150 YEARS OF RUNNING THE RIVER Celebrating the Sesquicentennial of ’s Maiden Voyage: 1869-2019

MAY 2019

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE

THE COLORADO Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’ on the River ... National Park

Winslow May 2019 Sedona Cottonwood Heber 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 42 WHATEVER BOATS YOU FLOAT In 1869, the fastest and most seaworthy cargo- PHOENIX 3 CONTRIBUTORS hauling boats were called Whitehalls. That’s what John Wesley Powell chose for his legendary voyage. 4 LETTERS Tucson It was a bad choice. Since then, the boats have gone 5 THE JOURNAL from something feared to something revered. Madera Canyon People, places and things from around the state, By Brad Dimock POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE including the Race Track Industry Program, the Uni- Photographs by Rudi Petschek versity of ’s link to the Triple Crown; Little Moo’s Gourmet Market in Cottonwood; and the his- 48 THE BALLAD OF BELLE ZABOR tory of the International Harvester proving grounds His verses, he said, were written for the backcountry in Phoenix. and were never intended for the parlor. Appropriately, Vaughn Short’s poetry has become as much a part of 18 IN THE WAKE OF POWELL the river experience as wind, sand and water. An Essay by Craig Childs By Vaughn Short 24 JOURNEY THROUGH THE CENTER 52 SCENIC DRIVE Chevelon Crossing: This scenic route, which winds OF THE EARTH from Winslow to Heber, originally was built in the late On May 24, 1869, John Wesley Powell began an 1800s so Mormon pioneers could get their wagons expedition that would take him from Green River, across a perilous ravine en route to Chevelon Creek. Wyoming, to the 2 billion-year-old depths of the By Annette McGivney Grand Canyon. He was the first to run the Colorado Photographs by Joel Hazelton River, but hardly the last. One hundred fifty years later, thousands of thrill-seekers, including Adam 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH Schallau, make the journey every summer. Bog Springs/Kent Spring Loop: There are several ways A Portfolio by Adam Schallau to explore Madera Canyon, including this scenic loop. On paper, it looks easy. But it’s not. GET MORE ONLINE 32 AN ODYSSEY OF THE GREEN AND COLORADO By Robert Stieve www.arizonahighways.com The intimate journal of three boats and nine people Photographs by Jeff Maltzman on a trip down two rivers. A story originally pub- /azhighways lished in the January 1941 issue of Arizona Highways. 56 WHERE IS THIS? Story and Photographs by Barry M. Goldwater @arizonahighways

Rafters relax by a campfire after a long day of rafting the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Adam Schallau CANON 6D, 20 SEC, F/2.8, ISO 800, 14-24 MM LENS

FRONT COVER: A river rafter is mirrored by the calm water of the Colorado River beneath the Grand Canyon’s cliffs. Adam Schallau CANON EOS 5D MARK II, 1/50 SEC, F/11, ISO­ 100, 24 MM LENS

BACK COVER: The steep cliffs of the Grand Canyon tower over the of the Colorado River and Bright Angel Creek. Adam Schallau CANON EOS 5D MARK II, 0.4 SEC, F/16, ISO 50, 22 MM LENS

2 OCTOBER 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s LETTER CONTRIBUTORS

ARIZONA BRAD DIMOCK course of almost a hundred years, there’s bound HIGHWAYS This wouldn’t be an MAY 2019 VOL. 95 NO. 5 to be some differences. Our choice was to either issue about river update all of the old stories, and apply our cur- 800-543-5432 runners without a rent style, or let them be. We decided to keep our www.arizonahighways.com story from one of hands off. In hindsight, we like the flavor of the GIFT SHOP: 602-712-2200 them, so we turned old style, which features some odd hyphenations to Brad Dimock, who ewis and Clark had in their (“up-draft” and “snow-storm”) and all kinds of PUBLISHER Kelly Mero explores the differ- EDITOR Robert Stieve camp. Neil Armstrong had rocket scientists inconsistent spelling — in the same story, we ences between John SENIOR EDITOR Kelly Vaughn in his headset. John Wesley Powell had no referred to a certain pine tree as a “piñon” and a Wesley Powell’s MANAGING EDITOR Noah Austin one. And no real understanding of what was “pinion.” The style rules for proper nouns were all boats and the dories ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ameema Ahmed ahead. “Barren desolation is stretched out over the place, too. Or maybe there weren’t any of today (see What- L PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida before me,” he wrote. “We have an unknown rules at all. ever Boats You Float, CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney distance yet to run, an unknown river to Another thing we had to think about was page 42). Dimock’s ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney explore. What falls there are, we know not.” fact-checking. To be clear, there are some errors life has revolved around the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River since he went on a MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey Nonetheless, on May 24, 1869, the intrepid, one-armed frontiersman began in some of the older stories. In some cases, they river trip as a freshman at Prescott College in 1971. “This assignment is perfect for me,” he PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi an expedition that would make him the first person to run the Colorado were the result of a lack of information at the says. “I’ve spent the past several decades researching these boats and boatmen, building DIRECTOR OF SALES River. One hundred fifty years later, he’s revered, like Lewis and Clark, and time — the age of the Canyon, the length of river AND MARKETING Karen Farugia and running these boats, and trying to understand the context of them as time passed.”

the landscape he explored is protected as Grand Canyon National Park — no — and in other cases there may have been a hint WEBMASTER Victoria Snow When it comes to running a rapid, Dimock says the best part is coming out at the far end,

more unknowns. This month, we mark the sesquicentennial of Powell’s of hyperbole. Or folklore. Those things we left CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman when “the joy can flood in unimpeded.” But what’s the best part of building a boat?

legendary voyage. It’s a milestone that coincides with the centennial celebra- alone. We didn’t want our book to read like a DIRECTOR OF FINANCE Matthew Bailey “I think the enjoyment comes at the end of each day: looking back at the day’s progress

tion of the national park. For that dissertation — the rhythm of the writing would OPERATIONS/ over a beer, and watching a pile of straight, square sticks take on the elegant shape of a occasion, we made a book. It’s a have been thrown off by the interruption of so IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis dory,” he says. “Every day, there’s a new iteration as we progress toward a finished boat. new book about an old park. GRAND CANYON many footnotes. It’s a series of problem-solving adventures, and it’s so sweet to watch it happen day by Although Arizona Highways is Also, we think it’s interesting to look back and CORPORATE OR day.” Dimock is pictured here running Upset Rapids at Mile 150 in the Grand Canyon. NATIONAL PARK TRADE SALES 602-712-2018 a few years younger, we’ve been consider the level of understanding in the 1920s SPONSORSHIP SALES covering the park for parts of or ’30s or ’40s. Leaving the copy alone allows for REPRESENTATION On Media Publications 10 decades. In all, we’ve published a more interesting trip back in time. And that’s Deidra Viberg 602-323-9701 hundreds of stories about the Grand really what the book is all about. It’s a journey Canyon. For the book, we revisited back to that day in 1919 when President Wood- CRAIG CHILDS every single one, and ultimately LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] Don’t ask Craig row Wilson signed into law a bill establishing 2039 W. Lewis Avenue settled on 28 of our favorite stories. the Grand Canyon as the nation’s 15th national Phoenix, AZ 85009 Childs to name his Stories written by some of the most park. And it’s a storyline of some of the people, favorite experience on the Colorado accomplished writers in our archive: places and things that have made the park one of GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey Raymond Carlson, Charles Franklin the crown jewels of the National Park Service. River, where he’s DIRECTOR, Parker, Joyce Rockwood Muench, John Muir once said this about the Grand DEPARTMENT spent plenty of OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski Frank Waters, Craig Childs, Charles Bowden. Canyon: “It seems a gigantic statement for even time. He won’t do As you might imagine, curating nearly 100 years of content wasn’t easy — nature to make.” In the same way that words and it. More accurately, it was months and months of Sophie’s choice. To help narrow the field, we photographs can never fully capture the grandeur Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published he can’t do it. “Every monthly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. focused on the stories that occurred after the park’s official birthday on Feb- of the Canyon — a place that can be seen from Subscription price: $24 a year in the U.S., $44 outside moment is magi- ruary 26, 1919. Because of that, you won’t see any stories about Powell’s trip outer space, a place counted as one of the seven the U.S. Single copy: $4.99 U.S. Call 800-543-5432. UP- cal,” he says, “from DATED PRIVACY POLICY: Our privacy policy has been in 1869 or the arrival of Coronado’s expedition in 1540. The book is focused natural wonders of the world — no single book updated to reflect the new changes in data protection flipping at the top on the park, not the Canyon — the Canyon’s centennial, by the way, was can fully tell its story. Ours is no exception, but it laws, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regu- of Lava Falls Rapids and swimming all the way down, to the pickle-water-green Colorado lations. To read our updated privacy policy, go to www down by Yuma, where you wake up in the morning with coyote tracks around your sleep- about 70 million years ago. spotlights a few chapters of the bigger story. We .arizonahighways.com/privacy-policy. Subscription cor­re­ Selecting the stories was a challenge. What to do with them was another hope you’ll check it out. spon­dence and change of address information: Arizona ing bag. Not to be trite, but every day on the river is my favorite experience.” This month Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Peri­ (see In the Wake of Powell, page 18), Childs tackles something he hadn’t yet accomplished dilemma. There were a few things in particular that needed resolution. Of course, the best way to learn about the Can- odical postage paid at Phoenix, AZ, and at additional The first was style. All books and magazines have an official style. Ours is yon is to be there. To stand on the rim. To hike mailing office. Canada Post international publications on the river: floating the last free-running stretch of . “I can’t think of the derived from the Associated Press; Webster’s New World College Dictionary, down in. To run the river that was pioneered by mail product (Cana­dian distribution) sales agree­ment place without thinking of John Wesley Powell and his first expedition in 1869,” he says, No. 40732015. Send returns to Quad/Graphics, P.O. Box Fourth Edition; and, to some extent, the Oxford English Dictionary. Sticking to John Wesley Powell. 456, Niagara Falls ON L2E 6V2. Post­master: Send ad- “and how he saw the gentleness and beauty of this sandstone canyon just before plunging a style helps ensure consistency and, in theory, provides a better experience dress changes to Arizona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big into the perilous grandeur of the Grand Canyon.” And even though Childs knows the Colo- Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copy­right © 2019 by the Ari­zona for readers. ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR Department of Trans­­por­­tation. Repro­duc­tion in whole or rado a lot better than Powell did in 1869, he says it’s still full of surprises: “You can’t walk However, when you’re resurrecting stories that were written over the Follow me on Instagram: @arizonahighways in part with­out permission is prohibited. The magazine 20 feet without something catching your eye, and every day, there’s something else that does not accept and is not responsible for un­solicited ma­ter­ials. just blows you away.” In addition to his work for Arizona Highways, Childs has a new book titled Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America. His other work includes a story for PRODUCED IN THE USA The Atlantic about invasive “death cap” mushrooms in Canada. — NOAH AUSTIN

2 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP CATHERINE RYAN ABOVE, RIGHT JAMES Q MARTIN www.arizonahighways.com 3 LETTERS [email protected] THE JOURNAL I WAS RAISED IN ARIZONA (Payson and Tempe). In 1969, after high school, I joined the Army, and have only [MOTHER EARTH] been back to my home state once or Nahasdzáán twice. Recently, my wife bought me a subscription to Arizona Highways. I love it. I’d forgotten how beautiful Arizona really is. With Monument Valley to the north, a sandstone alcove shelters Square House, in the Navajo Nation’s Mystery Valley, at “There isn’t a mile of Navajoland that does not have much to offer the admirer of beauty and grandeur, but nothing sunset. “These otherworldly rock Mat Drake, Tallahassee, Florida formations are some of the most in all that vast, lonely expanse is as interesting or as picturesque as The People themselves.” Those are the words unusual found in the Southwest,” of Editor Raymond Carlson, from our August 1950 issue. Seventy years later, his words still ring true. The Navajo says photographer Larry Lindahl, who came to this location with people are fascinating, ambitious and beautiful, and the landscape is an endless series of scenic wonders. Navajo guide Tallson Rocha. “This land of ancient spirits often surprises me.” A portfolio edited by Jeff Kida

26 MARCH 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 27

March 2019

o the person who didn’t like seeing study both of them at the same time is there, gazing at the cover, and noting the photos in the exhilarating. One a kaleidoscope of color, how the clarity of the photographs has T December 2018 issue [Letters to the a treasure chest of satins tossed here and improved since the 1950s, while I seri- Editor, March 2019]: His photos, along there in purples, periwinkle, lavender ously considered breaking my vow. with his love of his state, have helped and orange rock, juxtaposed with mono- I flipped through, and found the old pho- make Arizona what it is today. Thank chromatic lines and curves of orange tos pretty interesting — fields nudging you for including his work and remind- with a flow of crunchy pebbles and the base of Camelback Mountain in 1956, ing us of his passion for Arizona. By the smooth rocks tossed in for texture. It’s agricultural Sedona in 1951 and 1955, and way, if anyone wants to cancel their hard to imagine that two photographers tiny Sky Harbor Airport in 1954. It wasn’t subscription over this, let me know, and could have caught these images at just the long before my eyes were glued to the I’ll pick them up for friends who will right moment. That your editor put them pages, and I was exclaiming, “This is so appreciate your beautiful state. together for the shock of turning the page well written! Listen to this!” Far from Scott Ciley, Fullerton, California to such symphonic expressions of rock dull, the 1957 article titled Phoenix: The Wave and color grandeur is genius. City’s Government is captivating, and you he marvelous issue celebrating the Charlotte Singleton, Arroyo Grande, California can’t read the 1958 Tucson: Dude Ranch Goodbye Grand Canyon [February 2019] Capital of the World without feeling you’ve Two dories approach Badger T reminded me of my own story. Years hen I saw the Hotel Pioneer pic- been back to a simpler time. I especially Creek Rapids, at Mile 8 in ago, I rode the South Rim shuttle to the ture on page 39 of the 1950s issue enjoyed the simile “carpets as thick as a the Grand Canyon section of farthest lookout to watch the sunset. W [January 2019], it was a flashback to cowboy’s tongue on Saturday night.” The the Colorado River. For river The threatening, ever-deepening dark my days in Tucson while attending grad- little vignettes of 1950s sports champ­ions, runners, the rapids are the first significant obstacle in green sky and increasingly stronger uate school at the University of Arizona. No. 1 hits, Academy Awards and enter- , which forms wind chased away all but a few of us. My girlfriend and I, along with another tainment news are icing on the cake! I the northeastern part of Suddenly, the wind stopped and to the couple, would crash the swimming pool hereby apologize for my fleeting moments Grand Canyon National Park. west the clouds rose as the sun sank and pretend that we were hotel guests of doubt. From Albert Schweit­zer’s note For more information, call the lower against the horizon — just enough in the summer of 1967. For students with to the correction from Teddy Roosevelt’s park at 928-638-7888 or visit to light the entire Canyon in a beauti- little or no money, the Hotel Pioneer hunting partner to the best hike for the www.nps.gov/grca. ful golden sunset. The intrepid few who swimming pool provided a free place to Tommy Fishers of this world, this fasci- were still there witnessed something so cool off. nating publication delivers. Once again, awe-inspiring that we all agreed that it Dennis Elley, Chino Valley, Arizona I’m convinced you are cheating yourself if was as if God rewarded us for our will- you don’t read every word in every issue ingness to take the risks. hen the January 2019 issue arrived of this wonderful magazine! Robert Gabrick, Somerset, with its flashback cover, I groaned, Jean Hutton, Scottsdale, Arizona W “Oh, no! They’ve resorted to reprint- ever has Arizona Highways published ing articles from old issues!” However, contact us If you have thoughts or com- two more beautiful, lyrical, stunning back in 2014, when I discovered how ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d N photographs than those on pages 30 much I’d been missing by just flipping love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis and 31 of the March 2019 issue. That they through each magazine, I vowed I would Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, are on opposing pages so that one can read every word in every issue. I sat visit www.arizonahighways.com.

