National Park After Dark - The River Ladies: Grand Canyon National Park

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter changed the stereotype of women in botany when they found a love for not the delicate flowers, but the cacti with thorns and the vegetation that thrived in the most inhospitable environments. They set out to do something that had never been done before, to be the first women to boat the entirety of the Colorado River and map out the flora of the Grand Canyon. If successful, they would be the first women to ever survive the trip.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesListen to Watch Her Cook on Apple and Spotify! For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Smalls: For 50% off your first order, head to Smalls.com and use code NPAD.Blueland:  Use our link to get 15% off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'd like you to picture a scientist. What are they wearing? What are they doing? What equipment do they have? When you first pictured that scientist, did you envision a man or a woman? In the year 1966, a man by the name of David Wade Chambers who studied history and cultural sciences began conducting an experiment that lasted until 1977. It was titled, The Draw a Scientist Test.

In this experiment, Chambers asked 4,807 elementary school students in three different countries, one being the United States, to draw a picture of a scientist. He was intrigued to find that almost every image drawn depicted a bearded man working inside a laboratory, often wearing a lab coat and glasses. In fact, of those 4,807 children, less than 50 of them drew a woman as a scientist, equating to less than 1% of his subjects. Those numbers have since changed. A similar study in 2016 found that 28% of children, when asked to draw a scientist, portrayed a woman. It is certainly an improvement, but now I ask you again, when I first asked you to envision a scientist, did you see a man or a woman? After hearing the story I'm about to tell you, the next

time you're asked this question, maybe you will envision a woman, and maybe you'll see El Zeta Clover and Lois Jodder. Welcome to National Park After Dark. One of your best introses to date. I loved it. I really, it was thought-provoking and to answer that question, I envisioned the show lessons from chemistry, lessons of chemistry. Oh, yeah. The book that I read it on one of our trips and then I binged the show when we got back. And so I pictured her. Oh, okay. So you were one of the 28% who envisioned women. But to be fair, if I didn't have that in mind, like top of mind, I probably would have envisioned a man. Yeah, and I was, so I actually dove kind of deep into this whole experiment just because I thought it was really interesting. And I went into some of the

journals just kind of went into a rabbit hole of this because the study has been replicated many times throughout history and not just with scientists, but with other drawings portraying people. And some of the articles went back to talk about Mary Shelley, which has been coming up kind of a lot. I feel like in our- She's everywhere. Yeah. What is going on? conversations and the podcast conversations. And it was talking about how Mary Shelley's Frankenstein influenced the view of what a scientist looks like just because of like the frazzled crazy scientist man in a lab coat with all of these bubbling potions around him and stuff. So that was thought to be part of the influence of this. But I just thought it was really

interesting. And I also thought also I think Instagram knows what you're doing at all times, Yeah, for sure. So as I'm writing this intro, I went on my phone to look up some information, some dates, and it was open to Instagram. And you know, Instagram, like, pulls you in. So then suddenly I'm on Instagram and I refresh my feed. And the very first thing says that the draw a scientist test has now included a much higher percent than it used to. And children are drawing women more than they ever have. Yeah. Well, if you're Googling that on your Mac, it's connected. somehow. It's all connected. It's all connected in the web of life and technology. I don't know how it works. But yeah, that's really interesting, though. I love that you opened with that. And we've been trying to do intros. We didn't this time, but now five minutes in. I'm Danielle. I'm Cassie. I'm telling the story today. And you're listening to National Park After Dark. Welcome. You clicked on it. So I hope you know that. We hope you know.

Well, this episode is really fun today because one, if you didn't get it from the intro, we're talking about women scientists. And it's March, which is Women's History Month, so it feels like a really good time to highlight women in history. And specifically, I wanted to highlight women in science. I love it. Well, before we get started on today's episode about empowering women, we have something to tell you all because we've been keeping a secret from you. And it's been really hard not to share it with you. We have been working very hard on a project behind the scenes that we're really excited for. So in the spirit of women's history month and in an episode encompassing the incredible capabilities of women, we have an

announcement. I'm so nervous, but so excited. Don't be nervous. It's so exciting. I know. It's just like, I feel bad about kind of keeping a secret. I know. Every time we've recorded, I'm like, we're lying. I know. We're lying by omission, but that time is, is done. It's over. We're ready. Because on April 9th of this year, right around the corner, we are launching a brand new podcast and it is titled Watch Her Cook. So this podcast, Watcher Cook, will be a weekly podcast dedicated to showcasing the stories of women throughout history who have been shattering glass ceilings on the expectation of what women, quote unquote, should be.

We're going to have everything from inventors to activists, outlaws, criminal masterminds, Watcher cook is going to be an ode to women everywhere who proved that their capabilities far surpass domestic duties and who have changed the world in groundbreaking ways and sometimes in some chilling ones. And if you're hearing this announcement and you're like, oh my God, is NPAD ending? No. Oh, absolutely not. NPAD is here to stay. NPAD is our baby. This is just an additional project that we've been really excited about working on. And really, this has been, this has been in the works for four years. because throughout the past four years of MPAD, we have been compiling these stories in the back end that we've come across in our own research

that don't really fit this National Park narrative, but they all have this common theme of really interesting stories involving women that seem to have been lost to the public eye. We're talking about women who have lured Nazis to their deaths, women who have revitalized the way we think about sex, made huge contributions to the conservation world, and were labeled a witch for doing so.

