January Colorado River History Dates…

Photo of the Robert Brewster Stanton river trip repairing one of their boats, 1890, courtesy The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

  January Colorado River History Dates… 

January 1, 1953 – A Bureau of Reclamation press release champions legislation for 10 dams in the Colorado River’s Upper Basin. Reclamation notes “the flow of the river fluctuates sharply from year to year and this storage capacity would enable the upper basin States to store the surplus over a period of wet years and use it in those periods of drought which periodically create a crisis in the mountain States.” 

January 2, 1951 – Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Harold Bryant writes to river runner Ed Hudson that the park “received the Stone boat from the Museum of Columbus, Ohio, an addition to a display on the evolution of Boating on the Colorado.” 

January 3, 1912 – Ellsworth and Emery Kolb, along with Bert Lauzon, set off an explosive charge in the Colorado River above 205 Mile Rapid in Grand Canyon. Immediately after the blast, they grab a stunned 14-pound fish. 

January 4, 1925 – Otis Marston marries Margaret Lowell Garthwaite. The couple travels the Southwest for their honeymoon, including a 4 day stay at the El Tovar Hotel. 

January 5, 1866 – Langdon DeWolf Gibson is born. 24 years later he serves as an oarsman on the Stanton Expedition, “a task at which he became quite skilled.” 

January 6, 1960 – Bob Rigg writes Indiana Gear Works President John Buehler that Rigg could lead an expedition UP the Grand Canyon using Buehler Turbocraft jetboats. Buehler choses Marston for the job instead. 

January 7, 1947 – Norm Nevills writes to Dock Marston that he is spending “much of my time flying. Am crowding the 100 hour mark now, and have a whale of a time. Doris and I flew for an hour thirty five minutes this afternoon. Landed in a horse pasture way up at a remote mountain-canyon ranch - - and just generally raised hob!" 

January 8, 1897 – George Flavell arrives at Yuma, Arizona, admitting he is a “poorer but wiser man” after his run through Grand Canyon with Ramon Montez in a boat Flavell built. 

January 9, 1929 – Rollin Hyde returns to St. George, Utah, after fruitlessly searching western Grand Canyon for his son and daughter in law, Glen and Bessie Hyde. 

January 10, 1890 – The Robert Stanton Expedition is between 24.5 Mile and South Canyon. 

January 11, 1854 – Nathaniel T. Galloway is born at Lehi, Utah, the son of Charles W. and Ann Cutler Galloway. 

January 12, 1912 – Ellsworth Kolb, his brother Emery, and Bert Lauzon make camp just inside the western gateway to Grand Canyon. The diary entry reads “We live once more.” 

January 13, 1956 – In a letter to Dock Marston, Frank “Fisheyes” Masland writes he was having “difficulty in believing the Glenn (sic) Canyon Dam will be built. The rock in that area, according to the best geological advice I can get, is extremely porous.” It still is. 

January 14, 1890 – In an effort to recover needed screws and nails, the Robert Stanton Expedition burns one of the 1889 boats Stanton left at South Canyon the year before. 

January 15, 1907 – Annie Goodman, daughter of Frank Goodman of the 1869 Powell Expedition, marrys E. G. Evans. 

January 16, 1890 – Robert Stanton photographs a large boulder making a rapid in the middle of the Colorado River. He calls the feature Boulder Rapid. The 1923 USGS river trip renames it “President Harding Rapid.” 

January 17, 1890 – When collecting firewood for the Stanton Expedition breakfast fire next to Boulder Rapid, cook Jim Hogue discovers the bleached skeleton of Peter Hansbrough. 

January 18, 1912 – The Kolb Expedition reaches Needles, California. 

January 19, 1951 – Secretary of Interior Oscar Chapman asks National Park Service Director Newton Drury to resign his post for his stance on keeping Dinosaur National Monument free of Echo Park Dam. 

January 20, 1890 – The Robert Stanton Expedition reaches the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. 

January 21, 1954 – Dock Marston writes Harry Aleson about making “direct contact with Leigh Lint last night and he is coming here to our home tomorrow night.” Lint was on the 1923 USGS Grand Canyon cruise. 

