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| Photo of Frank Moltzen in Marble Canyon, 1956, courtesy Grand Canyon Museum Collection. |
August Colorado River History Dates
August 1, 1916 – Julius Stone, Ellsworth Kolb, Nathan B. Stern, and John W. Shields climb out of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. Their canvas boat and a canoe were torn to ribbons after 3½ days and twelve to fifteen miles of travel.
August 2, 1957 – Hard rock miner Robert Billingsly reaches the bat guano mine and takes a ride out on the aerial tramway. This was his 13th day on an inner tube floating 45,000 cfs through Grand Canyon. His run included Lava Falls and was a first for that type of craft. He went up the tram with a large amount of valuables from the TWA wreckage he’d gathered up near the Little Colorado Confluence.
August 3, 1942 – Otis “Dock” Marston, Norm Nevills, 13-year-old Bruce Wilson, and 6 others arrive at Hemenway Harbor on Lake Mead. On arrival they complete the 17th recorded river trip through the Grand Canyon.
August 4, 1951 – Dinosaur National Monument Superintendent Jess Lombard writes Dock Marston that he’d run Whirlpool Canyon and understands “some what (sic) of the enthusiasm you regular river runners have.” Dock replies “I heard you were going to make the trip and did what I could to prevent it. Now you are infected with the Rapids Rabies and there is no known cure.”
August 5, 1963 – A group of river runners using 7-foot-long plastic Sport-yaks launch at Lee’s Ferry. They clear Grand Wash Cliffs on August 31. The flow is limited due to construction of Glen Canyon Dam and varies from 1,432 to 2,670 cubic feet per second. Progress demands numerous linings, portages, and the upper half of the canyon requires constant work with the oars as river current is not easily perceived.
August 6, 1933 – Having paddled a foldboat from Grand Lake to Grand Junction, Harold Leich is building a punt at the Gibson Lumber Yard with the intention of rowing it to Lees Ferry. his punt will become pinned between rocks in Cataract Canyon and he will swim to the abandoned hamlet of Hite. Next he will hike fifty miles overland to “civilization” at Hanksville, Utah.
August 7, 1934 – The Dusty Half-Dozen arrives at Boulder City after rowing through Grand Canyon. They travel on very low water, arriving at the take-out with three boats and seven oars. The oar consumption at fourteen probably is a record. Losing one boat along the way is not.
August 8, 1927 – The Clyde Eddy river trip arrives at Needles, California. Their diet is like that of the first Powell party and, also like Powell, the leader is not concerned.
August 9, 1955 – Dock Marston writes to Dinosaur Superintendent Jess Lombard that “The record does not confirm that knowledge of the streams is a necessity for proper and safe traversing of the rock strewn rapids.”
August 10, 1869 – The Powell expedition camped at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers.
August 11, 1962 – Having run the Grand Canyon with Charles Russell in the winter of 1907-1908, Edwin Monett dies in San Pedro, California.
August 12, 1956 – Neal Newby sends Grand Canyon National Park a postcard stating he and a friend, Frank Moltzen, would be leaving Lees Ferry in “two or three days” by boat. Newby had heard the Park wanted to know when people were “coming down the Colorado River” and he planned to take a few weeks to make the trip.
August 13, 1940 – Both Barry Goldwater and Millie Baker note in their journals that the metal boat Ross Wheeler has Leslie Clement’s lifejacket in it.
August 14, 1940 - Conquistador Aisle’s extensive rock pounding of the Nevills boats inspired trip participant John Southworth to propose the crew should form a fraternity called Tappa Pyla Rox. The river inched along at around 2,400 cfs.
August 15, 1955 – After swimming the Colorado River through Grand Canyon in April, Bill Beer writes Dock Marston “It’s funny, I had expected the furor and ramifications of our jaunt to die down in at most a month after we finished. But here it is almost four months later, and I can’t see the end in sight as yet. It’s distinctly a pleasure to meet someone like yourself who is able to attach a proper perspective to what was at best a little foolish, but a lot of fun.”
August 16, 1957 – After his 1957 Grand Canyon river trip where the flow peaked at 124,000 cfs, Dock Marston wrote Bill Belknap “Funny thing about this high water. The oar boats didn’t seem to like it. Reilly quit. The Wright party objected to the speed. I now have to start living right since I find the 1921 flow was 200,000.”
August 17, 1872 – The second Powell expedition departs Lees Ferry and by noon arrives just above where today’s Navajo Bridge is. This dinner stop allows Fred Dellenbaugh the opportunity to climb up to the rim and back.
