ifty years ago last July 8, Albert “Bert” Loper died while running his self-built boat, The Grand Canyon, through 24 1/2 Mile Rapid in the Marble Gorge of the Grand Canyon. The remains of his boat, found by party members below Buck Farm Canyon on river right, are still seen by today's river runners. This P.T. Reilly photograph (nau.ph.97.46.49.41, P.T. Reilly Collection, nau Cline Library) shows Norm Nevills inspecting Loper's boat and the memorial inscription just six days after Bert's demise. Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent H.C. Bryant's July 12, 1949 report of the interview with party member Howard O. Welty concluded:
“It was decided that no good could come from any kind of a rescue expedition, in that the Nevills Expedition was to leave Lees Ferry on the 12th and would be in a much better position, with four boats, to watch for remaining evidence of the tragedy. A phone conversation with Mr. Nevills on the 11th gave him full details, and he promised to search the river and to also stop at the memorial cairn” (“River Files,” Grand Canyon National Park Library; thanks to Sarah Stebbins).
The Nevills' river trip did not find Bert's body, nor did any succeeding river parties. But 25 years ago this April 2, “a hiker from Socorro, N.M., who did not otherwise identify himself, reported to Grand Canyon National Park rangers that he had found some human bones in the depths of the canyon near Cardenas Creek” (Ronald L. Ives, “Bert Loper—The Last Chapter,” The Journal of Arizona History 17(1)(Spring 1976):49–54, 51).
Dr. Barton Wright, Museum of Northern Arizona, and “skilled in anthropometry,” drew facial reconstructions from the skull that “left no reasonable doubt as to the identity of the deceased” (Ives, 52). However, a contradictory statement in Ronald Ives' article leaves this author with some doubt as to the location where the hiker found the bones:
“The exact site was below Lava Canyon Rapids, 75 yards from the river on the south bank, at an old high water mark” (Ives, 51).
Who was this unnamed hiker, and where did he really find Bert's bones. Part II of this mystery will appear in the next issue of the boatman's quarterly review. Let's see if we can figure it out for the 51st anniversary of Bert's death and the 131st anniversary of his birth. Happy Birthday, Old Man!

A. Bert I. Sciurus