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How Deadly is Big Red?
Utah Historical Quarterly
Vol. 37, 1969, No. 2
How Deadly Is Big Red?
By P. T. Reilly
THE SPANIARDS CALLED the river the Rio Colorado, the Red River. Colorado, a Spanish adjective meaning "reddish," was apt since this stream has transported thousands of cubic acres of red soil from the highlands to the Sea of Cortez. The tributary named the Little Colorado is associated closely with the Mormon settlement of Arizona, and for many years had a greater population along its banks than the main river. In many parts of the Southwest, the major stream is spoken of as "Big Red" to distinguish it from the tributary.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, western topography not only was misunderstood in the Eastern States but had been distorted to a legendary degree. The official reports of government explorers were ignored or used as bases for more sensational stories by a willing press. Scattered descriptions of the unusual world of Yellowstone conditioned an eager public to believe almost anything about our vast terra incognita, and the spirit of Manifest Destiny was in the air. "Colter's Hell" and Beckwourth's "Green River Suck" were representations that many people wanted to believe, and believe them they did.
Initial exploitation thrived on the unknown, and a hundred years ago very little of the topography had been detailed on any map. Significantly, no western feature has suffered more from unrealistic appraisal than the drainage of the Colorado River.
The separation of fact from fancy began in 1867 when the first of the great surveys took to the field, and refinement still was underway a century later. Even now a few remote areas are sketched only broadly, with accurate cartographic detailing scheduled for the future. Most of the legends have been discarded but still the past record of the Colorado is shadowy and confused.
If 1867 marked the beginning of an acquisition of factual knowledge regarding the unknown lands, it also showed an increase in the legendary phases. In March of that year a self-styled Captain Samuel Adams made the first of several fantastic claims attesting to his exploration of the Colorado River. His descriptions of vast wild grain fields would have astonished the Mormon pioneers at that time struggling to sustain themselves in the unfriendly desert of the Muddy River Valley. Adams took his claims to the halls of Congress but there they died as he apparently lacked the ability to generate either credence or support.
In mid-April the Mormon brethren, desiring to know whether Callville had been established at the actual head of navigation, sent Henry W. Miller, Jesse W. Crosby, and Jacob Hamblin down the river from the mouth of Grand Wash to the recently established river terminal. Elder Miller wrote a fine description of the fifty mile voyage except for his portrayal of the nine miles of Boulder Canyon. Here his observations became subjective, ignoring the low vee of the river canyon to speak in terms of Beckwourthian prose. Miller saw Boulder Canyon as Baron von Egloffstein had seen Black Canyon a decade earlier :
Six months after Adams had aired his pretensions, another mystery of the river was established when James White was pulled from his raft at Anson Call's landing. Admittedly White did not know the name of the place where he had entered the river but he thought it was manymiles upstream since this was his fourteenth day of travel. With the purple prose of Henry Miller possibly in mind, the men of Callville had little hesitancy in telling White that he undoubtedly had ridden his raft through the Big Canon.
At this time promotion in several fields was underway in the Southwest. Anti-Mormon Colonel Patrick E. Connor was encouraging mining in both Utah and Nevada, the Union Pacific Railway Company was surveying for a southern route to California, Captain Thomas Trueworthy with his Esmeralda and the Philadelphia Mining Company with the Nina Tilden were offering competition to the established Colorado Steam Navigation Company for the lucrative river trade, while Callville itselfhad been founded to bolster the morale of the hard-pressed people who had been called on the Cotton Mission. These activities created an environment that distorted perspective, making it easy to believe the unusual, even the fabulous. And in the East King, Wheeler, Hayden, and Powell planned and knocked on doors to promote backing for their ideas pertaining to the exploration of the unknown territory in the West.
It is ironic that the man who dispelled the horror stories of the trappers and proved that the Colorado drainage did not go into underground tunnels or over tremendous waterfalls should himself be aided by the sensational aspects attached to his feat, and that he should catalyze a hero-image which he promoted actively for the rest of his life.
When John Wesley Powell and his crew departed from Green River Station on May 24, 1869, it was generally believed that the men were rowing to their deaths. A few days after the Major nosed his boats into the current of the Green, a man named Hook and a small party also departed downstream. Hook managed to get drowned in Red Canyon but the news was slow to emerge from the river gorge. In the meantime an imposter by the name of John A. Risdon showed up at Cheyenne claiming to be the sole survivor of the Powell party. Risdon gained notoriety and funds (for a short time) ; but more important, he created publicity for Powell, even focusing national attention on the one-armed explorer who was thought to be battling such tremendous odds. Risdon gained front-page publicity in most of the frontier newspapers and also evoked comment in the Rocky Mountain News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Detroit Free Press. Before exposure had granted Risdon obscurity, other pretenders named Riley and a fraudulent Jack Sumner appeared with similar stories. To compound matters, news of Hook's death reached Fort Bridger and was confused with the Powell party.
