Slides of Colorado River trip, 1956 June 5-13

File — Box: 1, Folder: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

1. Start of trip along Colorado River. Loading up and heading out. Beautiful sunny day. I don't remember it raining the entire trip.
2. Probably day one...I don't remember what cabin this was. Jon Carpenter was my raft captain. I believe the cabin was where he had lunch very near the starting place of Hite, Utah. [NOTE: home of Bert Loper]
3. home of Bert Loper
4. home of Bert Loper
5. Taking a bath in a side stream. Many streams fed into the Colorado River. We never had a problem finding beautiful places like this to clean up.
5A. [group shot of people on KFM's raft; not taken by KFM, as per letter April 21, 2004]: "Slide #5A must have come from one of their slides [Jon Carpenter, Bob Webber, or Robb Russon, who were also on the trip] since I can account for only one #5 that I took."
6. Bob Webber taking a bath. Bob Webber was the life of the party.
7. River cliffs...we swam in the river with a rope tethered to the raft.
8. View of the river from mesa at the top of Hole in the Rock. Since we hiked uup through the steep canyon at 7 AM, the first picture I took of that area was up on top. Then, as I hiked back down, I took more pictures.
9. Resting in the shade...it was a hot day
10. Merlin's [Shaw] brother [Ferris Shaw] caught a Rattle Snake.
11-15. Hole in the Rock where [LDS] pioneers lowered wagons to cross the river. Nov. 1879-April 1880.
16. Rainbow Bridge (I believe it was Saturday June 9th). We spent all day Sunday (June 10th) off the river and held a [LDS] Sacrament Meeting and a testimony meeting under the Bridge about 4 pm. I passed the sacrament. I remember it was dusk when the meeting ended. We hiked back to the river to sleep.
17-23. We hiked up on top of on the Bridge. I was lowered over a ledge off of a connecting plateau next to the Bridge...this was the only way to actually reach the top of the bridge. You will note the ropes in one of the photos. In one ofhte photos taken from the ground level you can see the rest of us on the top of the Bridge. I was told that air planes flew under the Bridge [SIC].
24. Monday afternoon we were back on the river (June 11th).
25-27. [near Hidden Passage]
28-30. Crossing of the Fathers...we are getting toward the end of the trip. I believe we only had one or two days left to go. Probably June 12th (Tue[sday]).
31. Nearing the end of the trip.
32. [no slide, as per letter of April 21, 2004]: "Slides 32 and 34 are missing...don't know what happened...after all, it has been 48 years."
33. Group picture (left to right): Girl - Kenn McAllister - Girl - Robb Russon - Girl - Bob Webber. Probably at Lee's Ferry, the jumping off place June 13th (Wednesday) or June 14th (Thursday) 1956.
34. [no slide, as per letter of April 21, 2004]: "Slides 32 and 34 are missing...don't know what happened...after all, it has been 48 years."
35. Merlin Shaw at Lee's Ferry...cleaning the rafts. The eight or nine of us who were starting work at the Grand Canyon [on] Thursday, June 14th, were picked up in a special Utah Parks van. The rest of the group went back to Salt Lake...but I don't have details of how this happened. I don't remember seeing any bus waiting.
36. Two of our leaders
37. The crew with which we lived together for one week on the river. One of the best weeks of our lives. Jon Carptenter is 2nd from left, Rosson is next to Jon.
38. Ken McAllister is 2nd from right in this group photo. This was a great experience. Merlin [Shaw] was a great man.

Dates

1956 June 5-13

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Extent

From the Collection: 1 Box : 37 color 35mm transparencies; 1 SOCOTWA tee shirt; miscellaneous papers and background information supplied by Mr. McAllister and Robert Vernon