The Kolb Diaries: Chapter 9
1924-1930
The Good Years
Ellsworth in 1923 made proposals and counter-proposals to his brother regarding the contract that would settle their affairs at the studio, but Emery for one reason or another turned them all down. They finally decided upon a complete separation that the attorneys would put into writing.[1] The house and the studio would become Emery's property and Ellsworth would receive $l50 per month for an unstated period of time for his share of the business. The law offices of Clark and Clark in Phoenix, Arizona, drew up the legal papers, and a letter from the attorneys dated l2 July 1924 stated that both Ellsworth and Emery had signed the contract and it was therefore binding. Ellsworth had left Grand Canyon and moved to Los Angeles before this time and returned to the studio on occasions but never on a permanent basis.
While business remained profitable Emery paid Ellsworth willingly, but when it dropped off he begrudged the payment and attempted to have the clause struck from the contract. This occurred during the depression in 1932 when he and Blanche had difficulty in supporting themselves and keeping the doors of the studio open, and again in 1942 when the war brought hard times to the Canyon. At that time Emery stated he had paid his brother more than $34,000 "without invoking or receiving any aid whatsoever from Ellsworth in my struggle to maintain this business." He felt he had paid far more than Ellsworth had invested in the business during his years at the Canyon. The payments went on until Ellsworth' death in 1960.[2]
The Coconino County Board of Supervisors had operated the Bright Angel trail since 1907 when the territorial legislature passed the "Cameron Bill" and in 1924 when the county began negotiations with the Federal Government to sell the rights, the question arose regarding what would happen to the Kolb Studio. In the past the Kolbs had used the county's ownership as a bulwark against the Santa Fe Railroad, Harvey Company and the federal government.
Julius Stone, a friend of the Kolbs, became concerned when news of the sale reached him. In a letter to Emery he questioned the 'whys and wherefores' of the situation wondering if the old and continually arising problem between Ralph Cameron and the government over Cameron's mining claims brought about this action. Or was this another attempt of the Harvey people and the Santa Fe Railroad to oust the Kolbs from the Canyon? The letter contained many questions and stated, "because I have a very keen interest in your welfare."[3]
Headlines on the front page of the 24 October issue of The Coconino Sun stated the "sale of the trail to Uncle Sam will be immensely profitable to this county and arguments against it are childish and born of spite." Opposition to the sale came from a number of sources. Various newspapers accused Ralph Cameron, the chief opponent, of originating most of the claims against it. The opponents charged that Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe would have control of the trail and run the Kolb brothers away from the canyon. The county felt the sale would be a boon for in the negotiations the federal government offered to build and maintain forever a half-million dollar highway from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon that would be an advantage to the city of Flagstaff from a tourist standpoint.
A letter from Louis Johnson, written on 27 January 1925, advised Emery that the sale would help his business tremendously in the long run. He wrote:
. . . .the Harvey influence through the Santa Fe Railroad are securing a trail at the Government's expense which is as you know unnecessary and extravagant and they will therefore for the time being permit things to run along apparently in a smoother manner than previously, due to the fact that they do not wish any noise made about the new expense, for it is not generally known over the country, but you just wait my dear fellow until the new trail is in operation and this will if I am not much mistaken be an excuse for materially improving the landscape architecture, and unless you are fortunate your house will be considered one of the things that do not fit the picture.
He then gave Emery a piece of unnecessary advice:
When the Landscape Architect from Washington comes , put on your Sunday Clothes, your Sunday Smile, and with it your thinking cap, which consists of diplomacy of super type. Do everything possible to please this man and to get his good will, for if he wishes to he can help you, although if I mistake not, he is largely dominated by Harvey influence.
With Emery's spirit of self preservation he would take every step known and possibly invent a few to preserve his rights at the head of Bright Angel Trail. He felt his business secure for at least ten years as the NPS had granted him a ten-year contract as concessionaire that could be renewed when the period was up.
The Department of the Interior in Washington advised the Coconino Sun in Flagstaff in a letter dated l4 July 1924:
I was very glad to receive your letter of July 13th, containing your inquiry as to the Kolb Brothers interest in the event the Bright Angel sale went through.
I take great pleasure in stating that the National Park Service regards the activities of Kolb Brothers as a splendid service to the visiting public and whether the Bright Angel trail is sold or not, we shall give them every encouragement and every protection possible.
The Kolb Brothers are splendid fellows and I am fortunate in counting both as my personal friends. You may rest assured that instead of hampering their work, we shall help them in any way possible.
. . . This letter represents the official view of the National Park Service and you are welcome to make such use of it as you desire.
J. R. Eakin
The Sun quoted the letter verbatim in the l8 July issue of the paper.
Things ran peacefully at the studio after 1924. The bickering between Kolb and Fred Harvey Company stayed at a minimum, although the resentment of both parties remained ready to flare up at any moment. In 1925 Emery asked for and received permission from the NPS to add additional space to his auditorium, the final addition to the little building begun on Cameron's right of way in 1904. [4] Until October1926 the Kolb studio generated their own electricity but now Emery requested electric power from the railroad. The Santa Fe approved and installed a meter at Emery's expense. The price for electricity amounted to fifteen-cents per kilowatt hour.[5]
In 1918 Emery and Ellsworth applied to the United States Forestry Department for a mining claim on a parcel of land located a few miles west of the village directly across the road from Bert Lauzon's ranch near Havasu point. To prove the claim Ellsworth dug a prospecting pit within sight of the Lauzon's ranch house. He found no minerals and after a time gave up on the project. The field remained in its natural state covered with low juniper trees and brush until the fall of 1925 when Emery applied for a permit to use the land for an airstrip. Always with an eye for business he saw the advantage of flights over the Canyon for scenic purposes and as a way to cut travel time to the north rim. To make the plan feasible he requested the land use for an airstrip on the north rim. The Forest Service at once granted him permission to use his mining claim, but the NPS delayed the north rim project while they searched for a site close enough to the lodge to make it accessible to the tourists wishing to use the accommodation. Emery employed a few Havasupai Indians to clear the area of juniper trees and brush, and work started on the south rim claim at once. Using a government grader they leveled a strip for a runway the width of a two-lane highway across the comparatively flat tract of land.