4 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN BLAUSTEIN □J nature

Antelope Jackrabbits

AMEEMA AHMED

Found in Southern Arizona and parts of Mexico, antelope jackrabbits (Lepus alleni) are among the larger species in the hare family, with an especially large head and ears that average more than 6 inches in length. These jackrabbits use multiple strat- egies to deal with the desert heat: Their fur is reflective and insulated, and they can reduce blood flow to their ears to stay cool. Often, males will fight by “boxing”: standing on their hind legs and using their forelimbs to hit each other repeatedly and rapidly. While the jackrabbits’ mating rituals are not well known, the fighting could be related to competition for females. Antelope jackrab- bits eat mainly grass and plants, and much of their water consumption comes from eat- Visitors explore the ing cactus stems. This rabbit was spotted in monument near Faraway Ranch in Florence, southeast of the Phoenix area. the 1920s.

ADDITIONAL READING: To learn more about Arizona’s wildlife, pick up a copy of the Arizona Highways Wildlife Guide, which features 125 of the state’s native birds, mammals, reptiles and other animal species. To order online, visit www .shoparizonahighways.com.

6 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY EIRINI PAJAK www.arizonahighways.com 7 □J history dining □J THIS MONTH farmstead cheeses. If you’re looking for a IN HISTORY Little Moo’s Gourmet Market meal, Little Moo’s has that, too, with its n On May 1, 1782, approxi- About the only thing missing from Old Town Cottonwood was a one- affordable deli sandwiches made with mately 300 Apaches stop shop for world-class meats and cheeses, decadent snacks and other premium ingredients. attack Spanish soldiers specialty foods. Not anymore. The deli, opened in 2018, offers classic settling in Tucson but are sandwiches with a twist — such as its forced to retreat. KAYLA FROST peanut butter and jelly, which consists n An earthquake origi- of honey peanut butter and organic, nating in Sonora, Mexico, JENNIFER AND MARAT Shkandin, shop for world-class meats and cheeses, vanilla-infused banana jam on toasted levels adobe buildings in travel agents from New York, were so decadent snacks and other specialty food challah bread. the Southern Arizona min- impressed by the Verde Valley and items. Shortly thereafter, in 2016, Little There’s also an Italian sandwich, with ing town of Charleston on Cottonwood on their road-trip honey- Moo’s Gourmet Market, named to honor salami, pepperoni, fontina, sharp pro- May 3, 1887. moon in 2010 that they couldn’t stop Jennifer’s late “Aunt Moo,” was born. volone and a mix of herbs and peppers n On May 27, 1931, Phoenix returning. “We would joke that even The Shkandins source their goods on a baguette. A sandwich with summer teachers reportedly agree though we could go anywhere in the from small farms and independent food sausage, cheddar cheese curds and spicy to take a 5 percent pay cut world, we just kept wanting to come makers they discover in Arizona and brown mustard on sourdough is a cus- to keep schools running back to this place,” Jennifer says. “I felt beyond. With so many tempting options, tomer favorite. Grilled cheeses are served full time. like if you could have a destination be a it can be hard to decide what to choose vegetarian or with a peppercorn bacon n Tombstone resident soul mate, this was ours.” at Little Moo’s. Luckily, sampling is jam, and both options are mouthwater- George Whitwell Parsons During one of their many visits to encouraged. “My absolute favorite thing ing. Really, just close your eyes and point International Harvester’s proving grounds in Phoenix are shown in the mid-1980s. writes in his detailed Cottonwood, the Shkandins saw a “For is having someone taste something at the to the menu, and you’ll be happy with journal in May 1883 that Rent” sign on the door of the vacant shop and seeing their face light up with what you get. “some fun [is] ahead” Black Canyon Trading Post building delight,” Jennifer says. Just note that Little Moo’s sandwich International Harvester because a large swimming on Main Street. It was then that they Popular items at the market include orders are to go — but they easily can pool is being built on Fifth decided to move to Cottonwood and craft chocolate bars (try the lavender be enjoyed during a stroll down Main Proving Grounds Street. open the one business they believed with sea salt or the cannoli cream), bacon Street, at a nearby park or anywhere else You wouldn’t know it today, but back in the 1940s, Ahwatukee Foothills was an open was missing from Old Town: a one-stop and raspberry smoked maple jams, and you please. landscape where trucks and tractors were put through the wringer.

AMEEMA AHMED 50 YEARS AGO IN ARIZONA HIGHWAYS he area near 24th Street and Pecos dined.” The rest of the area, including where Road, in the Ahwatukee Foothills sec- the golf course is now, was testing grounds. flRJnrHO tion of Phoenix, is diverse these days Three years after that purchase, the com- II 1iJ '. T — full of houses, apartments, schools pany added another 2,000 acres to the prop- and even a golf course. And the neighbor- erty, allowing it to incorporate motor truck hood, now known as the Foothills, soon will divisions. A 1949 press release explained the be accessible via the South Mountain Freeway, reasons IHC chose to keep growing in Ari- which could be completed later this year. But zona. “The first is that the area lends itself to many decades ago, a very different kind of traf- our needs,” an IHC manager said. “Arizona’s fic made its way around this part of Phoenix. climate means no ‘down’ days due to weather Martin Gibson, who has lived in the area and we can drive our trucks there almost con- for more than three decades, has written two stantly. The second is that we can make full books on the history of Ahwatukee Foothills. use of the facilities. A network of highways Apache County, a long, “Each community has its own little secret,” has been constructed, all of which are ready thin strip of land on Arizo- Gibson says. “Its own little history, so to for our immediate use.” na’s northeastern border, speak.” The test track was paved in 1953; however, was the theme of the May For the Foothills, that history goes back to encroaching development led to the sale of the 1969 issue of Arizona High- 1946, when International Harvester Co. (IHC) property in the 1980s. Today, the area bears lit- ways. Its pages journeyed purchased 2,000 acres of land there to turn tle resemblance to its days as a testing ground. through the lands of it into a testing ground for heavy equipment “There’s a whole Wild West history to the White Mountain Apaches and vehicles. The Foothills Golf Club building proving grounds that has gone away,” Gibson and Navajos, through the now stands where the IHC administration and says. “But some of the physical remnants have Petrified Forest and Can- sales building once was. Right next to that not.” That includes Desert Foothills Parkway yon de Chelly, and through site was an elevated landing strip for when and Chandler Boulevard, which use the same the Sitgreaves and Apache the company flew in guests to be “wined and path as the IHC test track. national forests. COTTONWOOD Little Moo’s Gourmet Market, 1035 N. Main Street, 928-592-8705, www.littlemoosaz.com

8 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF MARTIN GIBSON PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW www.arizonahighways.com 9 □J around arizona Wendy Davis, director of the University of Ari- zona’s Race Track Industry Program, walks Anita Margarita, a broodmare in the UA thoroughbred herd, at the university’s Equine Center in Tucson.

Considering that the Coronado Expedi­ help students interested in training and tion came through what now is Arizona breeding, especially because the program in 1540, the state can claim the country’s recently purchased a pair of high-quality oldest equine tradition. Even so, the RTIP broodmares. One will be bred with begs the question of why a horse racing Midnight Lute, a two-time Breeders’ Cup academic program is located in a state winner named for former UA basketball synonymous with the red rock of the coach Lute Olson and trained by Baffert. Southwest, not the bluegrass of Kentucky. Baffert is by no means the only prom­ Program Director Wendy Davis, a inent RTIP alum. Todd Pletcher, the Tucson native, says the RTIP dates to 1973. seven-time winner of the Eclipse Award City resident Jack Goodman, a sportsman as a trainer, and Pete Aiello, track whose horse Team Spirit won the Grand announc­ er at Florida’s landmark Gulf- National at ’s Aintree Racecourse stream Park, graduated from the program, in 1964, saw the need for a higher level of as have industry executives and officials professionalism within the industry. He working at state regulatory agencies. and other prominent horsemen endowed As for Sausville, he’s undecided on the RTIP with funding that still provides exactly what direction he wants his the bulk of the program’s financial sup- career to take. But in an era of intense port, Davis says. concern about animal welfare, and when “They wanted it in neutral territory horse racing’s fanbase is perceived as old because this wasn’t a program intended and getting older, the 23-year-old fore- to service the thoroughbred industry in sees himself as “an ambassador for the Kentucky,” she says. “This was designed sport. I want to be a person who shows as a national program.” racing in a positive light.” The challenging curriculum requires Sausville grew up in New York state, students to take both hands-on horse not far from Saratoga Race Course, where management courses and classes on the he first experienced horse racing with business of racing. The RTIP also serves his family. Then, after attending the Bel- as a think tank of sorts, especially during mont Stakes and hearing the huge crowd an annual symposium that draws indus- sing New York, New York during the post try leaders from around the world. parade, he began following racing year- “There have been ideas that were con- round and “wanted to learn about horses sidered too far on the cutting edge at and everything in the industry.” one time [but] are now accepted in the He set a goal to visit every active industry,” Davis says, citing “chiclets,” racetrack in the country, and later began colored tiles on infield tote boards that traveling to tracks that had shut down. reflect digital tracking of horses’ posi- In total, Sausville has seen nearly 70 tions around the track. “Ten years down racetracks. At Gulfstream, handicapper t’s more than 1,700 miles from the Main kind in the country — is virtually the road, we can look back and say, ‘You Ron Nicoletti introduced him to track Race Track Industry Program Gate at the University of Arizona in unknown on campus. That’s despite hav- know where that idea was first floated? announcer Aiello, who Sausville says Only two trainers have won the Triple Crown more than once. Nogales I Tucson to the starting gate at Churchill ing produced the likes of Nogales native It was at the symposium.’ ” “started raving about the program. He put native Bob Baffert is one of them, and some of what he’s learned can Downs Racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky. Bob Baffert, only the second trainer to The program operates out of offices it on my radar.” For a small group of students, though, win the Triple Crown more than once. across from the Main Gate, and for stu- During Sausville’s first class at UA, be traced to a unique training program at the University of Arizona. the university’s Race Track Industry “When I tell other students I’m in the dents’ hands-on experiences, it uses the students watched two Breeders’ Cup MATT JAFFE Program (RTIP) shortens that journey by Race Track Industry Program, they’re the Equine Center at the university’s Classic races. “It was incredible,” Saus­ introducing them to every facet of horse like, ‘Really? We have that here?’ ” says agricultural center on Campbell Avenue. ville says. “I thought to myself, Is this racing, from training and breeding to the Alex Sausville, a first-year student who Davis says those hands-on opportuni- really happening? It sure doesn’t feel like science behind pari-mutuel betting. graduated from St. John Fisher College ties soon will expand when the Equine work. And if this is what I get to do for A tiny school within the school, this in New York state. “It’s just so different Center moves to the former Al-Marah my career, I don’t think it will ever feel degree program — the only one of its than anything else at the university.” Arabian Farms in Bear Canyon. That will like work.”

10 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY SCOTT BAXTER www.arizonahighways.com 11 photography □J

Q&A: David Zickl

PHOTO EDITOR JEFF KIDA

JK: There’s a Huckleberry Finn qual- and once I hit on something, I figure ity to this photo. How did it come out how to refine it. On that day, it just together? all worked out. DZ: I do a lot of paddleboarding, and I’m on the about three days JK: Do you always have a camera a week during the warmer months. with you when you’re out on the On this trip, last spring, I was joined river? by my girlfriend’s son Charles, who DZ: Yes. One time, though, I went was 13 at the time, and one of his out without the dry bag. I’m a pretty friends. Some of the Salt River horses good paddleboarder, so I wasn’t too happened to be on the river as we worried, but apparently, I should paddled by, and it just made for a have been, because that was the really nice shot. day I fell and dunked my camera in the river. The camera went off to the JK: What are the logistics of shoot- shop after that. I lost my prescription ing a photo like this one? glasses, too. DZ: The water is pretty shallow there — at its deepest, it’s about

up to my chest — so I usually wade PHOTO through the water and use my pad- WORKSHOP dleboard as my “tripod.” I have my camera in an Ewa-Marine bag, which is a dry bag for a camera. Charles and I just slowly got as close as we could before the horses scattered.

JK: I know you’re an unforgiving editor of your own work, and that you shoot a lot of photos that don’t make the cut. What did you like Black and White about this shot? Photography DZ: It just feels like an adventure to August 9-11, Flagstaff me, and it evokes an emotional Photographer Joel Wolfson leads response. Charles looks a little bit participants through the creative awed by what he’s seeing. He’s all process of visualizing and capturing wet, he’s wearing cutoffs, and he’s images in black and white. Locations kind of gangly in his posture and the include the San Francisco Peaks and way he’s holding the paddle. I’m not Sunset Crater Volcano National the kind of photographer who knows Monument. Information: 888-790- Charles, age 13, navigates his paddleboard past wild horses on the he’s going to go out and make a great 7042 or www.ahps.org Salt River northeast of the Phoenix area. photo. I have to put a lot of effort in,

To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography.