January 22, 1936 – Utah’s Governor Henry Blood writes Utah Congressional Representative Abe Murdock to keep the National Park Service away from Glen Canyon unless dam set asides are included in any Antiquities Act proclamation. 

January 23, 1859 – Captain Alonzo Johnson pilots his steamboat General Jesup down the Colorado River, passing 1st Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives on his steamboat Explorer heading up the Colorado River. 

January 24, 1897 – Nathaniel Galloway and Bill Richmond camp at the top of a large rapid in the Grand Canyon. The side canyon forming the rapid is today known as Galloway Canyon. 

January 25, 1886 – Herbert “Bert” Reginald Lauzon is born at Ouray, Colorado. 

January 26, 1890 – After being seriously injured in a fall just below Sheer Wall Rapid 25 days earlier, Frank Nims arrives at Winslow, Arizona, and is able to see a Doctor, the first since his fall. 

January 27, 1950 – Jeweler Fred Herz writes to Dock Marston how well the Herz 19-foot Chris Craft Racing Runabout handles large wind-driven waves on Lake Tahoe. Marston would drive a similar boat (that Herz paid for) through the Grand Canyon later in the year. 

January 28, 1890 – The Denver Times reports a scare headline that one fourth of the Stanton Expedition has perished. January 29, 1897 – Galloway and Richards row to shore for lunch at today’s Granite Park in the Grand Canyon. 

January 30, 1951 – Dock Marston’s daughter Loel marries Russ Millar. Dock walks her down the aisle after being dissuaded from delivering her in a boat. 

January 31, 1919 – The Coconino Sun reports that Grand Canyon will become a National Park after the Park’s enabling legislation passes the House of Representatives. 

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.

January 3, 2025, will be the 50th Anniversary of Public Law 93-620.

 

Photo Jeff Ingram at Kanab Point, Grand Canyon National Park, 2006, courtesy Tom Martin

Known as the Grand Canyon Enlargement Act, it was signed by President Gerald Ford back in 1975. This act expanded the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park by approximately 500,000 acres, nearly doubling its size. PL 93-620 added 193 additional miles of the Colorado River to Grand Canyon National Park jurisdiction. It added Marble Canyon National Monument to the Park, the first 53 river miles of the Canyon from Lees Ferry to Nankoweap Creek.

 

Below Tapeats Creek, PL 93-620 added Grand Canyon National monument to the Park, extending the Park 143 river miles from Tapeats Creek to the termination of the Grand Canyon at the Grand Wash Fault, the western edge of the Colorado Plateau.

 

PL 93-620 also enlarged the Havasupai Tribe reservation by 195,000 acres of its ancestral lands, while securing their traditional rights to 100,000 more such acres in the adjacent National Park. Every January 3 since 1976, the Tribe holds a celebration on this day.

 

Very few people are still alive and active today that helped draft that legislation. One of them is Jeff Ingram. Author of the book Hijacking A River (Vishnu Temple Press) and now in his 80’s, Jeff still works on his Blog, Celebrating The Grand Canyon (http://gcfutures.blogspot.com/).

Photo Jeff Ingram at Kanab Point, Grand Canyon National Park, 2006, courtesy Tom Martin

Bad Run at Badger Rapid, 1983

 

Photo courtesy Bill Schoening, Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection

Last May, Gary Ldd and I talked about his 1983 high water Grand Canyon river trip in Part 9 of the oral history series that Gary and I are doing. Gary recounted that on the very first day after their launch at Lees Ferry, Larry Testerman impaled his dory GREAT THUMB on the right-side rocks in Badger Rapid. Before he abandoned ship, Larry wedged his oars upright in the boat so they would be seen by river trips arriving at the rapid. As if that wasn’t enough, Larry broke his leg when he abandoned the Thumb and tried to swim to shore.

 

While we were visiting, Gary showed me 7 bankers’ boxes of color slides and medium format images belonging to Gary's long time friend Bill Schoening. Bill had been on that 1983 river trip and given these 7 boxes of his river running photos to Gary. I asked Gary if I could find homes for Bill’s photos and he said Yes!

 

This last Thursday I had another wonderful oral history visit with Gary in Page, AZ. We talked for almost two hours. Gary recounted the amazing story of how he met David and Rebecca Kiel in 1983 as they passed by Page on their hike from the Continental Divide to the Sea of Cortez along the Colorado River.

