The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-19
THROUGH CANION
IN FRHX BOATS
TWO IRE DASHING
Adventurous Spirits Essay Passage of Terrible CaaraCts of
CoIorado-Feat of Running Rapids Only Twice Be-
fore Accomplished = Begin Voyage in Utah.

Jan. 17.-Somewhere in the bottom of
the Grand Canyon and below the foot
of Bright Angel trail two men in one
sixteen-foot rowboat are being hurled
through the rapids of the Colorado
river with their destination the
Needles, Cal. more than 800 mills
distant. and thir starting point, Green
River, Utah. more than 400 miles at
their backs. In this one tiimsy craft
the two men are attempting to per-
form a feat which has been accom-
plished successfully only twice in his
tory-and then by large, we'll
equipped parties with much bigger
and heavier boats.
Behind them, up the river, five
miles above here, lies the remains of
one of their boats, wedged fast be-
tween two boulders at the foot Of the
famous Sockdologer rapids, where the
river plunges down in a continuous
series of cataracts for ten miles with
a total drop of 20 feet. Two hun
dTed and fifty miles further north,
Just where neither man knows, is the
third boat with which the little ex-
petition started. Its occupant. the
organizer of the trip, has disappeared.
Whether a victim of the river which
has claimed for its own almost every
man who ever dared to brave its fea1-
full rapids or a deserter, travelling
overland to the nearest habitation in
southern Utah, the fate of this third
man is as yet unknown TO his quon-
dam companions.
The two men who started down the
river from here are Charles S. Rus
sci of Prescott, Ariz., and E. r.
Monett of Goldfield. New. The third
man was Albert Lopez, a native of
Louisville, Me. Russell is 81 years
old. and Monett only %. Lopez, whose
enthusiasm over the expedition
seemed to suffer a serious setback
after the first rough water of the
trip. was the Oldest of the trio, IS
years old.
When Monett's boat was smashed
into fragments in the rapids only five
miles above here the men at first
thought they must abandon their at
tempt to make the entire 752 miles of
their planned trip. Finding, however,
that by sitting on the steel-covered
deck of the little boat still remaining,
Monet could ride with his compan-
ion through all but the toughest
water. the couple decided TO continue
their fight against the river.
Many End In Disaster.
Except for Major Powells trip in
1869. in which he used four boats and
ten men, and for Stanton's expedition
twenty years later, in which sixteen
men and six boats started, every at
tempt to make the passage down the
Colorado river has ended in disaster
TO the participants. Both Powell and
Stanton found it impossible to dupli-
cate their records when each, two
years after his trip, tried to cover the
same distance a second time.
In both these instances a definite
object was in the minds of the ex-
plorers, and both expeditions were
backed by capitalists who saw to it
that their proteges were thoroughly
QUILTED to Withstand and overcome
the perils of the journey. In the case
of these latest Adventures (they are
both miners, with no idea of geology
beyond those of the ordinary pros
pectors) their only purpose in daring
the $50 miles of the widest water
known to man is to discover the pOssi-
bilities of placer mining along the
river bottom. 1t has taken nine years
for these miners to make their pTepa-
rations and perfect their plans to A
point where they felt safe in starting
The money with which they bought
their outfits and provisions represents
the combined savings Of the men over
a period OF many months. They told
no one of their plan. To no individual
did they turn for help.
The plan originated in the minds of
Russelrs fellow workman. Loper. in a
mine in Cripple Greek, in 1899. In
1898 Lopez had been attracted to the
San Juan river, a tributary of the
Colorado in southeastern Utah Dy the
excitement created by the discovery of
placer mining there. He had never
forgotten his experiences and confided
to Russell his belief that the larger
Colorado offered proportionately great
er chances of much richer placer min
ing. At least no prospector had ever
gone over the ground-a statement
true Of very few localities in all this
western country.
The two men planned 10 make their
start in the spring Of 1900. But the
dangers and almost insurmountablc
difficulties of the task they had so
lightly undertaken began to appear to
them slowly, and they decided TO wait
until they were properly equipped
with money and information. At the
outset they found they must have at
least one more companion if they
were to be successful-and four men
were preferable to three. According
TO Russell, their eight years search
disclosed no individual with the recess
sary qualifications who was willing to
make the trip
II was consequently not until April
OF last year that their long laid plans
began to materialiZe. Lopez met Mon
EFT, a boy in appearance, not seeming
ly strohg and unusually quiet as he did
his days work in the Mohawk mine in
Goldfeld. But that Monett was not
young in courage at least and not as
weak as casual glance suggested. was