The Ol’ Pioneer The Magazine of the Grand Canyon Historical Society

Volume 26 : Number 1 www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Winter 2015

In This Issue

Recollections — 3 Book Review — 6 The Men From Bass Station vs. Glen Canyon Dam — 8 President’s Letter The Ol’ Pioneer The Magazine of the Grand Canyon Historical Society

In November, a new Board was elected to serve the Grand Canyon Histori- Volume 26 : Number 1 cal Society. Some new (and perhaps familiar) faces will serve on the 15-member Winter 2015 GCHS Board, elected by you - members in good standing: Jon Streit, General u Manager for Xanterra at Grand Canyon National Park, Steven Landes, the Princi- pal of Grand Canyon Schools, Jack Pennington, Programs Manager for the Grand The Historical Society was established Canyon Field Institute, and Dave Mortenson an avid historical river boatman in July 1984 as a non-profit corporation whose father made Dave one of only 1,800 people to raft the Grand Canyon be- to develop and promote appreciation, understanding and education of the fore Glen Canyon Dam. The Board also welcomed back for second terms: Kathy earlier history of the inhabitants and Farretta, a longtime northern Arizona historian and volunteer extraordinaire, and important events of the Grand Canyon. myself, a former Grand Canyon backcountry ranger, river and trail guide, and author. Amy Horn, former archaeologist at Grand Canyon, is back after being The Ol’ Pioneer is published by the one year away from the Board. Thank you to all of these volunteers, who give GRAND CANYON HISTORICAL SOCIETY in conjunction with The of their time to guide this increasingly important constituency of Grand Canyon Bulletin, an informational newsletter. National Park. Both publications are a benefit of At the November Board meeting held with the new Board seated in the Com- membership. Membership in the Society munity Building at Grand Canyon Village, a number of important action items is open to any person interested in the were discussed and voted upon. As many of you will be aware, the National historical, educational, and charitable th purposes of the Society. Membership is Park Service celebrates their 100 anniversary in 2016 and staff at Grand Can- on an annual basis using the standard yon National Park have asked associated organizations (called Partners) to help calendar; and dues of $25 are payable on with planning to commemorate the occasion. The Board voted for GCHS to be the 1st of January each year, and mailed involved and to commit resources to an additional milestone to be observed in to the GCHS Treasurer, PO Box 31405 2019, the 100th anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park. To put this important Flagstaff, AZ 86003-1405. The Ol’ Pioneer magazine is copyrighted by the Grand action in perspective, a previous Board voted a year or two ago to continue with Canyon Historical Society, Inc. All rights the tradition of holding a multi-day history symposium every five-years, and reserved. No part of this publication which would have taken place in January 2017. The new Board however, after may be reproduced or used in any form hearing a presentation by Kirby-Lynn Sheldowski, NPS Public Affairs coordina- without permission of the publisher. tor for both events, elected to move our anticipated and seminal event “forward” Editor: Mary Williams by two months, such that a still loosely defined “event” or “events” will occur in Submit photos and stories to the or around November 2016. editor of The Ol’ Pioneer at: info@ Ideas that were discussed included organizing a smaller history symposium marywilliamsdesign.com or 4880 N. of perhaps one-day that might spotlight the National Park idea. NPS has been Weatherford Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. charged with finding ways to engage the next generation park enthusiasts (the (928) 779-3377. Please submit written articles and photos electronically on CD 18 to 35 demographic), so this might serve as a focus for us as well. Many other or via email if possible. You may mail well-known Partners will be involved and include among others National Geo- photos or slides for scanning if needed. graphic, Discovery Channel, Outside Magazine, and Leave No Trace. The Board decided that to sit on the sidelines for the 2016 commemoration would be a huge Submissions to The Bulletin should be opportunity lost. It was suggested that the GCHS might also partner with Arizona sent to Karen Greig, [email protected] Humanities to bring lectures throughout the state about the National Parks. (Four GCHS Officers current GCHS Board members are part of that organizations’ Speakers program). Wayne Ranney, President What this means is that 2015 and 2016 are shaping up to be busy and exciting Beth Hickey, Vice President years for the Grand Canyon Historical Society! If you have not already renewed Amy Horn, Treasurer your 2015 membership (still only $25 a year), please do so online by PayPal, or Tom Martin, Secretary Ellen Brennan, Outings Chair send in your dues with a check by regular mail. Don’t forget the Scholarship fund Frank Romaglia, Membership – we funded a very well researched project on the Desert View Watchtower in Lee Albertson, Pioneer Award Chair 2014. All renewals this year receive a free commemorative sticker from the Soci- Tom Martin, Oral History Chair ety that will be mailed to you. Excitement awaits for all Grand Canyon historians Al Richmond, Hall of Fame Award/ in the next few years. Research Grants / Scholarship Chair Board of Directors Steven Landes Wayne Ranney Lee Albertson Tom Martin GCHS President Howard Asaki Dave Mortenson Ellen Brennan Carol Naille Kathy Faretta Jack Pennington Cover: Silver Bridge. Grand Canyon National Park. Karen Greig Frank Romaglia Beth Hickey Wayne Ranney Amy Horn Jon Streit 2 : Grand Canyon Historical Society Recollections

Occasionally, the Ol’ Pioneer publishes the personal recollections of those wishing to share their Grand Canyon experiences with a wider audience. This month, former GCHS Board member and NPS interpreter Keith Green, shares his reminiscences of canyon life from the early 1970s. The Grand Canyon Historical Society neither endorses or condones any activity that is outside the law within Grand Canyon National Park. Not all aspects of the canyon’s history will meet with the approval of every reader, but it is the mission of the GCHS to preserve and relate the canyon’s history, as experienced by those who lived it first hand. by Keith Green Then there is the enormity of the Grand I had brought down a hit of mesca- Author’s note: The Ol’ Pioneer has printed many Canyon. Sure it looks big whenever one line, a psychedelic, which I had kept articles written as personal remembrances of views it from the rim, but, as I descended ever since leaving Oklahoma. Why not times gone by at Grand Canyon. During those the trail, I realized that the Grand Canyon take it and make this day really memo- times, different segments of the population of is much bigger than it looks from the top. rable? Grand Canyon Village were involved in different It has something to do with the various I found a place in the shade and activities. During Prohibition, there must have perspectives one gets descending into the watched the river for an hour or so been a fair amount of the GC Village population using illegal alcohol. In the 1960s and 1970s, there canyon. The Coconino Sandstone, for ex- while the mescaline came on. Summer was a large proportion of the minimum-wage ample, is the huge 300 foot cliff 800 feet temperatures in the bottom of Grand workforce that used marijuana, psychedelics, below the top. From the rim, the Coconino Canyon can range around 110 degrees. and other illegal drugs. Grand Canyon history Sandstone seems to stretch nearly halfway I was getting over-heated, and the