy water. Our final wash with clear water packed up by burros, four and a half miles out of the canyon from Indian Garden.” The brothers closed the Williams gallery, and on December 12, 1903, tore it down, and shipped the lumber to the South Rim to be used by Cameron to build a barn.

Cameron had set up a toll gate at the trailhead and charged one dollar to use the trail. In 1904, he allowed the Kolb brothers to put up a studio next to the toll station where they could take photos of mule trains and offer them for sale. By November 1904, the new gallery near the tollgate at the Bright Angel trailhead was complete. “It stands at a dizzy height right on the edge of the precipice and a fine view can be had from the windows on the Canyon side of the building. It is to be nicely fitted up with a reception room and living rooms.” There was a window in the building facing that trail. When a mule wrangler brought tourists to the trailhead, he would ring a bell on the building. One of the Kolbs would open the window and take pictures. They soon hired people to sell their pictures in Williams and elsewhere.

Emery’s First Double Crossing

In October 1904, Emery, age 23, make his first trip across the Canyon and back, which that year was a very rugged and difficult journey that involved swimming horses across the river. He went on a hunting trip on the North Rim with Lannes L. “Sid” Ferrall (1861- 1928), and Clarence Chiler Spaulding (1876-1952), both employees of Cameron. Ferrall worked at Bright Angel Hotel and Spaulding was in charge of the camp at Indian Garden. The Williams newspaper joked, “Some fear they may stray too far and join the Mormons; then we would be minus three good men.” Ferrall had made his first double crossing in 1902 with James S. Murray (1864-1939).

Work at the Canyon

During June 1905, Emery went on a long photography trip down into the Canyon. This began nine years of detailed exploration and photography of Bright Angel creek and side canyons. In 1906, the photography work was so intense that Ellsworth decided that he needed a long rest and went to California for a couple months. He went to view Yosemite Valley for the first time. The place was pretty deserted because of the very recent horrific San Francisco earthquake.

On October 17, 1905, Emery married Blanche Minnie Bender (1882-1960) in Prescott, Arizona. He brought her to the Canyon, and they moved into a tent. Blanche ran a gift shop at the Kolb Studio and did the bookkeeping for the business.

Runs Down to Indian Garden

In 1906, they built a darkroom building at Indian Garden. Most of the material for the building was brought down on burros, but large pieces needed to be hauled down on the Kolb’s backs. One day Ellsworth made three trips on foot, carrying two beams measuring sixteen feet long each trip. Before water was piped to the South Rim in 1934, the Kolbs had to process the film in this darkroom. Emery recalled, “For 32 years, I photographed the mule parties that left the rim each morning. Then I would run down the trail to Indian Garden to process my film, then run back up again. It took me an hour down, and nearly two hours up. I once made it in 55 minutes. I loved to run. I ran everywhere. I thought nothing of running 30 miles a day. I was very proud of my legs.”

More Double Crossing Trips

In September 1906, Emery led a group of hunters across the Canyon to “bring in a deer from the Mormons.” Mayor Jo Attwood of Williams was in the group. Also, that year they made an eerie discovery above Bright Angel Creek. “In one of their jaunts in 1906, the young explorers hiked a trail halfway up the granite to a turn and made the startling discovery of human remains lying on a ledge with its head resting on a rock. It appeared the man had pulled his overcoat tight around him and gone to sleep. Judging from his clothes, he was a prospector who had wandered into the canyon alone and probably became sick and died. He carried no identification, but in his pocket, they found a Los Angeles newspaper dated 1900, a pipe and a pocket knife.”

In December 1906, Ellsworth and Howard Noble came to Rust Camp (near present-day Phantom Ranch), returning from a hunting and photography trip on the North Rim. Kolb took photos of the camp, and they stayed overnight. The next day, Dave Rust (1874-1963) helped them swim their horses across the river.

