March Colorado River History Dates

 

The Stanton River Trip below Scanlon's Ferry on March 18, 1890 courtesy The Huntington Library

March Colorado River History Dates

March 1, 1949 – Powell biographer William Darrah writes to Otis Marston about the importance of using historical military records, claiming Powell’s bravery had been thoroughly documented by an Adjunct General. Marston replied such records could be overblown by skilled politicians playing to the grandstand.

March 2, 1890 – The Stanton Expedition departs Granite Park and boats to 224 Mile. On arrival, Stanton thinks it is Diamond Creek.

March 3, 1845 – Birthday of Cass Hite, the son of ’49er parents.

March 4, 1908 – When the 225-foot-deep exploratory oil well “Crossing No. 1” blows oil 75 feet in the air, the event causes enough excitement to create the town site of Mexican Hat, Utah.

March 5, 1958 – Bus Hatch’s deflated pontoon Brontosaurus sits draped across the Boat Beach at Phantom Ranch, left there in late July of the previous year by a quite drunk and irate Hatch. In the high water of 1958 the boat will be swept away downriver with a little help from Ranger Dan Davis.

March 6, 1909 – David Rust paddles Emery Kolb three miles up the Colorado River from Phantom Ranch in a 14-foot King Canvas canoe. Kolb then begins using a similar craft to explore both upstream and downstream from Phantom Ranch.

March 7, 1944 – The Boulder City News runs an article on Harry Aleson’s latest uprun attempt in his boat Up Lake.

March 8, 1890 – The Stanton Expedition continues their resupply at Diamond Creek. It rains hard all day.

March 9, 1899 – Harry Leroy Aleson is born at Waterville, Iowa, to Carl Adolph and Andra Tysland Aleson. Harry is the youngest of their five children.

March 10, 1953 – After Grand Canyon Superintendent Harold Bryant initiated a new river running permit requiring prior Grand Canyon river experience to get a permit, Dock Marston writes Bryant on this date. Marston notes that he looks forward to visiting Superintendent Bryant later that month “about the matter of river permits. I feel more strongly than I can write.”

March 11, 1914 – Doris Margaret Drown, the future wife of Norm Nevills, is born in Portland, Oregon. Botanist Lois Jotter is also born on this same day.

March 12, 1945 – Ernie Untermann, second in command at Dinosaur National Monument, writes to the Superintendent at Rocky Mountain National Park that “even the novice has such a healthy respect for the Yampa and Green that no party I ever heard of launched a boat without the assistance of veteran river men to lead the expedition, nor without the best equipment obtainable.” Untermann ignored the reality that most of the documented Lodore and Yampa river trips up to that date lacked both veteran river men and the best equipment obtainable.

March 13, 1890 – While running Separation Rapid, Robert Stanton falls out of his boat near the foot of the rapid. He is pulled out of the river below unharmed but cold.

March 14, 1920 – The Tombstone Epitaph runs an article titled “Grand Canyon to be Greatest Impounding Reservoir In World.” The exact phrase comes from a speech Secretary of Interior Frank Lane gave three days earlier when he stated he planned to make “the Grand Canyon the greatest impounding reservoir the world has ever known.”

March 15, 1957 – Dock Marston writes to his good friend Bill Belknap about “the crowds going through the Canyon this summer. Bus Hatch has two trips for May but is lacking deposits. Don Harris has cancelled his run for June. There is a new man from Oregon who wants me to go along. Georgie has four trips planned but I now hear she has cut one. Pat is running but has not set his date. Frank Wright is set to some extent for two trips.” Dock continues planning his own river trip, and there are a few he doesn’t yet know about.

March 16, 1950 – Dock Marston writes Ian Campbell and John Maxson about the benefits of the rubber rafts flooding through Glen Canyon. “All observers agree that the raft was slower acting than the wood boats but it was adequate to the task. It has the advantage of ease in portaging and can be run over a rock sticking as much as six inches out of water with no inconvenience to the occupants.”

