Scholarships, Plans & Research Fund
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Through generous donations from our Members, the Society normally awards one or two $2,000 scholarships or grants for support of research involving history, historic or environmental preservation in the Grand Canyon region.
Eligible projects include any work that results in original research concerning historical individuals, events, sites, organizations, businesses or environmental issues in the Grand Canyon region; or any work that results in original research that supports or leads to historical preservation of any historical site, photographs, documents, or diaries with origins in the Grand Canyon region.
Scholarship Recipients
2024: Annie Shirley, NPS Annie Shirley has worked as a seasonal Visitor Services Assistant in the Interpretation and Resources Educational Division for Grand Canyon National Park and transitioned to a seasonal Park Ranger position at Desert View District this summer. Her successful application from the GCHS funds the Interpretation and Resource Education Division's oral history project. This project aims to interview and record the life stories of people who have connections to Grand Canyon National Park, especially people who work here but may be retiring or close to retirement. This grant helps cover costs associated with recording and preserving oral history interviews, such as paying interviewees for their time and any travel (if applicable). The intention is to conduct interviews with at least 8 to 10 individuals, and copies of audio and transcripts will be provided to the GCHS. Congratulations to Annie for this award and most worthy oral history program. 2023: Two Awards Recipients of the 2023 scholarship grants were Alan Petersen of the Museum of Northern Arizona University (research of painter Gunnar Widforss), and to Caitlin Stewart and Edlin DeSantiago, (for research of the South Canyon ranger station and the 1927 Kaibab Deer Run). Alan Peterson was awarded the full amount requested ($1,470) and Stewart and De Santiago were awarded the maximum of $2,000. There were four applications with these two being successfully awarded. 2022: Two Awards Emily Dale, Ph.D. Emily is an anthropology lecturer at NAU and historical archaeologist. For 2022 she is the Principal Investigator of the Apex project and director of the NAU archaeological field school at Apex, Arizona, a logging camp 52 miles from Williams along the Grand Canyon Railway. Built by the Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company in 1928, Apex’s loggers harvested the timbers that built the numerous structures at the Grand Canyon, supported the mines at Anita and other nearby mining communities, and were turned into thousands of railroad ties. Archaeological investigations during the 2022 field season will focus on identifying, mapping, photographing, and describing artifacts and features in order to understand the relationships between domestic and industrial features across the landscape, the interaction between the logging and railroad companies, and the ways the artifacts reveal evidence of consumer choices and agency in a rural company town. The GCHS Grant Funds will be used to purchase basic field equipment in order to properly record and document the features and artifacts encountered during fieldwork. The funds will also be used for soil analysis of samples from features, such as privies, in order to identify organic remnants of diet and health to explore differences between supervisors and laborers, adults and children, and other social divisions. The field school will provide undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to learn about the history of the Grand Canyon Railway and methods, theories, and interpretations in historical archaeology. Cassandra Northcutt Cassandra is a sophomore honors student at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, majoring in history. In August 2022 she will be attending Northern Arizona University enrolled in the Grand Canyon Semester. Cassandra’s research will focus on the history of how the Grand Canyon was portrayed in advertisements as well as newspapers throughout the mid 1800s to early 1900s. She hopes to determine if the reason Theodore Roosevelt succeeded in his goal to turn Grand Canyon into a national monument in 1908 and then its final status as a national park in 1919 was due to its treatment in the media. The goal is to understand how the “idea” of that park was marketed to the American Public that was so unfamiliar with such a location. There were attempts leading back to the mid 1800s of trying to reach protected status for Grand Canyon. Cassandra’s research will examine why only in 1908 and 1919 that goal was finally successful. GCHS Grant Funds will be used for Grand Canyon Semester tuition and archive research expenses. 