With the landing field ready Emery began looking for suitable planes to use in what most pilots then considered a dangerous flight across the deep gorge. He wrote letters to aircraft manufacturers and airline operators, including one to the Stout Metal Airplane Company in Detroit, Michigan, asking if they would be interested in collaborating in a proposed airline for scenic trips around the Grand Canyon.[6] With their negative reply, Emery continued his quest, but each contact rejected the project for various reasons, predominantly because of the danger involved. On l4 June 1927 he received a letter from J. Parker Van Zandt, an entrepreneur who had learned of Emery's plans for flights over the canyon from a conversation with Louis Johnson. After talking to Johnson, Van Zandt made a trip to Michigan and persuaded the proprietors of the Stout Metal Aircraft Company to change their minds. He then wrote Emery:
Last week I had the pleasure of a very interesting visit in New York with Mr. Louis Johnson.
We discussed very fully and frankly the entire aviation situation at the Canyon, as Mr. Johnson may have already written you. I think you will be pleased to know the very nice things which he said about you.
Partly at Mr. Johnson's suggestion I am writing you again to see if we cannot get together and pool our resources, in order to make aviation at the Canyon a real success. . . .[7]
The letter delighted Emery. He at last had some cooperation on his dreamed-of project. He answered the letter promptly, setting forth points that he wished to make clear and ended his letter with his usual exuberance:
I believe however that the thing will be a big success, and also believe that my position here would be of considerable assistance to the success.[8]
Van Zandt's reply stated he was glad they could count on Emery to help get the airfield going and mentioned that their attorneys would draw up a contract to form a syndicate for the business. When Emery received the papers he noted the first subscriber was a Mr. William B. Stout. Van Zandt then attempted to induce Emery to sign as a subscriber and abandon any plans he had for an airport. Feeling his position at the Grand Canyon would be a valuable asset Emery refused to sign. This proposal failing Van Zandt next offered to purchase any equipment and stock Emery owned. Emery accepted and began transferring his rights to the fields on the north and the south rims of the canyon. Time passed with no further word from either Van Zandt or the Stout Airplane Company. Meanwhile Van Zandt set up an airline business for himself, and with everything in readiness advised Emery that the complicated agreement between them caused his people to withdraw their support. A few weeks later Emery noticed the construction of a new airstrip eighteen miles south of the rim called The Grand Canyon Scenic Airways Inc. with J. Parker Van Zandt as president. Emery's dream of an airstrip burst like a bubble.
The mining claim eventually returned to the government. Brush again grew over the graded airstrip and the Lauzon family used Ellsworth's prospecting hole as a rubbish depository where antique collectors later had a heyday digging out old bottles and Log Cabin syrup cans for area antique shops.[9]
The final chapter of the story came in the winter of the same year. The Pathe Bray Motion Picture Company hired Emery's old acquaintance E. C. La Rue to make an elaborate motion picture set in the locale of Cataract and Glen canyons. They started the project quietly with no fanfare, but suddenly news flashed nationwide reporting the entire motion picture crew including all the actors lost in Glen Canyon. The tragic event alarmed people across the nation and the officials of the movie company organized search parties to locate and rescue those unfortunate members of the company in the desolate forbidding territory of Southeastern Utah. The Associated Press and the United Press, aware of his experience on the river, contacted Emery requesting his assistance in the search by guiding boats down the river on a rescue mission. Emery emphatically replied "NO!" He felt the entire thing was a publicity stunt to advertise the movie. He explained to the press the impossibility of a party of thirteen people with six boats encountering a catastrophe in Glen Canyon where all the boats would be lost. He further stated he knew La Rue would never start out on any venture on the river where he could not have every comfort, plenty of food and ample men to assure him there would be no danger. La Rue had traversed these canyons and knew that if the party encountered trouble they could walk out at many places and secure food and help with little effort. The search crews organized without Emery, and the government sent out an airplane from Camp Clover in California to fly up and down the canyon to locate the lost party.
The army plane landed at Van Zandt's new Grand Canyon airstrip for the night and to refuel before returning to the grim task. On takeoff the following morning it crashed in the woods adjacent to the strip. The accident brought excitement to those who resided at Grand Canyon Village and Emery and Blanche loaded the movie camera into their Packard and rushed to the airfield hoping to get a few feet of movie film of the incident. Upon arrival they found the personnel of the airport busy helping dismantle the aircraft and placing it on logs to facilitate hauling it from the pine forest. Emery set up his camera to photograph the operation. After taking only a few feet of film a U. S. Army lieutenant ran toward him at breakneck speed. Hardly taking time to catch his breath, the officer exclaimed,"This is military property and no photographs are allowed. It will be necessary for you to turn over the film you have taken." Emery protested and explained that he had taken only a few feet on the roll with some personal footage on it. "If you will not give me the film," demanded the lieutenant,"I will place you under military arrest." To comply Emery handed over his camera to the officer who removed the film, walked a few feet away and burned it on the spot. Having finished the task, he turned and headed back across the field without further word. Emery mentally questioned whether the officer had the right to arrest him or to confiscate the film. He wondered why others could take pictures and he could not especially after he noticed workmen who were constructing the hanger and a mechanic of Scenic Airways busy with their cameras with no complaints from the officer. Emery reloaded his camera and resumed photographing the wreckage of the plane, then left before the officer accosted him a second time.
To get the matter off his mind he wrote a letter to Major General Ernest Hinds at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, whom he met at the studio the day before the crash, inquiring about the matter, and enclosed a photograph showing the accident.[10] He received a reply 30 December 1927 that informed him:
. . . we are of the opinion that the airplane of which you forward a photograph is not an Army Airplane as no such service type is known to exist, neither is Clover Field an Army Airdrome.
