No one could accuse Jack Currey of doing things on a small scale.  Whether through his business, his boats, his ideas, or even his family, Currey’s mark on the culture of river running is exceptional.  From taking homemade balsa wood rafts down the San Juan River, to building one of the largest outfitting companies of all time, Currey rowed his way into the history books by turning big risks into even bigger opportunities.

After a self-guided trip down the San Juan in the late 1950s, Currey caught the river running bug.  He went on to run most of the major rivers in the U.S. West within a few years, and launched his company, Western River Expeditions.  In 1962, he led the first successful expedition of the Rio Grijalva in El Sumidero Canyon, Mexico.  The river was rocky, and fast and echoes of Powell’s expeditions surrounded the trip, as Currey leveraged wide national interest into a Time Magazine cover and a feature film.  Run the Wild River was one of his proudest accomplishments, having spent more than seven years collecting footage and completing the narration, score, and final editing himself.