It was June 28 before the Powell men reached the mouth of the Uinta River. Here mail went out from the Indian agency and the country received first-hand information regarding the initial leg of the eventful trip. Among the Major's letters were several to the Chicago Tribune which whetted national interest in the venture.
Two months later the world again heard from the little band that had been brash enough to descend a river containing "sucks," whirlpools, and rapids. Many had given them up as dead when Joseph Asay and his two sons greeted the depleted band of explorers at the mouth of the Virgin on August 30.
Possibly Dunn and the Howland brothers were dead when the Maid of the Canyon and Kitty Clyde's Sister were beached at this point. If not, they undoubtedly had ceased to exist a few hours later, and news of the tragedy added luster to the judgment of the leader who had challenged the Colorado River and survived.
Major Powell returned to the Eastern States to find himself a national hero. Newspapers coast to coast reported his exploit, and Powell was called repeatedly to the lecture platform. Already an engaging speaker, the Major intuitively knew how to interest an audience.
The 1869 exploration opened doors for Powell in Washington and projected him into the field of mapping the West with the official government surveys of King, Wheeler, and Hayden. A man with Powell's political acumen could do nothing but improve his quasi-official position, and this he did.
As Powell was superior in grasping the principles of erosion and adroit in solving his political problems, he was obtuse when confronted with the proposition of boating on the Colorado River. Ignoring the ability of the flat-bottomed dory, proven during decades of rough-water work on the New England fishing banks, together with the principles of lightness and maneuverability, he had his second fleet built much like the first. An exception was that the 1871 boats had another compartment amidships. Powell then demonstrated his lack of engineering comprehension by having an armchair fastened to the deck of the Emma Dean's middle compartment. The Major sat in this chair through most of the trip, never realizing that it raised the center of gravity and rendered his craft less stable. Even the youthful Dellenbaugh commented that it made the Dean slightly top-heavy.
It is significant that Powell became subjective about his river experience and developed a proprietary attitude about the river itself. Not only did he resist improvement in equipment and technique but he resisted anything that was different from his utility in 1869. He compiled his 1875 Report from events that occurred on both trips. However, he never gave official recognition to the men of his second party, an act which caused some resentment.
Finally Dellenbaugh resolved to put the second party on record and after informing Powell of his intention, received the following reply:
The Major died the following September and he maintained to the end the subjective views expressed in this letter to Dellenbaugh. It is difficult to reconcile his grudging admission that Stanton finally had traversed the Grand Canyon on the second attempt, and his statement that "many persons have attempted to follow us," with the facts. Powell must have known of the traverses of Flavell in 1896 and Galloway in 1896-97 because these trips were widely publicized. Both trappers solved the problems peculiar to navigation on the Colorado better than Powell, Brown, and Stanton, and each traveled many miles farther on its surface. It is doubtful that the Major had complied a record of those who were drowned or that anyone had attempted to follow him.
The Colorado has corraded over a score of distinct canyons on its course to the sea. Only three of these have that peculiar combination of natural features that result in big-water rapids and challenges to transportation in ordinary open boats: Cataract, Marble, and Grand. There are fair-sized rapids and many scattered riffles in the other river canyons but nothing that offers a serious obstacle to experienced men using good equipment. The record of fatalities attributed to the river between the confluence of the Green and the Colorado and the foot of the Grand Canyon is not complete, yet enough information exists to enable us to draw some reasonable conclusions and to obtain a more objective picture of the most dangerous canyons of the river system.
Death Attributed to the Colorado River Table*
Some students of Colorado River history might question that the river did not get Denis Julien. At this time, the evidence indicates that Julien survived his experiences on the river but succumbed, possibly to treachery, on dry land.
Supporters of the James White legend will argue the omission of George Strole from the list of river fatalities. Other students of this controversy will counter that the quick-tempered White probably killed his companions Baker and Strole during a camp quarrel and offered the stories of the Indian ambush and drowning to cover his crime. If Strole was washed off the raft, it most probably occurred downstream from Grapevine Wash and thus outside the scope of this study.
It is true that Dunn and the Howland brothers did not die in the Colorado River, yet the stream was indirectly responsible for their deaths. Had the river been less violent the three men would not have chosen to ascend Separation Canyon in preference to running the impressiveappearing rapid.
Only one of the five Navajos who are known to have drowned in the Colorado received an official death notice, and Lewis Nez probably made the vital statistics because two Caucasians were drowned in the same accident.
Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson Colvin witnessed the first known river tragedy involving Indians. Navajos returning from a hunting trip attempted to cross their outfit in an old skiff. The craft was upset when past mid-river and the two men failed to reach the shore.
James Emett, operator of Lee's Ferry from 1897 to 1909, frequently employed Navajos to assist in the multiple operations of the ferry. Two Navajo brothers were working in this capacity in 1899 and, during Emett's absence, took the cable-boat instead of using the skiff as instructed. They failed to let the aft block out and the ferry was beam-on to the current, causing it to dip from the force of the water and tear out the anchorage. Both men drowned. As in the previous instance, the bodies were not recovered and their names have not been preserved.
The deaths of Henry Roseley and his twelve-year-old son have not been substantiated officially; in fact, Roseley has not been found on any list of Mormons called to Arizona, and even the spelling of his name is uncertain. James B. Christianson and his family were members of an emigrant company and the tragedy has become a legend among his descendants.
Robert Stanton was very critical of the boats chosen by the leader of the 1889 trip, Frank Mason Brown, president of the Denver, Colorado Canyon and Pacific Railway Company. However, his criticism was wholly against the building material used — "thin, red cedar" — and the clinker type of construction. Nowhere does he indicate recognition of the true defects of the boats — round bottoms and narrow beams. Since the three deaths which ensued from the use of this equipment did not result from that which Stanton called defective, it is interesting to see him grope for explanations and advance such things as "up-shoots" and "boiling fountains."
President Brown's boat capsized when it was steered out of the main current which was moving downstream at possibly ten to fifteen miles per hour into an eddy whose current was moving upstream at a somewhat slower speed. When the round-bottomed boat was caught in the opposing forces, the torque resulting from the stronger downstream current simply rolled the clinker-built canoe.
Why Brown failed to make shore is not known. The capsize occurred just below the mouth of Salt Water Wash, at Mile 11.95, and the eddy here is not abnormal. Perhaps Brown was a poor swimmer and badly frightened. He was clothed and most likely wore a vest under his coat. Probably he was wearing boots. Stanton asserted, no doubt correctly, that Brown would have been saved had he been wearing a life preserver.
Crew member Peter Hansbrough chiseled an inscription to commemorate the tragedy, as Stanton assumed the leadership of the party and prepared to complete the survey. From the river the route up the tributary appears very encouraging. If Stanton had grasped the inadequacies of both their equipment and experience he would have chosen the two-hour walk up Salt Water Wash to the Mormon Road at Red Point. From here it was an easy day's walk to Lee's Ferry, with good water at Navajo Spring. But Stanton did not make the correct deductions and the next day he pushed his little party deeper into the Marble Gorge. On July 15 tragedy struck again.
That morning the men had made a portage of the rapid 24.5 miles below Lee's Ferry, then had lined around the fan at 25 Mile Rapid to the eddy on the left of the tongue. They intended to run down the seemingly quiet water along the left bank to the rocky beach at Cave Springs Rapid, 0.6 miles below. The first boat was sucked into the right-hand eddy but achieved the objective on the next attempt. The second boat made a better start but in about 200 feet it was swept against an overhanging ledge on the left. The men shipped the oars and attempted to push the boat away from the wall. Apparently the unstable craft became overbalanced during this maneuver and was capsized. Henry C. Richards swam a few strokes before sinking, but Peter Hansbrough was never seen to rise.
As Powell had misinterpreted the drowning of Hook, the general public viewed the deaths of Brown, Hansbrough, and Richards as further evidence that the river was a beast, always hungry for another victim. No objective voice was raised to point out that inadequate experience, equipment, and leadership were the real causes of these tragedies.
Many prospectors have come to the banks of the Colorado and some have attempted unwise crossings with unsafe boats. Four deaths resulting from such circumstances are on record. Charley Drake is said to have been drowned in a rapid above Ticaboo on June 28, 1889, but the brief entry in the journal of Franklin Nims is the only reference to this tragedy. William F. Russell was lost on July 16, 1899, when the canvas covered boat which he and T. A. Fleming were using capsized near Bright Angel. Charles McLean and P. M. McGonigle met death near the head of the Granite Gorge in July 1903. They appear to have been interested in the asbestos deposits below the mouth of Red Canyon. McLean had been with Godfrey Sykes in the delta country a few years previously.
Improper operation of the cable-boat cost Preston Apperson his life at Lee's Ferry on March 9, 1911. A crewman of Charles Spencer's mining promotion, Preston attempted a crossing when the custodian, Jerry Johnson, was at work on the ranch in Paria Canyon. Unfortunately, Apperson had not assimilated the technique of handling the ferry.
