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William G. Bass collection, 1890-1976

NAU.MS.290
NAU.PH.96.24
NAU.MI.96.24
NAU.AU.96.24

Biographical Note

Photographer, hotel keeper, and tour guide William Guy "Bill" Bass was born on July 26, 1900 at the Grand Canyon. His father, William Wallace Bass, had arrived in the region some seventeen years earlier, and established himself as a tour guide, miner, and trail builder. Ada Diefendorf, a New York music teacher, met Bass on a horseback trip to Havasu Canyon in 1892. The couple married in 1894, and raised their four children, Edith, Bill, Hazel, and Mabelle, at their Grand Canyon camps and residences.

Competition for Grand Canyon tourists dollars was stiff. When the thriving Fred Harvey company arrived at the Grand Canyon, in 1904, they did so in cooperation with the Santa Fe Railway. After Grand Canyon was established as a national park in 1919, the Park Service awarded Harvey the primary concessioner contract, which dealt another blow to the Basses. In 1923, William Wallace Bass entertained his last Grand Canyon guest and moved permanently to Wickenburg, Arizona, a community he and his family had frequented for a number of years.

Bill Bass, in the waning years of his parents' business, worked as a tour guide and driver for Fred Harvey, from 1917 to 1926. He then moved to Wickenburg, in part to care for his aging father and mother. Following in their footsteps, Bill turned to the tourist trade for a living. The businesses he operated and/or established included a camp ground; service stations; El Recreo/Bass Pavilion swimming pool, skating rink, and dance hall; a jeep touring service; Vista del Pueblo subdivision; and dearest to his heart, La Siesta Motel. In his Cliff Room Auditorium at La Siesta, Bill showcased his photographic and entertainment skills with slide programs on topics ranging from the Grand Canyon to desert wildflowers. La Siesta was advertised as a "photographer's hangout," and succeeded in attracting other shutterbugs. A number of Bill's photographs were published in Arizona Highways among other periodicals. In addition, Bill was an active member of various service organizations, including the Rotary Club and Gold Shirt Gang, the latter unique to Wickenburg.

In 1939, Bill married Rae Owens, with whom he had a daughter, Betty. The marriage was short lived, however, lasting less than two years. On August 2, 1941, Bill married Lenore Krummel, who became his life-long partner. The couple had one son, William L. Bass, who was named after his father. Lenore Bass, following her husband's death in February 1981, continued to entertain Wickenburg residents and visitors with Bill's lively slide shows (featuring audio recordings of his voice) in their home. She passed away on July 2, 2009 in Sun City, Arizona.

Scope and Content

The William G. Bass collection provides insights into Bill Bass's multi-faceted life. The manuscripts chronicle his life at the Grand Canyon, as a hotel owner in Wickenburg, Arizona, and as a professional photographer. The collection also contains documents from his parents, William Wallace Bass and Ada Bass, that are specifically related to their family history.

Within the manuscripts, the informational series contains published materials collected by Bass that reflect his interests in Wickenburg, desert ecology, and Grand Canyon. The lecture series contains the research and editing process of both Bill and Lenore Bass and the resulting final scripts for Bass' famed slide shows. The personal items series features personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, published materials, and various other items highlighting Bill's involvement in Rotary Club, Wickenburg town events, and his literary efforts ranging from the poetic to the scientific. The scrapbooks and sheet music collection created by the Bass family collate the newspaper articles, letters, and songs they were most interested in perserving. Lastly, the visitor registers consist of records regarding individuals who attended Bass' lectures and/or visited La Siesta Motel.

The photographs and moving images within this collection document Bass' family members, personal life, and career in his hometown of Wickenburg, AZ and at various national parks and canyons across Arizona (namely Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon). While the bulk of the images and films are not credited, many were probably taken by Bass or his family. The audio recordings on open-reel audiotapes include associated lectures on various national parks and canyons in Arizona — such as Canyon de Chelly, Glen Canyon (before and after the construction of the dam), Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Oak Creek Canyon — and the natural history of the Southwest.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her/their transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for Northern Arizona University, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he, she, or they is/are an owner of copyright.

Related Material

Open-reel audiotapes have been separated from the Manuscripts (NAU.MS.290) record group and transferred to the Audio Recordings (NAU.AU.96.24) recordings record group within this collection.

Controlled Access Terms

Technical Access Restrictions

All 8mm and 16mm films and open-reel audiotapes in the William G. Bass collection (NAU.MI.96.24; NAU.AU.96.24) are considered obsolete, near-obsolete, or fragile formats and cannot safely be played back in the Miriam Lemont Reading Room. Researchers are advised to utilize digitized versions of the original films available online via the Colorado Plateau Digital Collections. Please see the Digital Material Available note below for access. Researchers interested in any films and/or audiotapes which have yet to be digitized by SCA should contact the department to learn more.

