WEBVTT - Season 8 Episode 09: The River Always Beckons 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:14.800 The Colorado River emerges as a tiny stream high in 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:19.759 a rocky mountain meadow. From that inauspicious beginning, it rolls 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.600 and roams across fifteen hundred miles of the western United States. 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.480 By the time it discharges its power in the Gulf 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.640 of California, it has flowed through a world forever altered 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:37.200 by its passing. Chief among its creations is the mild 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:42.520 deep wound in the lime and sandstone of Arizona. Over millennia, 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.880 it has carved down and down into the soft sedimentary rock, 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.920 sculpting the giant natural cleft we now call the Grand Canyon. 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.320 The Grand Canyon has long been a place of wonder, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.400 inhabited by humans for twelve thousand years. It now draws 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.600 five million tourists and adventurers each year, who flock there 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.520 to hike its trails, clamber on its vast red walls, 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.160 and revel in the almost cosmic scale of one of 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:18.679 nature's most awesome sights. And yet only five percent of 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:23.480 visitors ever leave the relative safety of the canyon. Rim 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:28.560 Deeper down is where its true mysteries are found. Even 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:34.280 its age is open to doubt. Common geological wisdom dictates 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.959 that the canyon was formed between five and six million 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:43.839 years ago, but the rock itself poses troubling questions. You see, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:49.720 the canyon is missing time. A lot of time rock 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.320 from the Paleozoic era sits atop a layer known as 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.400 the Vishnu Basement rocks, and the roughly one point two 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:02.440 billion years of geological struct that should separate them is 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.920 simply not there. It was Major John Wesley Powell, a 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:13.600 soldier geologist and explorer, who in eighteen sixty nine discovered 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:18.359 this literal manifestation of missing time, and in the century 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.520 and a half since, no one has been able to 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:28.239 satisfactorily explain the absence. It's a worldwide anomally known as 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:33.600 the Great Unconformity, but it is greater, more apparent, and 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:38.160 more visibly complex at the Grand Canyon than anywhere else 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.760 on Earth. All Powell could say by way of explanation 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:48.400 is that Dame Nature needed this batch of dough very thoroughly. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.480 Such a large chunk of missing time leaves a vacuum 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:59.600 into which theories and speculation have inevitably poured. In nineteen 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:04.640 oh nine, the Arizona Cassette reported on a Smithsonian expedition 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:09.080 which supposedly discovered a huge expanse of caverns at the 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:13.000 Grand Canyon, large enough to host thousands of people and 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.880 filled with ancient statues and weapons, each with a distinctly 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:24.040 Egyptian esthetic. However, with the Smithsonian claiming not to have 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:28.320 any record of the apparent expedition, many now assume the 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:34.040 story was simply concocted to sell newspapers. And yet there 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.880 are those who still point to the hundreds, perhaps thousands 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:42.560 of unmapped caves, and those two, perhaps of a more 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:48.080 conspiratorial mindset, who speculate about the so called forbidden zones 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:52.640 of the canyon where exploration is banned and they wander. 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.760 But for the Canyon's most abiding mystery, we have to 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.440 go right to the bottom, where the river still runs 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:07.360 as it continues its imperceptible and irrevocable shaping of the world. 