Furthermore the party you complain of, if an officer of the Army, had no authority to either confiscate your film or as an alternative place you under arrest, such powers are not delegated to military personnel except when certain offenses are committed on a military reservation.
From the general nature of the action of the parties it is our opinion that you were dealing with persons other than those in the military service. Mr. J. Parker Van Zandt is not an officer in the military service, he having severed his connection with the Army on January 14, 1926, by resignation.
Ft. Sam Houston made an inquiry into the matter, and early in January Emery received a copy of a letter written to General Hinds by 1st. Lt. Walter K. Burgess, Air Corps, Clover Field, California, the officer involved in the Grand Canyon episode that gave his version of the incident in great detail.
l. On the day after Douglas C-1 transport returning from searching for the Pathe Bray Colorado River Expedition, was wrecked near the Scenic Airway field, 18 miles from the Grand Canyon, Arizona, an automobile party consisting of a gentleman and a lady came to vicinity of the wreck. Personnel from the Scenic Airways, Inc. were assisting in dismantling the plane and placing the same on a skid of pine logs preparatory to its being hauled out of the forest.
2. It was noticed the man of the automobile party referred to was busily cranking away at a moving picture camera. It was supposed that he was a tourist or representative of some moving picture concern. One of the men was sent to notify him that it was against the Air Corps policy to have pictures taken of Army Air Corps wrecks, especially for publication or moving picture exhibits. The man sent on the mission returned stating that the party refused to heed his request. The undersigned then proceeded to where he was cranking away and informed him of the same thing and further requested that he not use such pictures for exhibition purposes. The undersigned was informed that that was exactly what he expected to do with the film. The undersigned then requested that he turn over the film until a decision or permission could be obtained for its use in such manner. The party taking the picture refusing to do so he was informed that unless he did so it would be necessary to make report of his refusal and action and that later he might find himself under arrest. The party then abruptly stopped, opened his camera, threw out the film and burned it, climbed in his car and drove away. . . .
3. As stated before no idea as to whom the complainant might be was held, it being believed up until the receipt of this communication that he was some passing tourist attracted merely through curiosity or by what he might gain from any exploitation of the wreck that he might make.
With this the army considered the matter closed. Emery naturally did not for had he done so it would have appeared that his original statements were untruthful. He replied to Colonel Robert McCleave at Fort Sam Houston, who was handling the investigation, stating:
. . . You no doubt noticed that statements of Burgess were absolutely contradictory to those which I wrote to General Hinds and for me not to write you further and let you accept the statements of Burgess, would be to acknowledge that I had not correctly stated the facts to the General, and since my word is at stake, I am sending you four sworn affidavits to prove that Burgess is knowingly and delibertly [sic ] falsifying, regrettably so for a man of his apparent standing.
Beginning with ("One of the men") par.2, line 3, in his statements, I wish to prove that Burgess has falsified in all these statements up to line 16 to where he states I burned the film. [11]
He enclosed with this letter four notarized statements from witnesses to the event, all proving Burgess' statements false. Thus he proved to his own satisfaction that he was right in the matter.
As he figured, the excitement over the supposed disappearance of the Pathe Bray Motion Picture Company party was "a lot of tommyrot." Emery asked F. C. Dodge, his friend and associate of the USGS trip whom La Rue hired to run the rapids for the cameramen, about the party's trouble in the canyon. Dodge admitted it was a publicity stunt but asked Emery to keep it quiet until the film party broke up. The actors were never in Cataract Canyon and the closest they came to Glen Canyon was when they assembled at Lee's Ferry to film the scenes needed there. The party then traveled overland to Grand Canyon Village where they filmed the balance of the movie in the vicinity of Kolb Studio using the rapids at the foot of Bright Angel trail and Hermit Creek for the rapid-running sequences with Dodge and another boatman dressed as the hero and heroine.
Fred Harvey Company again posed a problem in the fall of 1927 but this time the Park Superintendent made the complaint. The mule trips were taken down the Yaki Trail while the NPS realigned the Bright Angel Trail and Kolb moved his camera to this point to take his famous trail photographs. The hotel had a photographer positioned at Maricopa Point for the same purpose and complained against Kolb for his attempt to carry out his work there. Superintendent M.R. Tillotson wrote Frank C. Spencer of the Fred Harvey Company clarifying the photographic rights of the two firms stating neither party's concessioners contract permitted such action:
It will be noted that neither of these contracts specifically cover such work as Mr. Williams has been doing at Maricopa Point, or as Mr. Kolb has been doing in the way of taking trail pictures. I feel very strongly that such work as both are doing is an important service to the public and one which we should encourage. Neither of the contracts, however, provide for this specific service but it has been established by custom and mutual understanding that Mr. Williams was to take the rim pictures and Mr. Kolb for a great many years has been taking the photographs of the trail parties. . . . I believe that this can best be accomplished by allowing the matter to continue as heretofore. That is, Mr. Kolb will not compete in photographing rim parties outside of his studio and you will not interfere with his established custom of taking photographs of trail parties even though the parties may be going down the Yaki Trail rather than the Bright Angel Trail.[12]
A number of years prior to this time Emery accompanied Herbert Hoover, president of the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company and Louis Johnson, his head sales manager for New York, on a mountain lion hunt at the north rim of the Canyon where Hoover, an avid hunter killed a lion to add to his trophy collection. During this expedition a close friendship grew between Johnson and Emery and a regular correspondence developed between the two. In August of 1928 Johnson spent his vacation with the Kolbs and the two traveled across southwestern Utah to the old Hite ranch. Here they met Dave Rust and a New York engineer for a trip through Glen Canyon. Johnson, a good hiker who enjoyed the trails of the Canyon, made no claims to being a riverman and Glen Canyon offered him an opportunity to see the marvels of the river without the danger of rough water. It was an ideal vacation for both city men. They made the trip in two collapsible canvas boats Rust brought from Kanab and assembled at Hite. The four men embarked early in the morning with the sun shining brilliantly in a deep blue sky sprinkled here and there with white billowing clouds the water it's usual red, and the cream-colored rocks of the canyon offered beautiful views as the men traveled between the high walls of the Canyon. They made camp each night where the sandstone walls broke away and offered a small sandy area with a few willows and cottonwood trees and where plenty of driftwood along the shore provided fuel for a campfire. The lack of rapids in the fast-moving river lessened the noise so they heard only the quiet ripples brushing against the debris along the bank. During the day the party hiked into various side canyons where walls towered hundreds of feet above the sandy, rock-strewn floor. The stone carved and worn by ages and stained with the black pigment of desert varnish looked as if someone had poured it from the summit and allowed it to drip aimlessly over the rocks below. Small ferns often grew in cracks and crevices, their brilliant green adding a splotch of color to otherwise monotonous grey-colored landscape. In places the sides of the canyon closed in to stand only a few feet apart and nearly all offered no regress for escape to the world above. The men failed to reach many of the side canyons for their entrances were a hundred feet or more above the floor of the main channel. No human had set foot in them and the hundreds of birds using these crevices as nesting places circled and fussed as the boats glided along on the river below.
