1960: Colorado River Campaign
June 4, 2024
By AHNZ
Today in history, July 4, 1960, Jon Hamilton led a team of jetboaters up the Colorado River in the Grand Canon. It was the first time anyone had ever taken a boat up-stream and apparently it still is even now.
Jon’s father, Bill Hamilton, a Cantabrian, had invented the jetboat and this was a test. It was also a publicity opportunity to show the world what New Zealanders could do.
One of the boats was piloted by the very American-sounding Buzz Belknap, aged just 16.
Three of the four boats made it, arriving at Lee’s Ferry on 12 July (local time.)
“Nine men, the youngest of whom was sixteen, took four boats on the now historic uprun through the rapids…all piloted through 16,500 cfs of raging water at Lava by New Zealander Jon Hamilton, the most skilled boatman on the uprun crew.
“The uprun was a daring and amazing way to introduce a revolutionary new device to the public, but it worked. An article in the National Geographic and worldwide publicity gave a jump start to the export of a seemingly simple innovation. Sir William Hamilton, a New Zealander who was eventually knighted for his gift of tinkering with Archimedes’s law, as he would later explain, had devised a way of ejecting the water sucked into a jet pump in the back of a boat from a position above the water line, instead of below it, thereby increasing speed.” – 50th Anniversary of Jet Boat Uprun, westwaterbooks.com (2010)
” The expedition will attempt a major upstream traverse of 400 miles from Lake Mead to the next road contact with the river at Lees Ferry…The appeal of the jet system on the American market has resulted in great sales in a range of hulls from 16ft to 30ft. Some of the larger boats in this year’s expedition will have nearly twice the power of the units used last year. Mr Jon Hamilton will go on to Canada and England and visit manufacturers involved in the building of jet units under licence.” – Press (1960,) Papers Past
“Mr Hamilton was an ambassador for his father’s invention, piloting Hamilton jet-powered boats on the first upstream run of the Colorado River, and on the Ganges with mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, The Press reported. He completed an engineering degree at Canterbury University and eventually became chief engineer for CWF Hamilton & Co in Christchurch. Apart from his Ganges and Colorado expeditions, Mr Hamilton also led voyages along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea and the Zaire in Africa.” – Cancer claims jetboat adventurer Jon Hamilton, ODT (2009)
According to the Press, the boats were to be placed in museums of the Smithsonian Institution and Grand Canyon and Boulder City! One of the Kiwis, Guy Mannering, even filmed the adventure. I can think of less recreational ways of doing the work of launching a product.
Later in the decade the Hamiltons would take on other expeditions at home and afar. New Guinea. And, in September 1968, the difficult Sun Kosi Expedition in Nepal with Edmund Hillary.
New Zealanders were starting a decade that showed we were world leaders in adventure, technology, and commercial success. The Summer Afternoon High.
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Image ref. westwaterbooks.com
Ref. Traverse of Colorado, Press (1960,) Papers Past
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