Lake Powell - Photos from the Early Years

I spent the last couple of days poking around up in the the Scorrup area. I'm very familiar with most parts of the northern lake and spend lots of days up there but whenever I see a photograph like this I could look at it for hours just noticing all the subtle things and details, some under water some not, that I don't necessarily think about or have time to pay attention too when I'm zipping by in my bass boat.
 
JFRCalifornia said:
Amphibious vehicle launching at Kane Creek in 1963...

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KOOL PIC!!......Now how do you keep drum brakes dry on that thing??
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Here's a map that is hard to believe actually exists. This is a USGS map of the Colorado River basin, showing potential reservoir sites, including one in Glen Canyon. The part that's hard to believe is that it was made in 1916(!!). Kind of a mind-blower.

Keep in mind this was made before any detailed survey work of the river was done by USGS, which wasn't completed until 1923. Only a handful of folks had even been all the way down the river in 1916, most recently the Kolb brothers in 1911. And yet, already the USGS was thinking about and planning for dams...

1916 - Colorado River Basin - USGS.jpg1916 - Colorado River Basin - USGS - detail.jpg
 
Rainbowbridge said:
great find.... (y) looks like they were thinking of a dam at Lees Ferry perhaps? Wonder if there were any roads near Glen Canyon in 1916? :unsure:
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There were no roads anywhere near Glen Canyon in 1916. There was a very poor dirt trail leading from Blanding to Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument. Rainbow Bridge had just been "discovered" seven years earlier, via an overland route from Oljato, which is near Kayenta, AZ. Probably less than a dozen trips in any boat down the Colorado River had ever been made.

This was still pretty much still the Wild West...
 
JFRCalifornia said:
Along those lines... here's another old photo. This is Gregory Bridge again, taken on June 6, 1965. The lake was at 3491 at the time, so if you want to see a possible low water future, here it is...

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Cool photo. I camped here (location marked on the attached photo) a few years ago when you could swim or kayak below the bridge but no boat except a small fishing boat would fit under the bridge.
 

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Rivergoer said:
Could this be the remnants of the graded landing strip? Approx 1-2 miles from HITR, looks like an old access road from the strip to HITR road.
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It is.
Rivergoer said:
Could this be the remnants of the graded landing strip? Approx 1-2 miles from HITR, looks like an old access road from the strip to HITR road.
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It is. And there are many more like it in the area. I've been marking them on my map for the last few years.
 
SkibumUT said:
Here's a little blurb about Art Greene's cabins that @Marina Bum posted about. Apparently they were wood framed buildings originally built near Jacob Lake in 1914, and then Art Greene's son-in-law hauled them on the back of a surplus half-track one by one to Wahweap.

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There is an old half track by Halls on the Hole in the rock trail. A part of me wonders if this is the same one?
 
It looks to me that you were up about 100 miles. Are you an astronaut? And how long ago was this photo shot? The water was so high it engulfed the Castle Rock Cut and went all the way up the San Juan. In fact, the lake looks full.
 
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