CONQUERING THE COLORADO
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Year Published: 1939
Format: 16mm
Description: Released in 1939, "Conquering the Colorado" is a vivid recreation of Haldane "Buzz" Holmstrom's 1937 solo trip down the Colorado River from the conjunction with the Green River to the barrier of Hoover Dam. It was photographed in 1938 by Amos Burg and described by Paul Douglas. Haldane "Buzz" Holmstrom (1909–1946) was a pioneer of running the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He was the first person to float all the way from Green River, Wyoming to Boulder Dam solo. He built his own rowboats, often of his own design, to run whitewater rivers. Born on May 10, 1909, in southern Oregon, Holmstrom was raised in Coquille, Oregon. Buzz's father worked as a logger and died when Buzz was twenty. As a young man, he worked in a filling station. He began building his flat-bottomed boats in 1934, running the Rogue River in southwest Oregon. He ran the Rogue again in 1935 and the Main Salmon in Idaho in 1936. On October 25, 1937, he began his most famous feat, his solo run of the Colorado from Green River, Wyoming, down through Cataract Canyon, Glen Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. At the end of his run through the Grand Canyon, the motorboats refused to give him a tow across Lake Mead, so he rowed the distance in four and a half days. Symbolically, he touched the newly built Boulder Dam with his boat at the end of his journey on November 20. However, Colorado River historian Otis "Dock" Marston wrote that he actually went to the base of the dam at the end of his following trip. The second trip in 1938 included Amos Burg and Willis Johnson. This trip was captured in Burg's short movie, "Conquering the Colorado". Buzz received no financial gain from the film. Despite the ground-breaking nature of Holmstrom's feat, his river-running was characterized not by bravado, but by humility and awe at his surroundings. When the United States entered World War II, Holmstrom enlisted in the Navy, where he served in the European Theater and Kiriwina Island in the South Pacific. Upon his discharge in 1945, he went back to work for the Bureau of Reclamation, where he had worked for two years prior to the war. Holmstrom died of an apparent self-invlicted gunshot wound to the head on May 18, 1946, on the second day of a surveying trip for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. His body was discovered on a game trail downriver of Rondowa, the confluence of the Wallowa River and the Grande Ronde River. The motivation for his apparent suicide is not known but he might have suffered from PTSD which was not well understood in those days. Buzz is buried at the Masonic Cemetery in Coquille, alongside his brother Carl and mother Frances.
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Transcription
great adventures usually have a humble beginning like this one a lone man pushing his boat into a lake and rowing calmly toward death or immortality with no fanfare no ballyhoo no press-agent a brave man sets out to match his strength and skill against the fury of the world's most dangerous long river his buzz Holmstrom a filling station employee of cokie oregon and this is no fly-by-night expedition misses rapid he also knows that shooting leaves is merely warming up for the big ones ahead his boat weighs a quarter of a ton he made it himself out of Port Orford cedar light and watertight for the rapids but too heavy to carry around the rough spots buzz knew that when he made it he planned the trip for months studied every map and even practiced shooting of whitewater the formidable salmon and rogue rivers in preparation for his big try here [Music] over a thousand Rapids to conquer in the 1,100 miles before it a thousand Furies that have brought death and destruction to every lone Voyager before buz no one man has ever conquered them before but faith in his sturdy boat in the hero's heart bring him safely through the rapids of the Green River to the first of the only four stops Buzz's planned for the whole journey he calls the trip so far the breaking-in period for many before him it was the breaking up period but what's this old water geyser many tourists have travel to see it but by a far different route a geyser for a shower how appropriate for the man who is just out fort red canyon actually Falls the door canyon disaster falls and hell's half mile and how refreshing the tired and aching muscles uh-huh showers over well someone must have turned it off buzz or maybe mother nature didn't fare water rent cataract Canyon is where the Colorado joins the Green River and from here on it's impossible to turn back there's only one direction ahead unless one of these rocks ends his journey the volume of water from the two rivers becomes an irresistible force between the more narrow canyon walls the speed becomes terrific the boat is almost unmanageable rocks rear up from nowhere his life depends upon instant judgment nine muscles he's an explorer now no previous