Like many pioneer river runners, Norm Nevills was not a native of the Colorado River country, moving to Mexican Hat, Utah, from California with his parents when he was 13.  Here he became familiar with the San Juan River, and, as tourism in the area increased, became a valuable river guide.  His first commercial river trip on the San Juan from Mexican Hat to Lee’s Ferry was in 1936.

Nevills’ reputation as a river guide expanded following a 1938 run when he guided a University of Michigan botanist, Elzada Clover, from Green River, Utah, to Lake Mead in boats he had designed and built.  He repeated the trip two years later, this time starting in Green River, Wyoming, his customers including a young Barry Goldwater, later a U.S. Senator from Arizona and presidential candidate.

Nevills’ contributions to river running are important.  He popularized the stern-first technique of running rapids, although Galloway and others had used it before.  He was the first to use marine plywood and wide-beam, flat-bottomed boats in major rapids.  He also introduced an extreme rake, or curve front to back, to his boats, which made them highly maneuverable, and heavy oars which would stand up to the beating they took in rapids.

Norman Nevills died with his wife Doris in the crash of his light airplane while attempting to take off from his home at Mexican Hat, Utah, in September 1949.