12 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPHS: ABOVE DAVID ZICKL ABOVE, RIGHT JOEL WOLFSON www.arizonahighways.com 13 □J photography

Deer Creek Falls

ROBERT STIEVE

“Just after dinner we pass a stream on the right, which leaps into the Colorado by a direct fall of more than 100 feet, forming a beautiful cascade,” John Wesley Powell wrote about Falls in August 1869. “There is a bed of very hard rock above, 30 or 40 feet in thickness, and there are much softer beds below. The hard beds above proj- ect many yards beyond the softer, which are washed out, forming a deep cave behind the fall, and the stream pours through a narrow crevice above into a deep pool below. Around on the rocks in the cavelike chamber are set beautiful ferns, with delicate fronds and enameled stalks. But we have little time to spend in admiration; so we go on.” Seventy-one years later, Barry Goldwater would become the 73rd person to run the Green and Colorado rivers (see page 32). In his diary from the trip in 1940, Goldwater wrote: “Deer Creek comes down from the North Rim and winds through a tortuous canyon of the along the river where it plunges about a hundred and twenty-five feet to the river level. It is situated about two hundred feet back from the river and shoots sideways out of the crack in the wall. The water assumes a fan shape as it comes down and falls freezingly and forcefully on those who venture below it. We did and were cool for a change.”

To see more of Barry Goldwater’s photography, check out Photographs by Barry M. Goldwater: The Arizona Highways Collection at Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West. The exhibition will run through June 23. To learn more about the show, visit www.scottsdalemuseumwest.org. To learn more about the Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation, which is working to restore and digitize Barry Goldwater’s 15,000 photographs, visit www.goldwaterfoundation.org.

14 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY BARRY GOLDWATER, COURTESY OF THE BARRY & PEGGY GOLDWATER FOUNDATION www.arizonahighways.com 15 J lodging □ GO WEST AND

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Woods Canyon Trail, an easy climb into Las Posadas of Sedona the nearby Munds Mountain Wilder- If Sedona has an outskirts, this inn is located there. It’s not too far out, ness. And when you return after a day but the address is one of the reasons it’s one of the best-reviewed hotels of burning calories, there are numerous in Red Rock Country. dining options just across the highway. Breakfast is even more convenient, NOAH AUSTIN and after a quiet night’s sleep in your suite, you won’t even have to change out LAS POSADAS OF SEDONA is at the sided, easy-to-operate gas fireplace, and of your pajamas. The Las Posadas din- very first traffic circle you come to when there’s also a kitchenette and a large ing room offers guests a rotating selec- you roll into Sedona from State Route 179, bathroom with both a soaking tub and a tion of Southwestern fare — on a recent but it’s easy to overlook anyway. That’s shower. If you need more space, book one morning, it featured green chile chicken partly because of Red Rock Country’s of the 1,500-square-foot villas, each of enchiladas, served with two eggs — plus scenery, including a nice view of Bell Rock which has a full kitchen, a dining room assorted fresh fruit and baked goods. It’s to the north. It’s also because the much and a large balcony or patio. the perfect start to another day of adven- larger Sedona Golf Resort and Hilton There’s cable TV and excellent Wi-Fi ture, or to a reluctant trip home after a Sedona Resort are just across the road. in the rooms, but if you’re visiting the family vacation. But there’s a reason this boutique inn is Sedona area, you should be using Wi-Fi Add in the fact that Las Posadas is among the area’s best-reviewed hotels. only to Instagram your adventures. On surprisingly affordable, and it’s no won- It starts with the rooms. Most of them the property, you’ll find a pool and hot der the inn sees plenty of repeat custom- are 650-square-foot suites, and every suite tub, and hiking trails in the Bell Rock ers. One recent online reviewer summed includes a king bed in the bedroom and a area are a short drive north. Just south it up best: “This really felt like a private queen pullout sofa in a separate sitting of the hotel, at the Red Rock Ranger property more than a hotel. We’ll hap- area. Between the two rooms is a double- District Visitor Center, is the start of the pily be back.” SEDONA Las Posadas of Sedona, 26 Avenida de Piedras, 928-284-5288, www.lasposadasofsedona.com 888-868-WEST (9378) find us on

16 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN BURCHAM IN THE WAKE OF POWELL AN ESSAY BY CRAIG CHILDS

HAT WOULD POWELL HAVE thought seeing an outboard skiff motoring up the Colorado River, rooster tail lifted behind it? This is where he floated the final gates of Glen Canyon in late July 1869. Powell was leading the first car- tographic expedition down this river, and we would have been a Wshock to see coming the other way. This is where the expedition was finishing the last calm-water stretch of Glen Canyon before the limestone gates of the Grand Can- yon. Major John Wesley Powell would have looked from his chair, strapped to the top of one of his wooden boats, and puzzled at the scene unfolding before him. The aluminum skiff, driven by a sturdy, weathered man who’d been taking people up this river for 37 years, was towing a wooden dory. The smaller dory bucked and sloshed in the skiff’s wake, where it took on too much water and abruptly sank. I imagine Powell, the one-armed Civil War veteran, would have stood from his chair and said, “Holy mackerel, those fellows have swamped their boat!” The swamping was in late summer 2018, 149 years and a couple of months after Powell’s expedition. The driver, hired to get us up the river, cut the outboard on his square-backed skiff and looked behind us. The dory sank beneath the river’s surface — not muddy and thick, like Powell found it, but as clear as an aquarium. A man riding in the skiff stripped his shirt and dived into the river. He swam to the sunken dory and began gathering beers and dry bags that were starting to float away. I wondered what Powell would have thought seeing our circus — the privilege of a known river, not a dan- gerous and unknown course, as he had seen it. Every bend brought sights unknown to Powell and his crew. They were navi- gating a waterway they knew next to nothing about, wondering if they were approaching a waterfall, an inescapable plunge between cliff walls, no way out for them. At countless campfires, tales have been recited about Powell’s first big drops in Cataract, oars lost, boats dam- aged, or the story of the three men who John Tveten (left) and writer Craig Childs take in the view of the Colorado River from John Wesley Powell, circa 1890. gave up and marched out at Separation a Swampscott dory in the stretch of Glen Canyon Library of Congress Rapids near the end of the Grand Can- below . James Q Martin

18 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 19 In the morning, we loaded up and pushed our various craft to the dam and be out by the afternoon. We were taking two “And now the scenery is on a grand scale. The walls of the canyon, — the wooden dory, a paddleboard and pack rafts, six of us nights instead. I wanted slowness, for us to settle into Powell’s 2,500 feet high, are of marble, of many beautiful colors, often altogether — into the current. We pressed upstream, toward trip through the Glen like a needle into a groove. the dam. First light unfurled down a bone-white edifice polished by waves, and sometimes far up the sides, where showers 710 feet tall, a concrete seashell inserted between canyon walls. OWELL WORE HIS CREW THIN BY TAKING have washed sands over the cliffs.” — John Wesley Powell Reservoir water backed up on the other side seeped through precious time on sandstone strata and fossil recordings. the porous sandstone, lining the cliffs with dark, flowing If he was to be the first to map the region, he would do springs and hanging gardens. The river, filtered by the reser- Pit thoroughly. yon, never to be seen again. A bighorn was finally shot in Glen Grand Canyon river guide, and avid fan and reader of Powell. voir, was cold and crystalline, eelgrass waving below us, trout He climbed at every opportunity, getting himself up into Canyon, 80 pounds skinned, they guessed: a feast for explorers She’s listened to and told Powell stories more times than she drifting and darting. chimneys and cracks, scrabbling with his one arm. He emerged who’d been near-starving on what was left of their bacon and can remember, fire-lit at the howling bottom of the Grand I rowed the dory. Port Orford cedar creaked with every to see the great, forested rise of Navajo Mountain, triangulat- sacks of moldy flour. Canyon. stroke in a vessel secured with copper rivets and brass screws, ing off landmarks he’d spotted from past vistas. This was how After the punishing rapids of , making a mile a Sadler said, “Soft rocks give you good water, and hard rocks built back in Flagstaff by author, historian and prolific Grand he made his maps. day at times, they found themselves flushed into gentle waters give you bad water; that’s what Powell learned.” Canyon boat builder Brad Dimock (see Whatever Boats You He returned alone, in the midnight dark, to camp, where and rounded cliffs, entering Arizona Territory from the border “Bad water” means big rapids and terrifying drops, which Float, page 42). This dory was not what Powell would have his crew stayed put, wanting to get on with the trip and for the of what now is . This is where Powell would have seen us Powell correlated with the presence of granites and limestones. used, but it was closer than the paddleboards and our gaggle major to stop fancying around. They were near-starving, two and probably ordered his men to row to our perplexing ordeal Good water was calm, where his boats could make up to of inflatables. months into the expedition and running perilously low on food. where, 10 minutes into our expedition, we’d sunk our first boat. 30 miles a day, the result of softly eroded sandstone built into On the rim stood metal monsters of pylons conveying hydro- Perhaps it was his attention to geology, his wonder at this We dragged the dory — an East Coast Swampscott meant canyons a thousand feet deep. electricity toward Los Angeles and Phoenix. Transmission arid, water-shaped landscape, that gave Powell a vision for for ocean and shoal travel, not rivers — onto a wet-sand beach Glen Canyon was good water. Flowing through rock shaped lines soared across the canyon, glistening like spider strands. how the Dry West could be reliably and sustainably settled. He and emptied it out. We pushed it, upside down, across the like muffins and capitol domes, as if the land were being Two ravens flew along a sunlit sandstone wall, hard to tell later developed maps of watersheds and drew boundaries that deck of the skiff and tied it down. The dory was our Emma kneaded, the Colorado River relaxed. Rapids were hardly big which were the ravens and which were the shadows. This is looked like landscape rather than four-square games. He was Dean, our version of Powell’s favorite wooden boat, and about enough to name. In a hollowed-out bend the same size, at 17 feet long. of a dry tributary, canyon walls folded The skiff’s pilot — born in Morenci, living most of the year together like drapes. Powell’s brother Wal- in Snowflake and keeping a small house in the desert near ter, a traumatized Civil War captain who here — started the outboard and resumed our upstream travel. also was on the expedition, broke into an We passed the same streaked and salmon-colored formations old Mississippi freedom song. His baritone Powell saw a century and a half before us. This is where he and voice would have echoed as if in a cascade his men floated past a canyon system he fell in love with. of band shells. Powell wrote, “It was doubtless made N THREE MONTHS, POWELL LED HIS EXPEDITION OF for an academy of music by its storm-born nine hearty souls by wooden boats from recently named architecture; so we name it Music Temple.” Wyoming Territory to the newly minted state of Nevada. Today, the place where Walter sang is IThey were here to make a map from the top of the Green River beneath the waters of . to the bottom of the Colorado — the last large, unmapped part “The singing in Music Temple really of the Western frontier. strikes me,” Sadler said. “Art doesn’t hap- Powell found that these rivers weren’t like those in the East. pen unless you can rest enough to take the He was used to lush, clear streams building into big, calm riv- time.” ers flowing marshily to the coast. Powell was raised in West- Sadler sees Glen Canyon as a sigh of ern New York, in a land of deciduous woods and waterfalls. In breath between the battering rams of 1856, before the war, he rowed the Mississippi from harder canyons. They’d heard the Grand to the sea. It was huge and lazy most of the way. Canyon was ahead, trouble brewing. “He He found rivers of the West to be temperamental, sunk obviously didn’t know what the Grand ABOVE: John Tveten rides the Swampscott dory deep into the land, leaving high banks and debris from floods, Canyon was going to be like,” Sadler said. “All he had to com- while it’s being towed upstream on the Colorado River. boulders jumbled into massive rapids. The only water in the pare it to was Cataract, Lodore, Flaming Gorge. And those had James Q Martin trying to persuade D.C. that the settlers it sent out here would country was here. No swamps or lakes, just rivers cutting into been extremely difficult.” ABOVE, RIGHT: With the dory on board, the group enjoys find not abundance, but drought and hardship. a swift ride up the river. James Q Martin rock like band saws. Glen Canyon would have been like falling into a bed of rose Powell proposed that each watershed be locally governed Powell waxed poetic when he wrote in his journals, his petals. “When you look at the entirety of the river, from the and managed so that actual decision-makers had skin in the penmanship atrocious — he’d lost his right arm and his writ- Green all the way down, Glen Canyon was definitely one of the something Powell would have recognized looking up from the game, rather than being managed by larger, outside entities. ing hand at the seven years earlier. Having easiest parts,” Sadler said. river to admire the birds’ grace. He wouldn’t have understood He asked Congress to withdraw Western lands from purchase climbed out of the canyons to a high point where he could see the power lines, but ravens, he knew. until he could complete an irrigation survey and determine the country, he scribbled, “From which the gods might quarry E SANG THAT NIGHT, CAMPED ON A BEACH, The rest of the day we floated, rowed and paddled. The how scarce water could be allocated. mountains.” guitar ringing across the water. Moonlight drifted paddleboard was turned into a gear barge, towed behind one It didn’t work. Land speculators and railroads appealed At that same location, one of the less enthusiastic crew through Glen Canyon, what is left of it: a 15-mile of the pack rafts. Our traveling river party passed through more loudly to Congress. Powell’s study was defunded, and recorded in his journal, “The same old picture of wild desola- Wfraction from the dam down to . The rest, at least 80 cleaves of bedrock, galleries of silver-black patina and cliffs the rush to fill the West continued. tion we have seen for the last hundred miles.” miles, is under Lake Powell. We’d come to float the remaining that hemmed tightly around us. Twenty-four years after his first expedition, Powell said to I talked to Christa Sadler, an author, educator, longtime free-running stretch. You could float this 15-mile stretch in a day, get a ride up an audience in Los Angeles, “I tell you, gentlemen, you are pil-