There's so many stories that we don't hear about, like how a woman was actually the reason that DNA was discovered or an infamous jailbreak that was conducted by a woman who got her pilots license to fly helicopters to get her husband out of prison. And we could go on and on about these stories. But that's why we've created Watcher Cook because these are not heard of that often, but we come across them all the time in our research and we just felt we really needed to bring these to life. Yeah. And the other part of this, like kind of the flip side, was throughout our research. A lot of times we were seeing women incorporated in stories as victims. Victims of violence, of circumstance, of different societal factors that it's just like a narrative that, unfortunately, in specifically the true crime space, it's always kind of the same story, you know? And we were just like, okay, let's flip the script a little bit and let's refocus on the story. some other types of outcomes or circumstance. And just we needed a separate place to do that. And that's why Watcher Cook was born. Yes. So come hang out with us every Wednesday to hear these stories.

Our first two episodes, we're launching two the same day, are launching on April 9th. And you can listen wherever you get your podcast and look out because we are going to be posting some really exciting sneak peek over the next few days before it launches. Yeah. Okay. So that was a lot. It's so excited. Very exciting. But you also have a really cool story today and one that does fit the National Park narrative, which I'm so excited about. Again, let's just underline National Park After Dark. We'll be going nowhere over my dead body. So let's get into it. Where are we headed today? We're going on the Grand Canyon. Okay. All right, all right, all right. As your man's saying. Yes, as Matthew McConnell. Hey, would say. All right, all right. Well, I say the Grand Canyon, but we're also going.

So we're doing the Colorado River, and that also includes Canyonlands, Glen Canyon Recreation Area, Lake Mead, and the Grand Canyon. So this is definitely an episode where I don't have to add a tie-in to a national park because this is all the, not all the national parks, but it's very much park-related. I was never going to question it. So I appreciate that. Well, so today, just going into what I will be telling today, today I'm going to tell the story of when the bot, when the lot of the Grand Canyon was mapped for the very first time and the two women who did it. In the summer of 1938, El Zeta Clover and Mary Lois Jodder were the first recorded women to float the entirety of the Colorado River.

The only woman recorded to have attempted it prior was Bessie Hyde in 1928, who we did a story on previously like much. Oh, it's back there. Way back there. It's one of the, I would say within the first 20 episodes. Yeah. that one is, but was to this day one of my favorite mystery stories that I've covered on the podcast. But Bessie's disappearance in 1928 on the river sparked this widespread concern that the Colorado

River was too dangerous for women and that women didn't belong there. However, El Zeta and Lois would prove that narrative to be incorrect. I just think that's really funny because Bessie wasn't the only person of that party to perish. No. There was also a man there that also died. We're not even sure if Bessie died. We're not sure. We're not sure. Go back and listen to the episode because there's a plot twist. There's a plot twist. And if anything, she was the one to survive. So that's an interesting spin. And I want to say she's the only going into this. So Bessie was the first recorded woman to try to run the full Colorado River. But I think it's very important to note that indigenous communities were using the Colorado River for thousands of years prior.

And it is very widely believed that many indigenous women have done this track. So to say that women can't do it in general is very misleading. And historically, indigenous women had done it for a very long time. But the story I'm telling today is the first recorded in our history of women doing it. Going into the women a little bit. El Zeta grew up in Nebraska, but after the death of her mother, she followed her father to Texas, where her love of plants began. Specifically, she was in awe of the succulents and the cacti that grew around the Rio Grande. While she had a degree and worked as a principal out of school, she was so inspired by the plant life, she decided to further her education and enrolled in the University of Michigan, where she later attained her master's and her Ph.D. in botany.

Her decision to do this raised more than a few eyebrows. First, because the United States during the 1930s, botany as a paid profession, did not exist. In addition to that, while more than 40% of college students were female, most didn't go on to acquire jobs within their field of study or at all. College was considered a stepping stone for women to become good wives to their husbands and mothers to their children. Many did not expect or want women to work. At the time, Only a few hundred women in the United States had ever even received a PhD. So for her to go on and do this was like, whoa, what are you? You're making waves already.

However, women who did decide to further their education, botany was considered this acceptable subject to study. Women studying flowers sat well with society as a whole because women studying flowers, it symbol, flowers symbolized pleasantness, beautifulness. They were fragile, and it was everything that women were supposed to be. So they're like, okay, if you have to study something, you can study flowers. And I will say for a while, botany wasn't, like, even though there was education about it, a lot of it was women gathering flowers and studying them. It wasn't as scientific. And then it later turned into it.

So at first, it was kind of looked at by men as, oh, women are collecting and observing flowers. Like, let them do their thing. Yeah, let them just go over there and do their little arts and crafts project with petals and flowers and things. Like that's how I am getting a vibe of this whole situation. Yeah. And what was fun about Alzada is that she wasn't, of course she loved flowers. She's a botanist. But she loved cactuses.

She loved things with thorn. She loved things that were hearty and lived in the desert. So there was nothing delicate and fragile about what she wanted to study, which was what people were saying. saying botanists were, which is also fine and very interesting. But on the other end of that, that it was actually frowned upon for men to engage in these studies. And it was said that botany was for women, children and weak-minded people, and that it was not a manly thing to do. Putting boxes around things, it's just so dangerous and exclusionary and in anything. But it's like, just let people be interested in what they're interested in. God. Why does it bother you if someone

is interested in learning about plants in wildlife. And it's important. It's our environment. And now we know, everything we use is made of plants. Any medication you've ever taken is derived from a plant. Yeah. Well, this is the 30s. Is that what you said? Yes. This is in the 30s. Okay. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen.

Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So in the same breath, an article in 1871 was published that said that women should not be studying botany in hard-to-reach areas. they even put this box on women as well. They're like women, you can study botany. That's okay because their flowers and nice. But don't even think about traveling outside of your comfort zone. If you can't reach it by a car or it's not in your backyard, it's not for you and leave that to the men. Okay. Yeah. There's like a lot of, there's a lot of stipulations. Yeah. And very specific. And yeah, right. It's like, okay, you can be a man who's interested in botany as long as you're only interested in hard to reach.

places and if you're a woman you can be interested in botany if you're only interested in places that are accessible this is so interesting i've never heard anything about this yeah me either i was actually i was reading a book on this and i'll get into that a little bit later but the whole beginning of this book it's about these women goes into the history of botany and all these stipulations around it just like the history of the field and where it started and where it is and now i'm sure and things like that. Yeah. Yeah, it was really interesting and a lot that I didn't think of. And I actually, I'm about to get into it a little bit in a second because I wrote down some keynotes. But before we get into that, I just wanted to finish this little paragraph that I have. So it was said that if they couldn't drive to

it or if it wasn't found in their backyards, that women had no business finding plants there. And this article that was written that stated these things said, quote, a young woman cannot safely roam at will in any place and at any distance. She must confine her walks to the vicinity of her own home and to the open fields and way sides. And in these limited excursions, she sometimes needs protection. I've said it before. I've said it again. I would not fare well in any other timeline prior to now. I'm not even doing this right now. Do you know what I mean? It's just so frustrating to hear about just this isn't the distant past either. No, it's less than 100 years ago.

Right. Well, I guess this article was written in 1871, but they were in the 1930s. But yeah, it's really not that long ago. And I just think of this author and I'm like, if only you can, you could see the places I've walked. You could see us now. It's like you would be clutching your pearls. Yeah. My fragile self.

How could I walk? a trail out into the woods. However, there were a lot of problems with views like this. And ideology like these led the United States to be severely behind in plant studies in comparison to other countries. Many other countries had for years been studying botany and the use of plants. However, the U.S.'s sexism and racism played a huge hindrance in education. Specifically, the eradication of indigenous people who lived off the land for thousands of years and understood the healing properties of plants caused much of this information to be lost and forgotten. Because of this, the U.S. was essentially starting from scratch, but people like Al Zeta and Lois were very inspired

to learn more. Mary Lois Jodder, who went by the name Lois, was born in Weaverville, California in 1914. Her father worked for the U.S. Forest Service and always encouraged both Lois and her sister to learn and engage in sciences. She found her love of plants at a very early age when her father planted a giant sequoia tree in their front yard and she was able to watch it grow. At the age of seven, their family moved to Wisconsin for her father's new job at the Forest Service Laboratory, where he focused on conserving trees at a time that the nation was engaging in extreme logging. Her father really instilled the love of forests and botany into Lois, from the walks that they would take in the woods where he would teach her about plants, to his eventual university job

where she had access to the school's botanical gardens. It was only natural, that she went on to both get her bachelor's and her master's degree in biology and botany at the University of Michigan. It was at the University of Michigan when Lois was working on her Ph.D. That the two women eventually met. They were roommates for two years. And although Lois was 18 years younger than El Zeta, they became close friends and shared a very similar love of botany. Despite their shared interests, they were very different people. El Zeta was a free spirit who in her 40s had never married and had no age.

interest do. She was also known to be intelligent, deep into her studies, loved adventuring, and she was very bold. Her fashion style emulated her personality. She was always wearing bright colors and standing out in crowds. Lois was essentially the opposite. At 24 years old, she was really concerned that she wasn't married yet. At the time, the average age to get married was 21 years old, and she was in deep fear that she was missing her window of opportunity and dreamed of a family life. She was also a lot more reserved than Al Zeta. She was happy to stay home, go to her local botanical gardens, and bury herself in her books. She was more soft-spoken, but like Alzada, very intelligent and loved botany. This description that I've just painted of her might make her sound like she's not an outdoorsy person,

but that would be very far from the truth. In fact, she was more experienced in backcountry than most. She had completed a six-week program inside of Yosemite National Park that was meant for backcountry rangers. She spent weeks learning to navigate the land, camp outdoors, climb, and more. So when El Zeta brought that idea to Lois that they should partake in a scientific expedition through the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers to study the flora there, a journey that would take them paddling over 1,400 miles, Lois was intrigued and excited. It wasn't long until their plan was underway. El Zeta had met an innkeeper named Norman Nevels, who had a lot of boating experience and wanted to join. He was a young 26-year-old adventurous man who loved boating and was

interested in bringing whitewater tourism to his hotel. He agreed to come on the trip almost immediately. El Zeta was also able to recruit a 25-year-old zoologist by the name of Eugene Atkinson. In addition, she brought on a boatsman named Don Harris and a photographer named William Gibson. All in all, there were six of them. El Zeta felt it was especially important to have Lois with her, because at the time, it would have been considered unladylike to adventure into the wilderness with all men. She knew that if she was the first woman to successfully run the Colorado River and botanize it with just men, the headlines wouldn't focus on her work, but instead it would speculate on what she was doing with them. Not only was Lois the perfect choice because of her intelligence and their

friendship, but she would serve as an actual important witness to the work that was being done and that it wasn't this scandalous affair in the woods. Which is crazy to even have to say that because it's, it's sad that you have, she had to consider that, but it's smart that she did. Because, oh my God, imagine going through this. I have no idea where this is going, but I'm guessing it's successful in some way. But to go through all of that and then have all of your hard work discredited because the focus is on something just so insignificant, but would take away and dejecture.

