AND THE BIG DITCH By 1927, many of Van Zandt’s goals had been achieved, and he became
restless. He wrote, “I never felt really at home in the military. Perhaps I was too independent-minded.” He resigned, keeping his Captain’s Commission in the Air Force Reserve. Immediately put to work by the Civil Aeronautics Administration to set up Federal licensing for aviators, Van Zandt issued himself Federal Pilot’s License Number 17. Soon thereafter he was hired by Henry Ford as Chief Pilot for the Ford Motor Company’s fledgling airline division headed by William “Bill” Stout. Van Zandt ferried Ford’s first all-metal Tri-Motor off the production line in Detroit to its owner in California. On this flight, Van Zandt would experience the thrill of flying over the Grand Canyon for the first time, at which moment he admitted feeling “the tug of the wild!” When Grand Canyon vendors contacted Ford to use his Tri-Motors for air
tours, Van Zandt eagerly accepted Stout’s assignment to negotiate a deal. At the canyon, Van Zandt cemented an alliance with the Fred Harvey hotel
and restaurant chain, already well established at the canyon’s south rim. From the National Park Service (NPS), he secured a lease on an 800-acre meadow about fifteen miles south of the canyon rim for his aerodrome. Back in Detroit, Van Zandt quickly formed Scenic Airways, Inc., with Stout and six additional financiers, including Eleanor Roosevelt’s brother, C. Hall Roosevelt. Within weeks Van Zandt hired airport architect, Russell B. Shaw, to design a passenger terminal attached to a hangar large enough for the wing span of a Ford Tri- Motor, plus maintenance equipment. Van Zandt’s aerodrome was at the base of Red Butte, a lone hump of earth on miles of forested, flat land inhabited by prairie dogs, rattlesnakes and elk. Within months Scenic had a runway several thousand feet long, a remarkably modern hangar, a comfortable lobby for tourists, four employee residences, and several
Above: Van Zandt brought exotic foreign entertainment to the Chicago World’s Fair Midway in 1933.
Top Image: This 1930s postcard illustrates the land route among the existing Fred Harvey restaurants and hotels, including the El Tovar at the rim of the Grand Canyon
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