20 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 21 “At one place I have a walk for more than a mile on the marble pavement, all polished and fretted with strange devices and embossed RAFT in a thousand fantastic patterns. Through a cleft in the wall the sun shines on this pavement and it GRAND gleams in iridescent beauty.” — John Wesley Powell CANYON

ing up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply these lands.” Powell was right. He saw the future we’re now in: water wars across the West, rivers siphoned from different basins, emptied from one place and poured into another, much of it protested and tangled up in courts. Sadler said, “When we talk about Powell on the river, he’s just a cliché. Beard and suspenders. My interest in him wasn’t piqued by this. It was later — how he proposed we settle the West.” [STILL SPACE FOR 2019] She added, “Rather than looking at the land and saying, ‘We John Wesley Powell’s boat, with Powell’s chair attached, sits on the bank can do whatever we want with it,’ he said, ‘Here’s what it is, of the Colorado River. Library of Congress www.raftarizona.com and here’s a way we can do this.’ ” I asked if the Southwest would have been as prosperous under Powell’s vision. She said his plan wouldn’t have ulti- In the morning, we set off from our second camp. Ropes of 800-477-7238 mately stood, saying, “He couldn’t have imagined 4 million eelgrass and rainforest colors waved beneath the river’s surface. people in the Phoenix Basin or 20 million in Los Angeles.” Sun cut through long stretches of shadow, and our boats glided I asked her, “But if it had stood?” into and out of shade and light. Sadler said, “We’d all be better off.” A crowd had gathered at a viewpoint a thousand feet up from the river. They accessed it off a highway out of Page, HE SHAPE OF THE CANYON HAS NOT CHANGED standing at a railing for the sunrise. There were 30 or 40 people since Powell came through. Same bends, same cliffs. End up there, and we must have looked like grains of rice floating of the day, we explored a dry side canyon that would below. Tourists overlooking Horseshoe Bend would have seen Thave caught his eye, a ribbon of shadow cutting into golden a vast desert expanse with an unnaturally clear river winding cliffs. With pack rafts pulled up through willows and tied off, down inside of it, not much changed since Powell came here, we climbed into the canyon. the air tainted with a little more pollution. Late-day light shed across the upper palisades. Cool air Powell would have glanced up to the same point. What slipped downward through slots and waterless pourovers, would he have thought seeing tiny figures peering down? Four pockets of shade waiting all day to let go of their stores. Red- million in the Phoenix area, 20 million around Los Angeles? bud trees gathered in the narrowing dim. Sand was untracked Would he have been shocked, or not surprised, knowing this but for pocket mice, lizards and beetles. No people had been was coming? here, at least not recently. Powell would have been, though. He He had more on his mind than this. Glen Canyon would would have frustrated his crew and tied off, setting tracks to soon open wide at Lees Ferry. Immediately, it would clamp see what he could see. down again, rocks hardening, leading into limestones and We followed this corkscrew canyon until it ended in a high, granites of the Grand Canyon: bad water. The tunnel of love narrow impasse. We gathered shoulder to shoulder, breath to was ending, and Powell wrote, “This bodes toil and danger.” breath in the final, steep squeeze. Powell would have gone higher, The expedition left Glen Canyon behind on August 5, 1869, I thought. He would have shimmied with the nub of his right arm. continuing below Lees Ferry into the rapid-strewn maw of Back to the boats, we put on the river at dusk and floated the Grand Canyon. Almost 150 years later, we pulled onto a the bends of the Glen. Stars came out before we reached camp, concrete ramp, end of our journey. Rafts downstream from us a swath of bright sky over a dark canyon. were pushing in, following Powell deeper into the Earth. !!!! Concessioner is authorized by the National Park Service 22 MAY 2019 JOURNEY TH R O UG H TH E C E N TE R O F TH E E A R TH

On May 24, 1869, John Wesley Powell began an expedition that would take him from Green River, Wyoming, to the 2 billion-year-old depths of the Grand Canyon. He was the first to run the Colorado River, but hardly the last. One hundred fifty years later, thousands of A sudden downpour from thrill-seekers, including Adam Schallau, a monsoon storm creates numerous waterfalls in the Grand make the journey every summer. Canyon’s Lower Granite Gorge. This location is near Mile 164 of the Colorado River’s 277-mile run A PORTFOLIO BY ADAM SCHALLAU through the Canyon. “This is one of those photos that bring back very strong memories,” photographer Adam Schallau says. “The Canyon transformed so quickly — from being warm and dry to being this dynamic environment — and we watched it over a matter of minutes. It was a surreal experience.”

24 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 25 .. -- ~ ';.4'/ . \ '< ·. \.

GRAND CANYON RIVER GUIDES Taking a trip down the Colo- rado River through the Grand Canyon is one of the best ways to enjoy the beauty of the natural wonder. Preserving that beauty and experience is the mission of Grand Canyon River Guides. Formed in 1988, the association works to preserve and protect the Canyon and the Colorado through education and advocacy. The nonprofit group is made up of more than 1,700 members who have varying relationships to the Canyon, but share a passion for protecting it and its surrounding areas. The group’s magazine, Boatman’s Quarterly Review, highlights the history and issues concerning the Canyon and the river. “Our philosophy is that if people understand, then they will care,” says Executive Direc- tor Lynn Hamilton. “If they care, then they will defend.” For more information, call 928-773-1075 or visit www.gcrg.org. — Ameema Ahmed

LEFT: River guide Joe Bennion navigates Upset Rapids at river Mile 150, just above . Schallau was drawn to these rapids because the Kolb brothers, the Canyon’s famous photographers, flipped their boat there. “A big part of the river is the characters,” he says, “and the friendships that develop. Joe is like family to me. As for the photo, I just wanted to capture the chaos of going through the whitewater.” ABOVE: A wooden dory rests in the golden light of the cliffs surrounding the Colorado.

26 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 27 “The Grand Canyon ... is a land of music. The river thunders in perpetual roar, swelling in floods of music when the storm gods play upon the rocks and fading away into soft and low murmurs when the infinite blue of heaven is unveiled. With the melody of the great tide rising and falling, swelling and vanishing forever, other melodies are heard in the gorges of the lateral canyons, while the waters plunge in the rapids among the rocks or leap in great cataracts. Thus the Grand Canyon is a land of song. Mountains of music swell in the rivers, hills of music billow in the creeks, and meadows of music murmur in the rills that River rafters paddle past ripple over the rocks.” a waterfall in the Canyon. Schallau shot this photo about 15 minutes after the one at the beginning of — JOHN WESLEY POWELL this portfolio. “This was the last waterfall from that storm,” he says. “It’s just this moment of pure tranquility — probably one of the most peaceful moments I’ve experienced on any river. To me, this photo shows what the Canyon is about.”

28 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 29 JOHN WESLEY POWELL MEMORIAL MUSEUM If you visit Lake Powell, make a stop at the John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum in Page to learn more about the man for whom the lake is named. John Wesley Powell was a Civil War veteran who, in 1869, set off down the Colorado River to discover the unknown. Three months later, the one-armed war hero and five other men emerged from the depths of the Grand Canyon at the mouth of the . Powell helped discover and document many features of the Canyon and the Colorado that people enjoy today. The Powell Museum opened a century after that pivotal expedition, and now houses details of Powell’s expeditions, as well as memora- bilia that celebrates the history of Page and the . It also pays homage to the area’s cultural history with exhibits of Native American artifacts. For more information, call 928-645-9496 or visit www.powellmuseum.org. — Ameema Ahmed

The Colorado rushes past prickly pear cactuses in the Canyon’s Inner Gorge at sunset. “One of my takeaways from this photo is something you can’t see in the photo: the heat radiating from the rocks,” Schallau says. “You really feel that in the Inner Gorge, because the dark rocks absorb all that heat. And I love the little bend the river makes at the end. It leaves you wondering what’s around the corner.”

30 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 31 ’ 1940 expedition, which included Barry Goldwater, navigates the Colorado River at the mouth of in the Grand Canyon. An Odyssey of the Green and Colorado The intimate journal of three boats and nine people on a trip down two rivers. A story originally published in the January 1941 issue of Arizona Highways. Story and Photographs by Barry M. Goldwater

EDITOR’S NOTE: “In 1940, I fulfilled a lifetime ambition,” Barry Goldwater wrote in his book Delightful Journey. He was referring to a trip down the Green and Colorado rivers. On that trip, he kept a journal. “This book of mine first assumed form as a diary scribbled and jotted each evening as we made camp; then it was published in a mimeographed edition of three hundred copies distributed privately among employees of the Goldwater store and my family,” he wrote. “I also adapted a small portion of the text for an article that appeared in Arizona Highways in January 1941.” In his column that month, Editor Raymond Carlson wrote: “It is with considerable pride that we refer you to Barry Goldwa- ter’s story in words and pictures in this issue. [He] took several Our January 1941 cover featured thousand feet of colored motion pictures and hundreds of black one of Barry Goldwater’s images and white still shots. We have selected for portrayal of the excit- from the trip. ing trip some seventy of the stills and urge you to see the motion picture if you ever have the chance.” Although that film is currently not available, plans for restoration and public viewing are underway. For more information, visit the Barry & Peggy Goldwater Founda- tion’s website, www.goldwaterfoundation.org. Meanwhile, enjoy this trip back in time.

HEN A MAN has an itch for the greater part of his life, there comes a time when scratching is inevitable. This particular itch can be classed Was “riveritis,” and of the particular river causing the itch, there could never have been any doubt — it was our Colorado. First symptoms of this affliction appeared years ago when, as a small boy, I learned that my grandfather started his business on the doubtful banks of the Colo- rado at La Paz. As the years rolled by, a desire to see and learn more of this river grew right along with me. In fact, it grew a little faster than I did, for I never seemed able to catch up with it. By the time I was a rather large boy, I had seen the Colorado from practically every vantage point in Arizona, from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the broad

www.arizonahighways.com 33 expanse of water below Yuma. In addition to this visual education, I had been That was in January; the trip wasn’t to start down the Green, the Colorado, and through all the canyons ent that no one had lived in it for some time. After this place, absorbing what the explorers of the river had written, everything I could lay until June. I wondered what I would do, trying of these rivers, including the Grand Canyon of Arizona. On our avenues of contact with habitation consisted only of cattle my hands on, from Major [John Wesley] Powell’s accurate account of his voy- to wait patiently for the day we would sail. I May 24, 1869, he put out from Green River, Wyoming, with trails, as we were fast entering the least-known portion of the age down through the years to the Kolb brothers’ vivid and thrilling descrip- found the answer in the many problems that four boats to travel down two rivers whose canyons had been and a section of our country that has naught to tion of the river and its canyons, which they call Through the Grand Canyon came up regarding camera equipment, film, held in fearsome awe for many years. He had no knowledge of offer either man or beast but unrivaled scenery. We loved it, From Wyoming to Mexico. personal duffel, and all the million and one his route. In fact, he didn’t know whether the story that the but I guess the cows aren’t as appreciative as we, for we saw I really think that the germ that had been fomenting for so many years things a trip like this requires. As that June day Colorado flowed underground for a part of its route might be none of them on their trails. broke out into full-fledged itching during the many readings which I gave this approached, I saw that it would be impossible true. He and his men completed the journey the same year in One of the most interesting places we passed was Bowknot latter book. Emery Kolb was no stranger to me. I had known him for a long for me to make the entire journey from Green which they started it, and on their way, they acquired and set Bend. Powell gave it that name, but even if he hadn’t, someone time. I had seen his pictures and listened to his lecture and talked to him, so River, Wyoming, and that my plans would have down such perfect descriptions of the rivers, and the country else would have, because there is nothing else to call a perfect if anyone can be accused of bringing my affliction to the point of requiring to be changed so as to allow my departure from through which they flow, that the information has remained bowknot except a bowknot. Here the river describes two loops immediate attention, it is Emery Kolb. Green River, Utah, on July 10, when the rest of today unsurpassed and seldom equaled. His subsequent trips in the form of a bowknot. At the gather, or small place in the Having made up my mind to put this desire behind me once and for all, the party would pass that town. That meant in 1871 and 1872, over a part of the same route he had earlier knot, all that divides the river is a high sandstone wall not I was confronted with the question: How? The answer to the question was, another month of waiting, but it soon passed, taken, added much to our knowledge of the geography and I knew from inquiry, far too expensive an undertaking for the limits of my and on a hot July day, I arrived at Green River, geology of the Grand Canyon and its country. pocketbook. Believing that there must be someone in this broad land of ours Utah, ready for my lifelong-desired journey. In the intervening years, numerous other parties have trav- bothered with the same urging, and expressing myself thusly to my friend eled down the river of canyons, and those parties have faith- Hubert Richardson at Cameron, Arizona, I learned that Norman Nevills of INE OF US SET OUT that afternoon fully recorded all that they have seen and have even mapped Mexican Hat, Utah, had made the trip and was planning another one for the on the broad Green River from the very thoroughly the river and its course. Because those preced- ..,, summer of 1940. That was all I needed. A letter was dispatched to Mr. Nevills Nsmall Utah town bearing the riv- ing us had done such a splendid job of exploration, there was ...wr on the next mail, and then passed two weeks of pin-sitting, waiting for his er’s name. Seven of them had come down from very little left that we might contribute by the journey we were answer. Finally, it came, and to my unbounded joy, he told me that there Green River, Wyoming, so the only strangers making. As we camped our first night, though, we realized were eight others like myself who wanted to make the trip and that by com- in the crowd were Anne Rosner and myself. that these rivers would contribute much to us in the form of bining our resources and our monies, the trip could be brought within the Nine people in three small boats don’t remain unrivaled beauties of nature. Our first camp was by the side of all-important limits of all of our pocketbooks. strangers for long, though. a geyser 6 miles below Green River, Utah. The geyser had been Just who was the first man ever to travel the made several years before, when a company drilling for oil ran A map created by George Avey, Arizona Highways’ longtime art director, illustrated waters of the Green or the Colorado is rather into a gas pocket. The seepage of water into the pocket from Barry Goldwater’s route from Green River, Utah, to Boulder Dam (now ). hard to determine. In the early days, there were the nearby river causes an occasional eruption of gas and water, undoubtedly trappers who made short journeys during which the geyser becomes a beautiful fountain over a I u ·r down these waters, but of them we know little, hundred feet high. • d and that little is extremely inaccurate. A gentle- Leaving our first camp early the next morning, we contin- Q r man by the name of James White declared ued our travels on the broad Green River. Our boats had been ' J before his death some years ago that he made splendidly made by Mr. Nevills during the winter and spring ! a trip on the Colorado in 1867 — that it was months. The results of his labors incorporated all that he had - (' forced on him as the only avenue of escape from learned from the success and failure of others about how boats " ' an attack by Indians who had cost the life of for river travel should be built. The boats were 16 feet long .. one of his party and threatened the others. and made of half-inch plywood. At the widest place, near the Fleeing down the side canyon in which the center of the cockpit, each boat measured 6 feet. Empty they Barry Goldwater washes clothes at , a Colorado River tributary in attack had occurred, he and his remaining weighed about 600 pounds, and fully loaded they approached the western part of the Grand Canyon. companion found themselves on the banks of 1,200 pounds. This weight caused the boats to draw about .I the Colorado. There, under the cover of night, 8 or 10 inches of water. Two-thirds of each boat consisted of over an eighth of a mile thick at the bottom and rising about they made a raft of driftwood lashed together watertight hatches, leaving a small cockpit in the center where 800 feet above the river’s edge. The river could take a shortcut with their ropes. On this crude craft they put the oarsman sat. The oarsmen had nothing to do in the quiet through this ledge and save itself a lot of traveling, for it goes out onto the waters of the Colorado. Many days waters of the Green, for we used an outboard motor on the lead 7 miles around the loop of the knot. later, Mr. White was picked up at Callville, boat and tied the other two behind. Thus we went on down On downstream from this spot, we stopped at and entered Nevada, which is now covered by the waters the rivers to see the things Powell and the Kolbs had described Hell Roaring Canyon. That is a terrible name to put on such a of . In the course of his travels, he so graphically. beautiful side canyon, and the man who so named it must have had lost his one companion in a whirlpool been in a bad mood that day, for I could easily think of nicer r V--1 I , :"-foo11 1..,- •a1...=,"'r -..... someplace in the Grand Canyon. Mr. White’s VIDENCE OF HABITATION was seen on every hand. names for this spot. It was interesting to us, though, for in this ) T#1- story has often been attacked and is very rarely Until we plunged into our first canyon, Labyrinth, below canyon, the mystery man of the river has inscribed his name. f t accepted as true. However, without any com- EGreen River, Utah, we saw farms at almost every mile. One Denis Julien passed this way around 1836 and left five ment as to why, I have always accepted his Then, when we were in the canyon, many cattle trails put in inscriptions scattered along the walls of the canyons of the \ story of passing through at least some of the their appearance, evidently coming down from the plateaus Green and Colorado rivers. That he was a trapper has been ' canyons of this river as a plausible and a pos- above. Shortly after passing the Butte of the Cross, which fairly well determined, but what became of him after making sible one. Powell had so perfectly named, we found the remains of this voyage has never been discovered. If other inscriptions It remained for Major John Wesley Powell, a cabin at Yokey’s Flat. Some rancher had evidently built this of his are ever brought to light below his last known one, in a one-armed Civil War veteran, to make the small house and its accompanying granary as a fly camp for Cataract Canyon on the Colorado, then to D. Julien must go the first recorded trip from Green River, Wyoming, his cowboys and then abandoned it, for it was clearly appar- credit for being the first man to travel this way.

