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No Boat Left Behind?

The Grand Canyon National Park Foundation, its advisory committee, and the Grand Canyon National Park continue to make progress saving boats that have contributed so richly to the human history of Grand Canyon.
The three “Galloway boats” (Stone’s of 1909, Kolb’s 1911 Edith, and the usgs-Southerne California Edison 1921 Glen), which were moved from the old Visitors’ Center courtyard last July 23rd, have now been professionally cleaned and are housed temporarily in the Conservation Workshop. The Georgie White boat and the Marston Sportyak, along with the Kirschbaum kayak and Zee Grant’s Escalante, all smaller boats, have been moved into the old National Park Service warehouse. Scheduled for removal from the courtyard in mid-June are the bigger boats: the Wen; the Esmeralda II; and the Music Temple, which are all wider than the building’s courtyard and entry doors. The procedure for removal is still being brainstormed. The current preferred option includes the temporary removal of the glass partitions and doors leading out of the building.
“Save the Boats!” fliers were available at the gts for handouts to your friends and clients. Fund-raising posters and brand-spanking new t-shirts allow you to be artsy and fashionable as well as support a grand cause. Brad Dimock is researching and writing four pamphlets, each one highlighting a colorful boat and the Save The Boats project.
According to a February 11, 2004 article in The Grand Canyon News, the previously known Heritage Education Campus now “bears the working title Village Interpretive Center,” comprised of six buildings southwest of the railway depot. “The laundry building will house the canyon’s historic river boats and other interpretive content highlighting the river experience, as well as a small cafe and seating area.”
The Advisory Committee will be recommending no food in the river-running museum. This laundry building renovation will be launched after the boat conservation is complete and is subject to available funding. All concept plans will have to clear a design review board.
The Save The Boats Advisory Committee presently includes: Brad Dimock, Dave Edwards, Fran Joseph, Tom Moody, Richard Quartaroli, Jack Schmidt, Cameron Staveley, Gaylord Staveley, Ellen Tibbetts, Deborah Tuck, and most recently, Roy Webb. The committee would like to have at least one additional member from an “upper river” state. For more information about these efforts please contact Fran at Grand Canyon National Park Foundation at 928-774-1760
Grand Canyon Historic Boat Project Advisory Committee

Ross Wheeler Update

According to David Lavender in River Runners of the Grand Canyon, in 1914 Bert Loper built the boat Ross Wheeler for an ill-fated trip with sometime associate Charlie Russell, and named it after a friend who had recently been murdered. Somehow Russell took the iron-clad boat away from a Loper acquaintance in Green River, Utah who was acting as the boat’s guardian. The Russell party, after many a momentous event into the next year, ran the Ross Wheeler into the Grand Canyon to River Mile 108, walked out the Bass Trail, and left “the Ross Wheeler rocking gently at the margin of the river…” Deciding that the Ross Wheeler might come in handy some day, John Waltenberg, William Bass’ occasional employee and partner, winched it up the bank out of reach of floods.
Since 1915, the Ross Wheeler has resided in this general area, on the talus slope, river left above Bass Rapid. As can be seen in the accompanying photographs, the position of the boat has varied over the years. In addition, many associated artifacts are now missing: a cork life jacket; three oars with oarlocks; all but one of the hatch latches; a heavy rope bowline; and a block and tackle. Around 1984, Kim Crumbo and the River Unit found the Ross Wheeler rolled upside down once in an apparent attempt to move it toward the River. Crumbo said the boat was heavier than it looked and it took all they could to right the boat; Subdistrict Ranger Charlie Peterson then chained and bolted it to the granite.
In July, 2002 Tony Anderson, while doing two back-to-back trips, noticed that the Ross Wheeler was in a different position and notified Ranger Dave Desrosiers, who contacted all hiking and river parties during that period. According to boatmen, this was a period of huge winds. Desrosiers noticed some apparent new and relocated rocks in the vicinity that looked like they came from above. The hatches were on and everything looked okay except some evidence of rolling. Desrosiers concluded that the wind had flipped the boat and torqued the bolt out of the rock, though gcnp Cultural Resources Chief Jan Balsom debates this interpretation. Ranger Brenton White re-chained the Ross Wheeler.
In late February, 2004 Balsom and crew “found an inflatable raft and oars stashed inside the back compartment.” Duct tape and all. Not an appropriate use for this historic craft. White has found a beer stash in the Ross Wheeler and, on this year’s gts trip, he reported that “someone had rigged a pull string firework under the front and back hatches, duct taped into place. Neither detonated. The new position of the boat allows water to collect and remain standing in the cockpit accelerating the rust.
With discussion ongoing, what possible options does the river community now have? Education is a first step. These articles, besides appearing here, will also be printed in The Waiting List newsletter of the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association and will be submitted to the newsletter of the Grand Canyon Hikers and Backpackers Association. A series of pamphlets on each of the historic boats is being designed, including both Loper boats, and the pamphlets will be made available to all river and backcountry hiking parties. Positive peer pressure along with eternal vigilance may help keep people from “simply messing about with [these] boats” and other historic artifacts.