While in Page, I delivered Bill’s Glen Canyon pictures to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area’s Museum Collection. Weeks earlier I'd delivered his Grand Canyon photos to the Museum Collection at Grand Canyon National Park.

 

Thank you Gary! This is SO Fun!!

 

You can hear Gary’s oral histories here: https://grandcanyonazus.com/index.html

Click on the Oral Histories tab and then scroll down and click on the L page.

 

When a Board Goes Rogue...

 

A very kind friend just gifted me an original 1957 Dock Marston Christmas Card with competing narratives about the death of St. John of Nepomuk, Patron Saint of those who face danger by water.

 

I am reminded of a Board meeting of the Grand Canyon Historical Society held in October, 2023. One Board member demanded the others discipline another historian using outright lies and half truths while the historian in question waited in an adjacent room to defend himself against those very falsehoods.  

 

The group never allowed him to defend himself against their claims and passed a disciplinary action against him. They also decided to not inform him of their actions until after an event they admitted he would play a key role in. Adjourning the meeting, they left the building while he still waited to defend himself.

 

Marston knew full well that if there are two sides to every story, both sides need to be heard before any judgement is made. The facts, all the facts, make for the strongest history we can generate. Relying on one person's accusations while disregarding another's side of events makes for very poor history and management decisions.

Batchit, Arizona: The Rise and Fall

 

Had a chance a few weeks ago to look at two of the cables draping into the Colorado River at 266.8 Left, Grand Canyon National Park. These cables are from the 1957-1958 operations to sling bat guano out of the Bat Cave on river right up to the road head on the rim river left by aerial tramway. At the time, bat guano was a prized fertilizer.

 

Roger Smith's book Batchit, Arizona: The Rise and Fall, by Batchit Books, is a good recounting of the mining endeavors. Smith covers the first attempt to install the main 9,850 foot-long stationary support cable. On the final tightening, a winch failed and the cable fell into the Canyon. This 1.5" diam cable was replaced by a successfully installed second cable and production began in July, 1957. 

 

The moving haul cable was a roughly 20,200 foot-long loop. A splice in this cable began to fail in the fall of 1957. It was intentionally dropped into the canyon and replaced with a splice-less cable.

In the fall of 1958, the miners discovered the nitrogen concentration in the guano buried at depth was too low to be used for fertilizer and the mine was idled.

 

A chance use of the tramway in a movie allowed the owners to discover the loop cable had failed. An investigation showed this cable was cut by a jet fighter in the fall of 1958. The fighter limped back to base while the haul cable fell into the Canyon. After a settlement with the Air Force, The main stationary support cable was released to fall into the Canyon. 

 

The two cables in the photos are the main stationary support cables.

There's a film on YouTube showing the tramway in operation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtyKwpp4T_E

 

If you are building or have a library of rare and unusual Grand Canyon books, you should have this one in your library. 

 

December Colorado River History Dates

 

Photo of the Bright Angel on the beach at the mouth of Bright Angel Creek courtesy USGS

December Colorado River History dates...

 

December 1, 1907 - Bert Loper was to return to Lees Ferry this day with a repaired camera while Charlie Russell and Ed Monett await his return.

 

December 2, 1951 - Otis "Dock" Marston sends Wallace Stegner a Christmas gift of a "presumed lost" section of Jack Sumner’s diary of 1869.

 

December 3, 1927 - The Pathe Bray filming trip leaves Lees Ferry with 13 men, 6 boats, and a dog named Pansy on about 8,300 cfs.

 

December 4, 1953 – Otis “Dock” Marston meets with Walt Disney and others to continue discussions of a motion picture on the Powell expedition to be filmed in the Grand Canyon.

 

December 5, 1954 – The Grand Junction Daily Sentinelreports that Gaylord Staveley and Joan Nevills were married the previous day.

 

December 6, 1958 – Contractor Kiewit-Judson Pacific continues to pour concrete for the deck of the Glen Canyon Bridge at the Glen Canyon Damsite.

 

December 7, 1951 - National Park Service Director Conrad Wirth authorizes Dinosaur National Monument Superintendent Jess Lombard to proceed with a river concession in the Monument.

