ONE MONTH LATER
Naturally we were very impatient to know just what success we had met
with in our photographic work. Some of the motion pictures had been
printed and returned to us. My brother, who meanwhile had taken his
family to Los Angeles, sent very encouraging reports regarding some
of the films.
Among the Canyon visitors who came down to inspect the results of
our trip were Thomas Moran, the famous artist, with his daughter,
Miss Ruth, whose interest was more than casual. Thomas Moran’s name,
more than any other, with the possible exception of Major Powell’s,
is to be associated with the Grand Canyon. It was his painting which
hangs in the capital at Washington that first acquainted the American
public with the wonders of the Canyon. This painting was the result
of a journey he made with Major Powell, from Salt Lake City to the
north side of the Canyon, thirty-eight years before. In addition he
had made most of the cuts that illustrated Major Powell’s government
report; making his sketches on wood from photographs this expedition
had taken with the old-fashioned wet plates that had to be coated
and developed on the spot--wonderful photographs, which for beauty,
softness, and detail are not excelled, and are scarcely equalled by
more modern plates and photographic results. The only great advantage
of the dry plates was the fact that they could catch the action of
the water with an instantaneous exposure, where the wet plates had to
have a long exposure and lost that action.
Thomas Moran could pick up almost any picture that we made, and
tell us at once just what section it came from and its identifying
characteristics. His daughter, Miss Ruth, was just as much interested
in our trip and its results. She was anxious to know when we would
go on again and planned on making the trail trip down to the plateau
to see us take the plunge over the first rough rapid. She was just
a little anxious to see an upset, and asked if we could not promise
that one would occur.
A month passed before my brother returned from Los Angeles. His wife,
who had remained there, was in good health again, and insisted on
his finishing the trip at once. We were just as anxious to have it
finished, but were not very enthusiastic about this last part on
account of some very cold weather we had been having. On the other
hand, we feared if the trip was not finished then it might never be
completed. So we consoled ourselves with the thought that it was
some warmer at the bottom than it was on top, and prepared to make
the final plunge--350 miles to Needles, with a 1600-foot descent in
the 185 miles that remained of the Grand Canyon.
A foot of snow had fallen two nights before we planned on leaving.
The thermometer had dropped to zero, and a little below on one
occasion, during the nights for a week past. Close to the top the
trail was filled with drifts. The walls were white with snow down
to the plateau, 3200 feet below; something unusual, as it seldom
descends as snow lower than two thousand feet, but turns to rain. But
a week of cold, cloudy weather, accompanied by hard winds, had driven
all warmth from the canyon, allowing this snow to descend lower than
usual. Under such conditions the damp cold in the canyon, while
not registered on the thermometer as low as that on top, is more
penetrating. Very little sun reaches the bottom of the inner gorge
in December and January. It is usually a few degrees colder than the
inner plateau above it, which is open, and does get some sun. These
were the conditions when we returned to our boats December the 19th,
1911, and found a thin covering of ice on small pools near the river.
Our party was enlarged by the addition of two men who were anxious
for some river experience. One was our younger brother, Ernest. We
agreed to take him as far as the Bass Trail, twenty-five miles below,
where he could get out on top and return to our home. The other was
a young man named Bert Lauzon, who wanted to make the entire trip,
and we were glad to have him. Lauzon, although but 24 years old, had
been a quartz miner and mining engineer for some years. Coming from
the mountains of Colorado, he had travelled over most of the Western
states, and a considerable part of Mexico, in his expeditions. There
was no question in our minds about Lauzon. He was the man we needed.
To offset the weight of an extra man for each boat, our supplies
were cut to the minimum, arrangements having been made with W. W.
Bass--the proprietor of the Bass Camps and of the Mystic Springs
Trail--to have some provisions packed in over his trail. What
provisions we took ourselves were packed down on two mules, and
anything we could spare from our boats was packed out on the same
animals. As we were about ready to leave a friendly miner said: “You
can’t hook fish in the Colorado in the winter, they won’t bite nohow.
You’d better take a couple of sticks of my giant-powder along. That
will help you get ’em, and it may keep you from starving.” Under
the circumstances it seemed like a wise precaution and we took his
giant-powder, as he had suggested.
[Illustration: LEAVING HOME, DEC. 19, 1911.]
[Illustration: A COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPH OF MARBLE CANYON WALLS AND A
GRAND CANYON RAPID.]
