Comments: Grand Canyon Railway history is a look into America's past. On September 17, 1901 its first passengers traveled from Williams to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. In the 1940s diesel locomotives made their first appearance on the railroad. The last steam train ran in the railroad in 1953. In July 1968 three passengers traveled the last train service from the Grand Canyon. Redevelopment of the railway was announced in 1989 and the trains began running again in 1990. In 1993 Grand Canyon Railway carried 105,000 passengers thus reducing auto traffic at Grand Canyon National Park by 40,000 cars. In 1998 the railway saw its one millionth passenger. The railway was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. In 2004 the railway hit the two-million passenger mark.

Notable passengers include Theodore Roosevelt, President William Howard Taft, John Muir, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, King Paul and Queen Fredericka of Greece, President Dwight Eisenhower, Clark Gable, Candice Bergen, Jimmy Durante, Doris Day and Senator Barry Goldwater.