 

December 8, 1949 - Frank "Fisheyes" Masland mails a generic letter to about 50 river runners on the concept of a memorial plaque for Norm and Doris Nevills

.

December 9, 1952 – River runner Pat Reilly writes to Otis “Dock” Marston that Norm Nevills “once commented to me about Fisheyes’ open admiration for you in his book and said with a crooked smile that he was going to fix that.”

 

December 10, 1953 – Secretary of Interior Douglas McKay approves two dams in Dinosaur National Monument and notifies his boss, President Eisenhower, of the decision.

 

December 11, 1921 – Kelly W. Trimble arrives at Lees Ferry, completing a United States Geological Survey mapping expedition down the San Juan River into Glen Canyon.

 

December 12, 1957 – Otis “Dock” Marston writes The Huntington Library’s Gertrude Ruhnka that he has “lined up a fine collection of photos for you which will cover Glen Canyon on the Colorado. Most of Glen Canyon will be inundated by the lake back of Glen Canyon Dam.”

 

December 13, 1907 - Rightly assuming Bert Loper is a no-show, Russell and Monett depart Lees Ferry and boat into Marble Canyon. The two men arrive at Needles February 8, 1908.

 

December 14, 1906 – The entire Colorado River departs its channel to the Sea of Cortez and now flows into the Salton sink.

 

December 15, 1954 – Secretary of Interior Douglas McKay presents Raleigh “Rod” Sanderson with a Distinguished Service Award for saving the lives of a small child and two women on the Colorado River near Needles earlier in the year.

 

December 16, 1951 - The LA Times runs a multi-page spread titled “U.S. Dams Threaten Home Where Dinosaurs Roamed.” A reporter named Martin Litton writes the article.

 

December 17, 1953 – Scott Johnson writes Grand Canyon National Park requesting permission to run the river in his foldboat. His request is denied.

 

December 18, 1911 - The Kolb Brothers and Bert Lauzon row away from the beach at Pipe Creek to begin the second half of the Grand Canyon leg of the Kolb river trip.

 

December 19, 1955 – Otis “Dock” Marston’s 1955 Christmas Card includs a list of the second hundred and two people to run the entire Grand Canyon by the water route.

 

December 20, 1857 - Captain Alonzo Johnson departs from Yuma in the steamer General Jesup in an uprun attempt. The Jesup makes it thirty-four miles above the Needles where Johnson decides this point is the head of navigation.

 

December 21, 1928 - President Coolidge signs the Swing-Johnson Boulder Canyon Act authorizing construction of today's Hoover Dam.

 

December 22, 1956 – Mountain States Construction Company continues to build a one lane dirt road along the right bank of the Colorado River from the mouth of Wahweap Canyon downstream to the Glen Canyon Damsite.

 

December 23, 1889 – John Hislop extends the Stanton survey on downriver, arriving at Lee’s Ferry late in the day. The line work is slowed by a strong headwind that kicks up white-capped waves three feet high.

 

December 24, 1918 - Ensign Otis "Mart" Marston visits Hermit Rapid with two other sailors on his way to more submarine training in San Diego. After studying the rapid for quite a long time, Mart tells the others “I can swim through that rapid. This water looks kind of interesting, and I think maybe sometime I might like to do more with it.”

 

December 25, 1928 - Emery and Ellsworth Kolb find the scow used by Glen and Bessie Hyde. Ellsworth pilots it through Gneiss Canyon Rapid and then abandons it. The pilotless scow becomes pinned between a rock and the shore after banging into a riverside cliff where one of the sweeps breaks.

 

December 26, 1911 - Within an hour after the usual 11:00 a.m. starting time, the Kolb brothers boat out of the granite at 117 Mile. They camped on the right, after running Fossil Rapid at 125 Mile, their fifth rapid for the day.

 

December 27, 1901 - With proven debts outstanding amounting to $43,000, the Hoskininni dredge and property are sold to J. T. Raleigh for $200, an amount insufficient to pay the costs of receivership.

 

December 28, 1949 - John Franklin Wright and James Rigg Jr. form a partnership named Mexican Hat Expeditions and bid for the boats and equipment from the Nevills estate.