The river had fallen two feet below the stage on which we quit a
month before. A scale of foot-marks on a rock wall rising from the
river showed that the water was twenty-seven feet deep at that
spot. No measurement was made in the middle of the river channel. The
current here between two small rapids flows at five and three-fourths
miles per hour. The width of the stream is close to 250 feet. The
high-water mark here is forty-five feet above the low-water stage,
then the river spreads to five hundred feet in width, running with a
swiftness and strength of current and whirlpool that is tremendous.
The highest authentic measurement in a narrow channel, of which we
know, is one made by Julius F. Stone in Marble Canyon. He recorded
one spot where the high-water mark was 115 feet above the low-water
mark. These figures might look large at first, but if they are
compared with some of the floods on the Ohio River, for instance, and
that stream were boxed in a two hundred foot channel the difference
would not be great, we imagine.
One of the young men who greeted us when we landed came down with a
companion to see us embark. On the plateau 1300 feet above, looking
like small insects against the sky-line, was a trail party, equally
interested. They did not stand on the point usually visited by such
parties but had gone to a point about a mile to the west, where they
had a good view of a short, rough rapid, the little rapid below the
trail, while it was no place that one would care to swim in, had
no comparison with this other rapid in violence. We had promised
the party that we would run this rapid that afternoon, so we spent
little time in packing systematically, but hurriedly threw the stuff
in and embarked. Less than an hour later we had made the two-mile run
and the dash through the short rapid, to the entire satisfaction of
all concerned.
We camped a short distance below the rapid, just opposite a grave
of a man whose skeleton had been found halfway up the granite, five
years before. Judging by his clothes and hob-nailed shoes he was a
prospector. He was lying in a natural position, with his head resting
on a rock. An overcoat was buttoned tightly about him. No large
bones were broken, but he might have had a fall and been injured
internally. More likely he became sick and died. The small bones of
the hands and feet had been taken away by field-mice, and no doubt
the turkey-buzzards had stripped the flesh. His pockets contained
Los Angeles newspapers of 1900; he was found in 1906. The pockets
also contained a pipe and a pocket-knife, but nothing by which he
could be identified. The coroner’s jury--of which my brother was a
member--buried him where he was found, covering the body with rocks,
for there was no earth.
Such finds are not unusual in this rugged country. These prospectors
seldom say where they are going, no track is kept of their movements,
and unless something about their clothes tells who they are, their
identity is seldom established. The proximity of this grave made
us wonder how many more such unburied bodies there were along this
river. We thought too of our friend Smith, back in Cataract Canyon,
and wondered if we would hear from him again.
Our helpers got a lot of experience in motion-picture making the next
day, while we ran our boats through a number of good, strong rapids,
well known locally as the Salt Creek Rapid, Granite Falls or Monument
Rapid, the Hermit, the Bouchere, and others. This was all new to the
boys, and provided some thrilling entertainment for them. When a
difficult passage was safely made Bert would wave his hat and yell
“Hoo” in a deep, long call that would carry above the roar of the
rapids, then he and Ernest would follow along the shore with their
cameras, as these rapids all had a shore on one side or the other.
The sun shone on the river this day, and we congratulated ourselves
on having made the most of our opportunities.
In our first rapid the next morning, we had to carry our passengers
whether we wanted to or not. There was no shore on either side. In
such plunges they would lie down on the deck of the boat behind the
oarsman, holding to the raised bulkhead, ducking their heads when
an oncoming wave prepared to break over them. Then they would shake
themselves as a water-spaniel does, and Bert with a grin would say,
“Young fellows, business is picking up!”
Ernest agreed, too, that he had never seen anything in Pittsburg
that quite equalled it. If the rapid was not bad, they sat upright
on the deck, but this made the boats top-heavy, and as much of the
oarsman’s work depended on swinging his weight from side to side, it
was important that no mistake should be made about this distribution
of weight. Often the bottom of a boat would show above the water as
it listed to one side. At such a time a person sitting on the raised
deck might get thrown overboard.
Before starting on this last trip we had thought it would be only
right to give our younger brother a ride in a rapid that would be
sure to give him a good ducking, as his experience was going to be
short. But the water and the wind, especially in the shadows, was so
very cold that we gave this plan up, and avoided the waves as much as
possible. He got a ducking this morning, however, in a place where we
least expected it. It was not a rapid, just smooth, very swift water,
while close to the right shore there was one submerged rock with a
foot of water shooting over it, in such a way that it made a “reverse
whirl” as they are called in Alaska--water rolling back upstream, and
from all sides as well, to fill the vacuum just below the rock. This
one was about twelve feet across; the water disappeared as though it
was being poured down a manhole.
[Illustration: THE “EDITH” (ON LEFT OF CENTRAL ROCK) IN GRANITE
FALLS.]
