Harry Aleson, River Pioneer

   During trips to Salt Lake City from my home in Moab, Utah, I found time to visit the Utah State Historical Society. My favorite reading material came from the collection of Harry Aleson, one of the pioneering river guides of the Colorado Plateau. Space does not permit a detailed narrative, so please allow me to share with you this brief review.

   Harry LeRoy Aleson was born on March 9, 1899, in Waterville, Iowa. In 1918, while in high school, Aleson enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Europe during the first World War. Upon his return to the United States, he resumed his education and in 1920 graduated from a high school in Minnesota. He then entered Iowa State College to study for an electrical engineering degree, which was not attained. Instead he worked as a farm laborer, U.S. Forest Service fire look-out, salesman, tax reformer and oil company surveyor, etc.. He tried self-employment as well, repairing or installing anything that used electricity. In the state of Indiana he married Thursa Winona Arnold on April 7, 1928. In March of 1940, the couple legally separated without children. In 1961, while conducting a river tour through Glen Canyon, Aleson met Dorothy Donaldson Keyes, a social worker from San Diego County. In 1962, they were married at a place called Little Eden with river historian Otis Marston and fellow outfitter Ken Sleight as witnesses. They lived in the beautiful town of Teasdale, Utah, between Capitol Reef National Monument and the Aquarius Plateau.

   Aleson’s first encounter with the Colorado River came in 1939, when he toured Lake Mead for five days in a rented motor boat. He traveled to the end of the last rapid in western Grand Canyon. Impressed by the experience, he later established a hermitage at Quartermaster Canyon in 1941 and called it “My Home”. Aleson conducted small lake tours as a guide for a touring concession in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Eventually he purchased his own boat and called it the “Uplake”. The “Uplake” was a 16 foot hard hull powered by a 22 h.p. outboard motor. In 1943, river runner and patron Julius Stone, hired Aleson for a special trip, wishing to replace the bronze plaque at Separation Canyon honoring the men of the 1869 Powell Expedition who had left the trip there. Lake Mead filled in 1941, inundating the original plaque. During this time, Aleson also monitored the U.S. Weather Station at Pearce Ferry. On one occasion, he was fortunate to converse with a visiting Lake Mead fisherman, William H. Edwards. Edwards was a member of the Robert Stanton Expedition (1890) and the James Best Expedition (1891) . Edwards was also the pilot for the steamship “Major Powell” on the 1893 voyage from Green River, Utah to Spanish Bottom in Cataract Canyon. Interestingly, both Aleson and Edwards have stone inscriptions at Rapid #15 in Cataract Canyon.

   Aleson was fascinated with using power boats to up-run the rapids above Lake Mead. At first, Aleson began using company power boats to up-run the rapids. His first up-run occurred in July, 1941, after towing the Norman Nevills Expedition with kayaker Alexander Grant to Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Aleson ascended to the foot of Bridge Canyon Rapid (mile 234.5). Probably using the “Uplake,” in June of 1943 he ascended to the foot of Diamond Creek Rapid (mile 226) and in October of 1943, to the foot of 217 Mile Rapid. In February of 1944, Aleson and Ed Hudson ascended as far as Granite Spring Rapid (221 mile). Ed Hudson is credited with the first hard hull down-run of the Grand Canyon in 1949.

   Aleson was very serious about completing an up-run of the Colorado River to Lee’s Ferry. The Grand Canyon river swims with Georgie White-Clark from Mile 218 in 1945, and Parashant Wash in 1946, to Lake Mead were partly to determine a possible means to access established food caches downstream, a safety concern for Aleson if the “Uplake” wrecked during an up-run. He made detailed by-the-mile notes concerning the river’s gradient to Lees Ferry. Due to a lack of financial and technical support, however, Aleson did not achieve the first Colorado up-run and the honor went to Jon Hamilton in 1960.

   Harry Aleson’s experience on the Colorado River extended into the upper basin as well. In March of 1945, Aleson up-ran Glen Canyon from Lee’s Ferry to the mouth of the Escalante River. He would repeat this trip in June of 1947 with Georgie White-Clark. And again in April of 1948, with Mrs. C. Ruess - mother of Everett Ruess, the artist/writer who in 1934 mysteriously disappeared in the Escalante River wilderness. Aleson took Mrs. Ruess to the stone inscription, NEMO 1934, suspected to have been carved by Everett. In July of 1945, after helping United States Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) employee Don Harris install the cable at Hite Crossing, Aleson up-ran the Colorado River to the foot of Dark Canyon Rapid in Cataract Canyon. Later in 1945, Aleson up-ran the small rapids above Moab, Utah, for a distance of ten miles. In July of 1947, he motored from Green River, Utah to Moab, Utah. When at the mouth of the San Rafael River, Aleson visited the home of river sage Bert Loper and his wife Rachel.

   In October of 1947, Aleson’s interest moved to the World War II surplus inflatable boats for use as a river touring craft. With Georgie White-Clark, the two completed a float trip from Green River, Utah to Hite Crossing, using a 12 foot, 7-man neoprene inflatable. In 1948, from his then residence in Richfield, Utah, Aleson hoped to start a touring company called Colorado Up River Expeditions. His proposed charge for a combined float tour of the Grand Canyon and motor boat tour of Lake Mead was $550.00. The trip never materialized, but there is reference to a trip accomplished in May of 1948 down the Escalante River in surplus 7-man rafts.

   In July of 1949, with a surplus 10-man named the “Mae Bee”, Aleson joined a Don Harris Grand Canyon pleasure trip. He carried a passenger named Lou Fetzner. It was on this trip that riverman Bert Loper died. Later that year, Aleson joined Charles Larabee in a business partnership. Their company was called Larabee and Aleson Western River Tours. Although Larabee was a river enthusiast, having previously been a customer on the Norman Nevills 1940 expedition with Barry Goldwater, he was a silent partner leaving operations to Aleson. Aleson mostly conducted San Juan River trips to Lees Ferry and through Glen Canyon from Hite to Lees Ferry. The 9 to 12 day tours cost from $125 to $175. James R. White, second husband of Georgie White-Clark, worked as a second boatman with Aleson during this time. Aleson eventually bought Larabee’s interests and ran the business as a sole proprietorship. His longest commercial trip was made in 1951 from Green River, Wyoming to Hite, Utah. In 1951 and 1952, he completed two Grand Canyon trips with three surplus 10-man rafts. Aleson’s written records don’t indicate if these rafts were triple-rigged or not. The triple-rig design is credited to Georgie White-Clark during a 1954 Grand Canyon trip.

   1959 found Aleson working for the U.S.G.S. monitoring the Bright Angel gauge/cable car near Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon. On March 27, 1972, while fighting cancer, Aleson died in the Yavapai Community Hospital at Prescott, Arizona. The burial was performed in Oceanside, California, with the eulogy given by Otis Marston.

   I would like to dedicate this article to the river runners of the Colorado and Green rivers who, like Harry Aleson, use planing river craft for touring: a craft that has come of age.

John Weisheit