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:12.400 To wear Pinned between the canyon walls, the water hurries 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.880 and twists with lethal intensity, and what it snatches rarely, 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:23.880 if ever, makes it back to the surface. You're listening 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:36.800 to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Back in nineteen 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:41.440 twenty seven, twenty two year old Bessie Louise Haley boarded 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:46.720 a steamship traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Just 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.920 the year before, the aspiring poet and artist from West 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:55.880 Virginia married her high school sweetheart, Earl Helmic, but after 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.479 spending less than two months living with him in Kentucky, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:05.599 he decided to relocate alone to the West Coast. Little 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.440 is known about why she left exactly, but almost immediately 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.880 upon disembarking in Los Angeles, Bessie wrote to her husband 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.839 requesting a divorce. She'd met someone else on board the ship. 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:23.839 She said that man was twenty nine year old Glen 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:29.200 Rolin Hyde, a potato farmer from Idaho. It was just 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.440 one of many decisions and counterdecisions that Bessie was wont 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:38.760 to make, hinting at a natural impulsivity and thirst for adventure. 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.320 On first look, her mercurial nature seemed ill suited to 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.600 a romance with a twenty nine year old potato farmer 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:51.560 from Idaho. Yet there was much more to Glen Hyde 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:56.200 than his stolid background would suggest. Glen was a keen 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:00.680 rafter trained by seasoned rivermen on the salmon and snake 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:06.120 rivers of Idaho. He once spent six months kayaking fishing 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.159 and hunting the length of Canada's Peace River and back. 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:14.160 In nineteen twenty two, accompanied by his younger sister Jean, 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.400 he'd even completed a thousand mile river journey from his 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.960 home state to the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps it was something 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.240 in Glen's own aptitude for adventure that appealed to Bessie. 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.239 Perhaps it was just the natural romance of being young 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.280 and at sea. Either way, they quickly fell in love 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:40.599 on that passenger ship. For his part, Bessie's husband, Earl, 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:46.240 refused the divorce, but Bessie would not be deterred. After 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:50.440 promptly moving to Nevada, she established a residency there that 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.320 allowed her to file for divorce on her own terms, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:59.640 and on April eleventh, nineteen twenty eight, it was finalized. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.120 The very next day, she and Glen Hyde were married. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.720 The newlywed soon settled in Myrtar Place, Glen's farm house 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.800 in Twin Falls, Idaho, where he made a modest living 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:19.080 growing potatoes and raising sheep. It was a life largely 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.720 tethered to the rigor of farm work, leaving little time 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:27.360 for the adventure that the young couple both craved. Though 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.960 Bessie learnt to ride horses in her scant spare time 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.040 while working the farm with her husband. The transition from 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.520 the San Francisco art scene to a life of rural 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:44.160 mundanity began to take its toll. Glen was feeling it too. 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.440 The river waters, never far from its mind, were beckoning. 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:55.240 Two years earlier, several parties attempted to film a river 0:07:55.360 --> 0:08:00.840 traversal of the Grand Canyon. One succeeded. Led by the 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.200 novice captain Clyde Eddie. The crew of thirteen plus a 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.840 dog and a bear cup became the first expedition to 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:14.040 complete the journey during the canyon's high water season. Their 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:18.320 recorded footage brought the river much publicity and didn't go 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:23.119 unnoticed by Bessie and Glen. The images of wild water 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:34.920 and towering cliffs were too good to ignore. Bessie and 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:39.720 Glen made the decision to try and recreate Clyde Eddie's journey. 