cannot be complete without stories from these to the bottom of the canyon. However, shade was disappearing. The river was populations at these times. looking up from only a third of the way to too cold and swift there; so I laid in the the bottom on the Bright Angel Trail, the creek to cool off. I was feeling energetic first came to the Grand Canyon to Coconino Sandstone has shrunk to a very and the colors of the canyon and sky work a summer job in 1972. Little thin layer of rock practically on the rim. had become deep and even more beau- did I know then that I would live at The north and south rims look like big, tiful. To minimize the effects of the sun, theI canyon most of my life. My first job rugged, mountain ranges from the Tonto I made sure to get everything wet in- there was washing dishes at the Bright Plateau. cluding my shorts, t-shirt, and hat. As Angel Lodge for $1.50 per hour plus soon as I got my hiking boots on, I was room and board. I was the only dish- Somehow I got two days off one ready to walk the last mile and a half to washer with a master’s degree. I had week during the summer of 1972 and Phantom Ranch. one day off each week; so I commenced made my way down to the bottom of The trail climbs for half a mile to a exploring the canyon one day at a time. the Grand Canyon for the first time. point on a cliff several hundred feet It was such a treat to live on the edge I came down the Bright Angel Trail above that cool, green river. By the time of the Grand Canyon for an entire from Indian Garden and got to the I got to that point, the river looked cool- summer. That is why I stayed wash- river in the morning. It was amazing. er and greener than it had ever looked ing dishes in a hot, noisy kitchen for The Colorado River was that emerald before—a green deeper than any emer- minimum wages until October. Other green color it gets during dry spells. It ald. The point seemed to hang over the dishwashers would sign-on but leave pours over what I assumed was a rapid river maybe two hundred feet below. I about the time they got their first pay- below Pipe Creek. It was really only a was uncomfortably hot after climbing check, but that’s because they weren’t riffle. Real rapids are much bigger. up the trail, and I considered for awhile falling in love with the wilderness that jumping off the point into the nice, is Grand Canyon. Let me tell you more about myself. I am a cool river. I wondered if the river was I went as far down each of the South child of the 1960s. I don’t know about you, deep enough to absorb my fall so that I Rim trails as I could, while still getting but I was a fairly common freak of a col- wouldn’t hit the river bottom too hard. back up the same day. As I descended lege student. Yes, I was against the Vietnam “Wait a minute,” I said to myself, into the canyon’s depths, I began to dis- war. In fact, I spent some nights in jail for “I’m messed-up! Maybe I shouldn’t do cover the peace and harmony of the nat- demonstrating against it. Yes, I took mind- something like jumping off this point ural world. It is wilderness unmarred enhancing drugs back then. Any history of until I am straight again.” by man. The cares and problems of the the 1960s and 1970s that doesn’t include Whenever I’ve been by that point world seem to be screaming overhead at illegal drug use is revisionist history and since then, I can’t believe that I ever rim level, but down in the canyon, ev- does not give a complete history of that era. even considered jumping from it. I’ve erything is as it should be - all according Mind changing drugs were a part of the thrown rocks off that point about as far to the laws of nature and physics. culture back then. out as I could have leaped, and they www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 3 bounce a few times off the rock wall structure much like the towers on the steps. Instead of going by, he stopped below before they plunk into the river. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco right next to me and seemed to be won- I would have died a terrible death if I only silver and not so big. Two bundles dering what I was staring at. This made had jumped from there. of suspension cables were draped over me paranoid since I was still tripping. I My walk along the River Trail con- these towers arcing down and across tried to think of something to say that sisted of explorations of amazing plac- the river. At equal intervals, metal wouldn’t give away my state of mind. es around every corner. The bottom of cables joined the main cables to the Finally I turned to him and said, “It’s the Grand Canyon was a wonderland bridge. The geometric symmetry of the kind of like a light show.” to me. I felt like a child walking into a bridge marked a sharp contrast to the His eyes went from me to the river new playground. The River Trail has natural lines of the canyon. The bridge and back. Then he shook his head with- been blasted out of the hard, twisted went immediately over the edge of the out saying a word and walked on. That schists and granites of the inner gorge. cliff above the river. The bridge is five gave me a shock of paranoia. Thank- Most of the rock is dark in color; so it feet wide and the sides and floor of it fully I never saw that guy again. absorbs the sunlight and radiates heat. are made of a see-through aluminum From the north side of the bridge, the The walls hold strips of browns, blacks, grate. I had to put my foot on it without trail skirts the rocky shore between the and pink, with occasional stripes of my weight just to be sure it was really river and the cliffs above until it reach- white rock. They were shiny - reflecting there. I later learned that mules refuse es the delta of Bright Angel Creek. I the bluest sky - almost blackish blue. to cross this bridge because they can walked by a mule corral and found a Then the trail turns to sand. Before see through it. A sign was attached to couple of buildings. me was a series of dunes of fine river the bridge assuring me that Phantom “Ah, this must be Phantom Ranch,” I sand blown up against the cliffs of the Ranch is on the other side of the bridge; thought and walked around the build- inner gorge. The trail skirts several so I began to walk across it. I was sus- ings staring into the windows wonder- sand dunes. Walking in sand in 100+ pended 45 feet over the churning and ing how to get in. There was an unas- degree heat almost killed me. roaring Colorado River. It took my suming door, but no signs about lem- I trudged around a bend and was breath away. onade. confronted by the strangest plant I’d The river there is making a wide turn “Where do I get that famous Phan- ever seen. It was some kind of yucca around a delta to its north. As the river tom Ranch lemonade?” I wondered. except that it had a trunk like a tree. The slowly turns northward, its current is The building actually was the River six-inch diameter trunk rose to face lev- pushed along the south wall of the in- Ranger Station where the only law en- el, and then there was the typical burst ner gorge. Just upstream of the bridge, forcement ranger lived! Luckily there of sharp yucca spines. I had never seen the river bounces off of a rock ridge on were no rangers inside. anything like it before. It looked like a the side of the canyon and rolls under Then there was Bright Angel Creek Dr. Seuss tree. I had to reach out and itself as it rushes under the bridge. flowing soft and clear out of a thin can- carefully touch it to be sure it was real. Even though the bridge railings were yon coming in from the north. After I I found a huge, cabin-sized boulder, too hot to touch, I had to stop there cooled-off in the creek, I hitched up my which looked like it had just rolled and experience the power of the river. I boots and walked the last half mile up down the dune and