Western Rivers

The river was a central focus in the life of everyone who lived in Salmon, Idaho. Lewis and Clark, the early American explorers, walked through the Salmon River Valley on their way to the Pacific Ocean. They hoped to use the river as a means of travel which would assure a quick passage through the high mountains and on to the ocean. The Indians warned them that the river was not passable because of the rough waters. It would swamp their canoes. They called it the “River of No Return.”

When I was around 12 or 13 years-old, I floated the river from the Shoup Bridge by our house down into town. I wore no life jacket and used only an inner tube. We didn't even own a life jacket. Safety measures were not high on our priority list at that age. Even though we played in the river and swam in it often, the idea of wearing a life vest was lost. It would be too cumbersome and would get in the way! Luckily, nobody died.

Dad began a summer job in the summer of 1974 when I was ten years-old. Because he was a school teacher and did not make enough money to support a big family on just that income, he had to take summer work every year in order to make ends meet. That year, he went to work for Western Rivers Expeditions, a company owned by a man named Jack Curry from the Salt Lake City area.

Jack was an early pioneer in the river running business. He invented a type of boat called a “J-Rig” that used a series of ‘J’ shaped neoprene pontoons hooked together side-by-side. They were used on the rivers in Idaho and Colorado and even used on the ocean where Jack leased a small island in Truk in the Eastern Carolines. I knew that dad thought a lot of Jack and liked him, as he often talked respectful of him when it came to river-running.

Dad’s job with Western Rivers was to drive truck. The first few years, dad took the boats to the put-in point on the river, and then he waited a few days when he picked them up at the end of the trips. Every trip that dad went on, he took one of us kids with him. Those were great adventures riding in the truck with dad and working on the river.

There were a lot of colorful characters who worked for Western Rivers. Some of them I learned to like a lot. Guys with names like Goldy, Zack, Scott, Steve, Sid, and Clay were boatmen and worked every week on the river with very little time off. They were all young men who were in excellent shape and had giant, bulging muscles. Being around those men was what prompted my drive to stay in good physical condition and work-out in order to build big muscles of my own. Dad used to say that Goldy’s arm muscles were so hard and defined that a fly would slip off his biceps. He was probably right!

Those ten years or so that dad worked for Western Rivers was full of adventure and intrigue. I watched the evolution of a company that was built by Jack and later on, bought by his son, Steve and a few other guys who had a different vision for how it should be ran. Changes were made and some of those changes resulted in operations that were not quite as efficient as hoped. 

I watched dad’s resilience as the company changed and his roles were tweaked. I heard his comments made at times on how he didn't think the company was being run right, but he was always loyal to his boss. That was a lesson for me. Always be loyal to the company even when things are not going as you like. Work for change within the system through proper channels and you will have your job as long as you wanted. Dad was always well-liked and respected by his co-workers.

I remember well the day dad came home and announced that he was going to work for the river company. I was excited! He was going to be a river guide and take dudes on float trips every week. As I recall, he went on a training trip and was gone for a week. When he returned, he announced that he was not going to be a guide. Instead, his job was going to be as the truck driver who put the boats in and then drove around to pick them up. I think that is what he wanted to do in the first place.

In those days, Western Rivers ran the Main Salmon River, the Selway, and Middle Fork of the Salmon. Put-in for the Main was a Corn Creek at the end of the road past Shoup. For the Middle Fork, it was at Dagger Falls. And for the Selway, put in was at Paradise. Riding in the truck with dad, I witnessed some of the most beautiful country on the face of the planet. I also experienced the scenery from the boats as each year, I had chances to float along on various stretches of the rivers.