summer 03 / 16:2 - Grand Canyon River Guides

King. It’s something like that. They don’t make ’em now.But anyway, it’s silver and it’s square on top. And one ofBuzz Holmstrom’s old boats in that book that [Conley,Dimock and Welch] wrote, shows a motor just like it. Soit’s gonna be fun to find out. This propeller that’s downhere, did you know that that’s off the air boat that BillGreene used to use to run up Glen Canyon? …We thinkit’s off the first air boat. And before Bill died, I went toPhoenix and asked him about it, and he said, “Yeah,that’s one of the propellers they used.” When we hired anew guy that year, we had him polish the propeller andpaint it. You look at it now, and it’s immaculate. We putit up.Steiger: Yeah, I would like to see that.Hatch: And Bill—see, we used to come down here,and we’d always go see Bill Greene. He was an old riverrunner. Norm came and stayed at our home and wentout and ran.A lot of old river runners came to our home. DockMarston came by.My dad had an old canteen that I still have. GeorgieWhite came by and signed it. Dock Marston, Riggbrothers, Roy Despain, Smuss Allen, just a good crosssection.Buzz Holmstrom. I got Barry Goldwater’s signatureon it before he died. And he said, “I’d be honoredto sign this.” He saw—what was that one guy’s name?—Southwick or Sopwith. He had run the river, but I nevermet him—Grand Canyon runner. Frank Wright…I’llthink of his name. Each time these folks would come by,he’d have ’em sign it. And some of the signatures arereal dim now. The museum in Green River wanted meto donate that to the museum, but I didn’t really wantto, because I wasn’t sure how they’d take care of it.Some things are just left to sit around.Steiger: Or if they would know what they had, yeah.Hatch: It’s priceless. I’ve got it hanging on the wall,and I go hug it. (laughter) My dad tore it on a tripthrough Grand on a corner, and my mom stitched it upso I got a little bit of her handiwork there, and then hiscanteen, and all these names on it. He’d see ’em on theriver and they wouldn’t have anything, any paper, andthey’d sign their name in ink.Steiger: On his canteen.Hatch: Yeah. I think Harry Aleson’s on there. I’mnot sure about Reynolds and [Halicy?]—they may be.Halicy probably…I’ve got up real close in bright lightand wrote all the names down that I could decipher, andshowed the list to Barry, and he looked at ’em and heknew a lot of ’em, like Frank Wright.Steiger: Yeah, he was pretty good on history.Hatch: And Don Harris. I was very lucky, in myopinion, to be…these guys were champions in my book.Everyone else would laugh at me for admiring riverrunners, as they were hard drinkers and tough old guys.Every guy was different. We’d go down a river, and oneguy would run a rapid one way, and one guy would run itanother way, and they both come out the bottom nonethe worse for wear. You’d argue about who had the besttechnique, and who had the best run. Of course if theguy tipped over, you could say, “Hey, that wasn’t the waywe do it,” and laugh. And that was the fun of it. AndI’m lucky too.My dad named some of the rapids in Split MountainGorge. Doc Inglesby [phonetic] was with him on a trip,and Doc got thrown out of the boat. They namedInglesby. Sob is one that my dad was down there withHolmstrom, and my dad capsized, and Holmstrom said,“I guess you’ll have to name that one Bus.” And Dadsaid, “No, no, I’m gonna name it sob.” (laughter)Steiger: So he got to go boatin’ with Buzz Holmstrom?Hatch: Yes. It’s on the map now as sob.Steiger: Was that Holmstrom’s second time throughthere?Hatch: I don’t know, because I never got to sort thatout. Roy Webb would probably know.Steiger: Do you remember Holmstrom?Hatch: Oh, yeah. Yeah, he stayed in our home. Hewas workin’ in Echo Park sometimes, with the Bureau ofReclamation or something. He came into our home andstayed with us and he had a flashlight that was waterproof.I didn’t believe there could ever be anything likethat. I’m not sure of the date—I’m guessing 1945 or ’46.He said, “Yeah, this is a waterproof flashlight.” I said,“Can I take it and try it?” He said, “Yeah,” and helaughed. I filled the bathtub, and I got in and put theflashlight underwater, you know. It was rubber-coatedand had a glass window, and it worked! I thought, “Thisis the greatest!” I said, “This is really something to use!”And he said, “Yeah. Don’t swim with it, though. Youneed to swim with your hands. Don’t take it in swimmingafter dark.” And I said, “Have you ever drowned?”He said, “Yeah, actually I have. I was underwater so longthat I choked and everything went black. They got meout”—in those days they rolled you on a barrel—”androlled me on a barrel to get the water out, and I cameback. But don’t ever be afraid to drown, it’s painless.There’s a minute or two where you struggle real hard, tryto get to the surface, and it’s probably the least painfulway to die. If you know that, you’ll be a better riverrunner.” So I never forgot that story, and when hisbrother—I guess it was a brother or cousin—came to seeus a couple of years ago, or a year ago, and I was notthere, he wrote to me, and I wrote back and told himwhat Buzz had told me…but these guys would come intoour home, and the minute they showed up, out came thedrinks. Dad would sit up all night, talkin’ river runnin’,and my mom would get so tired, and go to bed. They’dbe up at three in the morning and didn’t care, and golook at their boats in the dark with a flashlight. It waspage 32grand canyon river guides