Errata

 

Errata.... an error in printing or writing. A list of corrected errors appended to a book or published in a subsequent issue of a journal... Why? Because I do get things wrong and can correct that with an errata update.

2025 March 8 

In the Historic Boats 16 video film series, Chapter 12 (the twelfth video) on the jetboats, I was incorrect to state the boats proposing in the water loosened the decks from the hulls though that did hurt Dock's ribs. Both the Wee Red and Wee Yellow were repeatedly wrecked hitting rocks along the shore at high rates of speed. George Morrison, representing the Turbocraft Corporation, ordered both boats be scuttled. The rest of the crew refused and kept patching them up. You'll notice the DOCK has no such fiberglass holding the deck to the hull. All credit for that goes to Buzzy Belknap's excellent piloting of the DOCK. 

    

A 1967 Walk-away Emergency Landing in the Bottom of the Grand Canyon

 

Wayne Learn flying to the rescue, 1967. Photo courtesy Louis Hudgin

I do oral histories with people who worked or hiked or boated or flew in the Grand Canyon. This is an interesting story so go get some coffee and settle in...

Fifteen years ago, the Grand Canyon High School Coach Dan Lopez had told me that one of the Hudgin Air Service/Grand Canyon Airlines sightseeing planes had made a dead-stick landing on a large sandbar in Grand Canyon. Dan said he helped a pilot named Wayne Learn take that plane apart and Wayne flew the pieces out by helicopter.

During an interview last year with retired Park Engineer Dan Cockrum, he recounted the 1966 construction of the Silver Bridge near Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Dan mentioned taking many flights in and out of the Canyon by helicopter. The pilot was Wayne Learn. Learn and Bob Thurston started helicopter tours at Tusayan, Arizona, in April of 1966, forming Tusayan Helicopter Service, INC. Wayne used a Hiller OH-5A for this operation.

After interviewing Cockrum, I interviewed Ellen Hudgin and her sons Doug and Louis. This story tumbled out and it all came together. 

Ellen’s husband Henry flew several thousand tours in the Grand Canyon with his older brothers Al and Palen. In 1950 they started flying early high wing PIPERs over the canyon from the Red Butte Grand Canyon Airport. When PIPER introduced the low wing Apache and Commanche in the mid 1950's they discovered that the view was much better when flown below the rim and looking up. Another benefit with the low wing was in a turn the wing moved out of sight whereas in a high wing your view was blocked in a turn. They continued to fly low wing tours after moving their operation to the present day Grand Canyon Airport when it opened in the mid-1960s. Two decades later after a midair collision in the Canyon, the FAA required all tours be flown above the canyon rim.

In the late 1950’s, Al introduced a Turbo Charged Bell 47 Helicopter to the flightline and did tours with the helicopter while Henry, Palen and other pilots flew Pipers and a De Havilland Dove during the busy summer season. Tragically, Al died in that helicopter on the San Francisco Peaks on July 11, 1961, but that’s another story. 

On July 11, 1967, Henry’s flying day started in Nogales, AZ, after the funeral for his mother. He’d loaded his wife Ellen and their children into a Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee 6 and flew north across the state of Arizona to the new Grand Canyon Airport at Tusayan. On arriving back at the Canyon, Henry got right to work flying that afternoon’s tours in the same Cherokee 6.

Later in the afternoon he flew a sightseeing tour over the east end of the Park. The tour proceeded as normal up to about Hance Rapids when the diaphragm that controls the fuel/air mixture in the fuel injection failed. At that point the engine was still running but had lost most of its power and was surging badly out of control. With the loss of power, the airplane began to lose altitude with no hope of regaining it back. Running out of altitude and options, Henry knew of a sand bar past the confluence of the Big and Little Colorado Rivers by Kwagunt Rapids. It was perfect for an emergency landing and Henry nursed the airplane there. He arrived with little altitude to spare. Without missing a beat, as he continued to lose altitude, he calmly told his passengers to make sure their seat belts were securely fastened. His passengers thought nothing of it. This was, after all, a tour flight and they assumed they were landing along the river as part of the tour. 

 When Henry touched down on the soft sand and gravel bar, the main landing gear collapsed, quickly followed by the nose gear. He slid the plane to a stop and asked everyone to get out of the plane. It was baking hot in the bottom of the Canyon but at least the plane was not on fire. The plane’s radio worked, and Henry started making a mayday call. 

The Cherokee on the ground 1967 courtesy Louis Hudgin

 

 

The Cherokee on the ground 1967 courtesy Louis Hudgin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Hudgin tour plane heard the call, and on returning to the Airport, got word to Wayne Learn that a helicopter rescue was needed. Wayne flew his Hiller into the Canyon, landed nearby, loaded everyone up and flew them out of the Canyon. With approval from the National Park Service, Wayne flew back a few weeks later, took the plane apart with Dan Lopez, and flew the pieces out.

 

Flash forward to January 2025. I’m on a 30-day river trip in the Grand Canyon. I have a few pictures Louis Hudgin let me copy. Those pictures were taken that afternoon in 1967. And I’m at Kwagunt in the morning and the shadows are all wrong! Regardless, the rematch was a lot of fun. The area where the plane landed was scoured by the Colorado River during the highwater of 1983. That may be why I found nothing of the damaged airplane and disassembly. Still, everything lined up and we were at the location where Henry and his passengers walked away from an emergency landing in the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Rematch photo January 2025 courtesy Tom Martin

 

Rematch photo January 2025 courtesy Tom Martin

 

 

 

 

Thanks to technical advisor Louis Hudgin, his brother Doug, their mother Ellen, NPS Park Engineer Dan Cockrum, and Coach Dan Lopez.

A Photo Rematch at 24.5 Mile...

The photo we are rematching is of Mary Abbott as she stands next to Dock Marston's boats at the foot of 24.5 Mile Rapid in Marble Canyon on the Colorado River on June 10, 1958. The river flow is about 95,000 cubic feet per second. The photo is courtesy The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and is from Dock Marston Volume 1. pg 449. My rematch is not too far off. The foreground rock on the left is a perfect match. A lot of the sand that was there in 1958 is gone and the person in my photo is lower than where Mary Abbott was standing. But there you have it...

The Bob Stanton River Trip's Christmas Dinner, December 25, 1889 Photo Rematched

The Bob Stanton trip's Christmas Dinner, December 25, 1889, before the Stanton team headed downstream. and The Ryan Rauzon trip's rematch, 135 years later, December 27, 2024, just before heading downstream. Stanton's party consisted of from left to right, Robert B. Stanton (Chief Engineer), Franklin A. Nims (Photographer), W. H. Edwards (Boatman), Reginald Travers (Boatman), H. G Ballard (Boatman), Langdon Gibson (Boatman), Elmer Kane (Boatman), L. G. Brown (Boatman), Arthur B. Twining (Boatman), James S. Hogue (Cook), Harry McDonald (1st Boatman), John Hislop (Assistant Engineer). Rauzon's party consisted of from left to right, Peter Brown, Keaton Vanderploeg, Emily Milliken, Griffin Hale, Joe Dana, McKennaugh Marie Kelley, Artec Durham, Tom Martin, Ryan Rauzon, Hazel Clark, Courtney Hale, Jeff LeMay, Charlotte Marshall, Todd Bovo, Cali Spitson and Lucia Bovo. Colorized photo courtesy of Redstone Old Photo Restoration And Repair Services.

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