stopped precari- stood there a long time. I could feel the the creek to the ranch. The smell of sun- ously next to the trail. I didn’t care if power that dug the tremendous depths drenched grass and other plants per- it was about to continue rolling. There of Grand Canyon - the carrier of rock meated the air. Once I got there, many was shade under the rock. I lay down in from deep within the Earth on towards towering cottonwood trees made walk- the cool sand and tried to cool off. the sea. Still the river was pushing with ing onto the Phantom Ranch grounds Now the trail turned and perched unimaginable force against the wall of like walking into a green cave. It was against a cliff wall, which reflected the the canyon just upstream. Never mind cooler and there were little streams of heat in addition to the overbearing sun. that it is carving into solid rock a mile water gurgling through the grasses By this time the sun was exactly over- under the surface of the land. What an around each tree. A ring of rock and head. I made it about a hundred yards introduction this was to the vicinity of wood cabins surrounded a central area before I found a crack in the rock just Phantom Ranch. of weeds and rocks. The North Kai- wide enough for me to squeeze into it I could feel the power of twenty-foot bab Trail cut through the center of the and get the only shade around. Some deep water pushing into the canyon ranch like a highway. The lodge stood hikers walking by gave me a quizzical wall and bouncing off it and rolling impressively at the north end of the look. under itself as it went under the see- oasis. It was also rock, glass, and dark, The trail was getting close to the through bridge. There I was leaning weathered wood. river now. It came to a point where an on the railings without touching them On the south side of the lodge was a other-worldly vision stood at the edge having all these mind-blowing realiza- grass lawn. I thought manicured grass of the trail. There was a silver suspen- tions when another hiker started across looked pretty ridiculous in the middle sion bridge stretching across the river. the bridge. I knew he was coming be- of a wilderness like this. Beyond were On either end was a tall, gleaming cause the bridge shook with each of his the vestiges of what might have been

4 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org flower gardens some time in the past. south sides and seemed to stand as the side of the lodge and bought a won- Someone had worked hard building a relic of a time, which is no more. In derful glass of ice and lemonade. I sat fences of rock, cement, and wooden 1972 the north porch overlooked a pit in the shade of the cottonwood trees rails. These fences no longer made full of garbage!. I didn’t realize it at the outside the lodge to cool off and swat meaningful barriers. On the south end time, but what I was looking at was flies. Little did I know then that this of the enclave was a wooden building what remained of a swimming pool. would be my home for most of the next also with a gabled roof. It had wide, It was all so strange and unfamiliar. I ten years. covered porches along its north and finally found a canteen window around Book Review by Don Lago critical assessment of Powell’s boat ston could come up with only a few designs, river skills, leadership, and pages about the most obscure voyag- f you’ve read any Colorado River accuracy as a historian. Stanton’s too. ers like Hum Woolley. Marston offers history books written in the last Marston often targets inflated claims: lots of background stories, often sur- 30 years, you’ve made a second- “Dellenbaugh struggled to keep prising, such as Julius Stone helping handI trek to the Huntington Library Powell as a hero against the satanic Pete Berry build the Grandview Hotel near Los Angeles, home of Dock Mar- villainies of the record.” Marston’s in 1896. Marston goes into longstand- ston’s massive, amazing collection of judgments are fascinating and usually ing discussions about boat designs, river history research. Marston was justifiable but he clearly enjoys point- rowing styles, wave sizes, rapid dy- so enthralled with the river that he ing out other people’s flaws, and this namics, the best runs, historic lore, hated to leave it and pursued river book has something to provoke most geographical confusions, boatmen history to stay immersed. Marston’s readers. reputations, and events like Separa- Grand Canyon river career was im- This book’s main strength is its fact- tion Rapid. Marston doesn’t quite pressive: he crewed with Norm filled narratives of all Grand Canyon rank the boatmen but you’ll find out Nevills twice, ran the record high of river trips up to 1951. While Marston’s why he has high respect for Nathan- 126,000 in 1957 and, in a sportyak, recounting of the Powell expedition iel Galloway, Julius Stone, and Buzz record lows in 1963, joined Ed Hud- may be familiar ground, er, water, Holmstrom, less for the Kolbs, much son’s first motorboat descent in 1949 everyone will learn new things about less for “archaic” Clyde Eddy, a crimi- and Jon Hamilton’s upriver jet boat less famous trips, although even Mar- nal indictment for Robert Stanton, and run in 1960. As a researcher he was thorough contempt for Norm Nevills. equally resourceful, contacting ev- Marston generally is not an imagina- eryone who had run the river or tive writer but he sometimes comes up knew anything about it, sleuthing with vivid images: “In 83 Mile Rapid, out sources no one else imagined. Nevills carelessly broke one of his Marston did his research to write an heavy oars and metamorphosed more epic history of Grand Canyon boat- of the Precambrian walls with the heat ing, a book nearly complete when he of his comments about his jammed fin- died in 1979. Unlike his research col- gers.” With his engineering eyes (and lection, his manuscript remained un- degrees from Berkeley and Cornell) der restricted access until 2012. Now, Marston studied boat designs, but he thanks to Vishnu Temple Press, Mar- admiringly quotes Galloway’s more ston’s magnum opus is available. It’s homespun philosophy: “Watch a nice an essential, foundational book for big duck floating on the water. That’s everyone’s river library. the way I want my boats.” Marston Marston’s early research aided Wal- was fascinated by psychology and lace Stegner and William Culp Darrah tried it on his subjects, if sometimes in writing their admiring Powell biog- clumsily, but he does offer good ques- raphies, yet neither Stegner nor Dar- tions and insights, for example into rah had been down the river and they Bert Loper’s desire to die on the river. handed Powell a blank check for river Stegner and Darrah were unusual: heroism, as had previous historians most Grand Canyon river history has like Dellenbaugh—and Powell him- From Powell to Power, by Otis Reed “Dock” been written by river runners, proud self. Marston turned a century of accu- Marston. Vishnu Temple Press, 2014. ISBN: of their own feats, and rightly so, but 978-0990527022. 532 pages. $30. mulated river experience into a more pride mixes uneasily with writing www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 5 history. Marston relentlessly portrays Powell lost his arm, and it’s a mess of collector of facts, but also an impor- Nevills as a foolish egomaniac, but it’s generals promoting themselves and tant and colorful weaver. This fat book not hard to guess that Nevills stepped dissing others, with a revisionist trend may be hard to fit into your ammo on Marston’s own ego. River histori- that removes Powell from important box, but it provides plenty of new fuel ans are hardly uniquely flawed: I’ve heroism to irrelevancy. History isn’t for dinner circle stories and debates. just been wading through the histori- just facts, it’s the stories we weave ography of the Battle of Shiloh, where from them: Marston was the ultimate

