Hosted by Ruth Dooley, the Six and Twenty Club met at the First Christian Church in Wilmington for its May 3 meeting.
President Cindy Crossthwaite called the meeting to order. Members answered roll call with a quote, many celebrating upcoming Mother’s Day. Secretary Cindy Petrich read the minutes of the last meeting. The program, led by Jill Borton, revolved around the National Park System and a woman named Mary Colter, known as “the architect of the southwest.”
Borton shared the book, “Leave Only Footprints,” by Conor Knighton. This non-fiction book features a journey to see all the National Parks in one year’s time. Knighton, a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, made this decision to attempt this feat after seeing a newspaper article about the National Park System’s centennial in 2016. At this same time, Knighton had a significant personal setback, and decided that this journey would be a way to grieve and heal.
Rather than write about the National Parks in any chronological order, Knighton chose to group the parks, two to three per chapter, by themes such as Water, God, Volcanoes, Caves, Forgiveness. For each park, he focuses on a person such as a park ranger or a visitor, and interesting, but not always obvious, feature, or a connection he personally makes to his own grieving process.
For the Grand Canyon, the second most visited national park, Knighton introduces us to Mary Colter. Born in 1869, Colter became interested in art and design in school. She later attended the California School of design in San Francisco while also learning architecture working as an apprentice. It was at this time that she began to see Spanish architecture and the California mission style having an influence on housing designs being better suited to the California landscape. Colter gained a permanent career with the Fred Harvey Company in 1910. During this expansion period in the western states, Mary Colter worked to create interior and exterior building concepts for the many Harvey Houses, hotels, and restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad route.
Many of Mary Colter’s best known architectural designs are structures she oversaw at the Grand Canyon. She painstakingly researched the landscape and worked with native artisans to create buildings that blended into and complimented the landscape of the Grand Canyon. The Hopi House, Hermit’s Rest, Desert View Watchtower, and Bright Angel Lodge and Cabins are four examples of Colter’s achievements during her lifetime. These structures still exist today and are visited by many tourists each year.
Although Mary Colter did not achieve great fame during her lifetime, her work was extensive and impactful for this time period in history.
A successful passing of the books took place. For social hour, Ruth Dooley invited all members and guest Sue Lamke to enjoy refreshments of S’more cupcakes and fun varieties of trail mix in celebration of the theme of our National Park System.