On June 9, 1907, Emery and Blanche had a daughter born, Edith Blanche Kolb (1907-1979). For years she was the only child that lived at the Grand Canyon and was taken down into the inner Canyon with her parents on a burro with carrier boxes, one for Edith, the other for the family dog, Rags.

Cable Tram

A new cable tram across the Colorado River, built by Rust became operational on September 21, 1907. The first passengers cranked over by Rust were Ellsworth, Eliza Jane “Lida” Belveal (1877-1973), and Rose Evans, two young ladies from Los Angeles, California, who were working at El Tovar Hotel. They spent the afternoon playing in Bright Angel Creek.

Social Events

In 1909, the Kolb Brothers were providing social entertainment for Canyon employees and visitors at their studio, that included music, dancing, skits, and boxing. “The whole affair was one of the liveliest and best ever held at this place. There is absolutely no amusement supplied by the Harvey Company or the Santa Fe Railroad for their one hundred employees here, so all who attended greatly appreciated the kindness of Kolb Brothers.”

First Rim-to-Rim FKT

One of the very early rim-to-rim Grand Canyon runs took place on June 22, 1910. A rich woman, Mrs. Sargent, wife of an “eastern capitalist,” was with a group on an outing on the north side of the canyon. An important telegram needed to be delivered to her. None of the employees at the Grand Canyon were willing to help. Emery, age 29, volunteered to deliver the telegram. Emery said, “I will see that she gets it today.” The woman’s traveling group had a two-day head start on him. It was reported, “There were no horses fast enough for him, so he decided to make it on foot with the message pinned inside his shirt. There was no one to draw the cage across the river, so it was up to him to go overhand across the 450 ft. cable on a little car. The thermometer registered over 100 degrees in the shade, which made the cable terrifically hot. But on he went.” Emery went up Bright Angel Creek, fording it many times through The Box, and then tackled the steep climb up to the North Rim. His run set the first fastest known time (FKT) for rim-to-rim travel, in six and a half hours, which may have been an exaggeration. He delivered the telegram and then returned.

Boating the Colorado River

In late 1911 and early 1912, the Kolb Brothers made history and became very famous by boating the river from Green River, Wyoming to Needles, California. They wanted to get into “the moving picture business” to record their adventure. Along the way, they became expert boatmen. Details of their journey have been written about elsewhere and are worth reading.

When they arrived at the foot of Bright Angel Trail, they paused their journey for a couple weeks to spend some time at their home on the South Rim. Continuing on, they safely arrived in Needles, California, on January 18, 1912, after a journey of 101 days on the river. In May 1913, Ellsworth rowed alone from Needles to the Gulf of California, completing his journey on the entire Colorado River

With such intense interest in their accomplishment, they put together a show with motion pictures, photographs, and exciting narrative that they wanted to charge admission to see. The Forest Service superintendent, influenced by the Fred Harvey Company, initially wouldn’t allow them to put on their show at Canyon, so the brothers took their show on the road. It was reported, “The motion pictures are first-class and should be seen by every lover of beautiful scenery. They must be seen to be appreciated.”

Emery Cheats Death

In addition to traveling to put on shows, the two brothers continued to go on adventures and run the gallery at the Bright Angel trailhead. In September 1912, Emery nearly lost his life in the Colorado River at the bottom of Bright Angel Trail. He was down there fishing with two others. As Emery was trying to reach the shore at Bright Angel Trail in a small boat, it got sucked down in a whirlpool. He said, “Having on too many clothes and heavy boots, I was afraid to attempt swimming to the shore and exhausting myself, trying to cling to the boat, which was rolling over and over. I was soon carried into the rapids below and luckily ran against a rock. The boat broke in two and went on. I remained on the rock for nine hours.”

