High Water on the Colorado

This post is to satisfy the curiosity of my nephew, Pete Webb.

This month Google Earth just launched a street view of a ride down the Colorado River. Since Pete used to work on a rafting crew near Moab, he posted the link to Facebook where I offered him the story of Grandma and Grandpa Foy's death-defying trip down the Colorado in 1936. Here it is, Pete, and those adventurous types in our family.

Left to Right: Leslie, Inez, Lola, Jean, Julia, Florence on the red rocks of southern Utah

From Florence Foy’s history:

 "One day [Leslie] was going to take a man and Grandpa (Tommy) down the river to blast some rock off the cattle trail to make it wider. Jean and Lola were in Bountiful picking cherries. Florence said, 'Oh! Let me and the little ones go with you.' He said the mosquitoes were too bad, but Florence said she would dress them so as to protect them. Soon as the boat pulled out of Millcreek onto the river, she knew she had made a mistake. The river was high and one big whirlpool after another.

"They made it down to home base and landed and had dinner. When they started back, the river was rising fast and the current took them right into the middle of the stream and the motor stopped. The most terrified look was on Leslie’s face, as he was the only one that could swim. The boat was going with the current. They had no oars, just a pole to push the boat off sandbars. He said, 'Don’t panic.' Then he pushed and pulled everything on the motor. He then  began poling to get them out of the current. When they got near the shore, he said, 'if you can read a willow, work your way up it hand over hand.' Florence did this until the boat was close in to shore. Then Leslie finally go the motor started, but they stayed close to the bank the rest of the way."

From History of Leslie Thomas Foy by Florence Howard Tuttle Foy

"The children were now getting older and he would take them down the Colorado River from Moab for our cattle on the Winter Range. The only way we had of getting to the ranch was by boat, or by horse back which was over slick rock and cliffs of sand stone which was very dangerous.

Petroglyph panel along Potash-Lower Colorado River Scenic Byway (U-279)

 "I had never been down the river and was anxious to go as the Indian Hieroglyphics and Cliff Dwellings were quite a sight to those who were interested in that line - and I was. Well, one morning in June - the river was at its very highest having risen 7 ft. the night before. My husband was taking a man down to the ranch to blast off a ledge and some great desire made me want to go along. So I said, "Daddy, let me take the children and go too." He said alright as he was a man who never saw danger. We got into the motor boat with our little family of four children ranging from 8 months to 8 years [Julia, Inez, Leslie, Sarah.] As we left the side stream and started down the muddy Colorado I realized the mistake I had made as it looked like nothing but a large black whirlpool. We arrived okay, spent the day, and started back home in the evening leaving the man behind.
 

Photograph during an expedition down the Colorado River in 1909.

"As we got about 3 miles upstream the motor stopped. One look at my husband's face and I realized our danger. He told us not to get panicky and to sit still. We had no oars, just a pole to shove off from the bank and the river was so high he couldn't reach the bottom with it. At this place the current changed to the other side of the river thus throwing us out into mid-stream. You can imagine our feelings with four helpless babies and us in the middle of the great Colorado River during high-water. Under some miraculous or supreme power my husband managed, after what seemed hours, to get us poled close enough to the bank for me to reach out and get hold of the willows along the bank. Then he got hold and together we pulled the boat close enough that I could hold it while he fixed the motor. That fall a boat with 8 passengers was capsized during a cloud-burst and was sunk."

To read more about the Colorado River:
History of Grand County
Read about the first river running recreation sport trip.
Whitewater rafting in the 30s
Powell Expedition - National Park Service site


Sources:
*History of Leslie Thomas Foy by Florence Howard Tuttle Foy. © You may use text for educational or family history purposes with attribution only. Changing any portion is prohibited. 
*Photo of boat in rapids taken from the Featured Articles in Grandview This Week Newspaper Weekly Moment in Time Column.  Grandview Heights resident Julius F. Stone is shown here.
*Photo of petroglyphs from the Discover Moab site.