Riverman: The Story of Bus Hatch » (REV)

On a Quiet July afternoon in 1936, young Blackie Marshall stood on a deserted bridge over the Salmon River contemplating suicide. Floating down the Salmon to forget his troubles, he had wrecked his canoe in the first rapid. His fiancee had left him, married another man. Life didn't seem worth living anymore. Bus Hatch was fishing along the river when he happened upon Blackie, heard the young man's tale of woe, and took him back to camp for supper. Sitting around the fire, Bus and companions offered Blackie a place on their crew for a descent of the Salmon River. "Come go with us," they said, "and we'll kill you for nothing."

Roy Webb tells this tale and scores of others in this biography of pre-eminent riverman Bus Hatch. The story of Bus Hatch is actually a collection of stories-an intricate, interwoven tale about men and rivers. More than any other outdoor sport, river running has an extensive oral tradition that's usually passed on while shooting the bull around a riverside campfire. It's a story without end.

The founder of Hatch River Expeditions, Bus Hatch started running western rivers in the early 1930s before the great dams, government control, and commercial river running. Literally thousands of people got their first glimpse of the wonder, beauty, and excitement of a river canyon while floating with Bus. And as they floated, they heard the stories...

Acknowledgments     viii
Foreword     xi
Introduction     xv
Early Days     1
Now We're Safe, Now We're on the River     21
The Dusty Dozen     35
Let's Take the Worst Places, Bus     59
We'll Lick This Thing Yet: The Echo Park Dam     77
The Search for Shangri-La     97
Looks Like an Oar Job, Boys     109
I've Lived Three Lives     127
We've Set River Running Back Twenty Years     137
Epilogue: Eddying Out     155
Note on Sources     162
Photo Credits     164
Index     165