summer 03 / 16:2 - Grand Canyon River Guides

Ted HatchMy dad was a little guy at Jensen, Utah. Theyhad Bridge Day at Jensen when they built thefirst bridge across the Green River. They hadan old ferry there before, that was run by a fellow namedJensen. But they had Bridge Day to celebrate thebuilding of this bridge, and so my dad went down there.He saw this old boat come in with furs in it. It was oneof the Galloway boats; and he admired that boat, andlooked at it then and thought, “This would be so muchfun.”The account that was written about them is true—Parley Galloway was thrown in jail, and... Frank Swainat that time was a sheriff for the Vernal Police Department,and they captured Parley for [not paying childsupport],and put him in Vernal Jail. Parley didn’t haveenough money to post bail, but Frank called my dad. Hesaid, “Bus, we got a river man up here, and he tells theneatest stories about all these canyons that he’s gonethrough, and by boat.” Frank and my dad thought it wasfascinating that they could go down the river in a boat.Dad said “Whoa, I want to find out what kind of boat hehad, and build one, so that we can go.” And Frank said,“Well, look, Parley will help us if we’ll post the bail, sohe can get out of jail.” Dad went up, and I don’t knowhow much it was—it seemed like it was $75 as I…I can’tbe sure of that figure, but they put up the bail for Parley.Before they did, they interviewed him a few times tomake sure of the description and size of the boat andhow it was built. All the time, my dad was taking notes,and drawing, because he was a contractor by trade, andhe was a very good carpenter and builder. So he got theidea to build this boat pretty much from what Parleysaid. And so, they put the bail up. Well, the next day(laughs) they went to see Parley again, and he hadskipped out on the bail. And here’s an interesting sidelightthat I don’t think Roy [Webb] discovered in hisresearch [for River Man, a biography of Ted’s father BusHatch]: Wally Perry is a direct descendant of theGalloways.Lew Steiger: Parley was Wally’s granddad?Ted Hatch: Yeah. And it’s interesting becauseNathaniel Galloway and Parley were great river runners,and admired, because they remembered the rapids sowell. But my dad had gleaned enough information fromthe discussion that he went home that winter and built aboat in the garage—a beautiful wooden boat. Hethought this was the cat’s meow, we’re ready to go now.Steiger: I think I saw in Roy’s book that they namedtheir first three boats What Next, Don’t Know, and WhoCares?Hatch: Yes. Those are the correct names. He laterbuilt one, a fourth one named Teddy, after me; I’d beenTed Hatchborn in ’33. It was painted light blue, and they took iton the Middle Fork, and ran it up there. And when I gotolder, I just remember seeing the boat, but he loaned itto Doc Frazier and Hack Miller when they did their tripup there, and they lost it.* * *If it can be said that there are a handful of 800 poundgorillas in the Grand Canyon river business, you could arguethat Ted Hatch by himself equals two or three. Ted’s dad,Bus, was the grandfather of commercial river-running. Thecompanies that Bus and his sons built over time have touchedthe lives of just about half the boatmen that ever were, not tomention untold thousands of guests on a host of differentrivers. Along the way Ted himself has pretty much alwaysbeen a fountain of good cheer and generosity, giving everybodyand their brother a job when they needed one or a ridedown the river, throwing the best parties of all, and happilydonating the use of his warehouse for countless gcrg functionswhether he agreed with the politics therein or not, toname just a few examples. This interview took place inFebruary, 1999 at the Hatch Warehouse at Cliff Dwellersand, as per usual, the beer was on Ted…an old story that alltoo often goes unacknowledged.* * *Hatch: I can’t remember when my dad did his firsttrip. It’s up for conjecture. The first good boat he builtwas Parley’s design. He tried one earlier, I think when hewas sixteen or eighteen, and just used nails—and this iskind of like Norm Nevills did with the horse trough—heran Split Mountain Gorge and he said by the time hegot to the bottom, it had come apart. So he was reluctantto talk about it, or even show that he had a boat,but I think that was prior to the Parley Galloway boat.…It was kind of a family outing. They’d take a rifleand they’d hunt, and they’d take fishing poles, they’dfish, they’d take liquor, they’d take everything theythought they would need, and go as a vacation, a funthing to do…Then they got movies, old-time movies of ’em, andhe’d show ’em to his friends, and the Chamber ofCommerce. They gave talks, and…especially after heran Grand Canyon—then he became quite wellknown—butother people would call and say, “Bus, takeme down the river! I’ve got to go down the river withyou!” And he’d say, “Well, I can’t get off work,” youknow. His first love was the river, and second was thecontracting and building trade. He’d say, “I can’t takeyou, I can’t afford it.” “We’ll pay you.” So they’d pay mypage 24grand canyon river guides