The year 2007 marks the 75th anniversary of the Grand Canyon Association (GCA), and our mission remains basically the same as it was when the association was founded in 1932:

"It is the mission of the Grand Canyon Association to cultivate knowledge, discovery, and stewardship for the benefit of Grand Canyon National Park and its visitors."

Formed by Grand Canyon National Park’s Chief Naturalist Eddie McKee, the association started out as a small organization dedicated to supporting the educational and research efforts of the park’s Naturalist Division, to continue the publication of Grand Canyon Nature Notes and to publish natural history bulletins with in-depth Grand Canyon–related research. In its first year, the association raised money for the park’s Naturalist Division through membership dues (132 members), sales of books and by staging a series of dances in Grand Canyon’s first community building.

Today, the association operates six bookstores in the park as well as a seventh bookstore in the Kaibab Plateau Visitor Center in Jacob Lake, Ariz.; has nearly 9,000 members nationwide; and publishes books and other materials on the Grand Canyon and the surrounding region.

GCA works with the National Park Service to publish The Guide and many other free publications (just under 2 million copies of which were distributed in 2006) handed out to park visitors, supports research in the park and funds acquisitions for the park’s research library.

The Grand Canyon Field Institute (GCFI), created in 1993, acts as GCA’s outdoor educational outreach program through leading trips into the park with expert instructors on the biology, geology and human history of Grand Canyon National Park. To date, more than 10,000 students have participated in GCFI’s classes.

GCA sponsors the Canyon Country Community Lecture Series in Flagstaff, Glendale and Prescott, focusing on themes related to the Grand Canyon region. The lecture series is presented in partnership with Cline Library, Coconino Community College’s Colorado Plateau Studies, Northern Arizona University’s Grand Canyon Semester, Sharlot Hall Museum and Glendale Foothills Library. All lectures are free and open to the public.

GCA hosts changing art exhibits at historic Kolb Studio on the South Rim, which are free and open to the public year-round. Some of the artists whose work has been displayed at Kolb Studio over the years include Serena Supplee, Bruce Aiken, Gary Ladd, Michael Collier, Grand Canyon schoolchildren and many others.

GCA has restored several historic buildings in the park over the years, including Kolb Studio, the Community Building, and the Old Park Hospital.

www.grandcanyon.org