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.480 It would be a belated honeymoon of thoughts, marrying Glenn's 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:49.200 lust for the river with Bessie's desire for renown. But 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:54.280 Glen wanted to go beyond simply repeating the feat. He 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.800 wanted to break the speed record for traversing the canyon 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:02.200 and in the process make Bessie the first recognized woman 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:06.960 to make the run. After an arduous summer of farm work, 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.280 the couple left the farm and made their way to 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:16.000 the town of Green River in Utah, feeling excited and rejuvenated. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.160 For the next two days, Glen, a practiced boat builder, 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:24.199 worked tirelessly to build the vessel they would use, at 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.160 a cost of roughly fifty dollars just under a thousand 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:33.120 by today's standards. He settled on a scow, a broad, 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.000 flat bottomed, wooden boat said to resemble little more than 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:42.120 a plank box and often described ominously as a floating coffin. 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.600 Scows were common to the rivers of Idaho, where they 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.920 were usually worked by a two person crew, one to 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.199 steer from the front while another steered from the back, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:59.280 both using long oars called sweeps. Glen had captained a 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.640 scow on his epic journey to the Pacific just a 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:07.360 few years earlier. To him, it seemed an obvious, dependable, 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:13.040 and affordable choice for the more robust demands of the Colorado. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:17.120 The Hights named their boat Rain in the Face in 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:22.400 anticipation of the unceasing spray and rough waters that lay ahead. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.880 They loaded it with supplies for the journey, including a 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:31.120 Kodak camera and several journals to record the journey in 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:35.000 the hope of selling it later, and the rudimentary box 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:41.079 spring bed. Because this was, after all, their honeymoon, Glenn 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.920 felt confident. He expected the entire journey could be accomplished 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.640 in no more than a month and a half, and 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:53.959 he estimated their arrival at their final destination of Needles, California, 0:10:54.400 --> 0:11:00.360 by December sixth, certainly no later than December ninth. Despite 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:05.080 having no prior river rafting experience, Bessie was also in 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:09.480 good spirits. Upon leaving, Glen assured her that there'd be 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.960 plenty of time on the earlier, calmer stretches of river 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.319 to learn the skills necessary for the raging torrents awaiting 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.959 them on the Colorado, and with that, the pair set 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:28.280 off into the canyon's stony throat. On October twentieth, nineteen 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.160 twenty eight, the Hides pushed out into the Green River 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:36.640 to begin the first stage of their journey. By day, 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:41.560 they paddled along the relatively gentle waters. Then come night, 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.679 they pulled their makeshift bed onto the sandy banks and 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:50.240 nestled down together beneath the stars in the ageless embrace 0:11:50.720 --> 0:12:03.880 of the canyon rock. Those first few days on the 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.959 river together proved an ideal training ground, as Glen had 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.240 suggested for Bessie to learn the ways of the scow, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.480 which she quickly got the hang of. After one hundred 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.280 and twenty miles, they completed the Green River leg without 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.959 major incident, except for one brief moment as they passed 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:29.120 through Cataract Canyon when Bessie fell overboard. It's easy to 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.160 imagine the couple laughing as Glen dragged his soaked wife 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:38.520 from the slowly meandering river, But the Colorado River was 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:44.280 a different proposition altogether. At Lee's Ferry, a river station 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.320 at the entrance to the canyon, locals spotting Bessie and 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.800 Glen on their boat warned them that it was unfit 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:56.959 for the rapids down river. Only weeks before, three people 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.920 had drowned when a flood washed the local very boat away, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.880 a boat far more suited to the river than the 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:09.480 Hyde's scow. But Glen laughed it off and the couple 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:14.960 continued on their way. It was on November