from like her her true accomplishments like that would be really difficult so she's ahead of it and you can't blame her for for getting on ahead of the headlines I guess yeah and she's clearly a very intelligent woman just to think of that but also she knows she doesn't want her work to be questioned she's been facing these difficulties her whole life because she is a woman who's not married because she's a woman in science she knows what to expect and she's like I'm going to not I'm going to cross these options off. I don't want anyone even breathing a word that this could be a possibility. And I'm going to do that by having a fellow scientist with me, who is a woman. And it also, she chose Lois because they were roommates. And she was like, if I'm going to be on a Colorado River in these hard, in these hard conditions for

who knows how long I want someone who I know and trust and know that I can live with. And that was another reason why she chose Lois. Just one week after the plan was officially said, and all the members were recruited, a breaking headline hit the newsstands. A man named Haldine Buzz, who he went by Buzz, Holmstrom, had successfully completed a solo expedition down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. He began in Wyoming and finished in Lake Mead. In the article interview, Buzz detailed how treacherous the journey was and painted a picture of a journey that instilled nervousness in El Zeta's crew.

Not only did he state how difficult the conditions of the river were, but he also specifically stated that the Colorado River was no place for a woman because it was just too dangerous. While this was definitely a slight blow to morale, this didn't change their plans at all. All six of them were still rearing to go and they spent the next few months researching the river as much as they could and procuring money to help fund their trip and get supplies. It wasn't long before the media got wind of their plans, and the two women were the ones who made the headlines. The Michigan Daily published an article titled Faculty Women to Face Danger on Stormy Colorado for Science. Anna Al-Zeta was quoted saying, there's no danger in a carefully planned expedition. However, many outlets didn't agree with her. They detailed what a dangerous mission it was and that women simply weren't capable of doing it.

In addition to that, Buzz, who was now a respected person for his solo journey down the Colorado, also publicly made statements that these women were foolish for taking on such a journey. But again, it didn't deter them. Norm built three boats for the six of them to navigate down the river. They were made of wood and 16 feet long and five feet wide. They each weighed around 600 pounds and he used close to 2,300 screws to put it all together. He named the boats. Botany, Wynne, and the Mexican hat, after the end that he had.

In his design, he had instilled in the crew that only the essentials for survival were allowed on his boats and nothing else. It was built for safety, not for comfort, he told them. But despite this, both El Zeta and Lois snuck on some of their lotions for their skincare routines along with their makeup. God, sounds like you. You know, like go off queens. Skin care's important.

Don't let a man tell you not to bring your skincare. Cassie will sacrifice very valuable luggage space for her skincare. Like she has like a portable red light. Thank you. You knew exactly what I was saying. And it's like it vibrates and also like beeps and stuff. And I can always tell when she's up in the morning because I hear that thing. It's like, but beep.

And it's like it's like, she's contouring her face with her red light. I'm like, oh, she's awake. Like good morning. My skincare routine is happening. Well, I can appreciate a woman who likes skincare. So Lois and Al Zeta, I feel like we would have been good friends and I would have been right there with them. So they sneak on their makeup and all that good stuff. But it's funny because they snuck on this lotion and skincare and they were really mindful about how much they should be packing for their trip.

And then they got there and all met up to begin. And the guys had packed so much stuff and they realized that they had packed twice, that the men had packed twice as much as they had. Oh, okay. So they could have... They could have added so much skincare, and the guys wouldn't have even known. Lois, however, had something that was slightly different than the rest of them. She brought with her this bright yellow helmet for the paddling down the river

and just in case you hit your head on rocks or anything like that. It was this bright yellow helmet that really stood out, and she had everyone in the crew sign it as kind of this momento of the trip. So that kind of stood out for things to bring. It was June 20th, 1938, my birthday, when they officially, not 1938. I was going to say well. Your skin care is working. Yeah, thank you. I'm over, I'm almost 100 years old.

But it was June 20th, 1938 when they officially launched their boats into the Green River, which would eventually lead them to the Colorado River. News media outlets stood by and took photos, and they signed some last-minute autographs for people before they took off down the river, waving to the audience onshore. And this was undoubtedly an interesting site. They packed one boat with all of their gear where two of them squeezed into the only remaining spots that they could fit for them to sit, while the other two boats were mostly empty with two people in each.

They had detailed their plans to friends and the media. They would arrive at Lee's Ferry on June 4th. Lees Ferry is the only place in over 700 miles of the Colorado River where people can reach by car. It is located within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and is a car. common launch point for white water trips and fly fishing today. It also served as a great point for the media and friends and family to check in with the expedition team and get an update on how everything was going with their trip. It also served as a spot where they could re-up on supplies if needed. Their journey had begun and the first three days down the Green River, Norm taught the

women better rowing skills. Lois and Alzada collected plants to bring back with them to study and they spent the nights camping on the shores. Lois and Alzada were assigned the duties of cooking and cleaning for the crew, and especially in the beginning, found the men to be rather lazy in the mornings. The women would wake up at sunrise, wash their faces, put their makeup on, get all done up, then cook a meal for the crew. They found themselves having to force the four men to get up out of their tents. They found it kind of funny, and they found humor in playing harmonicas really loudly in the mornings until the men would eventually stumble out, sleepy-faced and confused. It was June 23rd, when they officially finished the Green River and paddled onto the Colorado River. While the river had been

much higher than normal and were muddy with sediment from recent rain, everything had been going beautifully. The river was fast moving, but otherwise it was calm. They were in awe of the giant cliff dwellings above them and spent the days singing together, playing the harmonica, and jumping into the river to cool off. While the paddling itself had gone smoothly, the temperatures rose to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius during the day, and they spent a lot of time trying to cool off. At night, the temperatures would dip down to the low 40s, and they would huddle by the fires to stay warm. How smoothly the trip had been going had instilled a false sense of security in much of the crew, though. Before departing, they had been so discouraged by the public and told what a dangerous journey this would be

