Had
a chance a few weeks ago to look at two of the cables draping into the
Colorado River at 266.8 Left, Grand Canyon National Park. These cables are from the 1957-1958 operations to
sling bat guano out of the Bat Cave on river right up to the road head
on the rim river left by aerial tramway. At the time, bat guano was a
prized fertilizer.
Roger Smith's book Batchit, Arizona: The Rise and Fall,
by Batchit Books, is a good recounting of the mining endeavors. Smith
covers the first attempt to install the main 9,850 foot-long stationary
support cable. On the final tightening, a winch failed and the cable
fell into the Canyon. This 1.5" diam cable was replaced by a
successfully installed second cable and production began in July, 1957.
The
moving haul cable was a roughly 20,200 foot-long loop. A splice in this
cable began to fail in the fall of 1957. It was intentionally dropped
into the canyon and replaced with a splice-less cable.
In
the fall of 1958, the miners discovered the nitrogen concentration in
the guano buried at depth was too low to be used for fertilizer and the
mine was idled.
A
chance use of the tramway in a movie allowed the owners to discover the
loop cable had failed. An investigation showed this cable was cut by a
jet fighter in the fall of 1958. The fighter limped back to base while
the haul cable fell into the Canyon. After a settlement with the Air
Force, The main stationary support cable was released to fall into the
Canyon.
The two cables in the photos are the main stationary support cables.
There's a film on YouTube showing the tramway in operation here:
If you are building or have a library of rare and unusual Grand Canyon books, you should have this one in your library.
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