Register of the Harry LeRoy Aleson Papers,

Waterville, Iowa, where Harry LeRoy Aleson was born 9 March 1899, was an auspicious name for the birthplace of a future river boatman. Though he later changed his name to the more manageable "Aleson," he was fiercely proud of his Nordic heritage, and maintained close contact with family members and Norwegian friends.

After completing two years of high school in Waterville, Aleson quit school to work in an iron mine as a chemist's helper. In March 1918, he enlisted in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps and arrived in France after a brief period of training. Aleson was proud of his service in World War I, during which his plane crashed and he was gassed, which left him with a chronic stomach ailment and entitled him to a pension for total disability.

Upon returning to Iowa, Aleson completed high school in 1920 and went on to attend Iowa State College, where he took courses in electrical and chemical engineering. Financial pressures forced him to leave college after two and one-half years, but he retained an emotional attachment to Iowa State and was instrumental in establishing the Memorial Union there in honor of the veterans of World War I.

During the Great Depression, Aleson worked in a variety of positions with various geophysical exploration firms searching for oil in the Southwest. By the end of the 1930s, though, he had discovered the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, and he quickly gave up any desires for a life apart from the river. His love for the river cost him his marriage; he and Thursa Arnold, whom he had married in 1928, were separated in 1940.

At about the time of their separation, Aleson took up residence in a tent camp in Quartermaster Canyon, which he christened "My Home, Arizona." From there, during the next decade, he conducted the explorations of the Grand Canyon and the lower Colorado River System that made him a much consulted authority and popular river guide.

In the beginning, Aleson built his river guide business upon the notoriety he achieved as a result of numerous daredevil feats. In April 1945, he became the first person to make an upriver motorboat run from Lee's Ferry, Arizona, to Hite, Utah, a journey of 162.5 miles, which he accomplished in five days. Also in 1945, he and the "Woman of the River," Georgie White of Los Angeles, made a 61 mile down river trip to Lake Mead using only life preservers. They made a similar 81 mile trip in 1946.

In 1945, Aleson took up winter headquarters at the Johnston Hotel in Richfield, Utah, where he earned part of his room and board by working as night clerk. During his long shifts there, he organized the dozens of San Juan River Glen Canyon trips that were his main source of income during the summers.

Aleson's river trips were luxurious experiences that elicited repeated enthusiastic comments from satisfied guests. He pioneered in the use of U.S. Navy surplus neoprene landing craft, which are virtually unsinkable, roomy and comfortable. He offered nearly one hundred different foods and served them on actual china. His leisurely pace, which allowed time for side trips to scenic and historic sites, further enhanced by his knowledgeable comments, made for unforgettable experiences.

During the fall, after the tourist season was over, Aleson often made long expeditions of his own, for a month or six weeks at a time, in the back country of southeastern Utah. Beginning in 1952, he was joined regularly in those trips by Dick Sprang and Dudy Thomas. The three established a group called "Canyon Surveys," and their journals, photographs and movies are among the finest records of exploration of Glen Canyon, Grand Gulch, the San Juan River, and the Red Rock Plateau.

During the 1960s, Aleson's life took important new directions. The closing of the Glen Canyon Dam marked the end of the river trips that had been his mainstay. Thereafter, he began to exploit earlier experiences he had had on Canadian rivers, particularly the MacKenzie and Yukon, in offering "Arctic River Expeditions."

Aleson remarried in 1962. Thursa Arnold, his estranged wife, died in 1957, and Aleson was free to marry Dorothy Donaldson Keyes, whom he met on one of his river trips in 1961. Appropriately, they were married in Glen Canyon and spent their honeymoon on the river.

Aleson never really became inactive on the river, though advanced age forced upon him a slower pace. An interest in genealogy emerged, and he spent a great deal of time in research and correspondence. Aleson died of cancer on 27 March 1972 in Prescott, Arizona.

The papers of Harry Aleson cover a lengthy period, from a letter written to his mother during his World War I experience in France, to expressions of sympathy to his wife following his death in 1972. The variety of the collection is equally broad; it embraces correspondence, research notes, diaries and logs of river trips, clippings from newspapers and magazines, and many other types of material assembled or generated during a long and active life.

By far the largest portion of the collection is the correspondence, which occupies twenty-four boxes. The correspondence is arranged chronologically with undated or fragmentary items at the end of each year.

Boxes 25-26 contain an impressive assortment of river trip logs. Besides the ones Aleson wrote on his own trips, the collection includes many that he copied from others. As a result, the logs span a large part of the history of the river, from the Powell survey of Glen Canyon in 1872 to Aleson's own pack trip in 1970. Many of the logs reveal historical and archeological discoveries, and most are exciting adventure narratives.

Boxes 27-28 contain various materials generated by Aleson in connection with his river trips and his study of the river's history. The remainder of the Aleson papers are unarranged except in broad general categories. Box 29 contains miscellaneous legal and financial documents, and Boxes 30-31 contain various genealogical and personal papers.

Restrictions on Access:

Restrictions on Use

Arrangement:

Creator:

Aleson, Harry LeRoy, 1899-1972.

Language:

English.

Sponsor:

Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, 2007-2008

Quantity:

32 boxes (16 linear ft.)

Language of the Finding Aid:

Finding aid written in Englishin Latin script

EAD Creation Date:

1999.