 

December 29, 1905 – Bessie Haley is born in Washington, D.C. She marries Glen Hyde in 1928.

 

December 30, 1857 - The partially decked iron-hulled Explorer,fifty-four feet long, fourteen feet in beam, and 3½ feet in depth amidships, floats for the first time at the mouth of the Colorado River.

 

December 31, 1928 - Francy, Harbin, and Patraw pull in at Diamond Creek, having started at Phantom Ranch in the abandoned Pathe-Bray boat Bright Angel as they search for the Hyde couple.

 

A few more complete and incomplete December dates:

 

December 1827 - James Ohio Pattie and a party of trappers build eight dugout canoes and trap beaver on the Gila and lower Colorado rivers.

 

December 12, 1871 - John D. Lee, his son Ralph, along with John Mangram and Thomas Adair arrive at the mouth of the Pahreah at what would become Lees Ferry.

 

Data above comes from Otis Marston's Powell To Power, the Otis Reed Marston Collection, and Dock Marston: The Colorado River Historian, Volume 1.

 

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.

Pearce Ferry Rapid 2003 to 2024

 

Pearce Ferry Rapid November 29, 2024 courtesy Tom Martin

I put together a 12 minute video showing pics of Pearce Ferry Rapid from 2003 to 2024. Here's the link to Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1035697861

 

You have to wait till almost the very end to see Jonah Shaw run it in his kayak!

 

Here's the Blurb for the film: Before the construction of Hoover Dam, no rapid existed at Pearce Ferry. After the reservoir filled behind the dam and made Lake Mead, there was no rapid at Pearce Ferry. As covered in the book Dock Marston, Vol 1, the reservoir dropped low enough in 1952 that a rapid formed where today's Pearce Ferry Rapid is. The reservoir rose again in 1953 and no rapid existed until 2003. Between 2003 and 2024, the reservoir has dropped. Just like in the early 1950s, the Colorado River started cutting down into the reservoir sediments roughly 1/4 mile south of the pre-dam channel. The new river cut through a low pass and Pearce Ferry Rapid was formed again. These images and film clips show the latest iteration of Pearce Ferry Rapid between 2003 and 2024. 

 

Thanks to Dulce Wassil for the suggestion to do this.

Enjoy, Tom

November Colorado River History Dates

Photo of Stone party lining 25 Mile Rapid in Marble Canyon October 30, 1909, courtesy The Huntington Library.

 

November Colorado River History Dates

 

November 1, 1907 - Charles Russell and Ed Monett say goodbye to Bert Loper at the Stanton Dredge in Glen Canyon. Russell and Monett start slowly for Lee’s Ferry panning the various bars while Loper heads upriver to Hite for camera repairs with plans to join the other two by November 21, but not later than December 1 at Lee’s Ferry.

 

November 2, 1909 – The Stone party is “busier than ants on a hot rock” as dunnage is portaged 300 yards around Hance Rapid and reloaded at the beach below.

 

November 3, 1951 – Bert Lauzon passes away in the Grand Canyon Hospital. After his river trip with the Kolb brothers, Bert joined the staff of the National Park Service at the South Rim.

 

November 4, 1938 – Buzz Holmstrom, Amos Burg, Willis Johnson, the first wooden boat to run Grand Canyon twice, and the first rubber raft to run Grand Canyon at all, nose out of the current at noon and camp at Pearce’s Ferry.

 

November 5, 1952 – Immediately after Barry Goldwater’s Senate win, Otis “Dock” Marston writes his friend Goldwater “Orchids Senator. Now that the campaign is over we can put the mud back in the River where it belongs.”

 

November 6, 1960 – Lewis Ransom Freeman, boatman on the 1923 USGS river trip, passes away. In a most unusual series of events later that year, Dock Marston saves Freeman’s photos from a quick trip to the dump.

 

November 7, 1960 - The San Francisco Examiner reviews the latest Disney film, Ten Who Dared. The reviewer notes there are four or five scenes of true excitement, an equal number of superb scenic shots, and the rest “laden with meaningless trivia.”

 

November 8, 1909 - Otter tracks are seen at Fossil Creek Rapid, but Nathaniel Galloway’s resources and stealth are insufficient to find the game.

