Of note during the pioneering days of river running is the run from Green River, Utah, by 33-year-old J. H. Hummel, whose quest was “for nothing but adventure.”
Late in August of 1914 on the river’s bank at Green River, Utah, Hummel and David Miller built a pair of flat-bottomed, fourteen-foot-long, less than four-foot-wide boats. Each was pointed on one end but flat-sterned. Canvas covered the otherwise open top of each boat except for the rower’s position.
Oddly, at the junction of the Green and the Grand rivers Miller’s boat caught fire and burned beyond repair. Miller quit the river and hiked overland to Moab, Utah.
Hummel carried on solo, navigating Cataract, Glen Canyon and upper Grand Canyon, trapping fur-bearing mammals as he went. A month later, in late September, he rowed to shore at the mouth of Pipe Creek at Mile 89, as gawking tourists stared in surprise.
On stepping out of his boat, Hummel asked them, “Where am I?” A mule guide informed him he was at the foot of the Bright Angel Trail. Hummel exclaimed, “Bright Angel, Thank the Lord!” He tied up his boat and hiked to the rim. Upon visiting Emery Kolb, he bequeathed Kolb his boat then walked off, vanishing into the mists of time.
Excerpt from "Dock Marston: Grand Canyon's Colorado River Running Historian, Vol 1, by Tom Martin. Photo courtesy The Huntington is of the Stone Party above Boucher Canyon, November 6, 1909.
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