Norman Nevills

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Norman D. Nevills (April, 1908 - September 19, 1949) was a pioneer of commercial river-running in the American Southwest, particularly the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He led trips including Dr. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, the first two women to successfully float the Grand Canyon, and Barry Goldwater.

Nevills was the son of William E. and Mae Davies Nevills of California. The elder Nevills left California in 1921 to pursue a career in oil drilling.[1] He became interested in running rivers, floating the San Juan River in an open boat in 1924. Norman moved to Mexican Hat, Utah in 1927 after two years of college at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He adopted his father's interest in running rivers.[1]

Nevills met Doris Drown in July, 1933; they married in October of that year. For their honeymoon, they floated the San Juan in a boat that he had built from his mother's horse trough. They had two daughters, Joan (Staveley), born October 7, 1936, and Sandra (Reiff), born March 28, 1941.[2]

Although most of Nevills' river trips were on the San Juan, he ran seven trips through the Grand Canyon. Nevills' chance for fame came in 1938, when he had the opportunity to escort Dr. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, two botanists from the University of Michigan who wished to catalog the flora of the Grand Canyon, from Green River, Wyoming, to Lake Mead. They encountered extraordinarily high water at the confluence of the San Juan and the Colorado, but finished the trip without serious incident.[3] Their 43-day, 666-mile trip generated a lot of publicity for Nevills.[1]

In 1940, Nevills took Barry Goldwater, a young man from a family which owned Arizona's largest chain of grocery stores, as a paying customer down the Grand Canyon. Nevills allowed Goldwater to take the oars, and Goldwater flipped the boat in one rapid.[2] Following his trip, Goldwater began giving slide shows in movie theaters and other venues, often to sold-out crowds. His statewide barnstorming tour convinced Goldwater that he had a knack for public speaking—which he parlayed into his very successful career in politics.[4]

In ten years of leading paying customers down the Colorado, San Juan, and Green Rivers, Nevills never lost a customer. Magazines and newspapers labeled him "The World’s No. 1 Fast-Water Man."[3]

In September, 1949, Nevills and his wife, Doris, were en route to a funeral in his private plane when the plane had engine troubles shortly after takeoff. Nevills tried to turn around, but the plane crashed into the rim of an arroyo, killing them both. A plaque honoring the Nevills was installed at Navajo Bridge in 1952.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Cline Library, Northern Arizona University, Norm and Doris Nevills Collection. Retrieved December 17, 2006.
  2. ^ a b Cline Library, Northern Arizona University, Joan Nevills Staveley and Sandra Nevills Reiff Interview, September 12, 1994. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
  3. ^ a b Grand Canyon River Guides, Norman Nevills. Retrieved December 17, 2006.
  4. ^ Briggs, Don (1999). River Runners of the Grand Canyon, VHS/DVD
  5. ^ Nichols, Tad, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University, Nevills Plaque dedication at Navajo Bridge, and the "Dedication Trip" through Glen Canyon a few days before, July 1952. Retrieved December 17, 2006.