records to guide him and every foot of the way unchartered unknown [Music] hour after hour day after day the uneven fight between river and man rages on no let-up no timeout where a mental lapse of a moment brought destruction to all lone voyagers who went before it and so buzzed out rode cataract Canyon in the Grand Canyon where a hundred and sixty-five miles of peaceful water gave him and his boat a sightseeing rest before facing the greatest hazard of the trip marble gorge and Grand Canyon clay swallow nests the book like Indian pottery intrigued his tired brain here he feels like a tourist his past escape from a thousand deaths seems unreal as he tries to figure out the ancient Indian symbols cut from the faces of the rock probably the legend of other heroes like buz whose deeds of made Indian history the vacationers from a gasoline pump sees wonders here where nature has turned sculptor on a gigantic scale the world's largest natural bridge wind and erosion buzz figures he explores an ancient home of a cliff dweller another memento of those who fought against countless odds to exist too confining buz decides and a young mule deer' nearby agrees with him so the two lovers of the great outdoors come to an instant understanding and friendship buzz takes the opportunity in this peaceful interlude to patch up his rock damaged partner for Marble Canyon is their next challenge where the rapids are only second in ferocity to the Grand Canyon itself both man and river have rested up for the next round of their battle and the man at least is not under estimating the strength of his opponent 400 miles to go the history of those 400 miles is written in the breach phones that line the narrow banks of the river Marble Gorge again wakens all the skill of this whitewater Mariner missing rocks by miracle straining every nerve to find a theoretical Channel this was near the end of his epic journey rounding a bend the water drove him straight for the big stone whoa buzz pull a few inches less in the world would have added buzz Holmstrom to the long list of the rivers victim and this is only the preliminary to Grand Canyon buzz wonder subconsciously is the terrific force almost pulls his arms from their sockets if anything could be worse [Music] you wonder sometimes as the canyon walls flash by how fast he was traveling there's no way to tell accurately but the weight of man and boat on a river that drops 5,000 feet 1,100 miles gives an idea his face is now showing the strain of his terrific ordeal only an indomitable spirit such as his could go on the history of the rivers tragedies prove in most cases that men crack up before their boats [Music] but this time the river loses buzz in his boat that by now is a reverent love for ride out of the canyon as they entered it but he discovers a catch a crack up from the death of another who started a month before he decides to rest up before tackling Grand Canyon that watery graveyard of many who went before at the top of the hill he finds a gruesome relic of another unsuccessful expedition a Sun bleached skeleton of one who braved the river years ago and lost who was he and how long ago did he start out with hope and faith like buzz day there it is wrecked July 22nd 1891 not an encouraging picture for a man who faces only one way out for there is only one way out now through the Grand Canyon almost 300 miles of the world's roughest river 300 miles of perpendicular walls rising hundreds of feet on both sides with no passage between them and no way to climb even if the pounding Rapids allowed you to reach the rocks on the edge [Music] so for once Buzz admitted fears he drew nearer to the rough going ahead why should the river spare him how was he different than those brave men who tried before him and failed but as the water grew rougher his spirits rose didn't they have the finest boat in the world the boat he cut himself from the cedar forest hadnít brought him safely through so far where others had gone down this is a boat and this is our man try and stop us from getting through [Music] water-filled the cockpit waves tried to tear him out of his boat but all in all my tour through the mad river like indestructible spirit [Music] [Applause] [Music] the river tried everything it new charged them madly toward the canyon walls but buzz was now a super man with superhuman strength he defied the river to do its worst he was master he was stronger than the river and his boat was stronger than boat [Music] out of shadows into sunlight a weird fantastic battle in a world apart historic pictures of the victory of one man against one of nature's greatest forces yes buzz Holmstrom the Coquille oregon service station employee rode into Lake Mead at Boulder Dam after successfully navigating the most treacherous river in the world the only one ever to do it alone [Music] before he started buzz figured he'd sell his boat after the trip to help pay expenses but not now not after what they went through together conquering the Colorado
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