34 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 35 After spending four days following the crooked course of the store all loose equipment, and we were ready for our introduc- told us. Following his instructions carefully, Green through Labyrinth Canyon, we came to the junction of tion to the rapids that have made this journey such a famous the bridge was located 8 miles up the Escalante the Green and the Colorado. This junction lies at the end, or one. Soon, everything was prepared and our lead boat shoved River and 1.5 miles up a side canyon. Measuring mouth, of Stillwater Canyon, a small canyon through which we off. I was a passenger on this boat, and my particular position it, we found it to be 306 feet high, 193 feet wide, passed on our last day on the Green. was lying down on the rear deck. Mr. Nevills had the oars, 114 feet thick at the top and 192 feet from the and his wife, Doris, sat in the front of the cockpit. All of us floor of the canyon to the bottom of the arch. It RIOR TO 1921, when the Colorado state legislature wore life preservers, as we did through all rapids. My formal in no way compares with the Rainbow Natural changed its name, the river above this junction, which introduction to a rapid was a most complete one. Although that Bridge in beauty, and, after taking the measure- Pis now known as the Colorado, was called the Grand. rapid at the head of Cataract was a baby compared with what ments, we returned to the boats to continue However, no law in the world can remove from the minds of was to follow, still there was a hole in it that we went through, downstream. Both Nijoni, which is Navajo for those who have traveled and loved this river the fact that the and so far underwater did my end of the boat go that I could “beautiful,” and Gregory have been suggested as Colorado is formed in a deep and lonely canyon in Eastern swear there was gravel in my hair from the bottom of the river suitable names for the bridge, but as yet, it has Utah where the Green and the Grand run into one another. when we finally emerged. not been officially named. Probably no important stream in the world can boast of as Cataract Canyon is a short one, being only about 50 miles A few miles below the mouth of the many names as can our Colorado. in its entire length, but it seemed to us that every mile had Escalante, we approached what was to prove In 1540, [Hernando de] Alarcón named it Río de Buena Guia, several rapids in it, and rare indeed was the stretch of water one of the most interesting of all the spots we or the “River of Good Going.” [Melchior] Díaz in the same that we could term quiet. This canyon was the first of the were to see. Hole-in-the-Rock Canyon didn’t year saw it, and his name for this river was Río del Tizón, or really deep canyons we were to find. At its head, it is about a look a lot different from other side canyons, the “River of Firebrands.” The next visitor was [Juan de] Oñate, thousand feet deep, and there are places in its length where except that it was exceptionally short, steep the canyon walls flirt with 2,500 feet. I doubt if there is a place and narrow. The difference lay in the romantic where this canyon is more than 3 miles wide, so we were, so history of the place. “We have an unknown distance yet to run, an to speak, in the center of the Earth, with only one safe way to In 1879, John Taylor of the Mormon Church get out. visioned that his people should go to the unknown river to explore. What falls there are, We had gone on this “safe” way for several days and had southeast and settle the valley of the San Juan. gone skipping over the rapids as if they weren’t there, and November of that year saw 250 men, women we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many from this easy traveling, we had probably picked up a tinge of and children depart from Cedar City in 82 wag- things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are disregard for this river and its vaunted strength. Now, tipping ons, accompanied by nearly a thousand head your hat to this stream is a better way of getting along than The expedition takes a break beneath the Butte of the Cross, as named by John Wesley Powell, of cattle. Five weeks had been planned for the bandied about freely this morning; but to me the thumbing your nose at it, and although we always tried to between Labyrinth Canyon and Stillwater Canyon on the Green River. entire journey, but at the end of that time, the remember that, perhaps on Mile 24 Rapid, it had slipped our party found itself on the plateau above Hole- cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly.” minds momentarily. shortly after we entered it, the rapids disappeared and quiet water came in-the-Rock, its travel having been impeded by The first two boats to navigate this rapid came through with again. Narrow Canyon ends at the junction of the Frémont with the Colorado. the many canyons, deserts and rivers it had to — JOHN WESLEY POWELL flying colors, but the third, by accident, got on the wrong side This river coming in from the west had an unusual name for a while. When cross. As I stood there at the head of that nar- of the tongue leading into the rapid, and boat No. 3 was firmly Powell came this way in 1869, one of his men was looking up this side stream row crack in the Earth’s surface, I could well wedged between two large boulders in the center of the rapid. and Powell yelled over to him, asking what it looked like. The man called imagine the feelings those Mormons must have who in 1604 came upon this river at the point where the Bill Rescue was accomplished by rowing one of the other boats out back that it was a “dirty devil,” and that name stuck until it was changed to had when, after all the hardships of travel they Williams empties into it in Arizona. His name for it was Río into the back eddy at the bottom of the rapid, and then jump- Frémont in honor of General J.C. Frémont, who was one of Arizona’s had already endured, they were confronted Grande de la Buena Esperanza, or the “River of Good Hope.” ing from rock to rock until we arrived at the lower of the two Territorial governors. with this new one. Padre [Francisco] Garcés, that much-traveled father, came big rocks that held the boat fast. With the combined strength Canyon follows canyon on this route, and as we left Narrow Canyon, we The river they had to cross lay a thousand upon this river and named it Río de los Martyrs, of which [Dr. of three men, the boat was dislodged among shouts of happi- entered Glen Canyon, down which we were to travel until we reached Lees feet below them, a mile away, down a steep Elliott] Coues says: “This was prophetic, for in 1781 at or near ness from all of us, but the happiness was short-lived. Ferry. Our first cache of food and mail awaited us at Hite’s Crossing, 6 miles canyon whose entrance wasn’t wide enough to the mouth of the Gila, Garcés and three other priests were As the boat went downstream, it struck a rock, which set it down from the head of Glen Canyon. Here, the canyon is very wide and shal- allow the passage of the wagons. Following the murdered by Yuma Indians.” It has also gone under the names on its side, and from that position, it went on over. It was only low, as is the river itself. amazing pioneer instinct of never admitting of Río Colorado del Norte, Río Colorado del Occidente, Red a matter of a half-mile or so until John Southworth and Dr. In the 1880s, this place was settled by the Mormons, who used it as a cross- defeat and of never turning back, they pitched River of the West, Red River of California, and the Indian [Hugh] Cutler had rescued the overturned boat and pulled it ing place or ferry. It became a small town, a post office was established, and in to make a road down this canyon. Working name of Hakatai. Just who first called the river “Colorado” and to shore. They found all the duffel and bedding in the forward then, in 1926, people just up and moved away and the embryo town folded. with the zeal that has always been peculiar to when it was so designated has never been determined. The hatch soaking wet, water having poured through a gaping hole Today, a mile downstream from the ruins of this settlement, live Mr. and the Mormons, they cut steps in the canyon’s present name means “red,” and if one has seen this rolling tor- torn in the deck of the boat. As if to add insult to injury and Mrs. A.L. Chaffin, who operate a small farm. We enjoyed their hospitality floor, widened the walls where need be, built rent of red mud “too thick to drink and too thin to plow,” one to further discomfit those whose bedding was wet, it rained for three days, and it was with reluctance that we put out again on the river. a road where there was dirt enough to allow can understand the reasons for its being called Colorado. all night. While at Chaffin’s, we learned that [President Franklin] Roosevelt had been such construction, and even made a bridge at During our 120-mile trip from Green River, Utah, to the renominated and that the British were still causing [Adolf] Hitler a lot of grief. one point. All this work was done in the bitter junction, we had nothing but the calmest of water over which WO DELIGHTFUL DAYS were spent in the coolness The absence of news was one of the nicest things about the trip. cold of December and January. to float. Now, though, things were to change. We could hear and dryness of Dark Canyon. We explored this canyon, Our first river camp in Glen Canyon was under the towering heights of Finally, late in January of 1880, the first the ominous roar of the first rapid, at the head of Cataract T without success, for Indian ruins, pots and arrowheads, Tapestry Wall. Its 1,200-foot height made a perfect west wall for our bedroom, wagon made the descent down Hole-in-the- Canyon, all during our lunch, and then when we moved down and then proceeded on our way down to the end of Cataract. even though it didn’t stop copious quantities of sand from bothering us all Rock with the aid of 20 men holding it back a mile to a point just above Cataract’s yawning chasm, the roar On passing Mile Crag Bend, which marks the end of Cataract night by blowing in our ears, mouths and eyes. and the animals in front straining to act as became as 10 Niagaras. Canyon, we went immediately into another one, called Narrow If this trip was to accomplish anything other than enjoyment, it was to brakes instead of power. That successful day An hour spent at that point sufficed to caulk the boats and Canyon. This small canyon is only about 10 miles long, and locate and measure a natural bridge of which Dr. Gregory of Honolulu had saw over 20 wagons taken down that trail, built

36 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 37 by the determination of people going someplace to locate a shortcut to California. He had gone to the junction to go from Arizona to Southern Utah. to do something, and ferried over the Colo- of the Paria and the Colorado below this spot, but found the Looking downstream from the junction of the Paria and the rado, on rafts built for that purpose by men not river too wide and deep to allow crossing there. Indians told Colorado, we could see on the west the towering heights of engaged in the construction of the roadway. him of the crossing farther to the north and offered to guide the Vermilion Cliffs and on the east the red of the Echo Cliffs. Finis was written to this venturesome trek him there. His journey from the Paria here was not an easy one, Cutting the plateau between the two is the narrow slit known when the entire party arrived, in April of 1880, for the route lay over slickrock, with very little water or shade as Marble Canyon. Powell named this canyon from a marble- at the spot where Bluff, Utah, now stands. As to be found along the way. like structure of rock that he found in the walls of the canyon. our boats drifted away from this spot, I felt a However, with the customary zeal of the padre, he pushed For almost its entire length of 69 miles, this canyon’s floor is thrill at having stood on ground made so his- on, and, traveling down the short canyon that now is known festooned with rapids, and there is hardly a mile in which the toric by those people. I could see wagons being as Padre Canyon, he reached the river and made a successful roaring music of these rapids doesn’t bounce from wall to wall ferried across the river, with cattle swimming crossing. This place has been similarly used by the Indians and to warn the traveler of what is to come. The river has cut deep after. I could see the tired faces covered with by the Mormons since. While it is known as El Vado de los here, deep and narrow. Like Cataract, this canyon is but 2 or the smiles that come to those who have tried Padres, it appears on some maps as the Ute Crossing. Dr. [Rus- 3 miles wide at the widest spot, but it differs from Cataract in and conquered. And as the current carried us sell] Frazier of Salt Lake City has appropriately marked this the steepness of its wall and the coloring thereof. As soon as around a bend and away from sight of Hole-in- canyon with a neat bronze plaque setting out the deed of Padre we were well into this gorge, we knew we were approaching the-Rock, I tipped my hat — not to a place of Escalante. the father of all canyons from the beautiful shades that the beauty, even though this canyon can fall under Late this same afternoon, someone announced that we rocks were assuming. that description, but to the courage, the will, would soon be in Arizona. I had to smile, for I had suspicioned As a respite from the work and wetness of the rapids, we and the zeal that drove these people on to the it for some time. The sky was getting a very familiar blue tint had new beauties unfolded before our eyes every hour of the accomplishment of their mission without the to it, the clouds were getting whiter, the birds sang a little loss of a single life. Our West was built by peo- more sweetly, and the air smelled familiarly exhilarating. No ple like those Mormons, and the ground they one needed to tell me I was getting home again, and no one in “With some feeling of anxiety we enter a new canyon traveled should be forever a shrine for those those boats could have felt the happiness that was mine. who follow. this morning. We have learned to observe closely the ARLIER THAN USUAL the next morning, we were up FEW MILES DOWNSTREAM, we and on our way, for we knew that by hard traveling, we texture of the rock. In softer strata we have a quiet passed the mouth of the San Juan. This Ecould reach Lees Ferry and more mail from home by river, in harder we find rapids and falls.” A river comes in from the east, out of noon. Sure enough, just before the sun was midway in the a good-sized canyon of its own. It is one of heavens, we came out of Glen Canyon, after having been in it — JOHN WESLEY POWELL the largest of all the tributary streams. It rises for 160 miles, and into the rather broad valley that lies at the in Colorado, and then, skirting through New Mildred Baker, one of two women who completed the Nevills expedition, scrubs pots at a junction of the Paria and the Colorado. Lees Ferry is such a his- Mexico, it flows across the southern end of campsite near the mouth of Havasu Canyon. torical spot in Arizona that a story the size of this one could be day. The most unusual waterfall I have ever seen is at Vasey’s Utah to its junction with the Colorado in Glen devoted to it alone. Paradise. This water comes pouring out of a 30-inch hole in the Canyon. Much of the red silt from which the and in reverence to those hardy men, no one has since carved his name there. Rotting on the muddy bank of the river are the remains of solid rock of the canyon wall to tumble through ferns and moss river gets its name comes from the San Juan. Instead, one writes his name on a piece of paper and places it in a can provided the last boat to attempt commercial navigation of the river. into the river 125 feet below. This seemed, indeed, to be an unusual day, for that purpose. The craft was built in San Francisco in 1912 and taken apart to The approach to this garden spot is heralded by a large cav- and our luncheon spot that noon didn’t mar Evening of that eventful day found us at the mouth of Forbidden Canyon, be carried by pack train to the mouth of Warm Creek, where ern whose walls are tinted in soft blends of white and red, and the beauty of the day that had had so perfect a under the blue heights of Navajo Mountain. We had all looked forward to arriv- it was again assembled. It was to be used to haul coal from before that by a canyon known as Paradise Canyon, whose rug- beginning. Approaching Narrow Canyon, we ing here, for we knew that just 4 miles up Forbidden and then 2 miles up Bridge Warm Creek to the mine at Lees Ferry, but after one trip, they gedness is in direct contrast to the beauties to follow. Vasey’s wondered from whence it got its name, for from Canyon, we would come to the Rainbow Natural Bridge. All of us had been discovered that it took all the coal they could haul down to run Paradise gave us a much-needed place for baths in cold, fresh the river, it looked wide. After tying the boats there before, and we, like all others who have visited the spot, carried an ever- the boat back upstream again, so the venture was abandoned. water. If you have ever been drenched by the mud of the Colo- at its mouth and going back into it for a few present desire to pay the Rainbow another visit. I was doubly eager, for not only To this secluded spot came John Lee, a fugitive from justice, rado and then had it dry on you, you no doubt have picked up yards, though, we discovered it to be but 30 or was the bridge itself acting as a magnet, but, better yet, I would see Katherine in 1872. It was believed that he was the instigator of the hei- a good idea of what the inside of a weenie must feel like. Small 40 feet wide. The walls rose above us 800 feet, and Bill Wilson, and I knew they would bring news from home. nous Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which over wonder, then, that these clear streams from side canyons were and on the floor of this delightfully cool canyon For me to attempt a description of the Rainbow after the way Irvin Cobb did 120 people were massacred by Indians in Southern Utah. welcome to us. At least for a few hours, we could feel clean. flowed a small, clear stream of water, coming it would be foolhardy. I’ll hold up my description of that delightful spot until Blame had to be placed somewhere, so, rightly or wrongly, it down from the mesas above and winding its people forget Cobb’s, and I feel that I’ll never have to offer mine, for his will be fell on the shoulders of John Lee. He stayed in this lonely spot ROM LEES FERRY ON, we expected very little quiet way through the canyon to add itself to the the best long after I am gone. The story would not be complete, though, were I for two years, until one day when, in a Southern Utah town water, so from there we shipped the outboard home and muddy waters of the Colorado. to fail to mention that we did spend four days at the bridge and four nights of for provisions, he was taken prisoner. Frelied solely on our oars and the current for our progress. If there is a hallowed spot on the river, it sleeping on real mattresses free from bugs of all descriptions. A trial was held in which Lee was judged guilty and was These oars aided tremendously in the rapids. By a strong pull is Music Temple, which lies just across the Glen Canyon has always been synonymous in my mind with the unusual, the sentenced to death. On March 23, 1877, Lee was seated on the to the right or left or back upstream, we could maneuver our river from Narrow Canyon. Powell, on hearing beautiful, and the historic. Each of these attributes had unfolded itself before edge of his coffin, blindfolded, and executed by a firing squad. boats around rocks and holes that blocked our way. Until the the wonderful quality that this tremendous my eyes, but the canyon was by no means through with its interesting parade. As his body fell back into his coffin, justice had presumably Kolbs came down the river, boats went through rapids bow cavern imparted to the voices of his men sing- As we approached Kane Creek, one could see that it might be possible for a ford been done. Whether or not it was justice, I am in no position to first, but the Kolbs experimented with and introduced the ing around the evening fire, named it Music to exist here, for the banks on both sides were low and sloped gently back from say. I have merely related the facts concerning this lonely spot method, now in vogue, of going through stern first, so as to Temple. Today, that spot is sacred to those who the river. in Arizona to which John Lee gave his name. Until 1927, when allow the boatman to see what is coming. This method is far travel the river. On the walls are carved the Just a short distance below Kane Creek, Padre [Silvestre Vélez de] Escalante the Marble Canyon Bridge was built, this crossing served the superior to the old one, and it served us admirably. names of the members of Powell’s expedition, and his group crossed the river in 1776, returning from an unsuccessful attempt travelers, first by wagon and then by automobile, who wanted At the side canyon of Nankoweap, we entered the Grand

