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| 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.