Administrative Information

Digital Material Available

SCA staff previously digitized select photographs from the William G. Bass collection. In June 2023 and Fall 2024, Nix Mendy and Olivia "Liv" Hall digitized selected moving images to support the NEH moving image grant, which features at-risk films from the Colorado Plateau and Four Corners region.

Digitized photographs and films from the William G. Bass collection are available online via the Colorado Plateau Digital Collections. Select "Colorado Plateau Archives." Use the advanced search menu to search for "William G. Bass" in the "Creator" field or in the "Collection name" field, or search "NAU.PH.96.24" or "NAU.MI.96.24" in the "Call number" field.

Click here to view all digitized materials from the William G. Bass collection.

The digitization of and public online access to moving image materials from the Fire on the Plateau collection was made possible through generous funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Humanities Collections and Reference Resources: Implementation grant (PW-277441-21), 2021-2024.

Preferred Citation

William G. Bass Collection, NAU.MS.290, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Cline Library. Northern Arizona University. Flagstaff, Arizona.

William G. Bass Collection, NAU.PH.96.24, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Cline Library. Northern Arizona University. Flagstaff, Arizona.

William G. Bass Collection, NAU.MI.96.24, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Cline Library. Northern Arizona University. Flagstaff, Arizona.

William G. Bass Collection, NAU.AU.96.24, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Cline Library. Northern Arizona University. Flagstaff, Arizona.

Acquisition Information

Lenore Bass donated the William G. Bass collection three gifts. The 1996 gift included historical documents, photographs, and books related to the history of Bass, his family, and the Grand Canyon region. The 2000 gift included additional negatives and transparencies. The 2002 gift included slide shows, films, audio recordings, and maps related from Bass' career. L. Bass also requested that the manuscripts and photographs housed by the Arizona Historical Society be transferred to Cline Library in 2001, but the official transfer took years to complete.

Processing Information

This collection was originally processed by Karen Turek and Diane Grua, and the 2006 accession was processed by Kelsey Moen. A machine-readable finding guide was later created by David Botts, Melanie Gerton, and Kelsey Moen.

In 2022, SCA Staff, namely Sam(antha) Meier, revised the original finding aid for import into ArchivesSpace and uploaded the EAD. Nix Mendy then performed data remediation after import and began revising the finding aid. After reviewing the donor file and storage vault, Mendy discovered 40+ additional films and 40+ additional open-reel audiotapes and added information about these assets to the finding aid. Contents of the films and audiotapes are based on written notes and labels and will not be verified until after vendor intervention.

Mendy began digitizing Bass' 8mm and 16mm films (both silent and with optical sound) in June 2023 to support SCA's NEH moving image grant that addresses at-risk moving images. Mendy discovered 16mm film stock that could have magnetic sound attached and set them aside for further review. They also slated a few 16mm films with condition issues for vendor repair and digitization. Mendy then digitized the limited silent films in the collection, uploaded them to Colorado Digital Collections, and added links to the finding aid.

Mendy collaborated with Kelly Phillips in Summer 2024 to project the magnetic films and assess whether the magnetic soundtracks contained viable sound. Most of these films could be digitized in-house because they were silent, but the ones with sound attached were set aside for vendor digitization. The following films included viable magnetic soundtracks or condition issus that prevented them from being digitized in-house: "Lake Powell", circa 1963 (NAU.MI.96.24.1A); "Pack Trip to Havasu", 1972 (NAU.MI.96.24.7); "Walnut Canyon — Don's Trek" (NAU.MI.96.24.12); "Verdin — Zion Extra Film" (NAU.MI.96.24.13); "Hassayampa Flood — Wickenburg, Arizona" (NAU.MI.96.24.16); "Vulture Peak Trail" (NAU.MI.96.24.17); "Enchantments of the Desert II NEW" (NAU.MI.96.24.41); "Pack Trip to Havasu (Copy)" (NAU.MI.96.24.42); "Apache Trail (NAU.MI.96.24.43)"; "Hassayampa Flood" (NAU.MI.96.24.47); and "Bill Bass in Studio" (NAU.MI.96.24.50). The grant team will ship them out to the selected vendor, Preserve South, in Fall 2024.

Olivia "Liv" Hall restarted digitization on the remaining Bass films in November 2024 after digitizing most of SCA's grant partners' films. SCA staff will complete in-house digitization in Spring 2025.

Container List