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

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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.