sixteenth when 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.880 a somewhat harrowed looking, Bessie and Glen arrived at the 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.800 home of Emery Colb in Grand Canyon Village. Colb was 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.360 a photographer who'd opened a local studio with his brother 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:32.120 Ellsworth in nineteen o six. The Colbs were key figures 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:36.640 in the history of Grand Canyon tourism. Their photographs of 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.760 mule riding visitors and their own hair raising adventures on 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.920 the river did much to foster romantic impressions of the park, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:50.160 so it's no surprise that the promotionally minded Hides sought 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:55.319 Emery out. By this point, Bessie and Glen had been 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.920 on the river for nearly a month. They were almost 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:03.240 three hundred miles into their journey, eighty eight miles into 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:08.840 the canyon proper, and on course to break the speed record. Still, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.680 they needed to restock and were eager for respite from 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.520 the endless bob and weave of the rapids, the unrelenting 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:21.280 pressure to observe and react to the waters every whim. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.720 In search of both supplies and different scenery, they height 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.720 the five thousand foot climb up Bright Angel Trail to 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:34.440 Grand Canyon Village, now a tourist hub through which most 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.440 visitors access the park. In nineteen twenty eight. It was 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.600 a hamlet of just a few buildings, tucked on the 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:46.480 southern rim of the canyon. Emery received the pair warmly 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.520 and invited them to his home for the night. It 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.840 was immediately clear to Colb that the Hides, and Bessie 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.160 in particular, had been left a little shaken by their 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:03.440 journey so far. That night, over dinner, Bessie described one 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.880 incident in which the scow had tipped over suddenly in 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:12.240 the Colorado's rapids, sending Glen plunging deep into the churning 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:17.440 waters below. The memory of Glen swimming for his life 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.840 while Bessie alone in the boat had suddenly found herself 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:26.120 not only responsible for her husband's rescue, but the scowl 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.640 upon which both of their lives depended had clearly left 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.600 a haunting impression on the young woman. It was then 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.600 that Colb also realized the couple had neglected to bring 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:49.720 life jackets with them. Emory Colb was so concerned by 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:54.000 the couple's unpreparedness for what he knew lay ahead, he 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.880 invited them to stay with him and his wife over 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:02.600 winter in Grand Canyon Village, but once again Glen neglected 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.080 to heed the warning it was vital. He said that 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.760 they make it to the town of Needles within a 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.760 week to stay on track for the record. In any case, 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.800 he thought they'd already overcome the worst that the river 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:22.600 had to offer. Before they departed Grand Canyon Village, Glen 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.640 asked Emory to take their photograph, promising to collect and 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:31.440 pay on their return. Emery captured the couple against a 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:35.680 wall of stacked stone, standing side by side with slicked 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:40.800 hair and rugged outdoor clothing. Glen holds his hat jauntily 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.240 in one hand, the other thrust deep in his pocket, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:49.240 while Bessie looks every inch the twenties adventurer, her hair 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.560 slicked back, the fur collar of her leather aviator jacket 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:59.360 pulled up high around her jaw. Over the years, researchers 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:03.520 of ponder whether the photo hints at discord or unease 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.560 between the hides. For Emory call, at least, there was 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:12.320 little doubt that Bessie seemed nervous, reluctant even to leave 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.399 the safety of the canyon, as if she knew that 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.120 nothing good waited for her back down on the river. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.360 As the pair prepared to descend back into the bowels 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:29.680 of the canyon, Emory's young daughter appeared, wearing fine feminine clothing. 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:35.200 Emory watched as Bessie observed the child, muttering to herself, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.600 I wonder if I will ever wear pretty shoes again. 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.520 Then the couple made their goodbyes and headed off back 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.480 to the canyon, eventually disappearing out of sight as they 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:52.919 turned into the Bright Angel Trail, while Emory watched on uneasily. 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.359 Back at the river landing, the Hides found a stranger 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.359 standing next to their scowl. The man was a friend 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:06.880 of Emery's named Adolf Gilbert Sutro, a wealthy tourist enjoying 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.439 a tour of the Southwestern States. Sutro made the Highs 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.960 a proposition. If they would carry him a day down river, 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.760 he would happily take photographs of the experience for them. 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:23.880 Perhaps eager for company and possibly keen for more promotional material, 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.360 or maybe just happy to help out a fellow traveler, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:40.040 the Heights readily agreed. Adolf Sutro was not unfamiliar with danger. 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:44.119 He was an adventurer himself, though with the air variety 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.840 rather than water. He learned to fly with the right 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:53.639 brothers and had set several solo records for seaplane flights twice. 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.399 He'd been plucked from the wreckage of a crash in 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:01.000 San Francisco Bay. Yet he was horrifying by his time 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:05.080 on the river with the Hides. Over a short seven 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.800 mile stretch, they encountered some of the worst rapids on 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.640 the course. They got stuck in a fierce eddy for hours, 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.240 and the Scowl was nearly pummeled to driftwood by a 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:22.000 crashing descent through granite gorge. The Hides and Sutro spent 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.399 an uneasy night sleeping in the sand on a small 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:30.399 beach before limping into hermit camp the next morning. The 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:36.119 whole experience haunted the aviator. Later, he would write, my 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.240 unfailing guiding light in life has been the precept that 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.439 it is better to be an alive coward than a 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:49.200 dead hero. I disembarked permanently at the very first landing spot. 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.840 The photos that Sutro took of the heights tell a 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.560 very different story to the one taken by Emery Colb. 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.480 There are far fewer smile for a start. One picture 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.840 in particular captures the intensity on Glen's face as he 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:11.840 stares dead ahead down their course behind him. Bessie's mouth 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.399 is a firm line, as if she is girding herself 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.879 for what is to come. In Sutro's opinion, it was 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.640 a miracle that the Hides had made it that far. 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.280 At the point where they parted company, they traveled three 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.480 hundred seventy five miles and had four hundred thirty more 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:36.680 to go. Sutro watched them depart, relieved to be alive, 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.800 but like everyone else who'd met the Hides along the river, 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:46.960 he left them worried for their safety. Sutro's final glimpse 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.119 of the Hides as they slipped around the next bend 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:54.200 would be the last time that anyone saw Bessie or Glen, 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.840 alive or dead. Well, no one would ever see Glen 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:03.560 hide again. As for Bessie, well, that is more complicated. 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.920 When the Hides didn't appear in Needles in early December, 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:14.960 the alarm was quickly raised. Glen's father, suspecting something amiss, 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.720 rushed to the area. He hired native trackers and even 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:24.040 persuaded Dwight Davis, the then U S Secretary of War, 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:28.440 to mobilize an air search. He drafted the Coal Brothers 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.439 in to help, too. Emery who'd never quite got his 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.800 worry about the young couple out of his mind, was 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:41.080 only too happy to help. Then, on December nineteenth, nineteen 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:45.240 twenty eight, the pilot of a small plane spotted something 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.400 caught in rocks some hundred forty miles south of where 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:54.280 Adolph Sutro had waved them off. It was the Hyde's boat. 