The least care, or caution, would have taken me clear this place;
but the smooth water was so deceptive, and was so much stronger than
I had judged it to be, that I found myself caught sideways to the
current, hemmed in with waves on all sides of the boat, knocked back
and forth, and resisted in all my efforts to pull clear. The boat was
gradually filling with the splashing water. Ernest was lying on the
deck, hanging on like grim death, slipping off, first on one side,
then on the other, and wondering what was going to happen. So was I.
To be held up in the middle of a swift stream was a new experience,
and I was not proud of it. The others passed as soon as they saw what
had happened, and were waiting in an eddy below. Perhaps we were
there only one minute, but it seemed like five. I helped Ernest into
the cockpit. About that time the boat filled with splashing water and
sunk low, the stream poured over the rock and into the boat, and she
upset instantly.
Ernest had on two life-preservers, and came up about thirty feet
below, swimming very well considering that he was weighted with heavy
clothes and high-topped shoes. The boys pulled him in before he was
carried against a threatening wall. Meanwhile, I held to the boat,
which was forced out as soon as she was overturned, and climbed on
top, or rather on the bottom. I was trying to make the best of things
and was giving a cheer when some one said,
“There goes your hatch cover and you’ve lost the motion-picture
camera.”
Perhaps I had. My cheering ceased. The camera had been hurriedly
shoved down in the hatch a few minutes before.
On being towed to shore, however, we found the camera had not fallen
out. It had been shoved to the side less than one inch, but that
little bit had saved it. It was filled with water, though, and all
the pictures were on the unfinished roll in the camera, and were
ruined. We had been in the ice-cold water long enough to lose that
glow which comes after a quick immersion and were chilled through;
but what bothered me more than anything else was the fact that I had
been caught in such a trap after successfully running the bad rapids
above. We made a short run after that so as to get out of sight of
the deceptive place, then proceeded to dry out. The ruined film came
in handy for kindling our camp-fire.
We were now in the narrowest part of the upper portion of the Grand
Canyon, the distance from rim to rim at one point being close to
six miles. The width at Bright Angel varied from eight to fourteen
miles. The peaks rising from the plateau, often as high as the canyon
walls, and with flat tops a mile or more in width, made the canyon
even narrower, so that at times we were in canyons close to a mile in
depth, and little over four miles across at the tops.
In this section of the granite there were few places where one could
climb out. Nearly all the lateral canyons ended quite a distance
above the river, then fell sheer; the lower parts of the walls were
quite often smooth-surfaced, where they were polished by the sands in
the stream. The black granite in such cases resembled huge deposits
of anthracite coal. Sections of the granite often projected out of
the water as islands, with the softer rock washed away, the granite
being curiously carved by whirling rocks and the emery-like sands.
Holes three and four feet deep were worn by small whirling rocks, and
grooves were worn at one place by growing willows working back and
forth in the water, the sand, strange to say, having less effect on
the limbs than it had on the hard rocks.
About noon of the day following this upset we reached the end of the
Bass Trail and another cable crossing, about sixty feet above the
water. Three men were waiting for us, and gave a call when we rowed
in sight of their camp. One was Lauzon’s brother, another was Cecil
Dodd, a cowboy who looked after Bass’ stock, and the breaking of his
horses, the third was John Norberg, an “old timer” and an old friend
as well, engaged at that time in working some asbestos and copper
claims.
The granite was broken down at this point, and another small deposit
of algonkian was found here. There were intrusions, faults, and
displacements both in these formations and in the layers above.
These fractures exposed mineral seams and deposits of copper and
asbestos on both sides of the river, some of which Bass had opened
up and located, waiting for the day when there would be better
transportation facilities than his burros afforded.
This was not our first visit to this section. On other occasions we
had descended by the Mystic Spring (or Bass) Trail, on the south
side, crossed on the tramway and were taken by Bass over some of
his many trails, on the north side. We had visited the asbestos
claims, where the edge of a blanket formation of the rock known as
serpentine, containing the asbestos, lay exposed to view, twisting
around the head of narrow canyons, and under beetling cliffs. We went
halfway up the north rim trail, through Shinumo and White canyons,
our objective point on these trips being a narrow box canyon which
contained a large boulder, rolled from the walls above, and wedged
in the flume-like gorge far above our heads. This trail continues
up to the top, going over the narrow neck which connects Powell’s
Plateau--a segregated section of thickly wooded surface several miles
in extent--with the main extent of the Kaibab Plateau.