The Men From Bass Station vs. Glen Canyon Dam Hunting and Rescuing Grand Canyon’s Most Exclusive Animal by Earle E. Spamer Pilsbry, from Philadelphia, and Fer- riss from Chicago, were malacolo- Might the National Park Service at gists—people who study mollusks.1 Grand Canyon brand Vasey’s Para- The canyon was just the next stop for dise on its park management maps, them in a years-long series of explora- “NO VISITATION”? They could, and tions through the Southwest. Widely I worried that it would look like it was accomplished in his field, Pilsbry was my fault. Just because I found an En- the better known of the two. Now in dangered Species living there. A snail, his mid-40s, he was approaching the of all things. pinnacle of an ordinary career, little re- Worrisome park administrators alizing that he would yet have over 50 might think heavy-footed river run- more years of work, world travel, and ners could tread and shred the little accolades coming to him. shelled creatures and their fragile Stepping down from the car in the Colorado Riverside habitat in Marble crisp fall air, ignoring whiffs of coal Canyon. Then too, Bureau of Reclama- smoke, Pilsbry and Ferriss dropped tion power brokers in their ivory dam Henry A. Pilsbry at his desk in the Academy to their knees. No, not from awe—the of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; date upstream might frown on a reigned-in unknown but likely about 1920. (From a canyon was still miles away—but to river, denied some of their profitable glass negative recovered by the author rummage under rocks and in forest electricity-producing potential just about 2002 in the Archives of the Academy.) litter for the secluded, shelled animals because unregulated water pulses that were their livelihood. They found might wash away the wee beasts. I south of Grand Canyon’s rim. What them. envisioned ruffian river runners wait- curious glances they must have gotten Cheered with such bounty, they ing for me around bends in the river. from the other passengers all primed climbed aboard an arriving stage for I imagined Reclamation managers to see The Grand Canyon. Where would the ride to their hotel on the canyon sending me to “live with the fishes” in one go from such a lonely place of pi- rim. But far from easing into genteel Lake Powell. ñons and pines? accommodations at El Tovar, the Santa This really wasn’t my doing! It was Fe Railway’s brand new Fred Harvey– (clichés and all) a goateed, bespecta- powered magnet hotel at the village of cled, pipe-smoking scientist—a scien- Grand Canyon, Pilsbry and Ferriss in- tist of snails. stead bounced away into Grand Can- yon’s science history, bound for rustic But First . . . a Thousand Mice Bass Camp and the specter of Glen On October 16, 1906, Henry A. Canyon Dam. Pilsbry (the one with the goatee) and Unfortunately for us, the men seem friend James H. Ferriss were on board not to have written down anything the Grand Canyon Railway from Wil- about their experiences with their liams, Arizona. Bags in hand, they host, William Wallace Bass. Nor do awaited the train to roll to a halt at we know how either Pilsbry or Ferriss Bass Station; not a train station, just a James H. Ferriss in 1904. (Photo from To- came to know of Bass’s remote accom- trackside flag stop in the Kaibab Forest Morrow, Vol. 1, no. 1 [January 1905], p. 36.) modations and trails in light of the

6 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org overpowering advertising efforts of ing in the vicinity of the Bass hostelry write to them. Ferriss mentioned in his the Santa Fe Railway that lured thou- near the Grand Scenic Divide. They trip summary that they were relieved sands to Grand Canyon Village. Had found all kinds of land snails, some that Pilsbry had not gotten lost trying they caught an advertisement placed like grains of rice (even smaller), oth- to find them somewhere on the Strip.5 by Bass? Perhaps they had been in- ers nice round ones the size of a nick- Departing “Thousand Mouse spired by reading In and Around the el.3 On sojourns into the canyon they Camp” (this time not so mousey, Fer- Grand Canyon, the recently published went as far as Le Conte Plateau and riss reported in his letter), the snail book by the perennial Bass fan and Mount Huethawali before returning prospectors continued up Bass’s trail canyon haunter, George Wharton to their rim lodgings. to the North Rim and looped through James. They would spend a couple of On October 20th Pilsbry and Ferriss the Kaibab Plateau where they passed weeks in Bass’s hospitable, if lean, ar- rode the trail deep into the canyon, along and across numerous smaller rangements on the rim and in the can- finding more snails of course. The next canyons on the west flank of the pla- yon. Yet all we know about their trip day they crossed the Colorado River teau. They visited some of the in- is the dry, clinical record left in a series on Bass’s wooden boat (the cable car frequent springs there and passed of scientific publications and among didn’t come until 1908). Passing over through Ryan, the one-time copper the mollusk specimens meticulously the ridge to the north they dropped prospect and smelter. They went out arranged in museum drawers. into Shinumo Creek to Bass’s some- onto the Powell Plateau, and west to Our snaileers were among science times mining campsite, sometimes Mount Trumbull. Returning toward pioneers, and the fact that they had rude dude ranch and orchard—Pils- the Kaibab they went along the Ver- lucked into W. W. Bass rather than bry and Ferriss called it the “Thousand milion Cliffs to Pipe Spring, en route Fred Harvey was good for science. The Mouse Camp.” They went upcanyon to Kanab, Utah. There Ferriss vis- first, casual mollusk collection made collecting, ambling and clambering ited watered gulches north of town, at Grand Canyon was by the leading along Shinumo and White Creeks. gathering snails and tiny freshwater environmental scientist C. Hart Mer- Well into their Southwest explorations mussels. He called that place “The riam, when he visited the canyon in now, they were in their element. Greens,” but today no one there rec- 1889 during his seminal studies of Finally finishing their natural history ognizes that name. life zones in the vicinity of the San prospecting in the inner canyon, they When Ferriss returned home to Chi- Francisco Peaks and northward. He returned across the river to the South cago he dutifully sent boxes of shells went down the Old Hance Trail, along Rim on the 26th, laden with small bags and jars of alcohol-preserved mollusks which he picked up a land snail that of snails. Pilsbry’s ubiquitous pipe to- to good friend Pilsbry in Philadelphia. was in 1890 described as a new species bacco pouches made handy contain- The specimens would be used for by R. E. C. Stearns, who named it for ers. (To this day a few stray strands creature identifications in their pub- the Colorado River; today it is known of tobacco can be found with some lications; and for Pilsbry those that as Sonorella coloradoensis. Otherwise, of his collections.) For some scientific he stored away would be returned virtually nothing was known of the colleagues back in Philadelphia, Pils- to in decades to come. It was the op- Grand Canyon’s mollusks when Pils- bry also gathered a few plants and portunistic collection at The Greens bry and Ferriss arrived. If they had bagged some toads—the toads were that would contain an enigmatic little instead booked into El Tovar (or less “stupid and easily caught,” he wrote snail, which eight decades later would sumptuous accommodations nearby) in his scant notes.4 The bountiful expe- rouse excitement and consternation. they likely would have ventured into dition inspired them to plan a repeat the canyon only along the (even