TUSAYAN, Ariz. -- Robert P. Thurston earned just $1 when he sold Arizona the right-of-way for a highway here decades ago.
In any other location, it might have been a poor business decision. But this isn't just any location.Tusayan is seven miles south of the Grand Canyon, a solo snippet of private land surrounded by a national forest, and it sits along a highway used every year by nearly 3.4 million people traveling to one of the nation's most popular national parks.
In place since the late 1950s, the highway is now bordered by an eclectic collection of restaurants and hotels that have sprouted up in the past two decades. Thurston's descendants have been among the primary beneficiaries.
"It really has grown up," said Clarinda Thurston Vail, Robert's granddaughter.
Another change is on the horizon, one that's welcomed by federal officials but opposed by some locals.
Canyon Forest Village, a 272-acre development, is slated to sit along the north edge of Tusayan. The project will include up to 1,140 hotel rooms, 2,375 housing units and 250,000 square feet of commercial space. The development was made possible through the exchange of Forest Service land for privately owned parcels inside Kaibab National Forest.
Federal officials agreed to trade the prime real estate for the more remote private land, fearing the land inside Kaibab would otherwise be developed someday. They also expect Canyon Forest Village to alleviate pressure for schools and housing in Grand Canyon National Park.
Although they disagree on the ultimate effect, both sides agree that Canyon Forest Village will dramatically change the face of this tree-studded tourist enclave.
Until two decades ago, the area had changed little since Robert Thurston first arrived in the region in 1927.
U.S. 180, which runs through the former ranch and straight to the south entrance of Grand Canyon National Park, was put in its current location in 1957 or 1958, according to Arizona Department of Transportation records.
Thurston eventually gave half the land it bisected to his ex-wife and gave a few parcels away on bets, Vail said.
Today, most of the land in Tusayan is owned by the Thurstons or family friends who purchased the land from them, Vail said.
Longtime residents say Canyon Forest Village threatens that connectedness.
"CFV will take away a lot of that," said Eric Gueissaz, a 30-year resident of the region and cook at the Cafe Tusayan.
Ann Wren, a lifelong resident and owner of the Quality Inn in Tusayan, said Canyon Forest Village will more than double the population here. Tusayan has about 500 residents now.
"It will just ruin the whole atmosphere," she said. "A lot of us live here because we like the small-town atmosphere."
Wren and Vail insist that concerns for the community, not their own economic interests, drive their opposition to CFV.
Vail acknowledges her grandfather's decision to give the state a sweetheart deal has been profitable but said, "business concerns are not my biggest concerns. We're always going to have competition."
She said she worries about how it will change the heavily wooded scenery that surrounds the community.
The Canyon Forest Village lot is "as pristine as pristine gets in my eyes," Vail said.
CFV developer Tom DePaolo, however, said the change will bring improvement to Tusayan -- creating a community that won't suck down groundwater and that will try to minimize landscape damage.
His development, which will include emergency services and a visitors center, will create a community rather than what he describes as an "industrial park" of hotels and restaurants.
"We think Canyon Forest Village will, for the first time, create a true sense of community," DePaolo said.
And though the development will double the number of hotel rooms here and increase the housing units more than six-fold, he said little will be visible from the highway.