 

November 9, 1948 – Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Harold Bryant writes Dock Marston in a classic understatement that “you are putting in some good study of problems – something that has been lacking heretofore. Our problem apparently will be to select those who have the proper preparation and equipment, but that is not going to be easy.”

 

November 10, 1947 – In his reply to R. D. Smith’s request for a permit to boat through Grand Canyon, Acting Superintendent Lon Garrison writes Smith that “Frankly, we wish to discourage ventures such as you propose. It is extremely dangerous and the record of fatalities from such trips should set as a strong deterrent. The trip has been made so many times that nothing of scientific value could be gained from another expedition; it is simply a dangerous stunt.”

 

November 11, 1879 - Rexford Clyde La Rue is born in Riverside California. No matter that his father, brother and most everyone else in the family calls him Rex, given that dogs are called Rex, he changes his name from Rexford to Eugene.

 

November 12, 1928 - Several people wave to the tiny sweep scow from the highway bridge then under construction as the scow floats by far below. Four days put the Hydes at the Little Colorado River on Monday, November 12, 1928.

 

November 13, 1937 – Buzz Holmstrom lets Emery Kolb row his boat from the mouth of Bright Angel Creek to Pipe Creek. Kolb thinks the boat is very good and is surprised at the little water that is shipped.

 

November 14, 1911 - Twenty rapids are tallied by the Kolb brothers on this day with a stop at Nankoweap for lunch. The fine water patterns put the Little Colorado behind them at 3:00 p.m., and by 4:15 p.m. they are beyond the Tanner Trail. Camp is on the right near Unkar Rapid, at 72 Mile.

 

November 15, 1909 - Shimmering light filling the alcoves on this clear, quiet morning stir Julius Stone’s emotions, but Nat Galloway reserves his elation for 10:20 a.m., when they cross the majestic fault of the Grand Wash Cliffs and exit Grand Canyon

 

November 16, 1928 - The Hydes register at the uncompleted Phantom Ranch where they meet Adolph Gilbert Sutro, a young San Francisco financier. They grant his request to ride to Hermit Creek with them in their sweep scow.

 

November 17, 1911 - Scheduling their arrival to give the trail riders a treat, the Kolb brothers row to Pipe Creek and the bewhiskered brothers then walk to the rim.

 

November 18, 1946 - Acting National Park Service Director Hillory Tolson notifies all National Parks of “the two parties who floated down the Colorado River from Parashant Wash, Arizona.... That... trip... was clearly prohibited by section 2.54 of the General Rules and Regulations, which prohibit the placing of any privately owned boat, canoe, raft, or other floating craft upon the waters of any park or monument without a permit from the superintendent.”

 

November 19, 1907 - Twenty-five miles above Lee’s Ferry, Monett marks his name and the date, November 19, in a shallow cave on the right bank. He and Russell climb out of Glen Canyon to view the surrounding country and reach Lee’s Ferry on November 21, 1907, the day Loper is to meet them at the Ferry.

 

November 20, 1937 - A gray-blue boat rhythmically oared by a bearded compact husky man in a red hat and collarless kapok preserver appears upstream. “There’s Buzz” shouts one of the Cal Tech river trip participants. This is the first recorded meeting of two river trips in Grand Canyon.

 

November 21, 1921 - The Chenoweth party runs a level line thirty-one miles up the Escalante River and camps under what will be named Gregory Bridge.

 

November 22, 1915 – Leslie Clement, Charlie Russell, and August Tadje work a 500-pound steel boat down the Bright Angel Trail. In The Devil’s Corkscrew below Indian Gardens, the craft makes every effort to drop over the precipice at the edge of the trail. The new hull arrives at the river on this date after a seven-day ordeal.

 

November 23, 1846 - W. H. Emory reports the Colorado River below Yuma will always be navigable for steamboats.

 

November 24, 1918 – The Tombstone Epitaph runs a story titled “Grand Canyon At Last To Be A National Park.”

 

November 25, 1953 – Leslie Jones launches a canvas-decked Penn Yan Kingfisher canoe named Honey The Rapids Queen on a solo canoe trip from Lees Ferry heading to Phantom Ranch on a flow of 7,660 cfs.