then) trip, which would have ramifications Paradise, and Paradise Lost touristy Bright Angel Trail, going no nearly a century later. Vasey’s Paradise is a lush, green oa- farther than the Colorado River. Per- Three years after the Pilsbry–Ferriss sis nestled against a red-stained cliff, haps thus a bit rushed, they may not trip to Mr. Bass’s camps, Jim Ferriss rising up in tiers for dozens of yards have had the chance for the kind of went back to the canyon with Indiana above the Colorado River in Marble casual field examinations that they colleague Lorenzo E. Daniels, a geolo- Canyon. Gorgeous cascades pop from had with Bass.2 Nor is there evidence gist and amateur malacologist. This openings dissolved in the limestone. that they had heard of John Hance and time, they followed a more ambitious Glistening water pours down a ver- his accommodations and trail far east itinerary, crossing the river (no word tical blue-gray and rust face before of Grand Canyon Village, which inci- on whether Ferriss enjoyed the cable splashing and sliding down ledges, dentally was the chosen headquarters car) and traveling around the Arizona pools, and chutes to the river. Occa- for several scientifically organized Strip. Again, Bass was their canyon sional floods, sourced on the distant expeditions over the years (including host; but who they may have traveled Kaibab Plateau, also send cold torrents Merriam’s). with during their sojourns on the Strip through the plateau’s karst plumb- With Bass, things were leisurely. The is not known. It seems that they had ing to burst into this bit of watery men began their long stay at the can- expected Pilsbry to arrive sometime, paradise. Here is one of the most di- yon with a couple of days of prospect- but, busy at home, he did apparently verse groupings of plants in the inner www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 7 No one knows how long the snail has colony was discovered, more than called Vasey’s home, or for that matter 60 miles and “a flight down” from how it got there (more on this later). Kanab, tucked just by yards within There’s some evidence that it was seen the protective, legislative boundary (but misidentified) during ecological of Grand Canyon National Park; and surveys in the 1970s, but canyon biolo- the only place it was known to live in gists weren’t paying much attention to an ecologically pristine environment. lowly mollusks then, usually tallying Ironically, had Marble Canyon Dam them under “Other” in censuses of or- been built in the 1960s, as originally Vasey’s Paradise, on the edge of the ganisms. planned and before the enlargement Colorado River in Marble Canyon, as seen The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the national park, we would never on the day when the Kanab ambersnail lists the Kanab ambersnail as “Endan- have known of the Kanab ambersnail was gathered here during the first mollusk gered.” The term means very different at Vasey’s. The springs there would survey of the river corridor. (Photo by Earle Spamer, July 25, 1991.) things to conservationists, resource be filtering today directly into- Mar managers, and some landowners. On ble Canyon lake, deep underwater; the one hand endangered species are Vasey’s Paradise Lost. Grand Canyon ecosystem, a hanging a precious few creatures on the verge garden, clinging to a steeply inclined of being eliminated by humans sub- “Green” Science space of an acre or so. For river run- duing the earth, thus we are bound to Once designated “Endangered,” ners the springs’ cool, crisp waters are protect them. On the other hand they federal law offers some protection for a welcome respite from the chill, pea- are needless interferences to liveli- an organism and its habitat. Had the colored canned stuff drained into the hood; the reason, for example, for a National Park Service decided that canyon from Lake Powell. All around rancher’s loss of land use through the river runners and other visitors pose is desert and stone. bureaucratic meddling of policymak- a threat to the snail or its habitat at John Wesley Powell was the first to ers. The Kanab ambersnail also held Vasey’s Paradise, the locale may have describe Vasey’s. It must have been a the potential to interfere in the plans of been one more place marked on river remarkable sight in 1869. The talus- power brokers at Glen Canyon Dam. guides as off-limits to visitation. The lined river corridor, peppered with People may be emotionally respon- unwitting nemesis responsible for this mesquites and other pleasing bank- sive to the plights of endangered owls, hypothetical scenario is not me, as I’ve side flora, bare of the invading wisps ferrets, or tigers, because these plain- pleaded, but Henry Pilsbry—it was he of tamarisks that smear the banks tive creatures are in the news and each who recognized and scientifically de- today, turns to the left Kanab in its way has a certain scribed the Kanab ambersnail, adding and reveals, in the midst ambernsail, beauty and charisma. But it to the world’s list of creatures. With- of a hall of ruddy river photographed endangered species can out him, we may never have known. and magenta limestone, at Vasey’s creep in tiny, fragile, over- When in 1909 Pilsbry’s friend Fer- a diadem of cheery sil- Paradise. It is less than an looked packages, too. The riss sent him some specimens from the ver water and green life. inch long even modest Kanab ambersnail latest southwestern trip, among the Powell, so delighted by when extended has a rotund, teardrop- shells and alcohol-preserved innards the sight—as river run- from its shell. shaped shell; the brownish were a couple of dozen ambersnails ners have been ever (Photo by U.S. animal inside has a some- from the place he called The Greens, since—named the place Geological Survey.) times amber-colored trans- on a tributary to Kanab Creek north of for George Vasey, a bota- luscence, and its shell like- Kanab, Utah. At the time, both Pilsbry nist friend back East who wise may have the same and Ferriss thought the snail was an incidentally never saw it coloring, hence its name. another, already widely known spe- himself. When fully grown, the cies, checked it off, and moved on in Powell likely never shell still barely covers the their work; fooled by a shell. spied one of the secrets diameter of a dime and the By 1948 Pilsbry, now a great states- of Vasey’s Paradise: the animal does not complete- man of malacology aged 88 years, was Kanab ambersnail, a ly fit inside its shell. still showing up for work every day small, seemingly inconse- Until 1991 this snail from at the Academy of Natural Sciences in quential mollusk. Never Vasey’s was known to live Philadelphia, just as he had been do- mind the fact that the snail only in two small, well- ing since 1885 (when he wasn’t snail- wasn’t known then, and George Vasey (1822–1893). watered places a few miles ing around the world). When Pilsbry in fact wouldn’t have a (Engraving from a memorial north of Kanab, Utah, on took a look at the snails from Kanab name until 1948. It might to Vasey in The Botanical privately owned ranch again, knowing a bit more about the have lived there in 1869, Gazette, Vol. 18, no. 5 [May lands. Then in the sum- anatomy of mollusk bodies than he but we’ll never know. 1893], frontispiece.) mer of 1991 the Vasey’s did in 1909, he realized that the small