2021 William Holly William is a PhD Candidate in History at Arizona State University under the supervision of Dr. Julian Lim and is working on a dissertation titled “The Mountain is Part of Us: The Legal & Cultural Conflicts Over Development on Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks, 1967-1984.” This dissertation revolves around three main themes: 1) The importance of tourism, first promoted by the railroad and the city’s proximity to natural attractions such as the Grand Canyon; 2) The role of American Indians and Indigenous imagery in promoting Northern Arizona tourism; and 3) the conflict that arose out of the uneasy alliance between Indigenous peoples and the tourist economy, as reflected in the legal challenges to expansion of the Arizona Snowbowl in the 1970s, and into the 1980s. William proposes to use his $2,000 award to utilize archives held at the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University. Specifically, the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce Records, the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce Powwow Records collection, and the Flagstaff All-Indian Pow-wow Collections held at the Arizona Historical Society archive collection at Cline Library. This will allow him to gain evidence to advance his claim that Indigenous culture was equally important as the Snowbowl to the Northern Arizona tourism economy. 2020 Daniel Milowski Daniel is a PhD candidate in history at Arizona State University working on a project focused on northern Arizona history. His project centers on regional transformation in northwestern Arizona in the twentieth century – specifically the section of Route 66 from Flagstaff, Arizona to the border with California. In the Grand Canyon area, he will examine local communities exploring the interconnections between construction of transportation infrastructure and community development, racial and borderlands issues, and environmental aspects. The focus will be on the social history of the communities, the degree to which local needs and desires played a role in the creation of roads like Route 66, and how environmental constraints influenced the development of infrastructure and communities in this region. He proposes to use the $1500 grant to fund research trips to two archives important to his project. These funds from the grant will help him complete his dissertation by spring of 2021. 2019: Two Awards Harris Abernathy Harris Abernathy is a master’s student at Middle Tennessee State University and presented a paper at the 2019 Grand Canyon History Symposium. He will use the GCHS grant to fund travel to Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library for archival research of the Kolb Collection for documentation of Ellsworth Kolb’s expeditions in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. He plans to determine what developments or innovations in whitewater boating emerged from Ellsworth’s three trips, how did the crews navigate the rapids, and how has adventure film-making played a role in the growing popularity of whitewater rafting. Harris will also personally retrace parts of Kolb’s trip. The results of this research will be a paper at the upcoming Colorado River Runners conference plus a chapter in a planned book based on Harris’s master’s thesis Unobtainable Else: The Grand Canyon, Mules, and the Photographers for the National Park’s Most Controversial Trail. Christina Lake Christina Lake is a third year doctoral student at Texas A&M University. The GCHS grant will cover travel expenses to visit archives in Phoenix, Tucson and Grand Canyon. Her dissertation will use the tourism practices of the Fred Harvey Company and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad to understand social change in the American Southwest through the intersection of gender, labor, and indegeneity in the tourism industry between the 1880s and 1940s. Focus will be on recovering voices of both white and Native women and highlighting their commercial and artistic endeavors. Through this research Christine aims to argue for a more inclusive cultural memory regarding the Harvey Company, Santa Fe Railroad tourism, and the National Park Service to be incorporated into larger studies of the Greater Southwest, tourism, and women’s history. 2018: Two Awards Jeanne Stevens Schofer, Peter Pilles, B.A., and Chris Watkins, PhD Dating rock image sites is an elusive goal in archaeology. Figures that have been pecked onto rock surfaces gradually darken over time, a process known as repatination. Older elements should be darker than more recently created figures within the same panel. If color could be objectively and quantitatively assessed, it would be possible to seriate individual elements by age/color and reconstruct the construction sequence within a given panel. The technique would be particularly beneficial on large, complex panels. Consistently and accurately assessing petroglyph color has proven to be a significant research challenge. Spectrophotometry -- the quantitative measurement of the color of a material through spectral reflectance -- offers a solution to this problem. Alexis Kopkowski, Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) Natural resource management, natural resource protection, how the environment is linked to human health, and how the development of climate change adaptation plans can benefit historically underrepresented communities in Arizona and the four corners region of the United States. 