Commissioned by the Fred Harvey Company, designed by Mary Colter, and completed in 1935, the log-and-stone Bright Angel Lodge offered canyon travelers alternative accommodation to the luxurious El Tovar. Just off the lobby is the History Room , a small museum devoted to Harvey, who, in conjunction with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, transformed Grand Canyon into a popular tourist destination.
Today's Bright Angel is the latest in a series of incarnations that began after the first stagecoach arrived at the South Rim from Flagstaff on May 19, 1892. When train service to the canyon looked inevitable, James Thurber relocated his Flagstaff-Grand Canyon stagecoach line to the head of the Bright Angel Trail and opened Bright Angel Hotel and Camps. He sold the property to Williams hotelier Martin Buggein in 1901, but because neither man made a formal claim to the land upon which the hotel stood, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway enveloped the site as part of its 20-acre depot; upon completion of the railroad's luxury El Tovar in 1905, the railroad bought Buggein's share of Bright Angel and upgraded his accommodation.
On the lodge grounds is the Buckey O’Neill Cabin. Built in the 1890s by William Owen O’Neill, the cabin is the longest continually standing building on the rim. Nicknamed ‘Buckey’ because he ‘bucked the odds’ in a card game, O’Neill moved to Arizona in 1879 and worked as an author, journalist, miner, politician and judge. In 1897 he raised money for and became president of the Santa Fe and Grand Canyon Railroad Co, and was a significant force behind the railroad's arrival to the South Rim in 1901. In 1898, he joined Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish American War and died at age 38 the day before the assault on San Juan Hill. Today, the lucky few who make reservations well in advance can stay in his cabin.