Some tourists quickly headed up to the South Rim to get help. Guides from the El Tovar Hotel, and Ellsworth, brought down rope and two life preservers. Elsworth crossed over on the cable tram and climbed along the granite cliffs opposite Bright Angel Trail (Pipe Creek). With a rope tied to him, and with two life preservers, Ellsworth floated daringly off the north shore, reached a rock upriver from Emery, and then floated a rope and life preserver to him. Emery said, “With the rope fastened to us, the boys on shore pulled us in. It was too dark for those on the opposite shore to see us, so we gave three cheers to let them know we were safe.” Emery would cheat death several more times on the river in the years to come.

Theodore Roosevelt Stays in the Studio

On July 14, 1913, they hosted Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) and his sons, who spent the night at the studio before crossing the canyon for their mountain lion hunting trip on the North Rim.

Conflict Between the Brothers

Unfortunately, a rift between the two brothers came to a head during early 1914.. They had experienced ongoing conflicts about their business. The conflict boiled over when Ellsworth insisted that they take a lecture engagement in Ohio without a guaranteed appearance fee. Emery objected, but went along anyway in 1914, and it was a failure. Ellsworth wrote to Emery’s wife Blanche, “Don’t think that Emery and I are quarreling. We were never getting along better. We simply can’t see things in the same way. Emery gets to worrying, then I am affected by his attitude. He can’t help it, neither can I. As soon as I am alone I am as carefree as ever, and happy whether I am making money or not as long as my health is good.”

They decided it was time for them to go separate ways and flipped a coin to see who would stick with the Grand Canyon business. Emery won that flip. He would pay Elsworth money each year and the two split up territories for shows. It has been thought that if Ellsworth would have won the flip, that the business would not have lasted, and the Kolb studio would not stand on the Rim today.

In 1914, Elsworth published a book in the east, Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico, and didn’t give Emery proper credit. He became interested in aviation and eventually worked for an aeronautics firm. Even with the sibling conflict, Ellsworth would return to the Canyon now and then, and still put on shows about their adventure.

Emery toured the East that year, giving more than 100 shows of the Colorado River journey. He said he was “well paid.” The National Geographic magazine dedicated 85 pages of their August 1914 issue to the Kolb brothers’ trip down the Grand Canyon. Emery battled the Fred Harvey Company for years who kept trying to get the Kolb studio removed in order to squash the competition.

Kolb Studio Expanded

In 1915, Emery made extensive improvements to the Kolb Studio, adding an auditorium and additional lab and darkroom space. He put on motion picture shows and dances in the auditorium. A journalist wrote, “These pictures should be seen by every visitor at the canyon in order to get a better idea of the canyon and see the parts you could never see in any other way. The lecture is instructive and entertaining.” The expanded Kolb studio/home was described as “hanging onto the rim of the Grand Canyon, like a nail driven sideways into a cliff.”

Roping a bighorn mountain sheep

In March 1916, Emery produced an eye-popping motion picture. Above Indian Garden and the Bright Angel Trail, he scaled “the Battleship” with a cowboy rope man, James MacMurdo, to rope a bighorn mountain sheep. “To prevent the animal from seeing them at a distance, it was necessary to climb directly over the peak and drop with ropes through crevasses covered with snow and ice. The animal was hemmed by the tree on the edge of a blue line wall. Jimmie threw his rope, but brush and rock interfered. On the second attempt, the loop tightened over its neck. When caught, it had no fight. More than a dozen persons saw the spectacular feat through the telescopes from the rim of the canyon and they saw the sheep released and uninjured by the capture.”

Ellsworth Unaccounted For

Ellsworth’s quest for daring adventures got him in trouble in November 1916. He tried multiple times to run the uncharted Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. His second attempt left an injured friend in the hospital. On his third attempt, he went alone with only a few provisions and was not heard from for eight days, causing a search to be started. The next day Emery received a telegram from Ellsworth at Montrose, Colorado, that he was fine.

Emery goes into the Service

In late 1918, Emery was asked by the War Department to serve during World War I. He was appointed a first lieutenant in the Signal Corps, photograph division, and sent to New York City. Ellsworth was jealous and tried to get a similar appointment but did not. Emery worked to preserve battle photographs for historical purposes. He only served for a few months and was back at the Canyon in April 1919.