8 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org animals were a different kind of snail vironmental Impact Statement for the In 1991, the mollusk fauna of the than he originally had thought. He operation of Glen Canyon Dam. The Colorado River corridor in Grand found, in fact, they were a sub-species students were working under NAU Canyon was virtually unknown. Mol- of ambersnail entirely new to science. biologist Dean Blinn’s research grant, lusks are not a significant part of the He named it for Kanab, where Fer- studying, among other things, the food chain in the Grand Canyon, so riss had collected it; four decades late, “biomass” that forms part of the food earlier Colorado River surveys tend- but science can be patient. A name is, chain for the river’s creatures. I was a ed to overlook them; the focus was anyway, only the whim of a biologist’s tag-along under the grant; my day job more on the diversity of fishes and a momentary fit of brilliance. Scientific was to prospect for mollusks pretty few invertebrates that are a portion names are the scheme of giving classi- much everywhere I could reach in of the fishes’ food sources. So for me cal Latin or Greek names to living or- minutes, an “ambush” kind of biologi- this was an expedition of exploration, ganisms that was officially started in cal investigation. It was an aspect of bi- much as was the expedition of Pilsbry 1753 by the Swede, Carl Linnaeus. In ology that hadn’t ever been purposely and Ferriss 85 years earlier. Still, my this case, the Kanab ambersnail’s “Lin- studied along the Colorado River. In survey was pretty cursory, not having naean” name is Oxyloma haydeni kana- fact, mollusks had not been studied in the the luxury of meandering as they bensis—pronounced “ahks-ee-low-ma Grand Canyon anywhere for nearly a had had. Other than at the vicinities hay-den-eye kan-ab-en-sis,” which century; not since Pilsbry, Ferriss and of nightly campsites, collecting stops is why common names are invented, Daniels were there. Thanks to Grand on the 226 miles between Lees Ferry thus “Kanab ambersnail.”6 And for Canyon ecologist Larry Stevens, I con- and Diamond Creek afforded me as the next 43 years, so far as anyone was nected up with one of the GCES trips. little as 15 minutes or so, although concerned, that was that. By day the students worked on the at Vasey’s Paradise I had a luxurious In 1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife river and along wet tributaries, col- hour and a half. At least it was all ter- Service was ready to list this snail lecting water and bottom-sediment ritory never explored—even by Pils- as “Endangered.” The two colonies samples, measuring characteristics of bry and Ferriss—and no matter what north of Kanab were the only ones the channel and recording chemical I found it would be new information. known then, living precariously on and physical properties of the water. I When I collected mollusks from private land. A couple of thousand rooted through talus and plants, dart- Vasey’s there was no shout of discov- miles away, in Philadelphia, I had ed up side canyons, and stooped along ery. Although the information I gath- been aware of the Kanab ambersnail streams and the river’s edge, finding ered about mollusk distributions was only by name, because it was some- quite a lot. Unsurprisingly, the most new for Grand Canyon biology, and thing found during one of the early bi- productive places for mollusks were some new state records were later real- ological reconnaissances in the greater near springs. A kind of aquatic snail ized for Arizona, quick examination of Grand Canyon region; and through called a physid, which is found world- the snails on the spot seemed to show the publications whose authors and wide, also thrives along the Colorado them to be species commonly encoun- titles I had captured for the Bibliogra- River and in wet tributaries; but it is so tered in other places.7 For one snail, phy of the Grand Canyon. I also knew common that it was casually collected repeating Pilsbry’s original prognosis, that Pilsbry’s reference specimens for the record, and instead attention I was fooled by a shell. There wasn’t a from Ferriss’s original gathering near was paid to all the other mollusks. lot of time to be focused on one snail Kanab were in a drawer in the Acade- By evening I was conscript labor or another anyway. Only when I re- my’s Malacology Department—where with the students. Sitting at folding turned to Philadelphia would there be coincidentally I worked (though more tables in the dark, we peered into flat- time for sorting and classifying. That’s than 35 years after Pilsbry). I never bottomed glass Petri dishes of river when things got stirred up. guessed that I was rushing headlong water set atop upended flashlights. toward learning things about the With forceps we picked out any little, But It Shouldn’t Be Here Kanab ambersnail that Henry Pilsbry squiggly, living organism that was in One Saturday a few weeks after my never knew. there and separated out other organic mollusk expedition on the Colorado, material, the biomass booty from the Arthur Bogan (the brains here) and I A Snail Runs Through It crew’s day work. Once, though, I got were looking through a microscope at In late July 1991, I stood at Lees the night off. Deep in the Upper Gran- the anatomy of the body of an enig- Ferry with a group of students and ite Gorge on my birthday, our cook matic snail. Art and I had identified professors from Northern Arizona whipped up a Dutch oven cake. The the snails from the trip, but we had University ready to leave on a 12-day ensuing revelry attracted some boat- a couple of dozen left-overs, all from research trip on the Colorado River. ers from a private trip camped nearby, Vasey’s Paradise oddly enough. They Our work was part of the ongoing who arrived out of the darkness with just didn’t “key out”—a term biolo- Glen Canyon Environmental Studies falso Mexican accents and a bottle of gists use when they are identifying (GCES) program that gathered and tequila. Later they went back into the things. The anatomy of the mollusk’s evaluated information toward an En- darkness with their accents. body inside the shell showed that it www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 9 belonged to the genus called Oxyloma, riss’s original 1909 set of shells from When the snail was discovered at a kind of ambersnail. And that didn’t Kanab, the ones that Pilsbry had used Vasey’s, the GCES program under the make sense. You see, Oxyloma—the to name the Kanab ambersnail in 1948. Bureau of Reclamation was collecting whole genus Oxyloma that is, com- They were a dead-ringer for the shells baseline information and formulating prising different species—wasn’t sup- from Vasey’s! Yet, the genus Oxyloma predictions about the effects of a large posed to live in Arizona. But tell that had never been found living in Ari- man-made flood from Glen Canyon to the snails. My first thought was that zona. We also knew the problems with Dam, then being planned for the first it had been accidentally introduced to depending only on shells in this fam- time. A flood would mimic (sort of) Vasey’s. Did it come along in the veg- ily of organisms, so we turned to the some of the floods that used to rush gies of some river runners’ lunch box? alcohol-preserved specimens Pilsbry through the Grand Canyon before The whole family of snails to which had used in describing their anatomy. the dam was built. One purpose of Oxyloma belongs is hard to identify When we went into the collections to the experiment was to lift sand loads just by looking at the shells. Some pro- find them we were dismayed to learn from the river bottom to the banks, fessionals say it’s impossible. Varia- they were gone. Perhaps they were a process of sedimentary gentrifica- tions in the shape of one species’ shell discarded after Pilsbry had used them tion that had effectively ended when too often overlap with variations in in 1948; or they had dried out and the dam blocked off the river’s over- the shells of related species. To iden- were rendered useless at some later whelmingly rich supply of sand and tify these snails correctly one has to time, then thrown away. Although silt to Marble and Grand Canyons. A look at the anatomy of the animal that we were left with just shells