that they had been fearful, but so far it had been this pleasant escape into nature. That feeling of safety would soon come to an end, though. Leaving the Green River men entering Cataract Canyon, a 46-mile or 74-kilometer-long canyon that is located within Canyonlands National Park in Utah. This section of the river contains 14 miles or 22.5 kilometers of rapids that range in difficulty up to Class 5. Class 5 rapids are classified as extremely difficult, long, and very violent rapids with highly congested roots. It is highly recommended that before partaking in these, that they are scouted from the shorelines, because rescue conditions are very difficult, and there is significant hazard to life in the event of mishaps. The crew had heard about the difficulties of this section of the Colorado, and anxiety of the group grew as they got closer, and rightfully so.

It was here, for the first time, they saw firsthand just how dangerous whitewater could be. The crew had pulled onto the shore so Lois and Alzada could collect some plant species that they had seen growing on the cliff walls. While they were busy gathering samples, the water suddenly began to rise and with it snatched their boat that they had named Mexican hat from the shore and with it all of their survival year they had been carrying. Don and Lois jumped into action, hopping into another boat and paddling down the river into the rapids. The Mexican hat was soon completely out of sight and Don and Lois found themselves fighting through rapids that they had never experienced before. They attempted to bail out of the rapids and boat to shore, but they couldn't. Quickly, they were pulled into even more rapids, before they too were out of sight of the rest of the crew. Miraculously, the water slowed, and they found the Mexican hat had been pushed onto shore, with all of their gear inside.

Everything had been soaked, but it was safe. Unfortunately, the white water had brought them four miles downstream of where they had originally stopped to collect plants, and they were now completely separated from their crew. Don told Lois to wait with the boats while he hiked back upstream to find the rest of their team, leaving Lois completely alone. Upstream, Norman, Eugene, and William had gotten into their boat and attempted to follow them. They had told El Zeta to walk downstream instead of paddling because of how dangerous the rapids were. Eventually, Norman, William, Don, Eugene, and El Zeta were reunited on the shores upstream of Lois. By the time they had reached each other, though, the sun was setting and the river was still right. It was decided that they couldn't make the trek downstream in the dark to be with Lois, and she

had to sleep alone that night. She did, however, have the advantage that inside the Mexican hatboat was all of their supplies. She was able to dry out her sleeping equipment and made a fire, and that night she wrote in her journal that she wasn't afraid and that she had a lovely time before she fell asleep under the stars. Periodically, throughout the night, she awoke to the water rising closer to where she was sleeping, and she had to move her whole camp. Outside of that, though, she really enjoyed the quiet of sleeping alone in the canyon. The next morning, the rest of the crew paddled down to Lois and everyone was reunited again. All of them were safe and uninjured, but that experience in Catarach Canyon had shaken the expedition.

The security blanket they had felt in the Green River was gone. The crew were really nervous to continue to go over rapids and instead found themselves walking the shorelines whenever they appeared. They would strap the boats to ropes and let them float the rapids without any passing. and yours inside of them. Sometimes they would even unload all of their supplies and hike with it on their backs in a hundred degree temperatures. It was grueling and difficult work and made the days go by slowly, but it felt like a better option than paddling some of the rapids while these water levels were so high. Lois and Alzado were dedicated to their work throughout, though. Even though the travel through the canyon made them exhausted, they would wake up earlier than everyone else to gather plants and make notes of

what they were finding. In the evenings, after dinner, they would go back to collecting specimens. El Zeta would detail notes about the plants in her journal, while Lois would focus more on the novelties of river life. She detailed what it was like cooking over campfires and washing her clothes in the river. She also wrote of her trying to bathe and change in privacy from the men and how it was expected of the women to still partake in domestic duties while on the river. They were primarily tasked with all the cooking and cleaning, sometimes even doing the men's laundry for them. It's like, okay, by default, I guess I'm doing this. What the hell? Yeah. And it's kind of like, okay, I'm here as a scientist studying. And now I have to take care of you as well.

It's weird how like, weird is the wrong word, but how that translated into this scientific expedition. Yeah, where there's still domestic household rules being put on you in the middle of the wilderness. Yes. On the Colorado River. And I don't. And I don't. mention it too much in here, but there were some things that the men were doing that, I guess you could be considered, like, the man jobs. You know, they were doing most of the heavy lifting when they had the gear, they were putting it on their backs. If they had to go into the water for something, they were the ones going into it because the water was strong. If they had to steer the boats through hard rapids, they were trying to do it because they're considered stronger. So there was definitely this

male, female dynamic that was going on that it's more traditional. But the women definitely did know a lot like, why am I doing domestic duties out here? Yeah. It's just a great question. It is. It's valid. Yeah. It's like, I am not your wife on the Colorado River. That too. Yeah. Well, there's that. They're not dating any of them. Right. It's like even if that was the direct translation of like, okay, well, in our house, if we're married, this is usually the division of labor. So we're going to copy that and implement it here in this situation, which is one thing, whatever. But it's like, we are not in a partnership. Like, why am I?

You know what I mean? Why am I doing this? Yeah. Why am I a caretaker in these moments? Yeah. It seems like you would assume that you just kind of either have a discussion and that's agreed upon because it has to be done, right? Whether you do it, somebody else does it, the team, you know, you split it up.

