The all-electrified BM&LP was built in the early 1970s to haul coal 78 miles from the Kayenta Mine near Kayenta, Ariz., to the Navajo Generating Station power plant at Page, near Lake Powell. It ceased operations in August 2019 with the closure of the Navajo Generating Station; the joint closure cost the Navajo Nation hundreds of well-paying jobs and a major source of economic infusion. The trackage has sat unused since the catenary was removed not long after closure, and was officially turned over to the Navajo Nation in February 2024. The rail corridor and its parallel service road are now under the care of the Navajo Nation’s Division of Economic Development.

The Navajo Nation has explored potential reuse of the corridor since the railroad’s closure, including reversion to farmland, railbike operations, tourist train operations, and a recreational trail. Most proposals have been stymied by the region’s relative remoteness and lack of economic resources.

Now a new company is proposing tourist operations on the track, using “sustainable” vehicles powered by solar and hydroelectric power.

Sunbeam Tours and Railway, or STAR, has announced plans to “transform cultural sustainable tourism” with zero-emissions electric rail vehicles, which will make the Navajo Nation accessible to tourists while creating economic opportunities for the local Navajo population. The company was founded by Celesta Littleman, a former Navajo Generating Station employee and now an M.B.A. student at Arizona State University.

Littleman received an Emergency Operating Agreement for STAR from the Navajo Nation in June, after a lengthy process that spanned five years and two Navajo administrations. Now, the company is preparing to complete a feasibility study and potentially acquire and test rail vehicles, to be powered by renewable solar/hydroelectric power provided by the Glen Canyon Dam and operated through Arizona’s Grand Circle Region.

In an interview with the Navajo-Hopi Observer, Littleman said tourism is the number one economic industry for the area now that the power plant and coal mines have closed. The Kayenta Mine and associated fees once provided as much as eighty percent of local Native American government budgets.

“Tourists have come not just for scenery but they’ve come for the Navajo experience,” she said. “My dream is to use the railroad tracks to give visitors a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see parts of the Navajo Nation that no one would ever see.”

Littleman said STAR would bring more tourists to nearby Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon and other canyons along the way. The hope is to have a STAR vehicle on each end of the railway — one will go from Page to Kaibeto and back, and the other one will go from Shonto to Cow Springs and Kaibeto and back — 60 miles roundtrip on both ends. Local service to Navajo residents to economic centers would also be provided. (The former Kayenta Mine is 20 miles southwest of its namesake town.)

Suppliers for the equipment to be used have not been specified, but artistic depictions at the company’s website (https://sunbeamrailway.com/) show hi-rail-adapted road vans and potential passenger trains set in the Arizona mesa desert landscapes.

—Alexander D. Mitchell IV