Where the 1921 survey had marked the entrance to the canyon that led to Rainbow Bridge the four men pulled their boats up on the beach at a cove and ventured up Forbidden Canyon over the rocky approach to the great stone arch. They found the trail simpler from the river than the long arduous one across the desolate area around Navajo Mountain that loomed ominously as a backdrop to Rainbow Bridge.
At the end of their journey the four men rounded the bend between the walls of the Vermilion Cliffs on the north and the Echo Cliffs on the south to where the canyon opened up, permitting the Paria River to enter the mighty Colorado at Lee's Ferry. Here Blanche met the travelers in the family automobile to return them to the head of Bright Angel Trail. Emery became so attached to the canvas boat he persuaded Rust to sell it to him.[13] He stored it in his garage and eventually hoisted it up into the rafters to collect the dust of years.
September, October and November of 1928 were quiet at the studio and Emery occupied himself with the usual daily routine. Tourists filled the auditorium to capacity every day for the showing of the film and the lecture. Blanche busied herself in the gift shop and attended to the affairs of the house. She entertained her bridge club in the living room downstairs from the studio and often inveigled Emery to join them as a fourth, which he did reluctantly. For him the game was not enticing.
In early November Glenn and Bessie Hyde stopped for an overnight visit as the Kolbs' guests. The month before Glenn Hyde had married Bessie Haley at Hansen, Idaho, and for the honeymoon he gave his new wife a boat trip through the canyons of the Colorado River. The danger of white water river running had fascinated Hyde for years and his passion for adventure had taken him down the Salmon River in his native Idaho and the Fraser and Peace Rivers in Canada, both dangerous and difficult. He still desired to run the canyons of the Colorado River and the Pathe Bray motion picture expedition earlier in that year possibly fueled this obsession.
As his pet project he built a boat during his spare time, an unwieldy looking craft that measured twenty feet long, five feet wide and three feet deep with a flat bottom. Two long sweep type oars, one at the front and one at the back allowed him to stand in the center to navigate through rough water and where necessary could power the craft down the river. Hyde designed the scow to run the rapids he encountered by entering them sideways rather than stern first as the Kolbs did and in spite of the awkward appearance it was quite maneuverable. He shipped the boat to Green River, Utah, where he and his bride began the trip. They equipped it with a bed spring and mattress, a stove and provisions obviating the necessity to camp on the banks of the river. On 20 October 1928 Hyde pushed the scow into the Green River and it floated downstream on fast but quiet water. Bessie began the trip with considerable enthusiasm, which lessened in the rapids of Cataract Canyon where the boat jammed against a rock while she operated the sweep oars. With the sudden stop she lost her balance and fell overboard.
Twenty-six days after leaving the town of Green River the couple arrived at the foot of Bright Angel trail and hiked out of the Canyon to pay their respects to Emery Kolb. Their tales fascinated Emery and the short length of time it had taken to make the trip amazed him. He presented them with an autographed copy of Ellsworth's book as a guide for the rest of the trip. Before the couple left Emery discovered they had no life preservers; to him this was a 'must' and he offered them the ones stored in his garage. When Hyde refused the offer he suggested they at least take a couple of old inner tubes from the Fred Harvey garage for safety sake. Hyde also rejected this as he stated they were both expert swimmers and would not need them. Unable to convince them of the danger in the lower end of the canyon Emery dropped the subject.
It was apparent to Emery that Bessie was not at all anxious to continue the trip and would have been more than willing to stop and return home. She confided to Emery that rough water had thrown Glenn from the boat twice and she had barely been able to get a rope to him in time to keep him from drowning. Rather than see her new husband make the rest of the trip alone, which he insisted on doing, she went along. Blanche bade the couple farewell and in her usual manner invited them to return on the completion of their journey. Not being a hiker, she remained at the studio while Emery accompanied the couple down the trail to inspect their boat. As they started Bessie commented on Edith's new shoes and hoped she could wear pretty things like that someday.
At the river Bessie showed Emery her diary and explained how by, using a series of dots she kept track of the rapids they ran every day . "Days," she said, "seem to all run together in the canyons so to keep up with them I have been making notches with Glenn's knife." She pointed to the gunwale of the boat. "Weekdays are a single notch and a cross mark indicates a Sunday. Not that it makes any difference since we travel on Sundays too."
Glenn explained how he maneuvered the boat and lined her through the rougher sections. Hyde's ideas impressed Emery and he liked the design of the boat. Planning to arrive at Needles in two weeks, the honeymoon couple pushed off. Emery quietly hoped their luck would hold, but had his doubts as he watched them run the rough water at the foot of the trail. When they were out of sight he returned up the trail and home. The date was l7 November.