How many camping trips have we been on with groups? You know, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. It's like, okay, this night you're doing the dishes, next night I'll do them. You know, it's just. Yeah, everyone's cooking and cleaning. It's not a gender thing. Level, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So that was happening on the trip. But going back into the story a little bit, they had been walking a lot of the river, but they weren't only walking it. So there were rapids that they couldn't avoid and they had to still do them. Their whole mission here is to be on the river and they can't walk everything. So even though they were shaken up by it, they couldn't avoid it. And they did find themselves still boating through rapids.

They did find themselves in trouble again when they entered the Gypsum Canyon rapid, although it wasn't intentional. Norm and El Zeta were leading the line in the when boat. And now here's when I'm going to, just to make it, I was trying to make this a little less confusing because a lot happens here. I'm going to identify the boats. So there's the when boat, the botany boat, and the mecham. Mexican hat, and I refer to those. Norm and Al Zeta were leading the line in the when boat, and they attempted to get on shore, but the current was too strong and pulled them in. William and Eugene's boat, the botany, was pulled in quickly after, and soon they all found

themselves boating over a steep drop. The drop launched William out of the botany before capsizing in the water. Eugene somehow was able to keep a hold on the hole and stay above water, but William disappeared. Norm and Al Zeta attempted a rescue, pulling Eugene onto their boat. El Zeta grabbed a rope attached to the botany, and Norm jumped out into the river grabbing the rope on their own boat. He attempted to get to shore to secure them to land, but the ropes were wet and slipped through his fingers. Instead, both the Wynn and the botany were released and sent down river, with Eugene and El Zeta still with them. As they were pulled into the rapids, Norm lost his balance standing in the river and was pulled into the raging waters himself.

Somehow, when Lois and Don arrived in that same area in the Mexican hat, they ran the rapids without issue. At the other end of them, they found William exhausted and swimming, barely able to keep his head above water. They were able to pull him to safety onto their boat. Downstream, they also found Norm who had managed to swim onto the riverbank. The problem now was that Alzada and Eugene were still missing. The four of them piled into the Mexican hat and slowly paddled their way downstream in search of them. It took a while, but eventually they found them sitting around a fire with the two other boats tied up beside them. They cheered and hugged when they were all reunited again.

Overall, the team was feeling really grateful that the outcome had not been worse. Eugene had a deep gash on his leg from hitting a rock in the rapids, and Alzada had a giant purple bruise forming on her thigh, but outside of that, no one was injured. All of their belongings were intact, but soaking wet, including their food supplies. Norm, however, wasn't feeling so grateful. He was discouraged and upset at how the river run was going. He was out there in attempts to advertise the possibilities of whitewater rafting tourism. And now with this hiccup in the trip and how slow they had been moving previously,

there was no way that they were going to make it to Lee's Ferry on July 4th. They were significantly behind schedule and the waters were proving to be more dangerous than he had expected. He was so upset that he stated to the crew, this is the end of my career as a riverman. Fair to feel that way. When they headed out the next day to continue their journey, it wasn't long before they were reminded of just how dangerous of a situation they were in. While paddling down the river, they looked up onto the canyon walls to see painted names of all those who had done this route before them. In badly faded white paint, the word hide with a date below it, November 1st, 1928, sat on the wall. It was a painful reminder

of the river trip that Glenn and Bessie Hyde had done just 10 years prior, but they had never been seen again. Shortly after they had painted that date November 1st, they disappeared. Despite the looming feeling of dread looking at those words, the crew pulled off onto the riverbank and like tradition of the other people of the river, they pulled out white paint and added, quote, Neville's expedition, which Norm Neville, to the cliffside and signed all their names. They couldn't help but wonder if this was possibly the last evidence anyone would ever see of them before they too succumbed to the Colorado River. But another thought also crossed their minds. This would be evidence of history when Lois and Alzada became the first documented women to survive it.

July 4th came and went with the media waiting at Lees Ferry, but the group didn't arrive. News reports who had highly been skeptical of the women on the river smugly reported their likely demise. They wrote about the high water levels and condemned the trip, saying they were probably smashed to bits on jagged rocks of the Colorado. Often, they stated that the women shouldn't be on the river and that no woman had conquered the Colorado before. And keep in mind, they're writing things that literally said smashed to bits on jagged rocks and their families are reading this. And their families hadn't heard of them either. Like, that's very insensitive to a group of people who you don't even know what happened to them yet. Yeah, it's all conjecture. You have no clue. And you're just,

yeah, you're speculating is what you're doing. You're speculating and you're making an assumption because you don't think women can do it. After a few days, when the crew still didn't arrive at Lee's Ferry, a search was initiated. The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a plane to do an aerial search in hopes to find them. They began in the early hours of July 7th and flew all day without any sign of them. It wasn't until that evening that they were finally spotted on the shore cooking dinner over a fire. The plane circled above, dropping leaflets with notes on them. The boaters scrambled from their seats and climbed the rock walls and ran down the banks, catching the papers the the plane had dropped. Written on these pieces of paper was a note that read, quote,

We are the U.S. Coast Guard plane searching for a party of six University of Michigan geologists reportedly late at Lee's Ferry. If you are they, lie down all in a row and then stand up. If in need of food, sit up. If members of the party are all okay, extend arms horizontally. It is imperative that we know who you are, so identify yourself by first signal first. The group followed the instructions, identifying that they were indeed the people that the plane were searching for. And then, very happily, they extended their arms horizontally and showed them that the group was doing just fine. The plane received the message and flew away. Al Zeta and Lois couldn't help but be ecstatic at the messages they knew would be sent back to the media, that the women on the river,

who didn't belong there, were in fact just fine. The following day on July 8th, they arrived during the night at Lees Ferry. Reporters had hold up on the beach awaiting their arrival and were asleep in the sand as they pushed onto the shore. Waking up at the sounds of them on land, they begged the crew to go back to the water and redo their entrance so they could get it on camera for their news outlets. They agreed only after the journalists bribed them with fresh fruit and nice food. After redoing their entrance so they could get a picture, they ate the food they offered instead of answering any of their questions. They're like, you only get one or the other. Yeah.

