summer 03 / 16:2 - Grand Canyon River Guides

un the right side, ‘cause on the left side there’s a shoalthat sticks out, and you’d hit your motor sometimes.”And Short said, “Well, it’s a lot easier, but I have to pullmy motor.” We said, “Yeah, then you put it down andyou’re gonna go into the cliff, and you got other problems.The right side’s a better run.” When he left, Ididn’t go with him when he drowned—Clark Lium waswith him on another boat. He had an old tattered lifejacket that was his personal jacket. It was worn out tentimes. I said, “Put this new jacket on, Short,” and hedid. Then he tried the right cut on Upset and he didn’tget over there, and he hit the hole sideways. In thosedays we ran boats with floors in ’em, and no side tubes.Steiger: The taildraggers, motors hangin’ off theback, floors on the boats.Hatch: They were a lot faster, but they weren’t safe,they weren’t wide.Steiger: Didn’t want to be sideways.Hatch: And he flipped it over sideways. And all thepassengers drifted clear, they were fine. Clark picked ’emup. And then they looked around and said, “Where’sShorty?” Couldn’t find him. So Clark and one of theother guys dove underneath the boat that was upsidedown, and Short was in there, tangled up. They had totear his life jacket to get him out. They gave him artificialrespiration, but he was gone.Steiger: I know he was a mainstay of the crew atthat time, and I’ve been meanin’ to ask who some of theother guys were then—your starters for that time.Hatch: Mark Garff was good. And Bruce Lium.Clark Lium. Both were good boatmen. And of courseDennis Massey and Earl Staley. Smuss—his name wasSylvester, which he hated. (laughs) Sylvester Allen—wecalled him Smuss. When he was doing things wrong, wecalled him Smudgely. Good guy. Smuss Allen.Roy DeSpain used to run with my dad, and then hewas the same age as Smuss, but he got to where he justdidn’t go anymore. He liked the river, but he capsizedwith a bunch of Boy Scouts up on the Green one time,on his own trip. He just took a bunch of Scouts. Wechased duffle and Scouts for two days. No one was lost,no one was hurt, but a lot of duffle was missing. Andsome of the irate parents tried to make him pay for theirlost gear. It discouraged ol’ Roy, I think. But he was aneat guy, I used to date his daughter. Pretty nice gal.The boatmen in those days, there weren’t very manythat could run Grand Canyon safely. The motors we hadthen weren’t sealed very well, and a little wave wouldhit you from the back and it would suck water and quit.So you had to really be quick about changing motors orrunning the oars, and know how to mechanic the motorto get it goin’ again—take the plugs, take it out, take theplugs out, blow it out, get it goin’. So not everybodythought that was a neat way to earn a living. It was kindof precarious. Sometimes you’d get swept into anotherrapid while your motor was out.Steiger: Did those guys do other jobs?Hatch: Yeah, pretty much. Mark Garff got a master’sin economics, and taught at some college for a while.And Bruce Lium graduated in ichthyology from theUniversity of Utah. Shorty Burton was an old cowboy. Idon’t think Shorty graduated from school. He took theUtah Boatman’s Test when Ted Tuttle had that test, andTuttle was really pleased to have this state boating testthat…Shorty flunked it. Ted Tuttle said, “Here’s the bestguy you’ve got for running the river, and he flunked thetest.”Steiger: Tuttle knew what he was doin.Hatch: He said, “There’s something wrong with thistest if it doesn’t cover the guy that’s able to run theboat.” And Short was a straight “A” guy on a boat. Thepassengers loved him. So Tuttle kind of went over thequestions with Shorty again, and gave him a license.(laughter) Which we thought was funny.Steiger: That’s pretty good!Hatch: I got the seventh license ever issued by theState of Utah. My number was B-007 [double-oh-seven],which I liked…Yeah. Then Dudley Amos ran boats forus, and Paul Geerlings. Paul was at the University ofUtah, and Dudley Amos flew Spitfires in World War II,and then he was an attorney.Steiger: So these guys, there was a whole differentthing. Nobody thought bein’ a boatman, that would be acareer. Them guys would just work in the summer.Hatch: It was a fun job, yeah, part-time.Steiger: And you guys had the company, and youguys were the only ones around during the winter. Didyou have a hard time getting through the winters?Hatch: Yeah. Oh, some years were pretty lean. I’dwrite letters all over and try to figure out how to getcustomers. We had some pretty lean years. I rememberwe used to load the boats in the summer and go out, andwe’d have an old truck just piled high with equipment.And I’d hear people at the gas station say, “There gothose crazy Hatches again. I wonder how many will getkilled on this trip?” (laughs) Like Don says, “How manywent on the trip?” “Five.” “How many drowned?”“Seven.” (laughter)* * *Steiger: When you were doing your early trips, whatwas the routine with the park? Do you remember whatthe rules were down here?Hatch: Oh, the first rules were great! But wethought they were excessive. We had to come over andreport the number of people who were going on the trip,the number of boats, and then when we got off atTemple Bar Marina, or back to the office, we had aboutone week to call in and tell ’em if we had a good trip, orpage 36grand canyon river guides