March 17, 1890 – The Stanton Expedition exits the Grand Canyon at 9:15 a.m. after an hours run. Camp for the night is at Scanlon’s Ferry.

March 18, 1949 – Dock Marston and his wife Margaret visit with Don Harris and his wife in Salt Lake City. Dock interviews Harris about river running and Harris tells Dock “One of the first essentials of a good boatman is that he must like it.”

March 19, 1949 – In order to learn more about the operations of a sweep scow, Dock Marston joins Don Smith and others on a Main Salmon river trip in Smith’s scow City of Salmon.

March 20, 1957 – Mary “Becky” Beckwith writes to Dock Marston that she, Weldon Held, and Superintendent Harold Bryant all think Dock will never complete his book on the first 100 river runners to boat all the way through Grand Canyon. Becky proves to be right as Dock’s book, From Powell To Power, is published after his death.

March 21, 1907 – Egbert Andrew “Ed” Hudson is born in Oakland, California. Hudson begins formulating the use of motorboats in Grand Canyon soon after meeting Harry Aleson in 1942.

March 22, 1954 – After 34 years of dedicated work for the National Park Service, 13 of which he served as Superintendent at Grand Canyon, Harold Bryant retires.

March 23, 1924 – U.S. District Judge Fred Jacobs orders construction work at the Diamond Creek Dam to stop. Jacobs agrees with the U.S. Attorney that the Federal Power Commission is within its rights to deny a final permit allowing work on the dam.

March 24, 1936 – Norm Nevills departs Mexican Hat leading his first commercial group down the San Juan River. When passenger Jake Erwin first sees the boat they would be traveling in, he asks Nevills “What’s that bag of boards? Is that what we’re going down the river in?”

March 25, 1895 – Glen Ernest Sturdevant is born in Laceyville, Pennsylvania.

March 26, 1956 – Word hit the Press that Leslie Jones discovered a skeleton while searching for firewood at the foot of Whirlpool Rapid in Westwater Canyon, today’s Skull Rapid.

March 27, 1954 – About the Echo Park Dam being built in the heart of Dinosaur National Monument, Dock Marston writes his good friend Frank “Fisheyes” Masland “I am suspicious that this dam in Echo Park is another one of Strauss’ promotions that is being put over. The conclusion I have been able to draw is that the beauty of that area would justify the spending of considerable more money elsewhere rather than flood this section.”

March 28, 1941 – Doris and Norm Nevills celebrate the birth of their second child, a girl they name Sandra.

March 29, 1942 – Harry Aleson attempts an uprun in a Bureau of Reclamation motorboat. He capsizes the boat at 234 Mile Rapid. Aleson stands up on top of the capsized boat and takes off all his wet clothing to stay somewhat warm as he floats four miles back to the drilling barge at the Bridge Canyon damsite. As he approaches the mid-river drilling barge, Aleson shouts to the surprised men “I’m taking in washing. Got any to be done?”

March 30, 1960 – Dock Marston begins arrangements for the 1960 Jetboat downrun and uprun. He calls Cliff Dwellers Lodge and places an order for “a couple of thousand gallons of gas.” He also requests “no announcements of my plans so please keep it under your hat.” That same day he sends a letter to Grand Canyon National Park asking for the latest permit paperwork.

March 31, 1948 – National Park Service Associate Director Arthur Demaray writes the following to Region Three Director Minor Tillotson about Grand Canyon river permits: “There is attached for your consideration, a proposed application form to be submitted to all would-be permittees. I think you will agree that the tenor of this application form will tend to discourage all but those who in no event would be deterred from trying the venture.”

Ps... Yes, this post is a challenge to see if I can find a Colorado River Basin fact for every day of January... Done! If you like this sort of stuff you might enjoy reading Dock Marston: Grand Canyon’s Colorado River Running Historian Volume 1 available at Vishnu Temple Press. The four-part Kindle version of the same book is available here.