The travelers stopped at Hermit Creek Rapid on 18 November where tourists and a Harvey photographer greeted them. One of the onlookers remarked that Glenn literally forced Bessie onto the scow to complete the trip. Whether this is true or whether someone made the statement after the tragedy remains unknown.
The middle of December, nearly a month after the Hyde couple had gone on their way, Emery made a trip to Phoenix to visit a doctor. The diagnosis given for his complaint was appendicitis and the doctor felt he should operate as soon as possible. Emery entered the hospital preparing for surgery but received a telegram from Glenn's father, R. C. Hyde, inquiring if he would help search for his son who was overdue at Needles. After telegraphing Mr. Hyde with an affirmative reply Emery checked out of the hospital and caught the next train to Grand Canyon. The appendectomy would have to wait.
Bessie's father contacted the federal government asking for a military plane to aid in the search. They promptly sent a plane to fly over the lower section of Granite Gorge to search for any indication of the scow.[14] The pilot spotted the boat several miles below Diamond Creek, returned to Grand Canyon and landed at Emery's unused airfield. The following day Emery joined the pilot for a second trip to make a positive identification. Flying at fifty feet above the water, a dangerously low altitude, Emery determined the object in the river to be the Hyde boat.[15]
Ellsworth heard the news and wired to ask if he could be of assistance.[16] Emery answered his brother with the request that he meet the search party at Peach Springs where they would start a trip to the river. Ellsworth left California at once. The day after Emery returned from the canyon flight a group consisting of Emery, Chief Ranger James Brooks, M. J. Harrison and R. C. Hyde, left for Peach Springs, and traveled across a flat snow-covered and wind-swept high desert landscape to begin their grim job. The temperature hovered around zero when they arrived at the small village where Emery purchased a few supplies he felt he needed to build a boat and made arrangements for someone to meet them with horses at Spencer Creek a few miles below Separation Rapid. Emery, Brooks, and Ellsworth, who arrived on the east bound Santa Fe about the same time started the twenty-two mile hike to the river. Hyde and Harrison followed with the wagonload of supplies and arrived the next day.
With no daylight left to accomplish anything when they reached the river, they built a camp fire and spent a cold night with the familiar sound of the roaring Diamond Creek Rapid pounding in their ears. In the morning the temperature still hovered around zero, no snow covered the ground at this level but ice formed on the rocks at the river's edge and a steel-grey sky added to the gloom. Near the end of the trail Ellsworth found a half rotten, waterlogged boat pulled up on the bank. After a close examination the Kolbs determined they could replace the worst parts with boards of sound lumber from the floor of an old mining camp tent. After a day and a half of work they created a sturdy craft that the brothers considered sufficiently safe to make the trip.
Hyde and Harrison opted to walk upstream hoping to find some clue of the missing couple. They trudged along the bank of the river climbing over ice-covered rocks and boulders and seven miles upstream discovered footprints of Glenn and Bessie in the sand. On their way back they came upon Glenn's footprints headed down into the water, but none showing he returned. Heavy hearted, Hyde envisioned the action that had taken place but refused to believe the obvious.
Emery, Ellsworth and Brooks pushed off in the boat. Brooks, not a river man, held tightly to a pair of uprights Emery had fastened to the boat for the purpose while they successfully ran Diamond Creek Rapid. The three traversed a total of eleven miles downriver to the scow in less than an hour and found the craft two miles above Separation Rapid, floating upright in water about thirty feet deep, the prow rope attached for lining through the last rapid caught on a rock holding it fast. Ellsworth boarded, cut the rope and rowed to shore where they could examine it without the risk of it's accidently coming loose and heading down-stream. Everything appeared intact with only a small amount of water seeped into the bottom. On the seat they found the book Emery had given Bessie open to the page describing Diamond Creek rapid, Glenn's gun, a camera loaded with film, and Bessie's diary of the trip. Emery read the last entry. Bessie made no entries after 30 November and on this date there were sixteen dots indicating they ran sixteen rapids. Forty-two notches on the gunwale translated into that many days since leaving Green River. A comparison between the notches and the diary told Emery the couple disappeared on l December 1928.
The party removed the Hyde belongings and packed them securely in the other boat and prepared to make their way to Spencer Creek. Before leaving, Ellsworth, intrigued by the scow, decided to see how she handled. Pushing into the current he guided her over a small riffle and the way the cumbersome, awkward looking craft handled amazed him. They released the empty boat and left it for the river to have its course. A short distance downstream it lodged between some rocks where the waves soon tore it asunder.
With the old boat loaded with the Hyde belongings the three men traveled downriver toward Separation Rapid. Here the Colorado River nearly claimed their lives. Ellsworth checked the current and studied the location of rocks before they attempted to go through. When he located a suitable passage the three set out. As a precaution against an accident Brooks and Emery used the two air-filled life preservers on board and Ellsworth fastened a five-gallon can on his back to keep him afloat. The boat bounced along through the foaming water, slid past a large ice-covered boulder and caught in a small whirlpool that swung them out at a tremendous speed and bounced them off another rock. The back-wave threw them a few yards upstream and dashed the boat down again crashing it into another rock. Quick as a flash the small remodeled craft flipped over and hurled all three passengers unmercifully into the icy water. The Kolbs' familiarity with rapids and fast moving water enabled them to climb out onto the bottom of the upside-down boat in a few minutes. Brooks was nowhere to be seen and they feared for his life. Anxiety subsided when the park ranger surfaced spluttering and spewing. The uprights Emery had placed for his protection had pinned him underneath the boat catching in a hole in his overalls and afraid he would lose them and freeze before he could get to Spencer Creek if Emery attempted to pull him out of the water Brooks admonished him to let him go. Again he went under. The second time he came up Emery and Ellsworth disregarded his protests and lifted him out of the water.
