Paying Homage To The Old Timers

That’s what it was all about—paying homage. The 2002 Guides Training Seminar (gts) land session, “Old Timers: Celebration of the Past” met and quickly surpassed our expectations, turning into one of the best attended events ever with over 250 people drinking in the images and words of the presenters over the March 23–24 weekend at Hatchland in Marble Canyon. An amazing number of old timers were in attendance (some speaking, some just enjoying it like the rest of us): Kent Frost, Bob Rigg, Larry Sanderson, Bill Mooz, Gaylord Staveley, Brad Dimock, Don Briggs, Martin Litton, Vaughn Short, Steve Carothers, Dave Mortenson, Al Holland, Thorn Mayes, Loie Belknap Evans, Sandy Nevills Reiff, Joan Nevills Staveley, Dick McCallum, Ted Hatch, Paul Thevenin, Claire Quist, Rob Elliott and Fred Burke—some older than others, but all rich in experience and young at heart. We’re sure that many more old timers were there in spirit—those who couldn’t come due to conflicts or health concerns as well as those who have passed on before. It was our privilege to honor them all by listening to their stories and their poetry, viewing their films and slides, and learning from their experiences. Lew Steiger (a legend in his own right) filmed and taped it all for posterity with the end product being archived at Northern Arizona University Special Collections at Cline Library.
We were extremely honored that Superintendent Joe Alston kicked off the gts on Saturday morning, followed by other nps personnel discussing a wide variety of park issues. A “worthy causes” section included Grand Canyon Youth, a new plant identification guide, the Adopt-a-Beach monitoring program and the Whale Foundation projects. Can’t beat things that help out kids, the Canyon, beaches and boatmen! To round out the event, we had wonderfully enlightening talks from our Arizona Humanities Council (ahc) scholars (Bill Swan, Robert Glennon, Doug Kupel and Gary Hansen) on topics such as the intricacies of water law and Colorado River history (in amazingly cogent ways that we could all understand), the role of Lees Ferry, and Native American interactions with the River. Numerous other interesting talks on such diverse topics as dam management, hydrologic forecasts, trail history, butterflies and much more followed. We also learned about wildly different modes of river travel, from Norm Nevills’ “horse trough” boat, to dories and the Flavell II, to the Sandra and the Julius, Buzz Holmstrom’s boat, a Powell boat, speed boats, air mattresses…you name it! Talk about visual aids! Many of these boats (or their replicas) were at the gts, and those that weren’t, we saw through film footage or slides. It gave us all a deeper appreciation of the evolution of river running and a glimpse into what it must have been like when technology, techniques and equipment were not so advanced as they are today.
To top it off, three of Flagstaff’s best photographers, Dave Edwards, Geoff Gourley and Kate Thompson, combined their considerable talents, spending the entire weekend taking pictures of the notable folk, thereby continuing the “Legends” series pioneered by the late Dugald Bremner. In addition to capturing the old timers on film, the three expanded their scope to include photographs of more contemporary guides. Doing so serves to crystallize the cross generational link in this vital community while underscoring the fact that the more recent generations of river runners have already begun to make their own history. The result will be an incredibly valuable photographic record and yet another way to pay homage to river running history. This program was made possible in part by grants from the “Moving Waters” program of the Arizona Humanities Council (an example of your federal tax dollars returning to Arizona to benefit you and others in this community!), the Grand Canyon Conservation Fund (a non-profit grant-making program run and managed by Grand Canyon commercial outfitters) and Teva Sport Sandals. Once again, Ted Hatch and Hatch River Expeditions gave us a home in Marble Canyon, an area that is near and dear to every river runner’s heart. Thanks Ted, Sarah, Steve and Eva!

We thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful food whipped up for the hungry masses by the intrepid Emily Couture and Jennifer Hicks. A fabulous mix of bluegrass, country and western swing by Second Harvest gave that “old timey” rollicking fun feel to Saturday night (of course some of the talented band members work on the river!) They were an instant hit with the river crowd. Thanks also to the commercial river outfitters for their participation and support, to the National Park Service for their assistance and contributions to the event, to all the old timers and speakers who came to share their knowledge, to the ahc scholars for their expertise and to the gts committee and many, many volunteers who made this program such an overwhelming success. We’d like to also thank Marble Canyon Lodge for letting us hold a Coconino Food Handler’s class on Friday, March 23rd (thank you Marlene Gaither!) as well as our gcrg spring meeting held on the lawn with three California condors wheeling and soaring in the distance. And last but not least, thank you to gcrg member/jeweler extraordinaire Todd Weber for his prompt production of our “Rat Pins” (we still have some for sale at $10 a pop so get one while they last!) and to Katie Lee for parting however briefly with her exceedingly precious original rat pin to use as a guide for our revised version.
The gts questionnaires that we passed out showed that 80 percent of responders thought that this gts was either better (or even much better) than those in the past. Approximately 93 percent loved or at least liked the idea of a gts theme as in this year’s program. The highlights folks mentioned include everything we’ve talked about here. The low points (for those who felt there were any) included the need to get more women speakers and Native American representation as well as more interpretive talks (geology, archaeology and the like). They even touched on practical matters such as the need for more lunch lines and outhouses. Just a reminder—it is not too late to send in your questionnaire, either by mail, fax or bringing it by the gcrg office. It will help us in planning for future gts’s.
To comment on the comments—we wholeheartedly agree with (and thank you for) all your rave reviews, both written and verbal! The weekend was everything we’d hoped for and more. As to the low points—this gts was based on an old timer’s theme and things were simply more male dominated back then with a few exceptions. Lois Jotter Cutter, for example, would have given anything to be at the gts and Georgie’s been gone for several years now, but we were exceedingly pleased to have in attendance Sandy Nevills Reiff and her sister Joan Staveley as well as Loie Evans (Bill Belknap’s daughter). Our regular speaker invitee list includes many women, but in a given year, the number of women speaking is contingent upon who accepts those invitations. And as always, we’re open to suggestions, so if you have someone in particular in mind, please let us know. As to tribal representation, we concur that any examination of the human and cultural history of the region should include traditional tribal perspectives as an integral part of that picture. Loretta Jackson of the Hualapai Tribe Cultural Center was scheduled to speak but couldn’t come at the last minute. We are very appreciative of her good intentions and hope she’ll be able to speak at future events. Numerous other representatives from Hualapai, Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi and Southern Paiute tribes were extended invitations as well (not once, but twice). We did try and will continue to do so. As to having more interpretive talks, we provided a smattering as time allowed, and will most likely go back to our regular program next year so you can soak up all the “ologies” your heart desires—archaeology, biology, geology and the like. As to lunch lines and porta potties, we can only but agree, although it was difficult to anticipate the size of crowd. But hey, there’s always room for improvement—even beyond one of the best gts’s we’ve had in a long time, and certainly one that will be talked about for years to come!