Jones, Leslie Allen

Green River Scroll Map [Desolation Canyon]

Heber, UT: Western Whitewater, (c.1960). Mimeograph scroll map [24 cm x 528 cm] [9.5" x 208"] on paper. Nice condition. Near fine. Presumably unused. Item #10293

Highly detailed river runner's guide to floating 180 miles of the Green River from Jenson to Green River City, by river running legend, Les Jones. Map notes all of the major rapids. Also contains mileage and tips for boaters, as well as an elevation table. Historical points and runs are noted with commentary.

"These maps are coded with whitewater information based on a canoe solo by Les Jones at 5,000 cfs of water thru Lodore, Whirlpool and Split Mountain Canyons to Jensen - 65 miles on Sunday, September 2nd, 1957 in 11 hours: 2. a two canoe run by Les Jones and Klaus Axeman thru Desolation and Gray Canyons at 12,000 cfs, May 30th - 20 miles in 4 hrs. May 31st - 70 Miles in 11 1/2 hrs. and June 1st - 39 miles in 7 hrs. in 1957: 3. Charles Eggert's Cinemascope movie expedition as planned and run by Don Hatch and Les Jones with Brucr Liam, Al Galloway and Smuss A;llen as boatmen and with Fred Wood, Cid Summers, Doc Parsons and Tony - Charley's assistant. The trip was from Wyoming to Lake Mead, beginning on 12,000 cfs and halting at Lee's Ferry on 7,000 cfs.and finishing the Grand the next year - 1956, on 56,000 cfs."

Leslie A. Jones was born in Montana in 1922. He developed his love for rivers early on living by the Missouri River. It was not unusual for him to be found at that time rowing a boat under the moonlight fishing for catfish. Jones remained in Montana for his professional training as a civil engineer. In 1953, he moved to Salt Lake City. In the same year, Jones rafted the Lodore Canyon of the Green River with his cousins. This raft trip was in conjunction with the Sierra Club's attempt to create awareness about a proposed dam that would have flooded the canyon. It was on the same trip that Jones began to combine his love of river running and civil engineering. A broken oar compelled Jones to develop a self-support single person craft. Over the years, he has made several contributions to canoe and kayak designs.

“I’d noticed when I’d run with the Sierra Club the rapids all kind of ran together as a blur, and I couldn’t remember the details well enough, and I didn’t have any identification points. So I started my scroll maps—I didn’t like the wind on the U.S. Geological [Survey] maps, so I started building my scroll maps. “The outline of the maps was taken either from aerial photographs and drawn artfully, or traced directly from the contour maps of the U.S. Geological Survey, putting the river end-to-end, instead of cut up in segments like the USGS did, . . . so I could line the river out on a seven-inch scroll strip and then take it from one end to the other, without having to run off the scroll. . . . And then putting a profile of the river . . . wherever it fit best. . . . We had to put them on paper, for lack of mylar. Then we put them on mylar” - Les Jones

These maps were made by Jones to order, and we are unable to find a print run for this map, but one would presume it to be small, and as this is a 17-foot paper map that was intended to use for navigating white water, we would presume that very few of these survived. We locate two institutional holding for this map. RARE.

Price: $1,500.00