"I was very interested in Mark's pictures
of Navajo Bridge because way before the (Glen
Canyon) dam was built that now forms Lake Powell,
I went down the river with Norman Nevills in a
small wooden boat (without wearing a life preserver!)
and he first flew over the route in his airplane
to check out the flood conditions in the river.
We
landed at Navajo Bridge and he asked me if I would
like to fly under it with him! It sounded like
a great adventure and my father happened to be
along and I happened to have TWO movie cameras
with me. My father stood on the bridge and photographed
Norman and I flying under the bridge, while I
photographed the flight from inside the plane
through the windshield! It makes an amazing sequence
in my movie of the river trip!"
Chuck Bausback is the principal researcher
for the Huell Howser TV show "California
Gold," a long-running roadtrip program that
airs on the PBS network on the west coast. Mr.
Bausback's aerial escapade happened in 1946.
View
of Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River, near
Grand Canyon National Park
August
27, 2006:
Karen
Shreeve Wilhelm of St. Johns, Arizona,
writes:
"I
was amazed to read Chuck Bausback's
account (at left) of flying under the
Navajo Bridge. My Dad told a similar
story, back in the 40's he also flew
under the bridge! He was in a group
- I think there were three planes -
and all three flew under the bridge.
I have always assumed that they were
the only ones who had ever done that,
so I was surprised to read Chuck's account.
Now, I'm wondering if it was something
that a lot of fliers did back then?
Maybe it was a status thing to be able
to say you flew under the Navajo Bridge?
Dad
remembers seeing people on the bridge
taking pictures as he flew under it,
so somewhere out there someone has pictures
of his daredevil flight. He told me
that as he flew down the narrow canyon
and was approaching the bridge, he looked
at it and thought to himself that he
was never going to make it, the plane
was going to touch the canyon walls
and crash, but he was committed, it
was too late to abort the flight, and
luckily he made it through.
Wesley Shreeve (my dad) and Darwin Grant
were two of the three fliers who were
in Dad's party. I wonder how many people
there are out there who have flown under
the bridge?"
Navajo
Bridge with a view of the Echo Cliffs
View
of Marble Canyon looking northeast
towards Lake Powell