that were controlled flood, believed to be good lives in the shell. That requires a mi- from Pilsbry’s set of original Kanab for the overall river community, also croscope and some pretty fine work ambersnails, we also had Dr. Wu’s au- had the potential to wipe out some of with delicate probes. And of course, thoritative identification of the newly the endangered snails at Vasey’s Para- the animal is dead, which, for an en- collected Vasey’s snails, based on dise, as well as some of its preferred dangered species, is not good.8 anatomy, the same anatomy first de- food, decaying monkey flowers—not When we got as far as knowing ciphered and published by Pilsbry in quite the intention of the protective these animals were Oxyloma we were 1948. measures of the Endangered Species stumped. What exact species was it? This caught the attention of the U.S. Act. This was an unexpected bump in So we sent some of them to Shi-kuei Fish and Wildlife Service, too. One the road. (Never mind that the natu- Wu at the University of Colorado, phone call led to more. Specimens ral, pre-dam floods were much larger an expert in this family of mollusks were shared around. One issue after and must have affected the snail every called the Succineidae (pronounced another passed from one government time, if it was there.) If a flood of any “suck-sin-ee’ ih-dee,” or in general, environmental scientist to another. At magnitude would wash away some of the ambersnails). One may not be sur- the last minute, the colony of amber- them, how many would be too many? prised to learn that the parcel post box snails at Vasey’s Paradise was added Could this snail come through a flood of snails arrived before the first-class to the decision to designate the Kanab without serious effects? It was a mon- cover letter telling Dr. Wu they were ambersnail as Endangered. It was, af- key wrench in the power-hungry on the way. (We were not yet wired ter all, the only population of this snail plumbing of Glen Canyon Dam. for email in those days.) He phoned known to be alive in a pristine habi- The Kanab ambersnail at Vasey’s us, puzzled, because he hadn’t asked tat—even if it wasn’t “supposed to be” has yielded more than just some our department for any loans of study in Arizona! notebook observations and govern- specimens recently. We filled him in ment agency memoranda. Since 1991, on what they were, from where, and Monkey Flowers and Monkey many biologists and ecologists have what had stumped us. Wrenches gotten long mileage out of the Kanab Being the inquisitive sort of scientist, The discovery at Vasey’s had come ambersnail in Marble Canyon. Nu- though, before calling us Dr. Wu had just in time. Legislative protection is merous study trips—some traveling already taken a look at the specimens; not necessarily preemptive when a by river, others by long hikes into the he knew what they were. He told us species lives on private lands. Shortly canyon—went to Vasey’s Paradise to that, yes, these were Oxyloma, but after being listed as “Endangered,” study in exhaustive detail the biology specifically they were the Kanab am- the smaller of the two original Kanab and ecology of the snail, which was bersnail, Oxyloma haydeni kanabensis. ambersnail colonies, in Kanab Creek almost wholly unknown. Two biolo- — And oh yes, he added parentheti- Canyon, was eliminated when their gists based the research for their Mas- cally, did we know that, based on the marshy land was drained. So the ter’s degrees on it. Numerous studies Utah colony, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife original population north of Kanab and professional papers were written Service was about to place it on the list was down to one little locale, at Three about an organism that was until then of Endangered organisms? Lakes, north of Kanab. Vasey’s held little known except by name. That caught our attention! We the only real hope for stringing along Briefly stated, the Kanab ambersnail opened the drawer containing Fer- the snail’s existence. favors decaying monkey-flower stems

10 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org and other vegetation in the mist-cooled versity. A third nursery was set up, airlifted to another body of water. But environs of running water, does not ironically, on the green-grass “football snails don’t have that advantage. generally seek seclusion, winters over field” atop the powerhouse at the base As for the Kanab ambersnail—who in a kind of suspended animation, of Glen Canyon Dam—almost taunt- knows? We don’t know how it got to lives about a year and a half, is appar- ing, up against the man-made mono- the places it lives, or how long it has ently not a favored food by any other lith that threatens the snails’ riparian lived there. But there it is, eking out animal, and sometimes is parasitized ribbon downstream. And at least one a life at Kanab, and at Vasey’s Para- by a peculiar, tiny worm-like animal more colony, descended from a group dise standing up to a dam. Many tales called a trematode. But as interesting of snails transplanted to Upper Elves about mollusk dispersal are anecdotal as these and other findings were, they Chasm on Royal Arch Creek in the and once were published as brief notes went beyond just academic exercises. middle part of Grand Canyon, is now in scientific journals. Today such kinds Would plans for controlled-flood ex- reproducing and thriving there. of notes are “unscientific,” rarely giv- periments envisioned by GCES go on Other studies, much more technical en precious printing space. But one hold rather than decimate the snails and far-reaching, have looked into the journal for malacologists, The Nauti- in their one-acre habitat? If the floods molecular bits and pieces of animals lus, once relished such notes, pepper- were off, the dam’s stingy retention that tell us about the genetics of the ing its pages of scholarly studies with of water for power production would Kanab ambersnail and its taxonomic these kinds of anecdotes and curious continue; the habitat downstream cousins. There are some other snail observations—that was during the de- through the canyon would not have colonies in the Grand Canyon, one at cades that it was edited and published a chance for any kind of recovery and Indian Garden and another nine miles by our old friend, Henry Pilsbry. none of the “controlled floods” run upstream from Lees Ferry near Glen from the dam in recent years would Canyon Dam, that contain amber- What Are the Odds? have taken place. For questions to be snails related to Oxyloma haydeni (the It seems a very unlikely scenario, answered, work had to move ahead. species in which the Kanab ambersnail two fellows from the same museum The dam’s power managers stared up is a sub-species). These other popula- department in Philadelphia, Pilsbry against the snail’s environmentalists. tions, though, may each be genetically and me, generations apart, serendipi- Who would “blink” first? different, thus perhaps they are not all tously coming across the same snail Logistically, research at Vasey’s pro- the same. And where the Kanab am- living in the Grand Canyon region, vided exciting challenges. The site is bersnail fits it may reveal some rela- each for the first time. To be honest, filled with poison ivy, a deterrent to tionship to one of them—or not. We for either of us it wasn’t particularly casual visitation. In fact, Vasey’s is just shall see. It’s still a very interesting big science, but science doesn’t have one of just a few places in the Grand time for Grand Canyon ecologists. to be Big to be interesting and useful. Canyon “lucky” enough to host poi- This little snail the size of a dime stood son ivy. Workers entering deep into It’s a Snail’s Life up to a big power dam’s managers, the site wear protective suits against Now, the question begs, just how do