Name/Title
Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc. [1930s-60s]Entry/Object ID
MS.8Scope and Content
Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc. [1930s-60s]
MS 8
Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc.
[1930s - 60s]
Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc. [GCBDT] was the first commercial tourism enterprise within the newly formed Lake Mead National Recreation Area [known then as the Boulder Dam Recreational Area]. It was incorporated in 1936 by aviator Glover E. Ruckstell, owner of Grand Canyon Airlines; Paul Webb, owner of the Boulder Dam Hotel; and a number of other investors. The company was far ahead of its time, offering boat, air, and automobile tours as far afield as the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and Pearce Ferry. The company was overextended by the time World War II virtually ended tourism at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead and never achieved its full potential. The corporation dissolved in 1962.
This collection includes business records, correspondence, and ephemera. A number of oral histories housed in the Boulder Dam Hotel archives deal with GCBDT, including interviews with Bill Belknap, Elton Garrett, and Murl Emery. For more information on GCBDT see Midnight on Arizona Street: The Secret Life of the Boulder Dam Hotel, by Dennis McBride [Boulder City, NV: Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum, 1993], and "Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc.: Southern Nevada's First Venture Into Commercial Tourism," by Dennis McBride [Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, v. 27:2 (Summer 1984), pp. 92-108].
* * *Collection
ManuscriptsLexicon
Search Terms
national park service, grand canyon-boulder dam tours, inc., tourists, tourism, boulder dam hotel, hoover dam, boulder city, airports, aviation, twa, transcontinental and western airways, boats, boating, houses, housing, 1067 wyoming street, wyoming street houses, lake mead, colorado river, grand canyon, concessions [lake mead], TWA, boulder damArchive Details
Archive Size/Extent
1 boxArchive Notes
Date(s) Created: 1936 - 1962
Early Create Date: 1936
Date(s): 1936 - 1962Archive Items Details
Notes
MS 8
Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc.
[1930s - 1960s]
inventory
[1 box]
box 1 of 1
folder no.
1. articles of incoporation and amendments [1936-62]
2. contract with the National Park Service [1937 (1951 copy)]
3. correspondence [with contract; 1937-42]
4. correspondence and papers, 1938-47 [copies from the
McNamee Collection (MS 97]
5. prospectus [January 2, 1947]
6. Transcontinental and Western Airways, Inc. [TWA]
information [1930s]
7. lease for house at 1067 Wyoming Street, Boulder
City [1941-43]
8. feature article about an excursion with Grand Canyon-
Boulder Dam Tours, Inc., by Marjorie Driscoll [c. 1937-38]
9. ephemera [1930s-50s]
* * *Location
Location
Rolling Rack #1
Research RoomDate
February 11, 2025Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Driscoll, MarjoriPerson or Organization
Ruckstell, Glover E. "Roxie"Person or Organization
Webb, Paul S. "Jim"Person or Organization
Dennis McBridePerson or Organization
Emery, MurlRelated Entries
Notes
subject file, AIRPORTS and AVIATION - Boulder City: Grand Canyon
Airlines
subject file, HOUSING - Boulder City: Arizona Street: 618
subject file, LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA -
concessions: Grand Canyon-Boulder Dam Tours, Inc.
MS 1 [Boulder Dam Hotel Archives]
MS 99 [McNamee and McNamee Papers]
photographsCreated By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
June 27, 2002Updated By
bcmha.archives@gmail.comUpdate Date
November 5, 2025![MS.8 - Box 1 of 1; ff 9/9: ephemera [1930s-50s]](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4452/52539ba0-7d1d-11f0-8970-d54d67e47f65-v37OPGd.lg@2x.jpg)
![MS.8 - Box 1 of 1; ff 9/9: ephemera [1930s-50s]](https://d3f1jyudfg58oi.cloudfront.net/4452/image/52539ba0-7d1d-11f0-8970-d54d67e47f65-vUl7gIg.tn@2x.jpg)