 

November 26, 1955 - The Trustees for Conservation is formed. Based in San Francisco, Ansel Adams is the president, Wallace Stegner serves as one of three vice-presidents, and there are twenty Trustees including Horace Albright, Francis Farquhar, Wilderness Society executive secretary Howard Zahniser, and Dock Marston.

 

November 27, 1889 – The Stanton Expedition leaves Green River, UT, headed for the Colorado River at Cresent Creek near Hite, UT. Two horses haul each of the three boats, while a two-horse team and a four-horse team of prairie schooners transport the supplies and equipment over roads that are “four spokes deep.”

 

November 28, 1956 – Dock Martson writes Bill Beer a long letter full of details about how to attempt an up-run of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon.

 

November 29, 1919 – The Mohave County Miner runs a story titled “Will Complete Dam Project Survey” in which it is reported that “a party of government engineers will soon be in the Boulder Canyon country completing the survey of the big dam project.”

 

November 30, 1928 – Dock Marston’s research leads him to the conclusion that this is the day Glen and Bessie Hyde’s sweep scow collides with the rocks in the wave train of 232 Mile Rapid.

 

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.

October Colorado River History Dates

 

Genevieve de Colmont at the head of Rapid 22, Mile 202.45. Late in October, 1938. Photo courtesy The Huntington Library

October Colorado River History Dates

October 1, 1871 - The second Powell expedition caches the boat Canonita near the mouth of the Dirty Devil River. Some 70 years later, Harry Aleson discovers the location and finds an oak board possibly belonging to the boat. He cuts it into small pieces and sends them to his various river friends.

 

October 2, 1921 – The USGS level and dam survey of Cataract Canyon ties into a known level at the mouth of the Dirty Devil and proceeds on to Bert Loper’s cabin, the last boat arriving after dark.

 

October 3, 1938 – Buzz Holmstrom and Amos Burg hike from the Green River up to the rim to overlook the Confluence of the Green and the Colorado rivers.

 

October 4, 1937 - Buzz Holmstrom climbs into his boat and floats away from Green River, Wyoming, solo, headed for Lake Mead, Arizona.

 

October 5, 1952 –After William Culp Darrah’s biography of John Wesley Powell hits the bookstands in the summer, Wallace Stegner writes Dock Marston about the errors in Darrah’s book. Stegner notes if they were put end to end, they “would reach quite a distance.”

 

October 6, 1903 – Wolley, Sanger, and King, having navigated the Grand Canyon in one boat, departed Needles, California, and rowed on toward Yuma, Arizona Territory.

 

October 7, 1923 - While on the USGS survey line below Diamond Creek, Roland Burchard slides ten feet on the slickrock, hits the corner of his plane table, and fractures a rib. The next morning, his pain is intense. Bandaged with fifteen feet of tape, he felt no more pain and insists on continuing his survey.

 

October 8, 1915 – The Salt Lake Tribune announces the creation of Dinosaur National Monument. The protected area was small, only 80 acres, or about thirteen city blocks.

 

October 9, 1947 – Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Harold Bryant writes Norm Nevills “Then, too, comes up the matter of whether some of the wild expeditions through the Canyon could be partially stopped by strict regulations demanding a permit and requirements as to the equipment and as to experienced personnel.”

 

October 10, 1937 – Haldane Buzz Holstrom rows alone through Brown’s Hole, noting the high mountains protecting the valley and feels kind of guilty at his intrusion. He takes pictures of the scenes and recognizes he can’t do the place justice.

 

October 11, 1937 – Geologists of the California Institute of Technology launch at Lees Ferry in three wooden boats. Head boatman Frank Dodge writes the boats “were a disgrace. Anyone that knew anything about boats would laugh his head off.”

 

October 12, 1896 – Ramon Montez and George Flavell arrive at Lee’s Ferry on their one boat trip from Green River, Wyoming, to Yuma, Arizona Territory. Bill Rust is so impressed with their boat Panthon and its design superiority over anything previously seen on the river that he builds a copy at Hanksville, Utah.

 

October 13, 1923 – The USGS team reaches their tie point about 257 miles downstream of Lees Ferry. As all hands gather around, the compilation shows the elevations check within four feet at the end of their 251-mile survey. General relief and rejoicing engulfs the crew.

