An Indian tribe that owns land along part of the Grand Canyon has an idea:
The walkway, with a glass bottom and sides, will be supported by steel beams and will accommodate 120 people, though it is designed to hold 72 million pounds, said Sheri Yellowhawk, chief executive officer of the Grand Canyon Resort Corp., the tribal-owned company that is overseeing the project.
The platform juts out 70 feet into the canyon.
I’m not an expert on air, ground or riparian rights, but I wonder how exactly the tribe can claim to own the airspace abutting their land — do they own the land underneath where the platform would protrude?
And even if they do, might there not be externality problems here? The location of the proposed platform is admittedly about 200 miles away from the traditional tourist zone of the Canyon. Nevertheless, won’t the platform spoil somebody’s view of the Canyon from some angle?
From what I can gather, the Indian reservation that owns the cliff in question, and operates the tourism company building the platform, does not own both sides of the Colorado River. So what about the property rights of the owners of the other side?
If you’re going to argue that natural landmarks should be preserved, then fine — preserve them. But this isn’t preservation, it’s the exact opposite — it’s developing the land and changing the vista from every angle for the sake of a company that, Indian or not, is private and for-profit.
The Grand Canyon is either a public good or it isn’t. If it is, then projects like this should not be allowed.