According to the plans made before leaving Peach Springs a party of men waited at Spencer Creek with horses and a welcome fire. Emery, Ellsworth and Brooks were glad to exchange their wet clothes for warm dry ones. After a hot cup of coffee they chipped the Hyde items free from the ice in bottom of the boat and headed up the trail.
Harrison and Hyde returned to Peach Springs on the same path they used for entering the canyon and waited in the general store. Hyde, overcome with grief and refusing to admit the reality that his son and new daughter-in-law had met an untimely end, paced the floor and checked the time every few minutes. Hyde never gave up. Emery received letters from him for a number of years stating he planned to again return to the Canyon and continue the search for evidence of his son. He posted a reward of $1,000 for anyone who might come forward with knowledge of the whereabouts of the couple. No one ever collected the money.
Ellsworth related in a conversation with John Duffy while visiting in Pittsburgh that the two Hydes wore canvas tennis shoes that he felt was "bad news on wet rocks." The photograph Emery took at the end of Bright Angel trail proved this fact as it clearly shows Glenn wearing a pair of high top tennis shoes. Ellsworth discussed his theory of what had happened on that day in December when the couple disappeared. Bessie, he stated, stood on shore and held the prow rope of the scow while Glenn walked downstream to investigate a route through the rapid, the force of the current pulled the craft into the river, and in her attempt to save it the water pulled her in after it. Glenn foolishly jumped into the river and both were carried into the silt-laden rapid and drowned.[17]
The Aetna Life Insurance Company, in an effort to determine whether the insureds were dead or alive corresponded with Emery concerning the expedition.[18] Emery verified the findings and explained his theory of what happened. "There is no doubt in our minds," he wrote, "that the pair are dead. It is our opinion that they were dragged into the water while trying to drop the boat through a rapid by the painter attached to the boat, or that one was dragged in and the other perished in the attempted rescue." They had only a few miles more to go and they would have been out of danger. He concluded his letter with:
. . . had they succeeded in getting through, their success would have been of far greater value commercially than that of obtaining insurance by purposely disappearing. Our short acquaintance leads us to believe that the Hydes including the father, are of high type honorable people. We personally would trust them to the limit.[19]
Many theories have arisen in regard to what happened on this fatal trip, some suggesting that Bessie killed Glenn to avoid going on, then worked her way out of the canyon to collect the insurance. Another idea stated that Emery and Bessie worked together to murder Glenn in order to collect the insurance. This also was ridiculous for neither party ever collected. Emery settled down again at the studio, forgot about his appendectomy and never returned to the hospital.
In the spring of 1929 a problem arose that may not have been intentional on the part of the Harvey Company. Emery scheduled his lectures for 11:30 A.M. and 4:15 P.M. to allow for Harvey's morning and afternoon rim drives to return and to leave time for those visiting the canyon to see the show before the luncheon and dinner hours at the Hotel. For some reason the rim drives were taking fifteen or twenty minutes longer to return each day throwing the tourists late for the lecture at the Kolb Studio. Tillotson began receiving complaints from tourists regarding this. A letter to J. E. Shirley, the manager of Harvey's transportation department stated the problem and complimented the drivers of the Harvey vehicles for their cooperation in letting those passengers who wished to get off at the head of Bright Angel Trail to do so, and directing them to the studio. The letter then politely asked if it would be possible for the rim drives to start fifteen or twenty minutes earlier. Tillotson stated that he felt both the rim drives and the Kolb lecture were important aspects to the Canyon tourists who had so little time to spend enjoying the natural wonders the Park had to offer.[20]
Emery found himself at the studio more and more after the 1923 river trip. He made a few short expeditions such as the Hyde search but nothing as strenuous as either the United States Geological Survey or his and Ellsworth's 1911 trip. He hiked the canyon extensively and made numerous visits to Los Angeles and Phoenix. The family made a journey to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest in the eastern part of the state and another excursion across the rocky Rainbow Trail to the now famous stone bridge. He took photographs of such out-of-the-way places as Grand Falls on the Little Colorado River east of Flagstaff and Red Mountain north of Flagstaff, both almost inaccessible at the time. The family vacationed at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks in southern Utah.
His and Blanche's life changed during the 1920's. Edith married Carl Lehnert, a park ranger. The studio seemed quiet to Blanche and both she and Emery awaited the letters Edith wrote regularly. In 1928 a grandson, Emery Carl, was born.
The United States Congress took the first step toward bringing about results from the 1923 exploration of the Colorado River with the passage of the Boulder Canyon Project Act in 1928. Engineers put the plans on the drawing boards for the dam that would block the Colorado River and change its personality. The lake formed behind it would engulf Callville and St. Thomas, and John Wesley Powell's Separation Rapids would disappear under the rising waters of Lake Mead.
Black Canyon was located in one of the most out of the way and inaccessible places in the United States. Engineers had to cut roads through the mountains on both the Arizona and the Nevada side of the river before any attempt at building the dam could begin, no mean engineering fete in itself. As in all tremendous projects of the kind, towns sprang up close by to house the workers that would swarm like ants over the project twenty-four hours a day until the great dam at last harnessed and brought the river under control. Having had an interest in the project since its conception, Emery followed the construction of the dam closely, making several trips in the Buick from the Canyon to Williams and across the dusty unpaved roads to Kingman then north to the Colorado River, his cameras tucked securely away in his luggage. [21]
The twenty-fourth of October 1929 changed the course of history in the United States and Europe. Since the early twenties the economy of the world had been on the upward swing. The stock market that had climbed to dizzy heights and turned a considerable portion of the American population, from bootblacks to capitalists, into stock speculators, crashed. The fortunes of thousands of people who bought and sold stock amounting to millions of dollars on paper suddenly disappeared. Within a few short hours large numbers of the American population were penniless. The world depression caught the United States in its grip. At first the economists felt the economic structure of the country was sound and the market would bounce back in a short time. "Prosperity is just around the corner" was the phrase heard on all the streets as the lines grew longer at the relief stations where they passed out free bread and soup to keep the millionaires of a few days before from starving. The Grand Canyon felt the impact at once as tourists no longer traveled across the country and threw their money about recklessly as they had for the past ten years. Business at the studio dropped to an all-time low. Even the trail rides to the bottom of the canyon became less frequent. It looked as though Emery and Blanche would be in deep trouble.