Richard Quartaroli


Move the Boats #2

The Grand Canyon National Park Foundation, our Historic Boat Advisory Committee, and the National Park Service are hosting a second round of "Move the Boats" and would love to have volunteers from the river community to help out.
Here's the scoop: We'll roll the WEN, the Music Temple and the Esmeralda out of the Administration Building (formerly the Visitor Center) courtyard on Tuesday, June 8th between 11:00am—1:00pm. They will be moved to the old NPS warehouse for cleaning and conservation. To celebrate, we will have lunch following the heavy lifting.
Anyone interested in helping can contact me at 928-774-1760

Fran Joseph

Boat Party

The Grand Canyon Historic Boat Project is having its first major fundraising event in Flagstaff on Saturday, October 30, immediately following gcrg’s fall meeting. We will have an outrageous band, dancing, auctions, raffles, prizes, displays and a few boat related events. The costume theme is loosely old boats and old boaters, but we're ruling out nothing. So mark your calendars and plan to make a weekend of it. More details to come in the next bqr.

The Future of the Canyon's Boats

Floating below Buck Farm most of us point out the barely perceptible remains of the Grand Canyon, Bert Loper’s last boat. It often triggers a story about Bert, about his boat, about how the weather and visitation have reduced it to dust.
Downstream, as we enter Bass Rapid we see another Loper-built boat, the Ross Wheeler, lying on the granodiorite slope above the river. Unlike Bert’s plywood boat, the Ross Wheeler appears immortal and timeless on the slope, and triggers its own story of Charlie Russell’s ill-fated trip and how this was the last boat floating of five boats launched.
These two boats epitomize one of the tougher questions we must ask about our river heritage: should they be removed to South Rim for protection, stabilization, and eventual display in the new River Running Museum? Or should they stay in place to become one with the Canyon?
In the early years after Bert Loper’s death, Ken Sleight lobbied hard to remove and preserve Loper’s plywood boat. No decision was made to remove it, however, and to this day, right or wrong, the boat continues to decay and crumble.
The Ross Wheeler, too, has suffered over the decades—oars and oarlocks have vanished, the boat has twice been dragged or rolled toward the river, and the bottom has rusted through in several places. As timeless as it may appear from the river, the Ross Wheeler is quite mortal.
Passions on this issue are strong. Some feel that we owe it to posterity to preserve these unique and significant vessels as part of the heritage of the river—that it is selfish to keep the experience of seeing it to ourselves, while leaving an increasingly degraded (if any) resource to future generations.
Others feel that it would be blasphemous to remove them—that these boats are as much a part of the Canyon as Elves Chasm. To float by these spots and have no boat there would trouble many people deeply—especially with no museum yet in place for the boats to be displayed. The boats lie where the pioneer boatmen left them, some say, and that is where they belong until there is naught but dust remaining.
To many folks’ way of thinking, Bert Loper’s Grand Canyon is now beyond saving. But perhaps in the case of the Ross Wheeler there is a middle ground—perhaps the rust could be stabilized and the boat anchored firmly enough that it would remain indefinitely. In this scenario the boat could be re-evaluated periodically and could always be removed if decay or damage began to exceed acceptable bounds.
Another thought is to build replicas of each boat to either display on the Rim for posterity, or to replace the boats now along the river while the originals are archived. These are but a few of the viewpoints and options, and there is no right or wrong.
As part of the Save the Boats project we are dedicated to protecting and exhibiting the boats already off the river, but individually we are torn by these same issues. We have discussed the issue with the National Park Service and they are torn as well. In as much as these boats belong to the public, we’d like to open a discussion on their fate. This is not a vote, so much as it is a request for feelings and ideas on the future of these boats and other perishable artifacts that remain in the Canyon. Think about what they may mean to you, and what our action or inaction will mean for future generations. Please take the time to drop a line or email—your ideas will help us and the National Park Service find the way through these tough decisions. Thanks for your concern—
Write:
C/o Grand Canyon National Park Foundation
625 North Beaver Street
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001
Brad Dimock & Tom Moody
The Grand Canyon Historic Boat Project