Pioneer Air Tours For The Grand Canyon

July 1936 booklet outlining the services of the recently created Grand Canyon - Boulder Dam Tours Inc., with illustrated covers by famed pictorial map artist Gerald Eddy.

The booklet outlines the tours offered by the company, including:

• Las Vegas
• Boulder City
• Lake Mead
• North Rim, Grand Canyon
• South Rim, Grand Canyon

Aimed at tourist agents and travel bureaus, as noted in the introductory letter:

These tours combining the use of tri-motored, all-metal, high-wing planes, limousines, and boats are entirely new and different and should provide you with valuable additions tgo your present line of tour and transportation media.'

The type written service guide describes services, schedules for different tours beginning August 1, 1936. prices, itineraries and a host of other details.

The pictorial map covers illustrate the air routes flown by the company in Red and Blue, with Las Vegas and Death Valley at the southwest and Grand Canyon National Park at the top right.

Grand Canyon–Boulder Dam Tours

On June 24, 1931, Glover E. Ruckstell purchased three Ford Tri-Motor aircraft and set up operations for Grand Canyon Airlines (GCA) at Bullock Field in Boulder City to provide scenic flights over Boulder Dam, Grand Canyon, and Death Valley. In 1933, Ruckstell and his business partners built the Boulder Dam Hotel, thus becoming the only high-end hotel in southern Nevada at the time.

On June 6, 1936, Ruckstell formed Grand Canyon–Boulder Dam Tours to provide “air passenger, freight and mail service, bus, truck and boat lines and operate all support facilities such as airports, marinas, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other recreational facilities.” The first GCA commercial flight was on June 15, 1936. Ruckstell entered into an agreement with Howard Hughes’ Transcontinental and Western Airways (TWA) to bring passenger service to Boulder City, and the inauguration of service on April 3, 1938 saw three TWA DC-3s parked around the original GCA ticket office.

Rarity

This would seem to be a unique survival.