Susan Billingsley - Grand Canyon River Guides

R.I.P. Shorty—Forty Years LaterOn June 14, 1967, Hatch River Expeditions’pontoon boatman Jesse “Shorty” Burton flippedhis “taildragger” motor-rig in Upset Rapid. Hislife jacket hung up on an open eyebolt, drowning him. Itwas the day after his 44th birthday.Dave Bledsoe, working for Hatch, took the pictureshown here. He says “I saw the plate on my first trainingtrip in October of 1967. I took the photo in June of1969…I think the image I recorded was the secondplate.” Al Holland, in his seminal “Shorty’s Back” (bqr11(3)(Summer 1998):1, 14–23), stated “Sherm Fehermentioned that he thought the plastic flowers in agarland around it were something less than fitting forsomeone of Shorty’s stature. He left them there, nonePhoto courtesy of KPNX-TV 12 News, Phoenixwriting, another had been wired up again, only to beremoved within two weeks.Edward Abbey wrote a fitting tribute to Shorty in“…White Water Ramblers” (Playboy, 24(8)(August1977):172): “Onward. We plunge through treacherousUpset Rapid…where the motor-pontoon man ShortyBurton got his, back in ’67. We doff headgear in hismemory. r.i.p., Shorty. We’ll join you shortly.”Photo courtesy of Dave BledsoeC.V. Abyssusthe less.” Details vary as to when this plate came down;Al has details, plus some speculation in his article. Morespeculation may be found in C.V. Abyssus’s “Adopt-a-Plate: The Shorty Burton Memorial Pie Plate Kit” (gcnpMuseum Collection grca-5231).The 1983 high water probably washed off whateverplate was on the rock as the Colorado River rose to thepeak of around 92,000 cfs. The accompanying picture isof the replacement plate taken in 1984 during the filmedreunion Grand Canyon river trip of P.T. Reilly andMartin Litton, Where God Lost His Boots. Bert Sasskindly provided the still image from the original Betafilm, Courtesy of kpnx-tv 12 News, Phoenix. Noticethat the plate is not on the traditional rock. To myrecollection, this plate did not remain very long.Beginning in 1991, many pie plate memorials havebeen mounted below the rapid on river right, only to beremoved and subsequently replaced. The engraved onefrom the 1998 “Adopt-a-Plate” remained for many years,taking on a rusty patina. Scotty Davis reported that theNovember 2004 test flood of around 40,000 cfs removeda different replacement plate by evidently lifting it andits wiring up and over the top of the rock. As of thisboatman’s quarterly review page 41