summer 11 / 24:2 - Grand Canyon River Guides

page 32
Fred and Maggie Eiseman
fred eiseman: I happened to run into Maggie in
Monument Valley, of all places. She had run the river
in 1952 with a rather mad German hairdresser from
Sacramento, named Johannes von Ronnebeck. She
knew Johannes, and they started from Hite, where
Johannes had a cabin. He didn’t know Arthur Chaffin,
but he knew Reuben Nielsen and his wife, who
had taken over the Hite Ferry from Chaffin. They ran
the river from Hite down to Lees Ferry in ’52, without
a map. In the course of events, they encountered the
Mexican Hat Expeditions, which was then being run
by the Rigg brothers. And one of the passengers was a
man named Dr. Josiah Eisaman—no relation. When I
was coming out of Monument Valley in my truck, with
my name painted on the side, they thought perhaps I
was this same person. So we stopped and chatted, and
they invited me to go on the river with them two years
hence, which I did. She ran the river in ’53, again with
Johannes, with a map. And then in ’54, I joined them
for my first Colorado River experience. So that’s how
we met each other. One thing led to another, and in
1958 we were married.
* * *
maGGie eiseman: For us, it was like, you know,
traveling into something unknown, being an explorer,
but we weren’t explorers. There were people ahead of
us that had been there. But we were amongst the first
150 that went downriver. Georgie always pointed that
out. There was a register at Rainbow Bridge, and we
always had to sign it. She always told us that Fred and I
were among the first 150. But now there are thousands!
I mean a thousand thousand thousand.
steiGer: What possessed you to do that first trip?
maGGie eiseman: We only went because I wanted to
go over the mountain, I wanted to see what’s on the
other side of the Sierras. But we went to the Colorado
because of Joe’s great desire. Joe had run that, apparently,
once before. You see, Joe was a Mormon, and emigrated
from Germany to Salt Lake City, and in Salt Lake
City had been on some cheap trips down here, down to
the Southwest, and ran across the Colorado River. That’s
how he happened to run it. But we went in 1952. We had
a little old navy life raft—ten-man life raft. (fred eiseman:
One of those yellow things.) And we pulled two
small rafts behind us to carry some of the gear. When
we got through the gear, we could put away the little
boats, and then all we had was that one big ten-man. It
wasn’t very big, though. The yellow navy life raft.
Reuben and Beth Nielsen were running the ferry
at Hite, the rickety old ferry. But, they kept telling us,
“Don’t run the river. Don’t go, don’t go, please don’t
go!” They said that four people had gone down, just
ahead of us. So we went farther down the river to
below the San Juan confluence, and we camped on this
lovely sandbar, at the mouth of a side canyon. That’s
when the Mexican Hat group came along. They had
been down the San Juan. And two of the boatmen told
us, “For heaven’s sakes, don’t camp in the mouth of a
side canyon!” Later on, we went downriver, we got to
Rainbow Bridge camp, and we couldn’t land. We kept
going around, going way around, and no way we ever
got—couldn’t get into shore. So two guys came out
to help us, and they said, “Go downstream and come
back up, and you’ll be able to land.” Sure enough. Well,
farther down the river we went, and at the Crossing of
the Fathers we happened to run into the Mexican Hat
people again. And sure enough, we could not land. Big
back eddy there. So somebody came out “Go downstream,
past the landing and come back up, maybe
you’ll be close enough to land.” So we did. That was
the first trip.
Johannes Van Ronnebeck, 1955
NAU.PH.2004.8.1.101.52 Margaret Eiseman Collection
Now the second trip, in 1953, we got to Hidden Passage
and part of the cliff broke off, just downstream
from us. We were very much frightened by the big
loud noise. And then enough dust came along that we
nearly suffocated. The wind finally went and blew the
dust away and we were okay. We went farther down
the river. In fact, we went to Rainbow Bridge. And of
course because there’d been high water the year before,
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