[Illustration: _Copyright by Kolb Bros._
ROUGH WATER IN HERMIT CREEK RAPID. HEIGHT OF DISTANT WAVE ABOUT
FIFTEEN FEET.]
Ernest, though slightly affected with tonsillitis, was loath to leave
us here. It was zero weather on top, we were told, and it looked it.
The walls and peaks were white with snow. He would not have an
easy trip. The drifted snow was only broken by the one party that
we found at the river, and quite likely it would be very late when
he arrived at the ranch. John went up with him a few miles to get
a horse for the ride home the next day. Ernest took with him a few
hurriedly written letters and the exposed plates. The film we were
going to save was lost in the upset.
On inspecting the provisions which were packed in here we found
the grocers had shipped the order short, omitting, besides other
necessities, some canned baked beans, on which we depended a great
deal. This meant one of two things. We would have to make a quicker
run than we had planned on, or would have to get out of the canyon at
one of the two places where such an exit could easily be made.
The M. P. as our motion-picture camera was called--and which was
re-christened but not abbreviated by Bert, as “The Member of
Parliament”--had to be cleaned before we could proceed. It took all
this day, and much of the next, to get the moisture and sand out of
the delicate mechanism, and have it running smoothly again. After it
was once more in good condition Emery announced that he wanted to
work out a few scenes of an uncompleted “movie-drama.” The action was
snappy. The plot was brief, but harmonized well with the setting, and
the “props.” Dodd, who was a big Texan, was cast for the role of
horse thief and bad man in general. Bert’s brother, Morris Lauzon,
was the deputy sheriff, and had a star cut from the top of a tomato
can to prove it. John was to be a prospector. He would need little
rehearsing for this part. In addition, he had not been out where he
could have the services of a barber for six months past, which was
all the better. John had a kind, quiet, easy-going way that made
friends for him on sight. He was not consulted about the part he was
to play, but we counted on his good nature and he was cast for the
part. Emery, who was cast for the part of a mining engineer, arrived
on the scene in his boat, after rounding the bend above the camp,
tied up and climbed out over the cliffs to view the surrounding
country.
The hidden desperado, knowing that he was being hunted, stole the
boat with its contents, and made his escape. The returning engineer
arrived just in time to see his boat in the middle of the stream,
and a levelled rifle halted him until the boat was hidden around
the bend. At that moment the officer joined him, and a hurried
consultation was held. Then the other boat, which had been separated
from its companion, pulled into sight, and I was hailed by the men on
shore. They came aboard and we gave chase. Could anything be better?
The thief naturally thought he was safe, as he had not seen the
second boat! After going over a few rapids, he saw a fire up in the
cliffs, on the opposite side of the river. He landed, and climbed up
to the camp where John was at work. John shared his camp fare with
him, and directed him to a hidden trail. The pursuers, on finding
the abandoned boat, quietly followed the trail, and surprised Dodd
in John’s camp. He was disarmed and sent across the river in the
tramway, accompanied by the deputy, and was punished as he richly
deserved to be.
This was the scenario. Bert handled the camera. Emery was the
playwright, director, and producer. All rights reserved.
Everything worked beautifully. The film did not get balled up in the
cogs, as sometimes happened. The light was good. Belasco himself
could not have improved on the stage-setting. The trail led over
the wildest, and most picturesque places imaginable. Dodd made a
splendid desperado, and acted as if he had done nothing but steal
horses and dodge the officers all his life. A pile of driftwood fifty
feet high and with a tunnel underneath made a splendid hiding place
for him while the first boat was being tied. Being a cowpuncher, it
may be that he did not handle the oars as well as an experienced
river-man, but any rapid could be used for an insert. The deputy,
though youthful, was determined and never lost sight of the trail.
The engineer acted his part well and registered surprise and anger,
when he found how he had been tricked. John, who had returned,
humoured us, and dug nuggets of gold out of limestone rocks, where no
one would have thought of looking for them. The fact that the tramway
scene was made before any of the others did not matter. We could play
our last act first if we wanted to. All we had to do was to cut the
film and fasten it on to the end. Emery was justly proud of his first
efforts as a producer. We were sorry this film had not been sent out
with Ernest.
This thrilling drama will not be released in the near future. One day
later we found that a drop of water had worked into the lens cell at
the last upset. This fogged the lens. We focussed with a scale and
had overlooked the lens when cleaning the camera. Nothing but a very
faint outline showed on the film. We had all the film we needed for a
week after this, for kindling our fires.
[Illustration: _Copyright by Kolb Bros._
TYPE OF RAPID IN THE GRANITE. NEAR BASS TRAIL.]