Rescue Attempt

On May 16, 1919, two easterners without a guide, J. Van de Bunt and Paul W. Betts, were trying to hike down to the Cable Tram. From the Tonto Trail, they went down to the river the wrong way, using an old miner’s trail. With no tram in sight, and no River Trail built yet, they tried to make their way to the foot of Bright Angel Trail at Pipe Creek. Betts was climbing the wall and Van de Bunt was wading along the river and disappeared. Betts eventually climb up to Indian Garden, and asked for help. Emery and Betts searched the river for Van de Bunt, but never found him, and they suspected he had fallen in the water and had been carried away. “Kolb said the river was so full of sand and sediment that it would fill up the clothes of a man and keep the body from rising to the surface.” After 1919, once the National Park was established, the Kolb brothers rarely descended into the inner Canyon on foot as rangers took over providing trail services.

Airplane Lands on Plateau Near Indian Garden

Royal Vearl Thomas (1888-1928) was from Kansas. During World War I, he trained to be a pilot in Texas and served as a lieutenant and flight instructor. Thomas’ most famous stunt flight occurred at the Grand Canyon. On August 8, 1922, Thomas took off from Williams, Arizona, with Elsworth as passenger and photographer.

Ellsworth used his “movie picture machine” to record the experience and to show it in the Kolb studio. With permission from Park superintendent, Walter W. Crosby (1893-1934), they flew to the South Rim and circled El Tovar Hotel several times, which created a stir. “Throngs of tourists standing along the rim and others astride donkeys paused along the steep trails, all looked on in breathless astonishment.” They flew around the “Battleship” that towers above Garden Creek, and then across the river to Bright Angel Creek.

Unfortunately, Ellsworth broke the handle off of the movie camera. “He kept on turning the shaft with his fingers, as rapidly as possible, and was surprised when the roll was developed to find that he had some very good pictures.”

Thomas went in for a landing on the long brushy plateau north of Indian Garden, where a landing strip was prepared and cleared by Park employees. He hoped he had enough “runway” length. From the air, it looked good, but as he approached, he had his doubts and called out to Ellsworth to undo his seatbelt in case they needed to bail out. The landing went well, and the plane rolled to a stop within 100 feet of the 1,500-foot chasm.

Thomas boasted, “This was the first landing ever made by an airplane in the Grand Canyon.” The wind direction was not safe enough for takeoff, so they left the plane and started heading up Bright Angel Trail for the night. “As they left, a gust of wind caught the aircraft and spun it around, breaking the tail skid and damaging a wing. Thomas did a quick repair with baling wire and an old auto spring.”

The next morning, Thomas hiked back down and successfully took off and flew up to the rim. Ten days later, the Fred Harvey Company hired him to repeat the flight with a Fox News photographer riding along. The resulting film appeared in theaters across the country entitled, “The First Flight in the Grand Canyon.”

For his repeat performance, he put on a show with a dive. “Thomas waves his hand to the people along the rim high above him. The nose of the plane shoots up. Then the nose topples over and the plane shoots down. The tail wiggles and twists. Down, down, down, the plane is plunging and whirling to the bottom at a terrifying speed. Suddenly the motor begins to roar again. The huge, graceful eagle turns slowly, circling gradually downward, and with diminishing speed glides toward the small landing spot among the boulders and gently, very gently, settles down and stops.”

On May 3, 1928, Thomas broke Charles Lindbergh’s (1902-1974) solo flight record, remaining in the air for 35:35:29 above Curtiss Field, Long Island, New York. A few days later, Thomas crashed into a golf course and died instantly at Moonachie, New Jersey, while flying a speed test in the same plane that was going to make a secret flight to Rome, Italy.