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.280 When they found the scow, they were sitting upright and 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:13.040 stocked full of supplies. The hide's coats and boots were 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:17.960 also still on board, as was Glen's gun, Bessie's journals, 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:23.520 and the Kodak camera. Bessie's final journal entry was dated 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:28.280 November thirtieth, and the last photo was later determined to 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.600 have been taken sixty miles up stream. The gunwale was 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:37.080 scarred by forty one deep scratches, one for each day 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:41.840 of the trip between October twentieth and November thirtieth, but 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:46.080 there was no sight or sign of the hides. The 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.600 search began in earnest, up and down the nearest stretch 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.600 of river, and in the surrounding canyon, but still they 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:59.679 found nothing. Investigators eventually came to the seemingly obvious conclusion 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.280 that Bessie and Glen had met their end in one 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:07.639 of the river rapids, but why then was the boat 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.320 still upright and river worthy with less than a foot 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:16.080 of water taken on board. Perhaps clinging to hope, Glenn's 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:20.080 father insisted that the couple must have attempted to hike 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.159 out of the canyon and might have gotten lost in 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:27.919 the countless folds of rock and trail. But, as others 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:31.159 pointed out, if that were true, why would they have 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:35.840 left their food, boots, and warm clothing in a perfectly 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:41.560 serviceable boat. That's when the speculation about the character of 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:47.280 the Hides themselves began. Word got around that Glen was 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:51.680 an abusive husband, leading some to theorize that his behavior 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:54.959 had worsened due to the stress of life on the raft, 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:59.879 leading him to murder Bessie before fleeing the crime or 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:04.520 taking his own life. Others suggested that it was Bessie 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:08.119 who had in fact committed the murder, either in self 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:13.720 defense or after becoming tired of Glenn's abuse. In response, 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:17.480 close friends and family came forward to say that Glenn 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:22.280 was actually a devoted and gentle husband who loved Bessie dearly, 0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:28.480 and there the story may have concluded. Unresolved, but in 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:33.560 the end, just another disappearance in the American wilderness, a 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:38.879 familiar tale of courage colliding with hubris and recklessness. But 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:43.200 as the years went by, a series of strange developments 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:46.960 began to emerge to fan the embers of the mystery 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:58.480 and keep it a flicker. In nineteen seventy one, a 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:02.800 rafting tour made can but Diamond Creek, a landing spot 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:07.159 just a dozen miles from where the Hyde's scowl was discovered. 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:11.679 As night fell, the guide gathered his group around the 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:15.680 campfire to regale them with the forty year old mystery. 0:25:16.640 --> 0:25:20.400 As he reached the haunting anticlimax of the tale, an 0:25:20.400 --> 0:25:23.600 elderly member of the group stuck her hand up to 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:29.040 quieten him. She knew the story well, she said, because 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:34.560 she was Bessie Hyde. As the stunned group looked on, 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:38.199 she explained that the rumors had been true all along. 