August 18, 1889 - The New York Daily Tribune, in an article titled “In the Deadly Gorge,” noted “The boat to go down the Colorado Cañon must be sturdily built on a pattern, which experience has proved the strongest and should have three air-tight compartments; the men should wear life preservers at all places of danger; and all tools, clothing, and rations should be carried in air-tight ocean mail sacks, so that they will float.”
August 19, 1957 – On about 19,000 cfs, Neal Newby and Frank Moltzen run House Rock in one man life rafts like today’s packrafts. Newby wrote “I never thought we’d get through without turning over. Right down the middle. Frank said the waves were 12 feet high. He said at one point my boat was almost vertical as I climbed out of a trough and up the next wave.”
August 20, 1940 – To avoid complete boredom during their layover at Diamond creek, the Nevills river trip developed a glorious blaze and burned the remnants of a driller’s camp to the ground. Nevills proposed remaining longer to exploit the news possibilities of a lost party, but the deficient larder vetoed the proposition.
August 21, 1957 – Grand Canyon National Park Ranger Dan Davis writes Dock “If [Bus] Hatch tells you what a bunch of bastards we are, call Mr. Beatty, and if Hatch starts stirring up anything, write me and I’ll give you a more detailed story. Hatch is very antagonistic to the Service, here anyway, and always has been and has never cooperated in the matter of permits and has made but a feeble attempt to obey the park regulations.”
August 22, 1957 – As Newby and Moltzen paddled their tiny rafts through Marble Canyon, Newby wrote “The cliffs soared overhead. Our camp site was among some large boulders – some half the size of a house. I suppose they had fallen from the cliffs thousands of years ago. After I got in my sleeping bag I couldn’t sleep. I thought Frank was asleep. Suddenly he said, “Neal, are you awake?”. I said I was. Frank said, “Neal, what do you suppose happens down here when there’s an earthquake?”
August 23, 1923 - Two more potential dam locations were surveyed in the morning. Shortly after noon, the USGS river trip shot under the gauger’s cable and the frail suspension bridge to land at Bright Angel Creek at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The river gauger, Mr. Dudley, reported the river was running 25,000 second feet and had been 34,000 second feet a few days previously.
August 24, 1950 – Newspapers throughout the west ran worried stories when airplanes flying overhead reported that solo Glen Canyon boater and artist Florence Kibler’s raft stayed for days at one spot. River runners who knew Glen Canyon were not surprised in the least on hearing the artist’s boat remained at Aztec Canyon where the sandstone colors “were beyond belief.”
August 25, 1951 – Dick and Isabelle Griffith along with John Schlump camp at the mouth of Shinumo Creek. The trio is on a raft run from Green River, WY, to Lake Mead. At Green River, Utah, they wrote to Grand Canyon Superintendent Bryant of their plans and the Park Service mailed Art Greene a river permit for delivery to the river runners when they arrived at Lees Ferry.
August 26, 1540 - Hernando de Alarcon begins an effort to meet the main Coronado expedition, launching two small boats from Alarcon’s ship to head up the Rio Colorado current for fifteen and a half days, mostly by cordelling. They make it up the Colorado fifty-five leagues, close to the mouth of the Gila River.
August 27, 1889 - As the whistle blew for the noon hour, George F. Flavell and Ramon Montez push off from the riverbank at Green River, Wyoming. Their plan is to reach Needles, California, by the following March.
August 28, 1869 – Oramel and Seneca Howland, along with Bill Dunn, leave the Powell expedition at today’s Separation Rapid in Grand Canyon. Dock Marston admitted he would get upset where his river research uncovered damn lies “designed to hurt someone. That applies to the Powell and Dellenbaugh denunciation of the three who left at Separation.”
August 29, 1957 – Dock Marston writes to a fellow river runner “I am doing a great deal of work on the various accidents with the idea of discovering the causes. One difficulty is that operators on the River consider it smart to hide them.”
August 30, 1979 – After falling down a flight of stairs, 85-year-old Dock Marston runs his last rapid in a San Francisco hospital.
August 31, 1951 – Dick Griffith rows the first rubber raft, named Queen, through Lava Falls Raid in Grand Canyon.
Ps... Yes, this post is a challenge to see if I can find a Colorado River Basin fact for every day of June... Done! If you like this sort of stuff you will enjoy reading the 4 e-book series Dock Marston: The Colorado River Historian Volume 1 on Amazon Kindle or the hardback book at Vishnu Temple Press.
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