First Canyon Landing Strips

During 1926, Emery had land cleared off on both the South Rim and the North Rim for airplane landing fields. On the South Rim, it was about four miles south of the Rim, and was named “Kolb Field.” The strip on the North Rim was at V.T. Park, (near today’s Kaibab Lodge), about 12 miles from the Canyon. “They say that the Kolb Field is in good condition, but it is a small field.” Emery said he planned to buy a plane to provide passenger transportation rim to rim. The first flight, rim-to-rim and back using the Kolb Fields took place on June 10, 1926. One passenger was Luther Warren Cureton (1977-1963) of Williams, who operated the auto camp. Emery had trouble finding a plane due to the perceived dangers involved. Within a couple years, he sold his landing strips and equipment to John Parker Van Zandt (1894-1990) who established The Grand Canyon Scenic Airways Inc.

Concluding Years

In 1924, Ellsworth sold his remaining interest in the Kolb business to Emery and moved permanently to Los Angeles, California. In 1926, Emery started construction on a three-story extension of the studio hanging on the Rim. He was involved in several Colorado River rescue/searches for parties that ended up drowning in the river. Starting in the 1930s, both Kolb brothers settled down more, Ellsworth mostly in California, and Emery at the Grand Canyon where he showed his movies, gave local lectures, and put on social events.

In April 1951, Ellsworth, age 75, was hit by a car while crossing a crosswalk in Los Angeles and suffered two broken vertebrae in his neck. He recovered well, but on January 9, 1960, at the age of 83, he died in Los Angeles. He was buried in the Grand Canyon Cemetery.

In 1960, Emery was recognized as being the oldest (age 79) and longest resident (58 years) at the Grand Canyon. “The year 1902 saw the arrival of the Kolb Brothers to the Canyon and the next year, they established their business. They have been at virtually the same location since.”

In 1975, at the age of 95, Emery said, “The Canyon and really been my life’s work. We started showing our pictures in the studio on April 15, 1915. So far as we could learn, it was the longest one-stand show in the world.” He estimated that he had photographed 1.5 million mule riders and said, “I guess I’ve taken more pictures of faces and mules than any other living man.”

In 1976, Emery experienced a number of heart attacks and died on December 11, 1976, at the age of 95. The studio ownership went to the National Park, which had not been keen on the building because it did not match other architecture in the park, but an antiquities law required that any building 50 years or older had to be preserved, so it still stands today as a museum, gallery, and bookstore. More than 65,000 Kolb images are preserved at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Ellsworth and Emery Kolb were among the greatest pioneers of the 20^th century Grand Canyon and introduced its wonders to millions of people over more than 70 years. Their work has let rim-to-rim hikers and runners step back in time and see the evolution of the Canyon trails that we know and love today.

Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim Series

Sources:

Arizona PBS, “Kolb Brothers Grand Canyon Pioneers”
Arizona State University, Kolb Studio
Edith Lehnert, The Grand Canyon Story of the Kolb Brothers. Fifty Years at the Grand Canyon
William C. Suran, “The Kolb Brothers’ Biography”
Williams News (Arizona), Oct 25, 1902, Nov 22, 29, 1902, Oct 17, Dec 12, 1903, Apr 30, May 13, 28, Oct 22, Nov 12, 1904, July 15, 1905, Mar 24, May 5, Sep 29, 1906, Dec 18, 1909, Jan 24, 1910, Nov 9, 1912, Nov 13, 1914, Mar 4, 12, Aug 12, 1915, Aug 17, 1916, Apr 25, 1919, Aug 11, 1922, Jun 18, Doc 10, 1926, Apr 26, Jul 26, 1951, Oct 27, 1955
The Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, Arizona), Jun 24, 1910, Sep 27, 1912, Apr 10, 1914, Mar 24, Nov 17, 1916, Oct 11, 1918, May 23, 1919, Sep 22, 1922, Sep 21, 1923, Jul 23, 1926
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), Dec 20, 1928
Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona), Mar 10, 1929
Arizona Dailyi Son (Flagstaff, Arizona), Jan 14, 1960

137: Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim History – Part 8: Kolb Brothers