Daily Beast - If a collective of big money investment interests have their way, the 5 million people who flock to the Grand Canyon’ breathtaking vistas every year will also soon be able to get in some shopping and catch a film on an IMAX theatre built right on top of the canyon’s rim.
These investors have partnered with a faction of the native Navajo tribe’s leadership with promises of new jobs and gobs of money in exchange for—what else?—the land to build on. They want to construct a retail complex based around a tram that planners are calling the Escalade, which will stretch from the rim down to the floor, providing easy access to both a fragile ecosystem and sacred place to Native Americans.
Located on 420 acres of remote land that peers down upon the confluence–hence the name–of the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers, the project is expected to cost as much as a billion dollars. Among the retail shops, restaurants, and hotels on the upper rim, there would be the same below on the valley floor, along with stadium seating to take in the views, a museum, visitors center, and elevated river walk.
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