0:25:38.840 --> 0:25:43.160 Glenn was an abusive husband whose temper did indeed worsen 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:47.159 during their time on the river. According to the woman, 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:50.960 when she begged him to end the expedition early, he 0:25:51.040 --> 0:25:55.000 beat her into submission. So what did you do, the 0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:59.960 guide asked, half joking, I stabbed him. The woman reply 0:26:00.119 --> 0:26:05.560 light without missing a beat. The woman then explained how 0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:09.280 she'd thrown Glen's body into the white water and watched 0:26:09.320 --> 0:26:13.760 it disappear, before hiking out of the canyon alone. When 0:26:13.760 --> 0:26:17.639 she eventually reached the town of Peach Springs, Arizona, she 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:21.879 caught a bus and began her life anew, it doesn't 0:26:21.920 --> 0:26:25.399 matter if I say I murdered him now, the woman said, 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:29.760 because no one will believe me anyway. That part turned 0:26:29.760 --> 0:26:32.919 out to be true. No one did believe her, not 0:26:33.080 --> 0:26:36.640 least because the mysterious woman was at least four inches 0:26:36.760 --> 0:26:41.240 taller than the five foot nothing Bessie Hyde. The woman 0:26:41.600 --> 0:26:47.320 later recanted her story. Five years later, in nineteen seventy six, 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:52.560 human remains were found in a canoe. It wasn't on 0:26:52.600 --> 0:26:55.840 the river, however, but in the boat house, belonging to 0:26:55.960 --> 0:27:01.399 none other than Emery Colb. The male skeleton was discovered 0:27:01.480 --> 0:27:06.280 shortly after Emery's death by his grandson and occasioned immediate 0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:11.560 speculation that the corpse belonged to Glen Hyde. A bullet 0:27:11.760 --> 0:27:15.960 found inside the skull implied that Emery had murdered him. 0:27:17.160 --> 0:27:21.400 Did the experienced canyon traveler followed the hides down river, 0:27:22.000 --> 0:27:25.920 perhaps in a misguided attempt to save Bessie from her fate. 0:27:27.160 --> 0:27:31.240 It's a darkly romantic notion, but here too, such a 0:27:31.359 --> 0:27:37.480 neat if grim conclusion twists away like the river. Decades later, 0:27:37.880 --> 0:27:42.040 a local sheriff scuring photographs in the Grand Canyon Museum 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:47.760 identified the remains as belonging to an unidentified suicide victim 0:27:48.040 --> 0:27:52.600 found in the national park back in nineteen thirty three. 0:27:52.720 --> 0:27:56.199 The body could not be Glen Hyde, but quite what 0:27:56.320 --> 0:27:59.960 it was doing in Emery Coolb's boat house is another mist, 0:28:00.440 --> 0:28:04.400 entirely one of the many secrets that the Grand Canyon 0:28:04.760 --> 0:28:15.600 is unlikely to ever give up. In nineteen ninety two, 0:28:15.640 --> 0:28:19.840 sixty four years after the Hyde's disappearance on the Colorado, 0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:25.840 a woman named Georgie White Clark died. She was eighty 0:28:25.880 --> 0:28:31.280 one years old. Georgie spent nearly fifty years working as 0:28:31.320 --> 0:28:34.840 a river guide up and down the Colorado. She was 0:28:34.840 --> 0:28:38.800 a vastly experienced rafter, the first woman to raft the 0:28:38.840 --> 0:28:42.560 canyon and the first to swim it, Known for her 0:28:42.640 --> 0:28:46.600 Leopard Prince swimwear and a ponchant for confronting the waters 0:28:46.640 --> 0:28:51.240 at full speed. In short, Georgie was a legend so 0:28:51.400 --> 0:28:54.440 integral to the culture of the canyon that in two 0:28:54.480 --> 0:28:57.840 thousand and one, a rapid was even named after her 0:28:58.160 --> 0:29:02.600 at Mile twenty four. Yet for all her fame, there 0:29:02.640 --> 0:29:07.560 were things that no one knew about Georgie Clark. After 0:29:07.600 --> 0:29:11.000 her death, friends of Georgie's entered her home for the 0:29:11.040 --> 0:29:15.640 first time. Throughout decades of friendship, they had never been 0:29:15.720 --> 0:29:21.600 invited inside. While collating her belongings, they stumbled across an 0:29:21.600 --> 0:29:27.480 intriguing discovery. First, they found a birth certificate. It revealed 0:29:27.520 --> 0:29:32.600 that Georgie White Clark had not been born Georgie White Clerk. 0:29:33.560 --> 0:29:38.320 Her first name was Bessie de Ross. Both White and 0:29:38.480 --> 0:29:43.040 Clark were the surnames of ex husbands, and according to 0:29:43.120 --> 0:29:47.280 other documents that were found, Georgie was born in Oklahoma 0:29:47.720 --> 0:29:52.000 and brought up in Colorado, not Chicago, as her friends 0:29:52.040 --> 0:29:56.400 had been led to believe. Clearly, Georgie Clark was not 0:29:56.560 --> 0:30:00.800 the woman that people thought she was, So who was she? 0:30:02.160 --> 0:30:07.480 In a bedside drawer buried beneath faded lingerie, Georgie's friends 0:30:07.720 --> 0:30:12.440 also found a pistol comparison with the gun seen in 0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:16.520 several of the photographs found on Bessie and Glenn's Kodak 0:30:17.000 --> 0:30:20.320 suggests that it may well have been the very same weapon. 0:30:21.640 --> 0:30:25.760 And beneath that was the most startling discovery of Awe 0:30:26.560 --> 0:30:31.080 her marriage certificate belonging to none other than Bessie and 0:30:31.240 --> 0:30:41.160 Glenn Hyde. So what are we to make of all this? 0:30:42.160 --> 0:30:45.640 It is tempting to believe that Bessie Hyde escaped a 0:30:45.680 --> 0:30:49.840 bad situation on that wild water in nineteen twenty eight 0:30:50.320 --> 0:30:54.080 and returned to slay that dragon repeatedly over the next 0:30:54.120 --> 0:30:58.000 half century, that Bessie was the first woman to raft 0:30:58.000 --> 0:31:03.240 the canyon, after all under a different name. But if 0:31:03.280 --> 0:31:07.400 Georgie Clark was Bessie Hyde, it still only answers half 0:31:07.440 --> 0:31:13.560 the question. Glen's fate still lingers unanswered and obscured by 0:31:13.600 --> 0:31:18.760 a century of passing water. And if Georgie wasn't Bessie Hyde, 0:31:19.240 --> 0:31:22.480 what are we to make of that marriage certificate? How 0:31:22.520 --> 0:31:25.800 did it come into Georgie's possession? And what did she 0:31:26.000 --> 0:31:30.960 perhaps know and keep secret about the Hyde's final confrontation 0:31:31.440 --> 0:31:36.760 with the White Maelstrom of the Colorado. With Georgie's death, 0:31:37.160 --> 0:31:41.080 maybe the final grasp of the truth drifted away forever 0:31:41.520 --> 0:31:46.000