provided employment for research- the irritant toxins of the plant. To gain these snails get into such widely dis- ers, and offered opportunities for vol- access to some parts of the site, rock tant, tiny locales in the first place? It’s unteers, students and professors—a climbers with technical gear played not as if some of them miraculously mighty mollusk, indeed. Because of out across the sheer cliff face beneath led thousand-generation crawls be- the work by all these people and the Vasey’s bursting springs, dropping tween these places. establishment of new populations of down into parts of the cliff-hugging The mechanisms of distributing the endangered Kanab ambersnail, vegetation. The site was precisely sur- mollusks to far-flung places on land this creature now has a chance to con- veyed with laser instrumentation and and in fresh waters are not complete tinue its easily overlooked life as one plotted on computers; estimates were mysteries, but neither are they well of the canyon’s marvels. All thanks made of where flood flows would understood or well documented. to James Ferriss, Henry Pilsbry, and reach. In another study, individual Some species of mollusks get caught (with a tip of the hat) W. W. Bass. “So ambersnails had numbers placed on in the feathers of aquatic birds, which long, and thanks for all the snails.”9 their shells; some were transplanted to fly from place to place. This is an es- Notes higher levels just before a controlled pecially reliable conveyance during 1 Henry Augustus Pilsbry (1862–1957) had flood was released from the dam. Af- migratory seasons. The tiniest of land graduated from the University of Iowa and for ter the flood another census was tak- snails can be lofted and cradled by a while worked for newspapers in Iowa and New York. He was an avid malacologist, which en. The collateral damage was within strong winds too, but the Kanab am- with his proofreading experience was noticed predictions; there were no adverse bersnails are too large to sail. Other by George Tryon of the Academy of Natural surprises. kinds of mollusks, freshwater mus- Sciences of Philadelphia, who hired the young Pilsbry in 1885. A few months later Tryon died Some snails were taken alive for sels, even have been known to reflex- and Pilsbry was given the man’s position in the breeding programs at the Phoenix ively close their valves onto the feet of Department of Malacology and the editorship Zoo and at Northern Arizona Uni- birds that step on them, and they are of Tryon’s ongoing Manual of Conchology. www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 11 Grand Canyon Historical Society PRSRT STD PO Box 31405 U.S. POSTAGE Flagstaff, AZ 86003 PAID FLAGSTAFF, AZ PERMIT 333

(Conchology is an older term for malacology, carbonate to help build their shells. researchers have also considered this animal to be though restricted more to the shelled creatures. 4 Henry Pilsbry’s field notes are notoriously brief a separate species, as just Oxyloma kanabensis, Mollusks actually include the likes of octopuses and telegraphic, an indication that much of but that has not gained wider acceptance. and squids, too.) Pilsbry remained in the his research methodology was by brute force 7 Despite Vasey’s Paradise having such a rich Academy’s employ until his death, although at of memory. His sparse notebooks are often a diversity of life, including mollusks, the one the end he was at his daughter’s home in Florida disappointment to modern-day researchers who place in Grand Canyon thus far known to have recovering from a heart attack. At the age of 80 may hope to learn many more details surrounding the greatest variety of mollusks is the area around he said in a newspaper interview that he had ten his activities. Thunder River—another finding from the 1991 years’ worth of work on his desk; and, he added, 5 Ferriss wrote a letter to Pilsbry in 1910 outlining prospecting trip. Thunder River uniquely mixes when that was finished he had ten years’ more the itinerary of his trip with Daniels and certain species that are otherwise restricted to work awaiting. He pretty much finished it up! recounted many observations. It was published the environment either of the inner canyon or the James Henry Ferriss (1849–1926) was a as “A Collecting Excursion North of the Grand lofty Kaibab Plateau. politically involved newspaper editor in Illinois. Canyon of the Colorado” in The Nautilus, Vol. 8 How, indeed, to distinguish between two similar- He always was an avid malacologist, although 23 (1910), pp. 109-112. Ferriss also included looking mollusks if you can’t dissect them? The he never was employed professionally in that with his letter an annotated topographic map that problem is evident even at Vasey’s Paradise, field. But this was nevertheless a time when marked all of the collecting points for mollusks where our endangered friend Oxyloma lives avocational enthusiasts could, and did, routinely he gathered on the trip, adding to it the places at with another, look-alike mollusk, Catinella. make professional contributions to the fields which he and Pilsbry had collected in 1906. This A few years later I discovered a way by they pursued. At the time of his Grand Canyon important key still survives in the departmental which an investigator in the field may reliably expeditions he was the editor of the Joliet News archives of the Malacology Department in the segregate all but the most youthful of Oxyloma and the recent chairman of the national People’s Academy of Natural Sciences, and which was and closely similar shells just by measuring Party. used exhaustively in providing a modern (1990s) two seemingly unrelated dimensions on the 2 Pilsbry and Ferriss would indeed go to Grand update of early mollusk collections made at shell. Non-invasive, non-life=threatening Canyon Village—at the end of their stay at the Grand Canyon (E.E. Spamer and A.E. Bogan, identification is an important consideration when canyon—where they spent a little time on the “Mollusca of the Grand Canyon and Vicinity, dealing with protected species. (E.E. Spamer uppermost portion of Bright Angel Trail. In short Arizona: New and Revised Data on Diversity and A.E. Bogan, “Contrasting Objectives in order, Pilsbry found there a couple of kinds of and Distributions, with Notes on Pleistocene– Environmental Mediation, Reconnaissance snails that would be new to science, once he had Holocene Mollusks of the Grand Canyon,” Biology, and Endangered Species Protection—A a chance to examine them carefully. They spent Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences Case Study in the Kanab Ambersnail, Oxyloma only a portion of two days at the village before of Philadelphia, Vol. 144 (1993), pp. 21-68). haydeni kanabensis Pilsbry 1948 (Gastropoda: boarding the train for Williams on October 30th, 6 The species epithet, haydeni, had been named Stylommatophora: Succineidae),” Walkerana, but left no record whether they had lodged at El for geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden, who Vol. 9 (2002), pp. 177-215. Tovar or opted for economy accommodations. incidentally also has named for him a canyon 9 A grateful wink to Douglas Adams (So Long, and 3 For those who may be “keeping score,” these butte a few miles from Vasey’s Paradise, Mount Thanks For All the Fish, Pan Books, London, snails belong to the genera Pupilla, Sonorella, Hayden. Although in the field of biological 1984; book four of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the and Oreohelix. Other, relatively less common systematics “O. h. kanabensis” is a subspecies, Galaxy trilogy). ones were found, too. Many of these snails it is colloquially less confusing to refer to favor limestone terrains, ingesting the calcium the organism by itself as a “species.” A few

12 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org