38 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 39 Canyon National Park. Here, too, we got our first glimpse of around them, but when we came into the Inner Gorge and to fact that they did all the cooking and most of the North Rim, or the Kaibab Plateau. As we entered the park, the head of Sockdolager, the picture changed. We found that in the camp work places them beyond mere words I couldn’t help wishing that James O. Pattie, the first American this narrow crack in the very bottom of the Grand Canyon, the of praise. In fact, the women worked and the to see this canyon, were with us. He wrote of the Canyon: “A hard, slick walls went up vertically from the water’s edge. We men played. march more gloomy and heart wearing ... cannot be imagined.” had to ride through the rapids whether we wanted to or not. Then, for good measure, I would like to have had Lieutenant The added weight of passengers made rowing very difficult, HE MOST remarkable thing, to me, all [Joseph] Ives along. He, in 1857, said, “Ours has been the first and we bounced from rock to rock instead of adroitly missing the way through the Grand Canyon was and will doubtless be the last party of whites to visit this prof- them, as we had up above. These hardships meant nothing to Tthat at no place did one have the feel- itless locality.” Yes, I would like to have had them there to tell us, though, for we were straining to reach that ing that one was in the world’s largest canyon. them that this “dreadful place” will have nearly 400,000 peo- evening, and by dint of continuous rowing and by running Where we were able to see both rims, they ple visit it this year and that they will come in nearly 100,000 rapids without the usual long study, we reached that spot late would seem so far away that they looked like cars and not a few trains and airplanes. in the afternoon. mountains. In fact, my impression all along, The Little Colorado enters this canyon at the point where Fred Harvey has provided a bit of heaven in the bottom of except when we were in the deepest gorges, was Marble Canyon ends and the Grand Canyon itself starts. It, too, the Canyon, at the junction of Bright Angel Creek and the Colo- that we were going through a wide, deep valley. has a good-sized canyon running from Cameron to its junc- rado, in the form of Phantom Ranch. Here we rested for three As we approached Separation Canyon and tion here with the Colorado. All else though, faded from our days, cooled off in the pool, cleaned cameras, and wrote letters Separation Rapids on our last day on the river, minds at this point. We were in the Grand Canyon. All that we home — and, in turn, read those that had come in to us. we saw protruding from the right wall of the had planned, all that we had done, all that we had seen paled Canyon a stick. From the stick hung a bottle, into insignificance upon our entrance into this masterpiece of E CONTINUED in the Granite Gorge, and the rap- and to call attention to this was a pair of white nature. The long, slanting rays of a setting sun added to the ids, instead of diminishing in their fury, seemed men’s shorts waving in the breeze. In the bottle glory and softness of the colors of the Canyon as we made our Wto become more alive, as if to play with us harder we found a note telling us to pick up two men first camp in the Canyon at the foot of Tanner Trail, under the than ever during our last few days on the river. This narrow whose outboard, in which they had come to the Tower. avenue of rock through which we were going was a spectacular head of Lake Mead, had been washed down- The tall formation of Wotans Throne in the immediate fore- and beautiful sight. The black of the metamorphic schists is stream by a flash flood in the river. Sure enough, ground, and the dim blue of the Kaibab in the distance, saw us shot through with pink and coral streamers of granite. Here, we found the men at Separation Rapids and off early the next morning for Phantom Ranch. In keeping with on both sides of us, were remnants of a mountain range once took them aboard. the peace of the early morning, we had no rapids for several higher than the Alps, but now worn down to its present height It seemed strange to me that a place named miles, but our comfort and dryness didn’t last long. The rap- of about a thousand feet. Above the rim of this Inner Gorge, Separation 70 years ago by Powell to mark the ids came in quick succession, once they started — first Unkar, there appeared an occasional tall peak named after some deity spot where three of his party separated from then Mile 75 Rapid, and then the dreaded Hance Rapid. of one or another of the religions of the world. As the sun The Nevills party poses at the plaque at the head of Lake Mead in Separation Canyon. Front row, him should now mark the separation point of The lowness of the water laid bare the sharp rocks of Hance, set each night in the Canyon, peak after peak would drop its left to right: Dr. Hugh Cutler, D.W. Deason, Charles Larabee, Del Reed. Back row, left to right: the muddy Colorado and Lake Mead. Norman Nevills, Doris Nevills, Mildred Baker, John Southworth, Barry Goldwater. and our course down that bit of wild water was not unlike bright colors and take on the somber hues of night, and the last The river seemed so at ease as it flowed into the course of a corkscrew. Our rapids so far had been in broad to succumb to the slow creeping of darkness would be those the calm waters of the lake that it was like a parts of the canyon bottoms, and if need be, we could walk very highest points so many thousand feet above us. progress. Then, down the stream a few miles, Deer Creek ended its mad dash tired giant resting after the hundreds of miles Not all of our route lay through this granite, though, and as from the north by plunging from its 4-foot-wide canyon down a hundred feet he had run, cutting deeper into the Earth’s the Canyon swung to the north, around Explorer’s Monument, to the cool pool below before running on out to the river. These refreshing surface at every step. All the water that we had “After supper Captain Howland asks to have a we left these hard rocks and went into the Tapeats sandstone. streams and falls were eagerly looked forward to by all of us. The extreme been over and through now rested behind the Here, the traveling was delightful. Long, sluice-like stretches degree of high temperature we had to endure required occasional breaks such strength of Boulder Dam, to be used as man talk with me. ... He thinks that we had better of water whisked us downstream at a much faster rate than we as these cool waters afforded. Not once on the entire trip did the thermometer wants it. It was like our journey: All the hap- had experienced above. In this formation, we went through go under 100 in the daytime, and many days, it flirted with 125. piness, the work, the play, the hardships and abandon the river here. ... All night I pace up and Conquistador Aisle, which is named after the men who accom- Lovely and interesting side canyons continued to end themselves in the beauties of both scenery and friendship were panied [García López de] Cárdenas when he became the first deepness of the Grand Canyon. The lengthening shadows on the walls above forever stored behind the dam of our memories, down a little path, on a few yards of sand beach, white man to see this Grand Canyon, in 1542. Where he first Kanab Creek were a sight not soon to be forgotten, and the cool, granite- to be taken out and used when we saw fit. saw it has always been a debatable point. I will not enter into strewn floor of Spring Canyon gave us a pleasant campsite, but we had seen Nine tired and happy people climbed aboard along by the river. It is wise to go on? I go to the that debate here. I will only state that I am happy he did see it only the preliminaries to the most beautiful of all the side canyons. the government launch that last afternoon near and give to the world its first knowledge of our Canyon. At noon one day, we came to the mouth of Cataract, or Havasu, Canyon. the head of Lake Mead, and as we headed down boat again to look at our rations. ... But for years This fast progress through the soft rock was to end, though, Here, out of a narrow, white, limestone-lined canyon, came the blue waters of the lake, I thanked the good providence that for when the river again turned south, we entered the dreaded Havasu Creek. We attempted to walk the 9 miles up this deep canyon to the had allowed me the desire and the determina- I have been contemplating this trip. To leave the granite, and once more, we were bouncing down rock-strewn Indian Reservation, but to no avail. The knee-deep wild grapevines, tion to make this trip. That evening, as we sat exploration unfinished, to say that there is a part rapids. This phenomenon repeated itself. Whenever we turned the prickly pear plants, and the catclaw pulled us back at every step, so after a on the afterdeck of the speeding boat, the set- to the north, we left the granite, and as our boats would head few miles, we gave it up and returned to the river. ting sun made white the foam splashing around of the canyon I cannot explore, having already once more to the south, we would find our enemy, the granite, But a few days remained now until our journey would end. With its end- our boats, creating a strange contrast with the waiting for us. ing would go not only the river, but also the pleasant associations. For the blue of the lake. Above this contrast, from the nearly accomplished it, is more than I am willing to In this section, we came on many wonderful streams flow- first time in history, two women, Mildred Baker of Buffalo and Doris Nevills stern of the government boat, waved the flag of ing down from the north, adding their welcome, cool beauty to of Mexican Hat, would have made the entire trip from Green River, Wyo- our country, and I thought of the men in Europe acknowledge, and I determine to go on.” those we had on every hand. , running at almost ming, to the dam. Anne Rosner accompanied the party partway. Of these who couldn’t make a trip like this one ... then river size, provided interesting exploration for a few hundred three women, enough cannot be said: Their sportsmanship, their geniality, said goodbye to the Colorado, glad I had seen — JOHN WESLEY POWELL yards up its course, until a too-narrow canyon blocked further their willingness to do a man’s job and grumble less than the men, and the its wonders in the American way. !!!!

40 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 41 WHAT- EVER B O AT S BY BRAD DIMOCK In 1869, the fastest and most seaworthy cargo- PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUDI PETSCHEK YOU hauling boats were called Whitehalls. That’s what John Wesley Powell chose for his legendary voyage. It was a bad choice. Since then, the boats have gone FLOAT from something feared to something revered.

Bruce Simballa (on oars) and Kenton Grua (steering) guide an authentic Whitehall boat, the kind used by John Wesley Powell’s party, through the Grand Canyon’s Granite Rapids for an Imax film in 1984. Powell’s group portaged these rapids, but modern boatmen have the skills and experience to run these boats through the Canyon’s largest rapids.

42 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 43 moving faster than the current, so they struck the unavoidable rocks with tremendous velocity. If they broached sideways on a shoal, the keel strip would catch — dumping the boatmen downstream, then running them over. But the boats were only part of Powell’s problem.

