Cataract Canyon - History

History

Native Americans, most likely of the Fremont culture, inhabited the Canyonlands area long before European settlers reached the area. Rock art and ruins have been found in Cataract Canyon that are at least 800-years old.

Because of the remote location, it was some time before European explorers and settlers reached the area. The Colorado River and its canyons was more of a blockade to travel than a destination to be explored. The first recorded European to reach Cataract Canyon was a fur trapper named Denis Julien in 1836. Julien carved his name into a rock wall in Cataract Canyon.

The first organized exploration to travel through Cataract Canyon was the Powell Expedition in 1869. The Powell Expedition was led by John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran who launched in wooden boats near Green River, Wyoming and traveled down the Green River to its confluence with the Colorado River at the top of Cataract Canyon. The rapids of Cataract Canyon terrified Powell and his men. The expedition portaged their boats around every rapid in the canyon, a difficult and arduous task. Because of the difficulty of the rapids, Powell named the canyon Cataract Canyon. After exiting Cataract Canyon, Powell continued his trip downstream through Glen Canyon, now submerged by Lake Powell, ultimately running Grand Canyon before ending his trip near the mouth of the Virgin River.

Other river runners would soon follow. Nathanial Galloway made numerous trips through the canyon, beginning in 1894. Galloway would later go on to pioneer rowing techniques still used by river runners today. Brothers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb traveled through the canyon in 1911. The Kolb brothers eventually established a studio on the south rim of the Grand Canyon where they featured videos of their exploits running the rapids of Grand Canyon and Cataract Canyon. "Buzz" Holmstrom made a solo trip through Cataract Canyon and Grand Canyon in 1937, eventually ending at the newly constructed Hoover Dam. The first commercial outfitter to offer trips through Cataract Canyon was Norman Nevills in 1938. The advent of rubber rafts came about in the early 1950s with the availability of surplus rubber rafts from World War II. River Runners found the rubber rafts easier to maneuver and much more forgiving than their wooden counterparts. With this newer equipment, many commercial outfitters began running Grand Canyon and Cataract Canyon.