You can read, listen, or watch 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. Get Davy Crockett's new book, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History. Read more than a century of the history of crossing the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim. 290 pages, 400+ photos. Paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and Audible. Edward and Ellan Kolb 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 Kolb's first gallery at Grand Canyon 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.