We want some snacks. We want some snacks. It's tired. I'm tired. We just did all this. I'll eat some food and go to bed and I'll talk to you later. Over that next week, they stayed at the Marble Canyon Lodge, close to Lee's Ferry, to rest and resupply, during which they talked to the media and detailed their story, which they in turn turned into headlines. And they wrote headlines like, Girl Left Alone, where they told a very dramatic retelling of Lois spending a night alone camping.

Oh, right. Forgot about that. Yeah. They're like, I already forgot. It's fine. Yeah. She was just like, yeah, I was alone one night. And then they turned it into this dramatic retelling of animals howling in the distance.

And she was afraid for her life. And she was alone with the river rising. And she was almost dying a woman by herself. She just read it. And it was like, no. I mean, this kind of happened, but not really. Well, it's like how little things have changed, you know, since then. And regarding what the media does with like snippets.

and clips of taking things out of context and inflating them and making them this big thing. I mean, it's kind of like clickbait, but it's newspapers before. Yeah, I don't really ever foresee it changing, to be honest. No. Me either. Just because that's how you get people to read your articles. Yeah, and pay attention and yeah. Yeah, but sometimes the people who actually experience it look at it and are like,

that's not how that went down. Well, they're here. They're saying they're relaxing. and during their stay at the hotel, both Don and Eugene decided that they were done with the trip. Eugene, who was a zoologist, had hoped to collect some animals that he could, he wanted to kill some birds, essentially, and he wanted to be able to sell them as trophies to make for money after, but he hadn't gotten a single thing on the entire trip, and it was pretty grueling, so he was like, I'm, I'm kind of out of here, I'm good.

And Don had another job lined up that he wanted to get to, and he was also kind of kind of kind of done with the river. So they were like, this is our, this is our chance after we get back onto the river, we're going to have to do the whole thing. So this is our chance to dip out. However, this left them two people short for the remainder of the 280 miles to Lake Mead, and they needed those people. El Zeta and Norm borrowed a truck and drove back to the Mexican hat in in search of volunteers to come with them to finish the journey. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Lois had a very unlikely visitor. Buzz Holmstrom, the man who had completed a solo trip down the Colorado,

and had been very vocal in the media of his opposition of the women on the river, came to speak with Lois. Admittedly, he said that he had come to Lee's Ferry when he heard that they were missing, and he was there to not only boast that he was right, but brought his boat to go in to rescue them. But now he was there speaking to Lois as not a woman he didn't think capable, but as a fellow Whitewater boat. When Lois asked if he thought she should continue on to Lake Mead, he told her that she should.

From then on, he was very supportive of the whole idea. He gave advice and told her of his own struggles on the water. He even gave Lois his good luck charm to help her with her own journey. It was his waterproof match case with a compass attached to one end. In a letter that Lois wrote to her father, she told him of the exchange and that she had accepted this gift and felt no bad ill towards Buzz for his original feelings towards Wynn women on the river. Actually, quite the opposite. She respected him a lot and enjoyed his company. In her letter, she told her father that if Buzz was taller than her, she would have considered

dating him. Lois herself was almost six feet tall and she wanted a man who was taller than her and Buzz was not it. I was just going to say, tell me they get married. Or at least fall in love or at least have an wild love affair. Not that I'm aware of for it. However, there is speculation that at least they do end up forming this deep friendship for the rest of their lives pretty much. And there are rumors that Buzz was deeply in love with her. Oh, nice. The old enemies to lovers trope. Yep.

Yeah. It's a classic. Meanwhile, in El Zeta and Norm's journey to find volunteers, they were able to recruit a 24-year-old Navajo man named Lauren Bell and a 44-year-old gold prospect. or Del Reed to finish their boat trip with them. El Zeta was also able to arrange the first of three shipments back to the University of Michigan that included all of the plants that her and Lois had been able to collect on the trip so far. By July 13th, they were back on the river again, and even with two new people, they adjusted to river life quickly and the next few days were smooth. It had helped in their week off the river that the water had lowered significantly, making it much easier to paddle.

On July 16th, Lois and Al Zeta had the most scientifically important day of their entire trip. They made a stop at Vesies Paradise inside of Grand Canyon National Park. This area is a highly sensitive environment that can only be accessed from the river and is characterized by its cascading waterfalls over the red rocks and its lush vegetation. There were plants there that were found nowhere else in the Grand Canyon. Ferns, poison ivy, mosses, desert paintbrush, cacti, succulents, red mulls, monkey flower and more. There were even hummingbirds and beetles and things they hadn't noticed anywhere else along the trip. Alzada and Lois were in awe of the amount of life that they found in the middle of the desert. They collected as many species of plants that they could find,

being conscious of not taking too much in harming the environment. They wrote notes on everything they found and marveled at their discoveries. They were so excited about their finds that a few days later, Al Zeta arranged for someone to hike down the Bright Angel Trail to them and carry their plant findings back up it. The trail lowered over 4,000 feet into the canyon and was over 15 miles out and back, but it was important and she didn't want to risk losing any of their research in the river rapids. The person who came, then shipped it back to Michigan for her. But not everything Lois and Al Zeta discovered was good. In their research, they realized how much European influence had affected the canyon. They found several invasive species that were taking over the riverbanks. There were also feral burrows and cattle