I have given away my clothing until I am reduced to the same condition of those who lost by the shipwreck of our boat. I can- not see a man of the party more destitute than I. … The men are uneasy and discontented and anxious to move on. If the The rapid we started with this morning gave us to understand Major does not do something soon I fear the consequences. But the character of the day’s run. It was a wild one. The boats he is contented and seems to think that a biscuit made of sour labored hard but came out all right. The waves were frightful and musty flour and a few dried apples is ample to sustain a and, had any of the boats shipped a sea, it would have been laboring man. her last for there was no still water below. We ran a wild race — GEORGE BRADLEY for about two miles, first pulling right, then left, now to avoid the waves and now to escape the bowlders, sometimes half Midway through the Grand Canyon, Powell’s party was full of water and as soon as a little could be thrown out it was nearly out of food, supplies and patience. Camped in the mid- replaced by double the quantity. Our heavy boat ran past the dle of what would become one of the most revered landscapes lead boat and we dashed on alone, whirling and rushing like in the world, they could perceive it solely as a hostile threat in the wind. their race for survival. Only through strength, perseverance — GEORGE BRADLEY, POWELL EXPEDITION, and sheer dumb luck did they make it through. AUGUST 19, 1869 In the decades that followed, rivermen learned to row boats through rapids the way ferrymen move a boat back and forth ne hundred fifty years ago, Major John Wesley Powell across a river. By facing downstream and rowing upstream, and five other battered, half-starved mountain men boatmen could slow their downstream progress and cross O floated out the foot of the Grand Canyon. Powell more easily from side to side. They could avoid rocks and large brought the first detailed descriptions of the canyons of the waves, and thread their way down complicated channels. Pio- Colorado River to the public, having descended the entirety of neer boatman learned the technique from miners the river in wooden boats. He was lucky to have survived. on Utah’s San Juan River in 1892. Utah trapper Nathaniel Gallo- Running rapids in rowboats was an untested concept. way later evolved the technique on the Green River. Both men Although voyageurs had long been descending rapids in canoes were using flat-bottomed boats with upturned ends, drawing in the Far North, that did not translate to oar-powered craft. little water and allowing them to pivot quickly. For the next Powell, who had rowed a good deal of flatwater in the Mis- 70 years, boatmen tinkered with the design: adding more sissippi River drainage before losing his right arm in the Civil rocker (raising the fore and aft), increasing center width for War, went with his intuition. The fastest and most seaworthy buoyancy and stability, decking more of the interior to avoid cargo-hauling boat at the time was devised in New York Har- swamping. These boats were a definite improvement over bor for servicing ocean vessels. Called Whitehall boats, their Powell’s Whitehalls, but still very limited in terms of carrying hull design evolved over centuries of fine-tuning, and they cargo and passengers. were prized for their speed and capacity in Eastern ports. It was in Oregon that riverboats evolved furthest and fast- To this day, Whitehalls remain the most sophisticated est. By the 1940s, McKenzie River fishermen and boat builders hull design ever to run whitewater. They are exacting, time- had devised a boat with a very high prow, radically flared consuming and expensive to build. Their elegant lines are a sides and a great deal of rocker. Form, as it often does in boat joy to behold: a sharp cutwater in front, a sexy guppy belly design, followed function. They called them “drift boats.” The through the center section and a graceful wine-glass transom prow was pointed downstream, into the waves, while boatmen that leaves little wake. Powered by one or two strong oarsmen slowed their progress by pulling upstream. pulling hard, with their backs downstream, they were steered In the early 1960s, environmentalist Martin Litton brought from the rear with a tiller or, in Powell’s case, a long steering oar. drift boats to the Grand Canyon and decked them over. He Unfortunately, they were a dreadful design for the rocky rapids of the Colorado. Although they were fast and carried a good load, they had a keel strip along the length of the hull. The dories shown here, looking downstream This made them difficult to turn and made rocks hard to avoid. into the Canyon’s Conquistador Aisle, all They were quite narrow, making them marginally stable in the are variations on the classic Oregon “drift chaotic waves of the Colorado. Worse, steering necessitated boat.” One is made of composite material; the others are made of wood. Most of the boatmen and passengers are enjoying a hike up Blacktail Canyon.

44 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 45 River runners pull two dories ashore at Redwall Cavern in Marble Canyon. The boat in the foreground is 16 feet long, while the one in the background is 21 feet long. Author Brad Dimock captained the 21-foot boat through the Grand Canyon for a 1999 documentary.

“THE FOURTH BOAT IS MADE

OF PINE, VERY LIGHT, BUT

16 FEET IN LENGTH, WITH

A SHARP CUTWATER, AND

EVERY WAY BUILT FOR FAST

ROWING, AND DIVIDED

INTO COMPARTMENTS AS

THE OTHERS. THE LITTLE

VESSELS ARE 21 FEET LONG,

AND, TAKING OUT THE

CARGOES, CAN BE CARRIED

BY FOUR MEN.”

— JOHN WESLEY POWELL

sciousness of the craft, spiking awareness and demand. The inoculum continues to spread. Although traditional dories still are made of wood, many riverboats now are made from alumi- num or epoxies. But the form remains the same: three elegant curved panels, flared on the sides, high at the ends. They are as different from Powell’s Whitehalls as a boat of that size could ever be. The trip itself has changed immeasurably since Powell’s des- called them “dories,” preferring the iconic New England term For the first decade, Litton’s trips were, shall we say, quite ride in rapids. And, yes, sometimes they tip over. But rarely. perate struggle, too. Camp comforts abound; the food borders to the less fanciful “drift boat.” It was in these craft that river adventurous, as he trained himself and his new, green boat- They usually are righted quickly and easily. on gourmet; hikes are guided and selected for the weather, the running in rigid boats finally became practical. Dories could men in the art of river running and boat repair. But boatmen, For most of Litton’s tenure at Grand Canyon Dories (he sold group, the situation. Today’s experience balances the challenge haul a great deal of gear and comfortably carry four passengers. by nature, are quick learners, and by the mid-1970s, Litton’s in 1987), he alone chose to use these barely practical, insanely and thrill of wilderness and whitewater with the skills and They were far more seaworthy than their predecessors. The Grand Canyon Dories was offering regular trips through the beautiful boats. The rest of the river-running world had long safety of modern techniques, giving participants security and weight of supplies to run a two- to three-week expedition ser- Canyon in wooden dories. There was a not-so-subtle envi- since moved on to rubber rafts — sometimes rowed or pad- the opportunity for life-changing adventure. The boats have endipitously added ballast below water level, giving the boats ronmental ethic espoused on those trips. Litton felt that by dled, but, for the most part, motorized. gone from something feared to something revered. As unlikely tremendous stability. And they were drop-dead gorgeous. Lit- connecting people to the river for that long, in those fragile, However, there was an indescribable lure to the dories. As as it seems, the quirky idea of running rigid wooden boats on ton wrote: beautiful boats, they might go home changed and be willing to time passed, more and more river outfitters added a dory or rocky rivers has not only survived, but flourished. stand up and fight for wild and irreplaceable places being lost two — and sometimes a whole fleet — to their offerings. The As Litton said: The dory is an ancient design. We didn’t originate it. It goes through development. Each dory was named for a place already dory’s popularity has spread throughout the private river- back into antiquity. There’s a kind of magic in terms of its sta- destroyed or endangered: Glen Canyon, Hetch Hetchy, Lake running world as well: Each year, more hobbyists buy or build There’s a mystic thing about a dory to those of us who know bility and its ability to recover from extreme situations — self- Tahoe, Rainbow Bridge. a dory to run on rivers throughout the West. Kevin Fedarko’s them. I feel that anyone who looks at a dory and has to ask righting practically. The boat is something beautiful to look at; The dory ride is unique, the rigid hull telegraphing every popular 2014 book, The Emerald Mile, detailing a speed run why you use that will never understand, no matter what kind it has lines that belong on the water. subtlety of the river into your body. They give an unparalleled through the Grand Canyon in a dory, has raised public con- of answer you give.

46 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 47 Fast in her arms he reveled in her charms ’Tis music played by the long-dead maid While in a stupor old Zeke lay. As she pleads with the men on the shore, When the poor girl slept then her lover crept, “Oh cast your craft on my plunging waves. To the river he stole away. Come run the Belle Zabor!”

He climbed in his boat and put it afloat, In the little vale at the end of the trail Pulled hard for the middle of the stream. Old Zeke lived out his remaining days, The moon came out and the stars were bright Then the cabin was empty, the windows dark, And the whole world seemed a dream. The old place was falling to stays. aughn Short was born in the foothills of the Chir- Although Vaughn lacked a primary trait of your basic ‘real’ icahua Mountains. As a young man, he worked a boatman (he actually had a ‘real’ job all his life), he broke All seemed so right in that balmy night But one bright day there passed that way V mining claim in the Huachuca Mountains, worked into the ranks here and kept himself firmly entrenched ’Til he felt the currents tow. A young man with his son and his wife, undergroundThe in Bisbee Ballad and served in the South Pacific of byBelle dint of his magical storytelling Zabo� ability.” One of Mr. He leaned to his oars and he gave it his best, And he saw the old cabin and at once he knew during World War II. Eventually, he settled near Tucson Short’s best-known poems was inspired by nostalgia and But his boat was swept on down below. ’Twas a dream he’d dreamed all his life. to raise a family. Then, in 1960, he met Ken Sleight and longing. “Belle Zabor is the product of waiting for a river started running the Colorado River, where he became season to start,” he said. “I had it pretty well thought out He knew he was doomed when the canyon loomed, From dawn to night ’til the cabin was right a legend. “Without a doubt, the poet laureate of the before I picked up a pencil. Why the name ‘Belle Zabor’? But he made a hell of a fight. He toiled with his wife and the lad. Colorado River is Vaughn Short,” Lew Steiger wrote in Because it has a nice poetic ring to my ear and it’s a snap The water raged as the walls grew high And there they dwelt and all was well. Boatman’s Quarterly Review in 2009. “Ever since it was to rhyme with. I had no particular rapid, place or person And shut out the last of the light. It was a good, good life they had. first published in 1978, [his book] Raging River — Lonely in mind. It is dreamed up in its entirety.” Vaughn Short Trail has been a campfire staple for countless river trips. died in Tucson on November 16, 2010. He was 87. No time to repent for a life misspent But one night late came the hand of fate Or regrets for things left undone. And the song of Belle he heard. No time to recall the bad and the good He did not know what troubled his mind Or the things done in the name of fun. For he recognized not a word.

THE BALLAD OF BELLE ZABOR He gave no cry when his boat leaped high As the days progressed like a man possessed By Vaughn Short And his oars pulled only air. He brooded and he knew not why. " Then he was down in the swirling hole — Deeper and deeper his mind was drawn Reprinted with permission of the Glen Canyon Conservancy. No time for a muttered prayer. To the dead maiden’s plaintive cry.

From a canyon deep, from a canyon dark, Smooth as a dream this raging stream Though his heart was stout, time ran out, “Oh come and rest on my trembling breast. From a canyon steeped in gloom, At the mouth of the canyon flows, from the shattered boat he was thrown. Know the sweetest love ever gave. The listening ear can always hear And there on its banks in yesteryears The dark waters surged up over his head I’ll tell you this, you’ve never known bliss A deep pitched song of doom. A tiny hamlet rose. And the river claimed him for its own. Like a visit to my watery grave.”

Far beneath the rim of this canyon grim In a grassy vale at the end of a trail The very next day they found where he lay The man never knew as his troubles grew, Speeds a river wrought with woes. That wound from the winding street, In an eddy by the rock strewn shore. ’Twas the siren song in his ear And the shadows are deep, and the light is dim A woodsman dwelt in a cabin of log, They lifted him out and carried him away That tugged at his heart and poisoned his mind Where the wild water froths and flows. Kept by his daughter sweet. To the grief-stricken Belle Zabor. And filled his soul with fear.

The walls are sheer in this canyon drear. With a temper quick, not one to trick, At a total loss by a new formed cross, He could not eat, the song’s hypnotic beat In the river huge boulders lie, The woodsman guarded the maiden well. Belle wept in wild dismay, Ever enticed like a deadly lure. And they cause the water to surge and boil, Old Zeke Zabor was not one to cross As she flung herself on the new raised mound Though he tried and he tried to shut his mind, And they cause the spray to fly. And he worshipped his daughter Belle. Where her ill-fated lover lay. ’Twas more than he could endure.

At one wild turn where the waters churn Now they tell of this daughter Belle, With a wailing sound she leaped from the ground — The sleep he lost as he turned and tossed The bottom drops away, Of her beauty and her charm, To the raging river she fled! Made his cheeks grow wan and pale. There the river falls on the rocks below And how old Zeke watched night and day For her life had no meaning left His temper was short and his moods were dark And the air is filled with spray. To keep this maid from harm. With her lover cold and dead. And his body grew lean and frail.

In a frightening whirl the waters swirl But there came one day a riverman Where the wild waters swept with a scream she leapt In sleep at night came a revealing light, And they form a deep dark hole. With charm and wit to spare, And the rapid took her for ever more. He leaped from his bed and he swore, Around its edges the rocks are ringed And he lulled old Zeke with good red wine When it took her life it took her name, “I am the man! I have the plan! To make the huge waves roll. While he wooed the maiden fair. For now they call it Belle Zabor. I’ll run the Belle Zabor!

For miles around can be heard the sound Soft as a breeze in the whispering trees Now they say at night when the stars are bright “I’ll build a boat that will ever float, Of this rapid’s mighty roar. He murmured vows of the eternal kind, And the moonbeams flit around, For I dreamed this in my dream. And a tale is told of how it got its name — And not at all did the maid suspect From out of the din of the rapid’s roar It must be strong and it must be stout The name of Belle Zabor. The fickleness of a riverman’s mind. Can be heard a sweet, sweet sound. And it must be tight of seam.”

48 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 49 “It must take the knock of the jagged rock He went over the top of that awesome drop! Never before had youth at oar He brought with him for his journey grim And still bounce back for more. He plunged into the deafening sound! Strived so hard to learn. The latest boat on the scene. It will be a boat that cannot sink, The water took hold of his thrashing boat He seldom spoke and he never smiled. It was strong and its sides were tough. The likes never built before.” And spun it hard around! And his manner was cold and stern. It was made of neoprene.

Like a man entranced, the risk he chanced Though sturdy the boat with a strong will to float, When he did hear be it far or near His smile was brave, as a kiss he gave Never entered into his mind. And the brave man at the oar, Of a river hard to run, To his mother on the shore. He vowed he would build his boat They were no match for the fury and wrath Then he set forth be it south or north Said, “The time is now to fulfill my vow Of the strongest wood he could find. Of the wild rapid, Belle Zabor. And he ran it not for fun. To the rapid, Belle Zabor.”

In the country about he searched throughout With all of his might, he pulled fast to the right, He did it to learn, for he did yearn The water was fast, for in days past And he selected his material well. He tried to avoid the hole. All the things to know Rains had raised the river’s flow. Day after day in a skillful way Hard he crashed into a rock on the rim, About the rapids, wild and free, Never before in such violent rage His hammer rose and fell. And it caused his boat to roll. And how a boatman should row. Had the rapid roared down below.

Stroke by stroke from seasoned oak His chances were dim as he tried to swim, How to survive the knock of the jagged rock, His heart beat stout. He had no doubt He carved his planks to fit. But his efforts were to no avail. How to avoid the swirling hole, As the rapid closer and closer grew. He sealed them tight with pitch of pine The mad waters dashed him on the rocks How to brave the wildest wave, He’d be the one! He’d be the first And the boat grew bit by bit. And they broke his body frail. And what to do in a roll. To shoot a boat on through!