2017: Three Awards Richard D. Quartaroli - Second Powell Expedition Journals Richard Quataroli, Northern Arizona University Special Collections Librarian Emeritus, is preparing a reworking of the second Powell Expedition members’ journals into a day by day format, including three previously overlooked journals. He will use the scholarship funds for travel expenses to the Huntington Library where the Otis “Dock” Marston Collection is housed. At the Huntington, Richard plans to compare Marston’s copies of the original journals to his own transcriptions, and investigate notes and details Dock discovered about the men and events for editorial comments. Andrea Dunn and Margaret Hangan - Historic Photo Restoration - The Williams Historic Photo Project - a partnership between the City of Williams Library and the Kaibab National Forest. The Williams Historic Photo Project is managed by Andrea Dunn, Librarian for the City of Williams, Margaret Hangan, Forest Archaeologist for the Kaibab National Forest and two part time volunteers. Started in 2012, the project goal is to identify and preserve historic photos, documents and oral histories with an emphasis on the City of Williams and the surrounding areas, including the Grand Canyon. Two very large circa 1910 panoramic photos (53” x 12” inches) were donated to the photo project. One image is of a logging railroad train hauling logs to a mill and the other is an overview of the Saginaw & Manistee Mill and Box Company located in Williams. Both of the photos have suffered extensive water damage with portions discolored, plus they have adhered to the frame glass and are peeling. The scholarship funds will be used to carefully remove the photos from the frames, scan them in sections and stitch them together digitally, then restore the scanned images using photo repair programs. Also, the remainder of the original photos will be preserved by stabilizing and wrapping them in acid free paper and polyester film to prepare them for long-term storage. Linda Reeder - Mary Colter and the Broader Culture Which Informed Her Designs Before her career with Fred Harvey took off, Colter was a teacher and artist in Saint Paul, Minnesota for more than 15 years. During this time she taught at the Mechanic Arts High School and was a member of the Art Workers Guild of St. Paul. She also delivered lectures to the New Century Club and other organizations. All of these activities may be related to the Arts and Crafts movement popular in that era. Linda Reeder, Associate Professor of Construction Management at Central Connecticut State University, will use the scholarship money to fund a visit to the Minnesota state archives to conduct research in the collections related to the Mechanics Arts High School and other organizations with which Colter was affiliated. By conducting this research, Linda expects to gain new knowledge about the influences that informed Colter’s design work and she will write a paper and seek publication to disseminate this new knowledge. 2016 Casey Rutherford Jones Casey is working on a study to asses the impact of mining runoff on the quality of water at Roaring Springs. The Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) is under threat from land use change, whether intentional or not. Hundreds of existing and proposed uranium mines dot the landscape surrounding the park, and runoff from retention ponds poses a risk of infiltrating the groundwater supply. Water is discharged at springs, which provide essential habitat for springs-dependent species in the canyon, as well as potable water. One important spring, Roaring Springs, is the sole provider of drinkable water for all of GCNP’s 5 million annual visitors, as well as those who live in the park or surrounding land year round. Once contaminants enter the Redwall-Muav aquifer, little is known about their travel paths or transit times. Casey propose a dye tracer study, in which nontoxic fluorescent dye will be inserted into two sinkholes on the Kaibab Plateau. She will monitor 18 different springs with charcoal packets to qualitatively determine the connectedness of the karst system, and quantitatively sample and analyze water at Roaring Springs, Bright Angel Springs, and Emmett Springs to determine transit time of potential contaminants. The awarded $1,500 will go toward the analytical costs of 125 water samples taken at the three springs listed above. Isotopes, specific conductance, and other parameters can be analyzed and assessed at $12 per sample. The results will determine a breakthrough curve displaying the transit time of potential threats to GCNP, which will be indispensable in the future management of the park and surrounding areas. 