 

October 14, 1871 – The Wheeler Expedition portages their boats up Separation Rapid on their way to Diamond Creek. Seven days later, they downrun the same rapid without lining or portaging.

 

October 15, 1956 - President Eisenhower taps a gold telegraph key in the West Wing of the White House. 1,800 miles to the west, his signal arrives and 500 pounds of dynamite rips into the soft sandstone on the east wall of Glen Canyon while three dynamite blasts bite into the rock at the Flaming Gorge damsite 300 miles to the north.

 

October 16, 1957 – Dock Marston writes Harry Aleson that Frank Wright has sold his river company, Mexican Hat Expeditions, to Joan Nevills Staveley and her husband Gaylord.

 

October 17, 1937 – The Cal-Tech river trip boatmen run Kwagunt Rapid while the geologists walk the shoreline collecting fossils. After passing the Little Colorado River confluence, the group camps on the left just below Lava Canyon Rapid.

 

October 18, 1896 – George Flavell and Ramon Montez row their boat past the mid-river boulder at Boulder Narrows in Grand Canyon.

 

October 19, 1923 – The USGS surveyors trip reaches Needles, California, after completing the measuring of twenty-one dam sites in Marble and Grand canyons.

 

October 20, 1928 – Glen and Bessie Hyde launch their sweep scow from Green River, Utah, headed for the Grand Canyon.

 

October 21, 1907 – Charles Russel and Edwin Monett boat past the confluence of the Little Colorado and main Colorado rivers. The sun is warm and they prospect leisurely, aloof from the crowded world.

 

October 22, 1937 – Buzz Holmstrom rows into Green River, Utah. On this same date in 1896, Montez and Flavell run Horn Creek deep in Grand Canyon while the next trip upstream of them, Nathaniel Galloway and William Richmond in two boats, row past the agency at Ouray, Utah.

 

October 23, 1947 – Harry Aleson and Georgie White depart Green River, Utah, heading to Lees Ferry in one boat. Harry is rowing his 7-man rubber raft named MAY-OUI. Aleson and White line the raft around the larger rapids in Cataract Canyon with the river flowing at about 10,000 cfs.

 

October 24, 1958 – Robert Stanton’s daughter sends Dock a batch of photos of the 1889-1890 Stanton Expedition. Using his photo archive of Badger Rapid at various water levels, he writes Pat Reilly the flow on the Stanton trip at Badger was between 3,000 and 5,000 cfs.

 

October 25, 1954 – Dock Marston writes Don Harris “I’ll get more on the Disney story soon. I am afraid that the opening of the proposed DISNEY LAND will delay further the Powell story.” Dock was correct and the Powell filming finally happened in 1959.

 

October 26, 1911 – Deep in Cataract Canyon, the Kolb brothers come upon a trapper and his boat, Charles “one-eyed” Smith. The cleanshaven well-dressed Smith had run Cat and Glen in 1897. Smith will finish his 1911 Cat run and successfully run Cat again in 1912.

 

October 27, 1937 – As he rowed through Stillwater Canyon, Buzz Holmstrom is upset at the loss of Kolb’s book, but his spirits revive when he finds it in his sleeping bag. Noises in camp during the night get him out of his sleeping bag to be sure that beavers are not eating his boat.

 

October 28, 1896 – George Flavell runs his wooden boat through Lava Falls, the first record of a boat running that rapid.

 

October 29, 1896 – George Flavell writes in his journal “We were getting reckless, so much so, we draw no line. We run thirteen heavy and four dangerous ones. After running everything so far in G. C., we will take very desperate chances now, for if our calculations are right, this is our last night in the canyon.”

 

October 30, 1938 - The bad reputation of cantankerous Dubendorff Rapid causes Amos Burg and Willis Johnson to lug the loads and the rubber raft to the rapid’s foot. Buzz Holmstrom rows his boat through. They salvage considerable booty abandoned by the Eddy party when it lost a boat at this rapid in 1927.

 

October 31, 1911 - The Kolb brothers, still deep in Cataract Canyon, note the name of A. G. Turner with the date ’07 on a rock. Running from Green River, Utah, to Hite in an open boat, Turner had closely followed the three steel skiffs of Russell, Monett, and Loper. Turner claimed to have run all the rapids.

 

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.