A Few Happenings at Diamond Creek Over the Last 155 Years

 

A Few Happenings at Diamond Creek Over the Last 155 Years 

 

Diamond Creek meets the Colorado River approximately 226 miles downstream of Lee’s Ferry in western Grand Canyon. Between Lee’s and Diamond Creek, there is no automobile access to the Colorado River. Downstream of Diamond Creek, there is no automobile access for another 53 miles. Indigenous peoples have used Diamond Creek, with it’s permanent flowing stream, as easy access to the Colorado River for many millennia. 

 

Here are a few images of Diamond Creek from Photo Volume 92, the Otis Reed Marston collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. 

 

 

 

 

October 20, 1871

This drawing is of the Wheeler Party in a group at Diamond Creek. The party worked their boats up the Colorado River from Camp Mohave to Diamond. The group consisted of Mohave, excellent swimmers and boaters. The majority of the group then headed overland to Truxton Springs. A small crew turned the boats around and down-ran all the rapids and returned to Camp Mohave in 5 days.

 

 

 

January, 1912

On Friday, January 5, Ellsworth Kolb, his brother Emery, and Bert Lauzon packed their exposed and surplus film the twenty-five miles from the mouth of Diamond Creek out to Peach Springs. A woman at the Santa Fe Railroad water pumping station fed the tired and hungry trio, and John Nelson provided them with beds for the night. On Sunday, with telegrams sent, film shipped, and provisions bought, John Nelson and his brother William took them in a wagon halfway to the river. With Will astride one horse and the dunnage packed on the other, they reached camp about dark. Ellsworth’s feet were swollen from the walk. The Nelson brothers watched them run Diamond Creek Rapid and returned to Peach Springs. Photo of John and Bill Nelson visit with the Kolb brothers boats at Diamond Creek, January 8, 1912.

 

 

 

February 20, 1924

A proposed dam at the mouth of Diamond Creek was to be served by a 23 mile long railroad starting at the Santa Fe mainline in Peach Springs, Arizona. A tramway would supply equipment to the damsite from the rail terminus. The dam was never built.

 

 

 

January 1, 1929

The pain of loss is clearly etched on the face of Rolland Hyde at the mouth of Diamond Creek. He’s searching for his son and daughter in-law, Glen and Bessie. On December 30, Hyde and Deputy John L. Nelson, of Peach Springs, came to the mouth of Diamond Creek, and then climbed upriver along the rocky left bank. Hyde theorized they might not have reached Diamond Creek. 

 

 

 

January 1, 1929

Hyde and Nelson met Bob Francy and John Harbin when they rowed in having boated all the way from Bright Angel. Francy and Harbin were “about done up.” One remarked he would not make the 138-mile trip again for $5,000. The boat, named BRIGHT ANGEL, had been abandoned at the mouth of Bright Angel Creek just weeks earlier by the Pathe Bray film crew. 

 

 

 

November 20, 1937

The first time on record that two river trips met in the Grand Canyon was at Diamond Creek on November 20, 1937. Buz Holmstrom in his boat JULIUS is on the right. The boat on the left is part of the 1937 Cal Tech geology river trip. It’s possible Frank Dodge is on the oars of the boat on the left.