2015 Emma Williams Emma is working on a study providing the Grand Canyon’s natural resource managers with evidence of how the ecological history of a forest may impact the current and future effects of a primary management tool-prescribed fire. In the recent decades, tree mortality rates have been increasing across the western United States (van Mantgem et al, 2009). Growth patterns forming over a tree's lifetime carry information allowing us to predict its survivorship (Das et al, 2007). The Southwest Climate Science Center has partially funded this project to produce mortality models, for species experiencing severe 5-10 year drought followed by prescribed fire, using conifer growth patterns from the past 50 years. With additional funding assistance from the Grand Canyon Historical Society, Emma hopes to expand the inferences of this project by extending the analysis of the past 50 years to the lifetimes of the sample trees. The effects of fire following severe drought can result in years when trees may fail to put on growth, making it difficult to determine death dates from a short record. By extending the record to the life of the tree, we are able to use crossdating methods to age each ring, achieve a more certain death date, and improve our understanding of the mechanisms leading to it. These ring ages will allow us to create a timeline tracking long term growth patterns as indices of historical climate, stand competition, and fire effects in Grand Canyon forests. |
 Paleontologist Dr. David White in the canyon wrapping a fossil in newspaper for a trip to a museum. Circa 1928. Photo Copyright Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection
Scholarship Recipients Continued
2014 Addie Partrick Addie is working on a management study of the Desert View Watchtower, a newly acquired site by the NPS. Within the next year she will be working on a project in her division that will help the park decide how to best manage a newly acquired site, the Desert View Watchtower. During the summer of 2014, she will be doing interpretive research in and around the Desert View Watchtower on the park’s east side. This research will mostly focus on visitor experience, expectations, and desires when it comes to visiting cultural sites in the southwest. The Desert View Watch Tower was built in 1932 by architect Mary Colter. The inspiration behind the Watch Tower was to celebrate our native tribes. Colter described it as a “re-creation” of various towers built by Native Americans throughout the southwest. Having been managed by Xanterra Parks and Resorts for many years, the Desert View Watchtower has been operated as a curio shop and it has been challenging for the National Park Service to fully tell the story of cultural ties to the canyon as a place of emergence and spirituality. This is a unique opportunity for Grand Canyon National Park to spark more emotional and intellectual connections to our cultural heritage. 2013 Daniel Hadley Daniel is working on "Campsite morphology along the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park", a master’s thesis project to assess changes in campsite morphology along the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park. His project consists of analyzing changes in the geomorphology of campsites, determining the influence of vegetation encroachment on campsite area loss, and developing new campsite monitoring methods. It is the last component of his project. Sandbars have been historically used as campsites by river runners and hikers, and continue to be an important part of the recreational experience for visitors to Grand Canyon. Campsite carrying capacity is of increasing concern to the National Park Service due to the popularity of commercial and private rafting trips and the steady decline in the number of campsites and campsite area. In an effort to improve campsite surveys, which is currently limited to detecting changes in just campsite area, Daniel would like to develop a new campsite monitoring method that can be incorporated into a “citizen science” framework. 2012 no scholarship awarded Students like these benefit from the funds you contribute to the Grand Canyon Historical Society Scholarship Fund...and we all benefit from the results of their work. Please contribute today. 2011 Daniel E. Karalus This project is more than a description of the Grand Canyon’s reclaimed water use. Though it details that, it also aims to highlight reclaimed water’s role as an important an inexpensive alternative water supply, a hallmark of new technologies, a form of conservation hidden in the landscape, and something park officials and the public were not entirely comfortable using. In doing so, the project will provide valuable insights into the Grand Canyon’s technology and the balancing act between the park’s urban-style growth and its mission to conserve American resources. It might also reveal more about human perceptions of water and waste, or at least simply garner the now nationally historic water reclamation plant some necessary attention. This project is also particularly poignant right now, as communities in Arizona and the West increasingly turn to reclaimed water to meet industry and consumer demands. 