In 1930 Ellsworth visited to the studio, and while business remained slow the two brothers made plans to explore Cheyava Falls at the head of Clear Creek. The two had often discussed the trip since its discovery in 1903. Both had been up the canyon to where they could see and photograph it, but neither seemed to have time to make the trip down the side of the canyon on the north rim to explore the cave where the falls originated. Looking through their telescope to study the lay of the land at the site, it appeared possible to descend through a break in the Coconino sandstone and arrive at a shelf just above the opening. They completed their plans by mid-September, a good time to make the trip for they assumed the falls to be dry during this season, offering better possibilities to explore the cave from which it emanated.
After purchasing the necessary rope, pulleys, equipment and supplies to make the climb Ellsworth drove via Cameron and Lee's Ferry to the north rim to seek the nearest approach by road to a point where the two could start the descent. To conserve time away from the studio and his lectures Emery remained at the south rim. Upon receiving a telephone call from his brother he flew across the canyon and joined him. They spent the first night at camp in the balmy air under the tall pines on the brink of the gorge where they would start the following morning. They had supposed they could make the trip in a day and a half provided they got an early start. Before dawn the two ate breakfast, and in the pink glow of early morning prepared to go over the edge. A huge cut or slide in the sandstone extended almost to the bottom of the usually perpendicular Coconino strata where they climbed down with their load of ropes, cameras, food and other equipment only to find what they thought to be a complete break ended with a sheer drop of about eighty feet. They lowered the equipment and supplies to the ledge below, then faced the problem of getting themselves down.
A few trees lived at this level, and fortunately a couple firs grew twenty or twenty-five feet from the edge of the cliff and extended well above where they stood. It would be a gamble, but their only recourse other than attempting to lower themselves in the same manner as the equipment would be to snare the top of one of these trees with a rope, tie the other end around a rock and work their way across hand over hand . The plan worked. Emery, the smallest and lightest, made the trip first and tied the rope securely before Ellsworth crossed. By climbing down the tree they overcame their first major obstacle. At the base of this cliff they left a cache of food and water for their return. The day had warmed and they discarded their coats and hats. Canteens of water and huge coils of dangling rope gave enough trouble and this freed them from additional load.
From here the terrain sloped downward about 400 feet and again a sheer drop confronted them. With the aid of a wire that they left for the return trip they passed this point and proceeded onward. By now the descent had taken them approximately halfway down the red Supai strata of the canyon wall toward the next obstruction. Using a huge fallen fir tree stripped of it's branches by rocks falling from above, and by tugging and pulling, they slid the tree down three hundred feet and pushed it over another forty-foot drop. The tree falling with the small end first made it a little difficult to "coon" but with this they arrived on the shelf below. They left one hundred and twenty-five feet of rope over another series of drops at still lower points. Then a 500-foot slope confronted them. By working themselves carefully around the rocks and boulders they arrived at the top of the blue lime. The rope now distributed over the ledges for the return trip left them 400 feet of one-half inch line to go over the final drop to the cave, about half of what they needed. Unexpected obstacles had slowed the trip and taken considerably more time than they had anticipated. The sun had reached the horizon sometime before and now darkness began to close in so they settled down for the night with neither food, water nor bedrolls. Further, the problems of the day would make it necessary to return to the top and obtain more rope and supplies to complete the trip.
They left cameras and rope on the ledge and climbed out for a drive to Kanab, Utah, to purchase the needed supplies. Returning, the two again made their way down over rope, trees and wire, and spent another night above the opening to the cave they had come to explore. A miserable night it was. The weather had changed, as it often does in the canyon, quickly and without notice, a cold wind blew, and perched on the ledge where Emery and Ellsworth were with no protection they could not escape it.
All the next morning the two worked constructing a boom to hold a block and tackle to lower themselves to the cave. A considerable amount of brush, cacti, and small plants had found enough soil to maintain life and grow, and as if for revenge for the intrusion on their life and living space, hampered the work by constantly entangling the 600 feet of line. By five o'clock the men were ready for the final descent to the cave.
All afternoon the large billowing clouds in the deep blue sky grew more numerous, swelling and breaking apart to swell and grow again. In the distance these same picturesque clouds turned an ominous looking grey and black, shadowed lines of rain plummeted beneath them. A storm brewed in the southwest and as it grew larger it moved fast toward the canyon. The clouds momentarily covered the sun that emitted it's rays of light around the black obstruction. Ellsworth and Emery were again without food and water their task had taken them longer than they planned. Rather than spend another night with an empty canteen Ellsworth insisted on going over the ledge to the cave two hundred feet below where they could see a small stream flowing over the rock, forming a ribbon-like falls. Tying a loop in the end of the rope for a seat he persuaded Emery to lower him over the edge. As Emery managed the slack end of the rope, he could see a thousand feet below into Clear Creek Canyon.
In the distance the storm moved closer. Now it churned in the western part of the canyon with jagged streaks of lightning that spanned the width of the gorge; followed a few seconds afterward by the low rumble of thunder that responded to each flash. The covering of dark blue-grey clouds moved fast toward where Emery stood. Ellsworth slowly inched his way downward. A light breeze began to blow, at first a welcome relief from the heat of the day, but it soon picked up, swinging and turning Ellsworth as he dangled in mid-air. The storm raged closer, the thunder vibrated almost simultaneously with each lightning flash, sprinkles of rain peppered Ellsworth's face where he swung. By this time he had inched his way down over the cliff a hundred feet, halfway to his destination.
