Ellsworth Kolb and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, 1916–1917: Five Tries to Run It

People had long come to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to picnic, fish and enjoy the scenery. Ellsworth Kolb was the first to come for a long recreational trip down the river. Born in Pennsylvania, he and his brother Emery ran a photography studio on the rim of the Grand Canyon, and were famous for their photographs and their trips down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon (then still a national monument). By 1916, Ellsworth was set on "shooting the rapids" of other Western rivers and bringing them publicity.

Attempt 1: July 1916

Kolb met two of his three partners on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison in July, showed them the photographic gear — including a cinematograph — and the canvas boats they would use. After running the Lake Fork, they met Julius Stone, who paid for many of the Kolbs' trips, at Cimarron.

The river was running high. The winter of 1915–16 began a string of wet years, with heavy mountain snow, and the flow was estimated at 1,600 cubic feet per second — very high for the Gunnison. They set off anyway on July 25, after a rainstorm, as a crowd from Cimarron watched from the railroad bridge.

Almost out of the crowd's sight was a big "pinwheel" rapid — a whirlpool standing on end. Kolb rode it, he wrote, "like a bronc at the end of a lasso," until it flipped him. The second boat and a small life-raft went over too. They had failed "to cover ourselves with glory," he admitted, and were "out one boat, a life-raft, trunk, camp bed" and a good deal of film — but he stayed cheerful.

After a day of heavy rain at the Black Canyon Hotel in Cimarron, they carried their gear around the rapid that had beaten them and made good progress — for a day. Then the rapids grew heavy, and Kolb longed for the heavy wooden boats he used on the Colorado. The current was too fast to swim, crossing in the one small canvas boat was slow and awkward, it rained, and Stone came down with a high fever. They worked down the shore until the last boat swamped, then gave up, hiked out, and got a ride into town from the Thompson Ranch.

Attempt 2: later in 1916

Kolb and one partner went back in by the East Portal Road to the Gunnison Tunnel, worked upstream to the abandoned boat and supplies, repaired the boat and brought it down, lining it around rapids. At the tunnel he decided to wait for lower water and for heavier wooden boats from Stone. Meanwhile he recruited the river runner Bert Loper, and the pair ran the Gunnison Tunnel — 6 miles in 65 minutes.

Stone's boats arrived in mid-October. With lower water, the first stretch below East Portal went smoothly. The next day, lining a boat through a narrow channel, its bow shot up and its stern sank: "We had overlooked the fact that most of the water ran under the rocks, and the boat was trying to make a short-cut." It was wedged fast in the boulders. Kolb hiked back to East Portal and borrowed a hammer, drills and dynamite from Walter Tupper, a tunnel gatekeeper. They drilled a three-foot hole; Loper, a former miner, set half a stick, which only shook the rock. Two more sticks did it. After repairs and a few lost days, they went on.

They advanced half a mile a day, lining the boats through the worst rapids down to the Narrows, on rocks "slippery as glass." Pulling on a rope, Loper slipped and hit his back on a jutting rock, and for two days Kolb nursed him with nothing but a hot-water bottle. That night several inches of snow fell. Short of food, they lined one heavy boat through a last rapid, but couldn't keep their footing on the icy rocks; the boat tipped and filled before they could secure it, and Kolb slipped on the boulders and wrenched his knee. They ate the last of their food, scrambled up to the rim and returned to Montrose.

News reports said Kolb had broken his kneecap; Loper had back pain and two broken ribs. A telegram from Loper's wife said she was seriously ill, and he hurried home.

Attempts 3 and 4: November–December 1916

After two weeks of rest and warm weather, Kolb teamed up with William Wright, a Montrose businessman with a week to spare. In unpredictable November weather they had a couple of good days and moved the boat down to a sheer 12-foot (3.7 m) waterfall — then a storm of rain and snow sent the discouraged pair back up to the rim.

Kolb returned with a crew of three from Montrose, climbing down from the north rim on Thanksgiving Day, determined to reach Red Rock Canyon. The river was now mostly frozen, which sometimes helped: the work was mainly hauling the heavy boat over and around the rocks along the shore. Below Chasm View the going got easier, and Kolb ran a rapid in front of the Painted Wall — but the boat's top, bottom and sides came apart near the stern, and all their food was lost. Lining the patched boat through another rapid, the whole strain ended up on one man, who couldn't hold on; the boat smashed and sank.

Trying to hike out, they reached a point where they had to cross the river, but it was swift and shoulder-deep. They waited through eight inches of snow, then went upstream, linked arms and waded the freezing river. They limped up Red Rock Canyon and out on December 8, 1916.

Attempt 5: 1917

Kolb brooded all winter over the last stretch, but waited for good summer water. In 1917, with Albert Moore, 18, of Montrose, he put in at Red Rock Canyon with a small canvas boat. Taking turns swimming and rowing, they marvelled at the beauty of Ute Park and revelled in the rapids below it; after hauling boats almost the whole way down the canyon, Kolb now let the boat tow him as he swam. He pulled out at the Delta Bridge — and had finally explored the Black Canyon from end to end.

Even today, only the most experienced kayakers attempt the Gunnison through the Black Canyon.

Sources

Based on "Kolb Expedition - 1916," National Park Service, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Kolb's 1916 words are quoted as the article gives them; the brother's name, spelled "Emory" in one place, is corrected to Emery as the photographs' collection has it. Photographs from the Emery Kolb Collection at Northern Arizona University's Cline Library are left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.