2010 Steven Littleton Littleton's research project into the Grand Canyon is part of his larger PhD dissertation topic of arts and sciences in the western National Parks. Littleton has been researching the ways in which art and science have been used in the national parks to interpret American history and values. Both scientists and artists have played an important role in promoting and interpreting the Grand Canyon to visitors and the general public. Littleton hopes to show how the two group's involvement with the canyon has diverged over time and how the role of science in public education and entertainment at the park also has evolved over time and sometimes conflicted with other cultural views of the area. The scholarship funds will be used to help cover research expenses including a trip to the National Park Service archives in Denver. 2009 Christopher Holcomb “The Visible Boundary Between The Forests Of Kaibab National Forest And Grand Canyon National Park” is to generate new scientific information and novel policy analysis to argue for more seamless management across a jurisdictional boundary on the Kaibab Plateau. The jurisdictional boundary between Grand Canyon National Park and Kaibab National Forest along the North Rim is visible from space as an ecological artifact. This simple fact begs a series of questions. Mr. Holcomb's thesis research revolves around three in particular: What is the ecological nature of the apparent differences across the boundary in an otherwise contiguous forest? What are the implications of these disjointed conditions, especially for crown fire risk? What are the past and present management regimes that have created the observed conditions, and what is the potential for more seamless management across this boundary between these two agencies? The goal is to provide sound, science-based analysis to aid and inform managements in the world-renowned Grand Canyon region. 2008 Jennifer Spensieri Jennifer's research is entitled "A Kiosk for the Canyon: The Making and Influence of the Grand Canyon Trust as a Professionalized Research-Based Environmental NGO (non-governmental organization)." 2007 no scholarship awarded 2006 no scholarship awarded 2005 Mathieu Brown Currently a Masters candidate in the department of Forestry at Northern Arizona University, Mathieu's thesis work is on the biophysical recreation impacts on the Colorado River corridor through Grand Canyon, while his coursework focuses on the recreation and tourism cultures of the Western United States. Mathieu has earned a B.S. in Business Economics and a B.A. in Southwest Studies. Dr. Pam Foti of the Planning and Recreation program in the Southwest Forest Science Complex is his program advisor. The scholarship will be funding: Seeking Summits Below the Rim: The stories and history of climbing in Grand Canyon, a project to document the stories of early climbing in Grand Canyon. Despite the prolific activity of a handful of climbers little has been publicly written and documented on their pursuits. Like any time period in Grand Canyon history, that of the early summiteers carries its own perspectives and adds value and depth to our collective understanding of the Grand Canyon and its influence on the human individual and regional meaning. Although not publicly documented, the knowledge of early Grand Canyon climbing remains rich. It is held in the journals, letters, photographs, and memories of the individuals active in the pursuit. Luckily, many of these stories have yet to vanish and sit waiting to be uncovered and rediscovered from the climbers themselves on a local and regional scale. 2004 Gretchen M. Merton Gretchen's PhD dissertation title is: Geology in the American Southwest: New Processes, New Theories. The work the scholarship will be funding is her research in the history of geology in the Grand Canyon and surrounding region. 2003 - Steve Buckley Steve was the recipient of the 2003 Scholarship of $1,000 for his master's thesis project: Mountain Lying Down: An Environmental History of the Kaibab Plateau. This is our first award for an environmental history. Previous awards have been for variety of historical and anthropological projects in the Grand Canyon Region. This is a bit more significant in that this is the first year we offered the scholarship for an environmental project. His introduction to the application was "Presently, there is no environmental history of the Kaibab Plateau. The isolated geologic upwarp, which serves as the northern barrier to the Grand Canyon between Kanab Canyon and Marble Canyon, is a true sky island. This breadth of land mass has provided for a rich history of human use. From early archeological evidence and inferences from known patterns, human habitation has had an effect on the larger ecological system of the Kaibab. The famous Kaibab deer herd and the ecological lesson it taught concerning the extirpation of predators, is but one remarkable note from a complex past. The Kaibab, as it is known, is a derivative of the original Paiute word, kaibabits, meaning "mountain lying down." The name was given by Major John Wesley Powell in the course of his exploration in the 1870s. Until such time it had been commonly known as Buckskin Mountain. It is the ecological story of this mountain I wish to tell." 2002 no scholarship awarded 2001 no