John Wesley Powell River History MuseumJohn Wesley Powell River History MuseumHarry Leroy Aleson was born in Waterville, Iowa, in 1899. After what he described as a “hardscrabble” youth he enlisted in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in March 1918. While training in France, his plane crashed and Aleson was severely injured, causing chronic stomach problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. After the war, Aleson wandered the country, eventually landing in California where he explored the Sierra Nevada. By the 1930s, Harry had discovered the desert southwest, which would be the focus of his energies for the rest of his days. Intrigued by the adventurous life of Everett Ruess, he hiked the canyon country near Glen Canyon where Ruess was thought to have disappeared in the hopes of discovering a trace of the ill-fated poet.
Visiting the lower Colorado River in 1939, Aleson began a love affair with the vast river and canyon wilderness of the Colorado Plateau. Taking a job hauling supplies by boat for the Bureau of Reclamation crew that was surveying a possible dam at Bridge Canyon, Harry’s life melded with the river. He moved into a cave in nearby Quartermaster Canyon, which he called “My Home, Arizona,” and dreamed of motoring up the Colorado. “Up Colorado River Expeditions,” between 1941 and 1944, tried again and again to reach Bright Angel creek, some 90 miles upriver, with no success.
Harry met Georgie White in 1944, a kindred spirit who accompanied him on wilderness hikes, notably up Separation Canyon looking for traces of the ill-fated John Wesley Powell crew members. The pair decided to swim the Colorado River through the lower Grand Canyon, some 60 miles, starting at Diamond Creek in June 1945. Although they barely survived, they returned in 1946 for another attempt, completing an 81-mile swim. Their paths diverged but both would find ways to make a living on the river.
Joining Charles Larabee in 1948, Harry started Larabee and Aleson Western River Tours. He purchased old surplus navy neoprene rafts, a couple of motors and a few supplies, and he was in business. In 1949, Harry joined the momentous, and for Burt Loper fatal, river journey through the Grand Canyon to celebrate Loper’s 80th birthday. A veritable who’s who of notable river runners on what would be the cusp of modern commercial river ventures.
The work on the Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1963, unraveled the life Aleson had known on the river. He was heartbroken to see the sacred places he had known inundated. During the early 1950s, Aleson, along with Batman Comics illustrator Dick Sprang and his wife, Dudy Thomas, spent months exploring Glen Canyon, compiling voluminous documentation of side canyons, ruins, and other locations into what they called the Canyon Surveys. Nearing the end of the Glen Canyon years, Ken Sleight, worried about Harry’s stomach problems and health, asked him to join on some joint trips.
Aleson’s river career was spurred on by his scholarly pursuits. He liked doing research and assembling notes on the history of the canyons. As part of his research, he exchanged many letters with Otis “Dock” Marston. It was a natural evolution for Aleson to compile lists of drownings, suicides, rescues, and disappearances, and he attained legendary status for keeping every scrap of paper pertaining to the river, and his meanderings through its canyons for over a quarter century.
Spending most of every River Year in Glen Canyon Aleson was keenly aware of the impending doom. He found solace in heading north to the Canadian wilderness. On July 24, 1954, launched a 10-man surplus boat and rowed 1,966 miles down the Peace and Slave Rivers, across Great Slave Lake, then down the Mackenzie River to Aklavik on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. It seemed an impossible feat; it had never been done before and has not been done since. The remote and wild landscapes Harry discovered in the late 1930s gave way to increasing ill health and age.
Harry Aleson passed away in Prescott, Arizona, in March 1972, after a life of adventure.
Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00am – 5:00pm
Adults (18+)
Seniors (62+)
Children (7-17)
Family
$8
$6
$3
$25
Free admission for children under 7, museum members, and Green River residents.