that had been left behind that were grazing on the fragile plants of the canyon. In addition to that, they found non-native fish that had previously been introduced by the government to support commercial fishing. They wrote down and later reported all of their findings. But as the days went on, there was a solemn mood that fell over the group. The closer they got to Lake Mead, sadness came over them. The trip had gone by quickly and they had really enjoyed it. There was also a guilt that they felt for all the people who had attempted to do the same trip as they did prior, but didn't survive. They had been on the river a total of 43 days when they finally entered Lake Mead. They were surprised that not long after their arrival, a motorboat approached them, waving and excited to welcome

them. The driver was buzz. The crew tied their three boats behind his and hopped aboard. Shortly after, a larger boat from a Lake Mead tour company, carrying park officials and cameramen arrived. They drove them to the far end of Lake Mead to Boulder City, Nevada, and that day, the headlines read, women make perilous trip through Colorado gorges. El Zeta and Lois officially became the first non-indigenous women to make the journey all the way down the Colorado River. They also became the first people to map the botany of the Grand Canyon. After a few days of rest, they made the trip. back to Michigan and began reporting and writing down their scientific findings.

They opened a whole new view of flora and desert areas and allowed the national parks to make decisions that would help preserve the landscape better. After the trip, El Zeta continued to travel and to give lectures about her adventures. Eventually, after years, she retired in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where she later died in 1980 at the age of 83. Norm began a whitewater rafting business after his trip with his wife. He was well known for his boat design and for being the first river guide to take women down the Colorado River. Him and his wife continued the business until their untimely deaths in 1949 after a plane crash. A few years after the expedition, Lois married a botanist and had children with him. She moved to North Carolina, where she also became an advocate for the equal treatment

of women in the workplace. She traveled all over the world, including the Amazon rainforests to study flora. Also, she made her way back to the Grand Canyon to paddle the river for a second time. However, this time, it was 1994 and she was 80 years old. She had been invited by some ecologists for a scientific expedition. The purpose was to study the environmental changes of the canyon since her original trip, where they found the canyon to be much more lush with vegetation than it had been the first time that she was there. Lois passed away in 2013 at the age of 1990. years old. Throughout the remainder of her life, she kept just two mementos from her first river trip, the match case from Buzz, and the yellow helmet she had worn that her comrades had signed.

Most of the signatures and writings were illegible and had faded throughout the years, except for one. Buzz had also signed her helmet, and with it he wrote her a small note that read, to the girl who proved me badly mistaken. And that is the end of my story. Okay, I know you really want. want me to like really love these women. And I do so much. But Buzz is my unexpected favorite. He's an unexpected hero for sure. And there actually was another detail of the story that I didn't jump super into. But I think is important just because we're talking kindly about Buzz is that actually the women when they came back up from their trip, they realized they had actually forgotten one of their boxes of plants that they really wanted to study. And they were planning a

trip to go back to get it because that was how important it was. And Buzz actually went down there, got it and shipped it back to Michigan for them. Wow. Yeah. He just seems like there's something to be said about somebody who is open to having your mind changed about whatever, you know, not being married to certain thoughts, opinions or biases that you may have and just being open to learning and changing and growing with more information. And he just embodies that totally. And, And he wasn't ashamed or prideful about his original, you know, that switch. And he was really honest about it, too. It just makes them so lovable, you know?

It's like people change and it's okay, like to fess up just like, I was wrong. And you proved me wrong. And I'm sorry and let's go, let's move forward. And that's great. Yeah. And I love that not only did the, I don't think the women needed to prove themselves, but they clearly did and then some. Not only did they prove themselves, but they were recognized for it.

You know, this buzz. Not only was he like, hey, my whole intention here, I was coming here to boast and gloat that I was right and women can't do this. And not only did you prove me wrong, but I respect you, I like you. I want to have a friendship with you and I support everything you're doing from here on and totally made that switch. And a lot of the headlines switched too. The headlines after they finished were like, women did this. This is incredible. this is amazing. And so everything kind of switched for them. And I just thought it was such an

incredible story. And it influenced a lot of things. You know, before they did this, botany was considered this how we spoke about at the beginning. It was this gruelly, fragile thing that women did because it was easy and it wasn't scary. And then you have these two women who, with a crew, floated, paddled the whole Colorado River and some of the scariest rapids you can go through. And not only did they make it through it, but they were doing scientific studies while they did it. They were working, which is incredible. Well, shout out the book, because I know you read one. And you mentioned it very briefly in the beginning. Yes, I did. And thank you for bringing that up. It is Brave the Wild River, the untold story of two women who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon,

by Melissa L. I don't know how to say her last name. It's 70, 70, I think. But it's a really, I really enjoyed this book. And it has a really good balance of knowledge, science, history, and the women themselves. And this author really dived into the story of these women. She actually read all of their journal entries and the journal entries of other people on the expedition to put together a historic telling of their story, which I thought was really interesting. Well, I know you'd been waiting to do it for quite some time. I know it's been kind of like on your shelf for a little while. And I think wrapping up Women's History Month with that story was just perfect timing.

So thank you for sharing it. Thanks for hanging out and listening to it. I love listening, even if it's on the phone. You are on the phone, which is the first. For the podcast. All right. Well, thank you everyone for joining us. We will see you next week in the meeting.

time, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark book club, live streams, discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X at National Park After Dark. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind.

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