In 1901, the railroad came to the Grand Canyon to take advantage of the increasing interest in tourism. Bass built a road from his camp at Havasupai Point to the railroad crossing and constructed his first substantial house near there, deemed the White House. But along with the railroad ultimately came the thriving Fred Harvey Company, which already had several well-established restaurants and hotels along railroad routes in the West.

The railroad station was located closer to the Fred Harvey businesses than the White House, so Bass or his emissary would meet tourists at a village store, owned by John G. VerKamp in an attempt to generate business.

The situation must have been somewhat tense. Bert wrote in his diary on April 9, 1915:

Today Jesse Chickapanicky [Chichapangi] told Mrs. Bass and Edith that the [Harvey] Gumshoe was doing the Gumshoeing act while I was talking to some people in front of VerKamps store. Jesse also told them that Gumshoe also wrote down some stuff in a book and was behind the trees watching me.

With the construction of the elegant El Tovar Hotel in 1905, the Grand Canyon Village became firmly rooted as the prime tourist destination on the South Rim. In 1911, Bass leased two-and-a-half acres closer to the village and built a new house, dubbed the Tin House for its pressed tin siding.