Nature released all her fury, gusts of wind struck the wall of the cliff and reflected back while Ellsworth twisted. The wall of the canyon receded backward from the ledge above just beyond his reach, too distant for him to hold himself steady and stop the eternal turning. The gusty wind was the forerunner of what was to come. The storm broke, drizzling rain changed to a downpour of water and then to hailstones the size of marbles. The sky appeared as dark as night, highlighted by lightning flashes that followed each other in quick succession accompanied by claps of thunder vibrating and reverberating throughout the depths of the canyon. The ropes that supported Ellsworth twisted into one, making it impossible for Emery to either lower or raise him. The wind blew steady and hard, forcing Emery to move back from the edge of the precipice. He could not assist his brother until the brunt of the storm passed, so he tied the free ends of the rope securely to a small pinyon tree and took refuge behind a rock. Ellsworth protected his face from the slashing rain as best he could by burying it in the crook of his arm. Several times the lightning struck close by and Emery could feel the hair on his head crackle with electricity.
After what seemed an eternity, the red tint of the setting sun became visible, the storm moved on, the violence diminished, the thunder's crashing sounds again became a rumble in the distance and the winds calmed. Emery found a long stick that he tied to a light rope and lowered to Ellsworth, enabling him to reach the wall of the cliff to aid in untwisting the ropes suspending him. It was a difficult task and took a long time but inch by inch the rope slackened and he reached the mouth of the cave. He had no time to explore because of the growing darkness, but he determined the mouth of the cave rose about sixty feet high with a large pool behind from which a small but constant flow of water fell over the edge. After filling the canteen and untangling the ropes from the bushes at the cave's entrance he climbed back into his saddle and Emery pulled him to the top. It was well after dark before Ellsworth reached the ledge with considerable strain on Emery's part, causing what he diagnosed as a rupture. This condition prevented either of them from making any further attempts to explore the cave. Again they spent the night on the ledge. By the time they reached the camp on the forest-covered summit Emery was in considerable pain .[22]
Ellsworth later made two more trips down the wall of the canyon to the cave, and described his discoveries to Emery in a letter that the mouth of the cave is
. . . 60 feet high at the entrance, the lower opening blocked by huge rocks which fell from the ceiling. Inside, the ceiling extends upward in the shape of a dome 100 to 150 feet in height. The width was about 100 feet with a lake extending 600 feet back. This is divided by a huge rock or ledge necessitating the use of a 20 foot ladder. There are no stalactites of importance but many lime crystals and incrustations. With the exception of the 75 feet at the end of the room no wading was necessary. Here the ceiling tapers down to within two feet of the water. A cataract could be heard still beyond, but no attempt was made to duck under the ceiling.[23]
Emery never returned. The cave and the source of the plunging water seen from Yavapai Point every spring when the snows melt on the north rim to form Arizona's highest waterfall, remained his brother's conquest. Emery stated later, for those who wished to explore the cave, Ellsworth's and his "boom and pulley yet hang over the cliff patiently awaiting the next explorer." [24]
A trail now extends from Bright Angel up Clear Creek that hardy hikers can take. From the trail end one gains a delightful view of the falls. The falls never appeared on any map until after 1923 and the few people who knew of its existence called it Clear Creek Falls. After the USGS river trip in the summer of l923, Colonel Claude H. Birdseye suggested that Ellsworth give it a name, preferably of Indian origin. Ellsworth supposed the water flowed only intermittently, and he suggestedCheyava, a Hopi word meaning intermittent river, but as he proved seven years later, the name was incorrect for the water flowed all year, visible from the south rim only in the spring. The name remains and appears on maps of the Grand Canyon as Cheyava Falls. It still gives those who are lucky enough to visit Yavapai Point in the spring of each year one of the most spectacular shows of the Grand Canyon.[25]
[C]hapter 9
1 Ellsworth Kolb's revised proposal 12 December 1923.
[2] Letter to Clark & Clark 6 February 1933.
[3] Letter dated 7 October 1924.
[4] Letter from Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent 29 October 1925 granted permission to remodel and improve the studio building.
[5] Letter from Santa Fe Railroad 12 October 1926.
[6] Letter to Stout Metal Airplane Co. 7 September 1926.
[7]Van Zandt's letter to Emery 14 June 1927
[8] Letter to J. Parker Van Zandt 25 June 1926.
[9] Interview with Hubert F. Lauzon 17 November 1988.
[10] Letter to Maj. General Ernest Hinds 22 December 1927.
[11] Notarized letter 10 February 1928, addressed 'To whom it may concern' and mailed to Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
[12] Letter from M.R. Tillotson to Frank C. Spencer 29 September 1927
[13] Emery Kolb's answer of 16 December 1950 to Otis Marston's inquiry 22 November 1950.
[14] Associated Press release date line Parkersburg,West Virginia, 16 December 1928.
[15] Letter from Emery Kolb to D. L. Burnham, Aetna Life Insurance Co. 17 June 1929.
[16] Telegram from Ellsworth Kolb 20 December 1928.
[17] Letter from Clare D. Karr 4 June 1989 in which she quoted her brother John P. Duffy.
[18] Letter from D. L. Burnham, Aetna Life Insurance Co. 17 June 1929.
[19] Letter to D. L. Burnham, Aetna Life Insurance Co. 17 June 1929.
[20] Letter from M.R. Tillotson, Park Superintendent to J. E. Shirley, Fred Harvey Transportation Dept. 19 April 1929.
[21] Edith and Carl were stationed at Boulder City during this time offering a good excuse to make the trip.
[22] From an undated manuscript, Cheyava Falls.
[23] Letter from Ellsworth Kolb 1 November 1930.
[24] The boom constructed of juniper logs still existed in 1989 but the ropes and pulley were no longer there.
[25] Letter from the Department of Interior, United States Geological Survey, to Ellsworth Kolb 3 March 1924.