Fore and aft as he fashioned the craft, The day was sad for the widow and lad. As time flew his skill grew He pulled hard to the rear as the rapid grew near He built chambers water tight. The walk from the graveyard long. As a boatman shrewd and strong. To slow the boat’s wild flight, He made it wide and broad of beam The mother patted the boy on the head On every stream he was supreme. Then his craft went over the edge So it could tilt and bounce upright. And bade him be brave and strong. He stood above the throng. And he dropped down out of sight!

At last one day before him lay But when he got his chance the boy in a trance As oarsman staunch, wherever boats launch, Never before had man at oar The boat of his fondest dreams. Into the deep, dark canyon fled. They sought his services out, Rowed with such skill and might. And it seemed a very able craft ’Til he stood on the brink of the awesome fall In times of distress with great finesse Where the wild waves roll he avoided the hole. To run the wildest streams. Filled with fear and dread. He proved both skilled and stout. It looked like he’d won the fight!

His wife implored, but he ignored But as the moments flew his passion grew But they thought it sad, this handsome lad But at the very last when he tried to slip past Her pleas of not to go Until he shook his fist and swore Never smiled or tried to joke. A jagged rock that stuck For he said, “It’s destined I try my boat In a towering rage, “When I come of age The rumor grew of an ill-fated love Barely above the foaming froth, On the rapids down below. I’ll run you, Belle Zabor!” And how his heart was broke. The side of his boat he struck.

“For I had this dream, and it would seem The years flew fast until at last For many said at night in bed With a sickening tear he lost the air The first I was meant to be The boy left his mother’s side. On some lonely river shore, In a front compartment of his boat. To run Belle Zabor with boat and oar. And her pleading tears were to no avail They often heard him toss and turn Water poured in! He was out of control, That is my destiny!” To this headstrong youth with pride. And murmur, “Belle Zabor.” Although he was still afloat!

Despite his wife’s fears and her flowing tears, Fast in his head were the words that he said But he was never swayed by winsome maid. He could not guide with that deflated side. He launched out in the stream. When he made his childhood vow. For him life held no fun, His boat flipped in the very next wave. He settled himself unto his oars Ever and ever it burned in his mind Until he could fulfill his burning need. Between rocks on the right his body wedged tight, To fulfill his fleeting dream. And he swore he’d do it now. This rapid he must run! And he went to his watery grave.

At the waterfall ’neath the towering wall His mind was on fire with a wild desire — Time slipped past and at last If you want to live, this message I give The rapid roared its siren song — This rapid he must run! He’d made himself such a name. To all brave rivermen; “Hurry down to me, wild and free, He set forth into the world At oar of boat he had no peer, Whether you tread the narrow and straight, Your journey won’t be long.” To seek how it could be done. To him all rivers were tame. Or revel in the deep dark sin.

With skill and poise, as the approaching noise This fledging boy, he sought not joy. Then he knew what he must do. No matter how bold, if you want to grow old, Louder and wilder grew, He had a desperate need The time had come and now Heed what has gone before." He tested his craft with the bite of his oars To be able to guide a heaving boat He must return to his boyhood home Fulfill your dreams on the wildest streams, And his boat responded true. And a raging rapid read. And fulfill his awesome vow. But don’t try the Belle Zabor!

The moments passed and the time ran fast At camp on the bars at night ’neath the stars The mother was glad to see the lad ’Til before him the rapid lay. He heard tales the rivermen told. But her heart cried out in pain, He could not see what waited beyond And he listened well and he listened long “Oh stay away from the river, Son!” For more information about the Glen Canyon Conservancy, In the churning froth and spray. To the wisdom of the old. But her pleading was in vain. please visit www.canyonconservancy.org. "" 50 MAY 2019 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic DRIVE

CHEVELON CROSSING This scenic route, which winds from Winslow to Heber, originally was built in the late 1800s so Mormon pioneers could get their wagons across a perilous ravine en route to Chevelon Creek. BY ANNETTE McGIVNEY / PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL HAZELTON

lon Rim. At about Mile 34, you’ll reach the junction with Forest Road 169, which leads to . Stay straight on FR 504 and go another mile toward dramatic Chevelon Canyon. While the graded switchbacks leading into the canyon have been fortified by the U.S. Forest Service to make the route safe for passenger cars, the road origi- nally was built in about 1879 so migrants could get their wagons across the peril- ous ravine. According to historian Will C. Barnes, author of the 1935 book Ari- ground, built by the Civilian Conserva- live in a world where you still can travel zona Place Names, a Mormon settlement tion Corps in the 1930s, is tucked a primitive wagon road forged more than sprang up at the bottom of the canyon. beneath trees along the creek and is a a century ago. “There were about 10 cabins here in 1883,” good place to have lunch or spot beavers, Barnes wrote, “each having a ‘claim deer or turkeys. notice’ written on a smooth board nailed After going over the one-lane bridge, SCENIC on the door.” you’ll begin climbing up the other side DRIVES of Arizona’s ADDITIONAL READING: Best Back After the hairpin turns and bird’s-eye of the canyon. Once you top out on the 40 Roads For more adventure, pick up a copy of our book Arizona views of Rim Country, you’ll arrive at other side, you’ll pass through rolling Highways Scenic Drives, which Chevelon Crossing, where Chevelon meadows with old fire scars before arriv- features 40 of the state’s most beautiful back roads. To order, Creek threads between pines, oaks and ing at State Route 260 near Heber. As you visit www.shoparizonahighways Edited by Robert Stieve sycamores. Chevelon Crossing Camp- pull onto the paved highway, be glad you and Kelly Vaughn Kramer .com/books.

t might be hard to imagine when you’re on the east side of Winslow. Here, a his- of sky across the high desert is so big, driving 75 mph down a smooth stretch torical marker explains that several Mor- you can almost see the curve of the Earth. TOUR GUIDE I of blacktop, but many north-south mon routes converged in this area, where You’ll leave the pavement around Mile 27 Note: Mileages are approximate. routes in Arizona were carved by the a rock ledge made it possible to pull and turn left onto FR 504 at the sign for LENGTH: 52 miles one way wagon ruts of Mormon pioneers. These heavy wagons across the silt-bottomed Heber and Chevelon Canyon Lake. DIRECTIONS: From Historic Route 66 in Winslow, go south on State Route 87 for 1.2 miles to State Route 99. roads, built in the last half of the 19th . From here, most After passing through a checkerboard Turn left onto SR 99 and continue 25.7 miles to Forest century, generally followed paths of least travelers went west, toward Pine and the of private and state trust lands, continue Road 504. Turn left onto FR 504 and continue 25.1 miles resistance across seemingly impassable , or east, toward Joseph City on FR 504 as you enter the Apache- to State Route 260 near Heber. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: A high-clearance vehicle is terrain. Many have long since been paved and the . But some of the Sitgreaves National Forests. Here, the required, but four-wheel-drive is not necessary in good over, but Forest Road 504, the road to more adventurous wagon parties headed landscape gradually transitions from arid weather. Chevelon Crossing, is as rugged and south, toward Chevelon Creek, and high desert to piñon-juniper vegetation, NOTE: Back-road travel can be hazardous, so be aware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of water. beautiful as when settlers pulled their forged the path of this drive. then to the ponderosa pine forests and Don’t travel alone, and let someone know where you are wagons through Northern Arizona Heading out of Winslow on State riparian canyons tucked into the Mogol- going and when you plan to return. 140 years ago. Route 87 and then State Route 99, you’ll INFORMATION: Black Mesa Ranger District, 928- As you retrace this pioneer path from pass the city’s McHood Park, on the ABOVE: Evening light bathes ponderosa pines and 535-7300 or www.fs.usda.gov/asnf other evergreens along Forest Road 504. Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial Winslow to Heber, make your first stop banks of Clear Creek. Then it’s 20 miles OPPOSITE PAGE: Chevelon Creek feeds an array of 511 to get infor­ma­tion on road closures, construc­tion, Sunset Crossing, just off Historic Route 66 along lonely blacktop where the stretch greenery at Chevelon Crossing. delays, weather and more.

52 MAY 2019 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 53 HIKE

BOG SPRINGS/KENT SPRING LOOP There are several ways to explore Madera Canyon, including this scenic loop. On paper, it looks easy. But it’s not. BY ROBERT STIEVE / PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEFF MALTZMAN

Mountains. The canopy thickens as you ing in the deserts and snow in the moun- go, and the trail skirts a steep ravine. tains can be deadly. Fifteen minutes later, after a moderate Continuing up, you’ll start seeing recurrence of huffing and puffing, you’ll some small ponderosas mixed in with come to a short spur that leads to Bog the other vegetation. A few minutes later, Springs. It’s worth a look. things level off as the trail crosses a small Back on the trail, the ascent continues rock slide. This is the high point of the around a deep side canyon. It’s a lush hike (6,595 feet). From there, you’ll start pocket that stands out as one of the most moving downhill, and along the way, impressive riparian areas in Southern the forest gets thicker and the trail itself Arizona. In particular, the basin is lined crosses a creek — it’s just a trickle, but with a neat row of massive sycamores. It it’s a lifeline. looks as if they were planted there. Just below the creek, the trail arrives running in the streambed that parallels Beyond the trees, the trail makes its at Kent Spring, which is a good place to much of the trail. And if you’re really first real switchback, which helps miti- sit and catch your breath. And maybe lucky, you’ll see an elegant trogon or an gate the gradient — this hike is more dif- look for birds. When you’re ready to ocelot. But don’t hold your breath. ficult than it looks on paper. Above the leave, don’t be confused by the trail that switch, you’ll get a long-distance look at continues uphill. Intuitively, you’ll think Josephine Saddle, where, on November that’s where you’re supposed to go, but ADDITIONAL READING: 15, 1958, three young Boy Scouts, ages that trail heads east, toward Armour For more hikes, pick up a copy 12 to 16, died when they were caught in Spring. Instead, look for the Kent Spring of Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, which features 52 of the a sudden snowstorm. It’s a good Trail, which drops sharply to the right state’s best trails — one for each reminder that when you’re hiking in and follows an old jeep road downhill, weekend of the year, sorted by seasons. To order a copy, visit Arizona, you need to check the forecast past Sylvester Spring and back to the www.shoparizonahighways before you leave the house. Flash flood- trailhead. If you’re lucky, you’ll see water .com/books.

TRAIL GUIDE LENGTH: 5 miles round-trip DIFFICULTY: Moderate ELEVATION: 5,120 to 6,595 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 31˚43.600', W 110˚52.501' ike jaguars and ocelots, elegant with about a dozen hiking trails, includ- to this inviting canyon. DIRECTIONS: From Tucson, go south on Interstate 19 for 24 miles to Continental Road (Exit 63). Turn left onto Con- trogons are rare in Arizona. How- ing the Bog Springs/Kent Spring Loop. About 10 minutes later, the trail splits tinental Road and continue 1.1 miles to Whitehouse Canyon L ever, they have been spotted. And The trail begins in the Bog Springs again. The Bog Springs Trail goes left; Road. Turn right onto Whitehouse Canyon Road, which merges into Madera Canyon Road, and continue 12.1 miles photographed. Just not very often. That’s Campground — at site No. 13. The park- the Kent Spring Trail goes right. This is to the Madera Canyon Recreation Area and the Bog Springs why the colorful bird from Mexico is ing area, however, is located around the the beginning of the loop, and you can Campground. Turn left into the campground and follow the considered the Holy Grail for birders. corner, at the upper end of the camp- go either way, but you might be happier loop drive for 0.6 miles to the trailhead parking area. It’s related to the quetzal, and if you see ground. It’s a short walk from one point going clockwise, because the climb is SPECIAL CONSIDERATION: A $5 day pass is required. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None one, consider yourself lucky. If you don’t, to the other. From the trailhead, the more gradual in that direction — the DOGS ALLOWED: Yes don’t worry. Your trip to Madera Canyon rocky track dips into a dry wash lined Kent Spring Trail is steep at the top, and HORSES ALLOWED: Yes won’t be without reward. That’s because with yuccas, sycamores and alligator most hikers prefer doing that section as a USGS MAP: Mount Wrightson this is one of the most beautiful places in junipers. As you climb out, you’ll start downhill. It’s up to you. INFORMATION: Nogales Ranger District, 520-281-2296 or the Southwest. seeing silverleaf oaks and come to an Veering left, you’ll begin a long slog www.fs.usda.gov/coronado In addition to the elegant trogon — and intersection. The trail to the right leads up the western slope of the Santa Rita LEAVE-NO-TRACE PRINCIPLES: • Plan ahead and be out all of your trash. 199 other species of birds — the area is to a picnic area, but you’ll go the other prepared. • Leave what you find. home to black bears, mountain lions, deer, way. And when you do, look to the south- ABOVE: The Bog Springs/Kent Spring Loop rewards • Travel and camp on • Respect wildlife. hikers with views of the Santa Rita Mountains. durable surfaces. • Minimize campfire impact. coyotes and coatimundis. There are big east, where the views of Mount Wright- OPPOSITE PAGE: Coatimundis can sometimes be • Dispose of waste • Be considerate of trees, too, and panoramic views, along son will inspire a more ambitious return spotted along the 5-mile loop. properly and pack others.

54 MAY 2019 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 55 HISTORIC DISTRICT BOUTIQUE HOTELS ANTIQUES WHERE IS THIS? COTTONWOOD ARIZONA s i p , s h o p , s t a y & P l a y in the heart of A Z w i n e c o u n t r y

Language Barrier This statue honors a group of soldiers who played a pivotal role in a global conflict. Only a handful of those soldiers are alive today. As for the statue, you can find it, appro- priately, in a nation’s capital — one that’s a little farther west than Washington, D.C.

March 2019 Answer & Winner Win a collection of our most popular books! To enter, correctly identify the location pictured above and email your answer to editor@ Our Lady of Gua- arizonahighways.com — type “Where Is This?” in the subject line. Entries can also be sent dalupe Parish, to 2039 W. Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009 (write “Where Is This?” on the envelope). Guadalupe. Con- Please include your name, address and phone number. One winner will be chosen in a ran- VERDE VALL Y- gratulations to our dom drawing of qualified entries. Entries must be postmarked by May 15, 2019. Only the winner, J.D. Powell of winner will be notified. The correct answer will be posted in our July issue and online at WINE TRAIL Ashburn, . www.arizonahighways.com beginning June 15. TMI MU.RT OF ARIZONA WtNI COUNTIIY WWW.VVWINITRAIL.COM \ , 1 l1•:.· '·'-••••i\/ - 56 MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP SEAN AHASTEEN ABOVE, LEFT MIKE SMITH