Another, and last, accident at Lee's Ferry took the lives of Royce Dean, Lewis Nez, and substitute ferryman Adolpha Johnson on June 7, 1928. The river was flowing at the rate of 85,600 cubic feet per second, probably an all-time high for boating accidents at Lee's Ferry, unless the exact date of the Roseley tragedy can be ascertained.
Six months later Glen and Bessie Hyde piloted their Salmon River scow nearly through Grand Canyon when they met with some kind of accident. The Kolb brothers and Chief Ranger James Brooks went down Diamond Creek and ran an old boat 11.4 miles downstream to where the Hyde scow had been caught by its dragging line becoming snared between underwater boulders. The last entry in Bessie Hyde's diary was December 1, 1928. Experienced rivermen know that at flows of 8,000 cfs, and less, the main current of the rapid at Mile 232.4 sweeps directly into a nest of columnar rocks along the right bank. Several modern boatmen have had accidents at this place and it is reasonable to think that a crash against these rocks could have thrown the Hydes overboard without capsizing the scow. The couple did not have life jackets, and another rather heavy rapid is located a short distance downstream.
Glen E. Sturdevant, chief naturalist of Grand Canyon National Park, believed in knowing the remote areas of the park and had crossed the river as well as traveling its calmer stretches to reach them. In company with Chief Ranger James P. Brooks and Ranger Fred Johnson, he had intended to visit a long tributary a few miles west of Bright Angel in February 1929. The men lost an oar and were swept into Horn Creek Rapid. Brooks made the shore but Sturdevant and Johnson were drowned. Overloading and inexperience were the probable causes.
The first four miles of Cataract Canyon are deceptively smooth, being similar to the river above the junction. However, the observant person soon notices the power of the increased flow, and below Spanish Bottom the velocity quickens as the pitch becomes steeper. The first rapid is mild and the second only slightly rougher. When the neophyte reaches Mile 205 it is too late to turn back and the Colorado plunges down a steep incline of muddy foam, losing eighty feet in the next three miles.
More than one would-be boatman was lulled by the quiet waters of Labyrinth and Stillwater canyons and drifted unsuspectingly into the violence of Cataract Canyon. One who knew what to expect but who still succumbed was Charles "One Eye" Smith.
Boaters of sixty years ago suddenly found themselves trapped in an environment that neither they nor their equipment could handle, which is precisely the problem faced by the modern sportsman who drives his outboard into Cataract Canyon instead of turning up the Colorado at the junction. Two such cases resulting in three deaths have occurred during the last decade.
Swimming, playing, and unorthodox use of sporting equipment have accounted for seven lives in the last forty years. The fact that these causes did not appear during the early years indicates that man's judgment has not improved with his increase of leisure time.
Did Bert Loper die of a heart attack or from drowning? Possibly he suffered a heart attack as he slid down the tongue of the rapid 24.5 miles below Lee's Ferry. Possibly he would have lived if the same heart attack had occurred at home. We shall never know since his body was not recovered. Loper's death is a singular monument to the feuds and intrigues that have occurred on the river because this man, within twentythree days of being eighty years old, should not have been running ahead of his party; in fact, he should not have been on the river at all.
In breaking down the figures we find that the Colorado River in nearly five hundred miles, containing the most violent water in its system, has claimed fifty lives since 1869. Sixteen of these tragedies have occurred in Grand Canyon, four in the Marble Gorge, three in Glen Canyon, twelve in Cataract Canyon, and twelve at Lee's Ferry. Twenty-eight of the victims were descending the river, fifteen were crossing, and seven were swimming or indulging in unusual sporting activity. Lee's Ferry appears to be the most dangerous single place on the river, and it is worthy of note that such rapids as Soap, Hance, Sockdologer, Grapevine, Granite, Dubendorff, Lava Falls, and Lava Cliff have yet to claim a life.
During the decade from 1948 to 1957 inclusive, there were thirty-six fatalities due to boat use on Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. Causes ranged from capsizing to horseplay and intoxication. There have been twelve deaths due to boat use on Lake Powell from 1965 to August 1968. The exceptionally low fatality/use ratios at Lakes Mohave, Mead, and Powell can be credited to the intense safety programs initiated by the National Park Service and the Coast Guard, together with improved knowledge, equipment, and safety devices.
This improvement also is reflected in the river-running phase of modern boating. From 1961 through 1968 inclusive, over seven-thousand people have traversed from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead. The single fatality from river descents during this period was Jesse Burton, a commercial boatman who, ironically enough, was drowned when his life jacket apparently caught on his motor mount after he capsized in Upset Rapid.
It would appear that the inability of some individuals to recognize the inherent hazards of the river and to compensate properly for them has provided a distorted picture of the Colorado, and it is hoped that these comments will bring a measure of objectivity to a misunderstood subject.
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