scholarship awarded 2000 Russell K. Quinlan Awarded the GCPS 2000 Scholarship at the Northern Arizona University History Department Awards and Honors breakfast on April 26, Russell is a fourth year doctoral student at Northern Arizona University studying criminal history and law enforcement. His research will concentrate on the career of Hubert "Bert" Lauzon who served as a constable and a justice of the peace for the Grand Canyon District of Coconino County before becoming a National Park Service Ranger in 1928, a position he held until retiring in the early 1950s. 1999 John S. Westerlund A doctoral student at Northern Arizona University, John was awarded the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society's 1999 Scholarship. John will use the money to pay for travel related research expenses pertaining to his doctoral dissertation in American history. His topic is titled "From Indian Village to Minuteman Missiles: Navajo Ordnance Depot in the American West." His research will take him to the Washington, DC area and to the reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah to obtain oral interviews with former Navajo and Hopi depot employees. The Navajo Ordnance Depot is a munitions depot located west of Flagstaff, Arizona. 1998 John S. Westerlund A doctoral student at Northern Arizona University, John was awarded the GCPS 1998 Scholarship. John will use the money to pay for travel related research expenses pertaining to his doctoral dissertation in American history. His topic is titled "From Indian Village to Minuteman Missiles: Navajo Ordnance Depot in the American West." His research will take him to the Washington, DC area and to the reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah to obtain oral interviews with former Navajo and Hopi depot employees. The Navajo Ordnance Depot is a munitions depot located west of Flagstaff, Arizona. 1997 Michael Anderson, Ph.D. Michael was the recipient of the GCPS 1997 Scholarship for his research on the administrative history of the Grand Canyon National Park. This is the second time Mike has received the GCPS Scholarship. 1996 Amy Jo Horn-Wilson A master's candidate of the Department of Anthropology at NAU, Amy was awarded the 1996 GCPS Scholarship of $500. Amy Jo's project will be a study of the Cohonina peoples that occupied the Coconino Plateau, including the South Rim and Esplanade of the Grand Canyon and Havasu and Cataract Canyons from approximately A.D. 700-1150. Some archaeologists believe they are ancestral to the modern Havasupai. For her thesis, she intends to examine projectile points created and used by the Cohonina to detect changes in form over time and space. In addition, she will compare Cohonina projectile points with those created by the Kayenta Anasazi and modern Havasupai to discern culture interactions and relationships. The materials she will use are excavated and surface-collected projectile points stored at Grand Canyon, Museum of Northern Arizona, and Kaibab National Forest in Williams. The results of her analysis will provide additional temporal information for archaeologists as they interpret the prehistory of the Grand Canyon and the entire Southwest. 1995 Chris Johnson Chris was awarded the 1995 GCPS Scholarship of $350 for his work on the history of the "discovery" of Rainbow Bridge. This is the second time Chris has received the GCPS Scholarship. 1994 Chris Johnson Chris is awarded a $350 Scholarship for his work on a completely different aspect of Grand Canyon regional cultural history. His subject was Jacob Hamblin, a noted explorer and settler of the region. Chris looked at how the Mormon Church has used Hamblin's image to benefit the institution through public representation of him as a larger-than-life western legend. This study resulted in the paper Bridging the Gap: Jacob Hamblin and Mormon Historiography.* 1994 - Juti Winchester Juti was awarded a $350 Scholarship to continue studies at the Grand Canyon involving early master plans used to develop the Grand Canyon park site for visitor use. Her emphasis was on cultural ideas that influenced these plans. Included were Mary Jane Colter's vision of Indians, and how that vision effected the development of selected parts of the Grand Canyon visitor use area. These studies produced the paper Just Like the Real Thing: Mary Jane Colter and Her Artistic Endeavors.* 1993 Susan Olberding Susan was awarded the 1993 GCPS Scholarship of $380 for her work on her master's degree in history and her research on the Water, Water Nowhere: A History of Water Use at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.* 1992 Michael F. Anderson Michael was awarded the first GCPS Scholarship of $250 to study the trails and perform research on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The research resulted in the paper Thunder River Trail at Grand Canyon National Park.* *These papers are on file in the Grand Canyon Historical Society's collection at NAU Cline Library Special Collections. Anyone can access these papers by searching under the author's name, title, or reviewing the index of the GCHS Collection. |