Bookmark this page or copy and paste URL to Email message

Margaret Eiseman Collection, 1945-1974

NAU.PH.2004.8
NAU.MS.41

Biographical Note

Margaret Eiseman's maiden name was Margaret Helen Gorman. After several years of experience running the Colorado River in Glen Canyon (1955-1957), she and her husband-to-be Fred Eiseman started running the river through Grand Canyon with Georgie White. Fred was a boatman and she was the cook's helper. They made one trip during each of these three summers.

Georgie used inflatable pontoons with a motor and, in addition, a rig of 3 ten-man inflatable rafts lashed together and powered by oars. Fred was one of the 2 boatmen on this craft. Margaret held a rope tied to his oar so that if it got away from him, it was anchored to the boat. This means of transportation left them some quiet moments away from the motor. She and Fred married in 1958.

Tiring of the rafts and motor and eyeing the wooden cataract boats of the Mexican Hat Expeditions, in 1959 Margaret and Fred went to work for Gaylord Staveley, owner of that company. Gay had married Joan Nevills, the older daughter of Norman Nevills, who pioneered the use of cataract boats on the river and who had recently died in an airplane accident. After Nevills' death, Gay assumed ownership and took over the equipment.

They traveled with Gay in 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Then Gay decided to switch from oar-powered boats to pontoons and motors and changed the name of the organization to Canyoneers. At this point, Margaret and Fred decided to run their own trips using wooden dories, which they purchased from Keith Steele who used them on the Mackenzie River in Oregon, and which they modified. They began their own private trips in 1971. Up to then they had taken one trip per summer averaging about 2 weeks in length.

In 1971 they joined with Dr. Malcolm McKenna, a paleontologist who worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He and his wife, Priscilla, had purchased two dories from the same source as theirs but painted them white, in contrast to Margaret and Fred's red boats. Their first private trip lasted 42 days.

In 1972 they were joined by Mark Arnegaard, a potter from Flagstaff, Arizona, and his inflatable kayak. In 1974 they used their own three red dories. These two latter trips also lasted 42 days, giving them plenty of time to explore side canyons. They were often supplied, by pre-arrangement, from passing pontoons of commercial river trips. By this time, the crowds of boats and people made their experience difficult. They later became embroiled in the controversies over two rules that the National Park Service imposed upon river travel: the allocation of river running permits to commercial tours vs. private users, and the issue of the use of motors vs. oars for river runners. These controversies persist to this day. Rather than wait for a permit, Margaret and Fred quit the river in favor of other interests.

Scope and Content

The Margaret Eiseman Collection documents trips along the Colorado, Little Colorado and Green Rivers between 1955 and 1974. Also included are images from 1945-1947 of Joel Sayre and Rich Chambers.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for Northern Arizona University, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Administrative Information

Alternative Form Available

Digital versions of parts of this collection are available online herehere.

digital versions of all 28 plan and profile maps are available online herehere.

Preferred Citation

Margaret Eiseman Collection, NAU.PH.2004.8. Special Collections and Archives. Northern Arizona University. Cline Library. Flagstaff, Arizona.

Margaret Eiseman Collection, NAU.MS.41/Map.1279. Special Collections and Archives. Northern Arizona University. Cline Library. Flagstaff, Arizona.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Ms. Margaret H. Eiseman in 2004.

Container List