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Show ..: : : :" " :vj '..; is? s. ff 1 F a s WM'. JLJI. j : : ;, -., ....... -.3 - i . . r, ( Ji! - jj; - J i High and Dry. The Canyon King took two days getting from its strange-looking craft (at least on the highway) created a real old home near Moab to a point just south of Blanding, and will be spectator sport during the week, taken on to Halls Crossing on Lake Powell late this week. The Paddlewheeler on the Highway Presented a Unique Sight By Tom Nielson "Breaker one-nine, this is Wildcat to anybody, c'mon." "Wildcat, this is Grease-monkey, Grease-monkey, go ahead." "Greasemonkey, you're not gonna believe this but I think I just saw a Mississippi paddlewheeler paddle-wheeler in the middle of the road, c'mon?" "This is Greasemonkey, Wildcat. That paddlewheeler's a 10-4. Don't throw away your pills. Some people thought it was the Queen Mary, c'mon." CB radios were busy all day Thursday and Friday, May 29 and 30 in and around Moab, Utah. The foregoing excerpt from one conversation is typical of reactions ranging from amused disbelief to outright indignation from hundreds if not thousands of drivers who came upon the Canyon King traveling through the desert highways of Southeastern Utah. Canyon King is the name of a 93 foot long, 26 foot wide paddlewheel boat built in Moab by Tex McClatchey. It was launched in 1972 as the flagship of Tex's fleet of boats. His boats range in size from canoes and rafts to jet boats operating on the Colorado River to accommodate people wanting to take river trips. The "King" had operated as a tour boat each summer since 1972 but now it was time to take it to bigger waters. Our story starts about 7 a.m., May 29, 1976 at the headquarters of Tex's River Expeditions where the flagship flag-ship of the Colorado River was about to leave its home port at Tex's dock for an overland journey of some 170 miles to a new home port on Lake Powell. Actually, the "King" would need to travel another 60 miles or so upstream under its own power from Hall's Crossing to a permanent berth at Hite. Moving contractors couldn't get the 45 ton giant into the water on the north end of the lake, thus the extra 60 mile trip to Hall's Crossing. Bob Wells of Robert E. Wells, Inc., Housemovers, based in West Jordan, Utah had planned to pull the four year old boat as far as Monticello Thursday. But so much for planning. A sandy field between river bank and U.S. Highway 163 proved to be the first obstacle to overcome. Winch trucks, tractors and lots of cussing were used before wheels would touch down on paved road at 11 a.m. At that point il looked as though the four hour delay would be just a minor inconvenience as everything every-thing went smoothly until about 11:20 a.m. when the load crossed the Colorado River bridge north of Moab. Although the twin stacks had been dismantled to reduce the operational height of 30 feet for clearance under telephone and power lines, the remaining height of the King was some 24 feet. That proved too much to safely pass under the wires. After a delay at the bridge, the movers took the boat to a wide spot in the road by the Byrd home north of ' Moab where they dismantled the wheel house and steering control columns with cutting torches. As the men worked, sparks from the equipment filtered from the upper deck into the enclosed salon where life jackets and furniture were stored. If it hadn't been for an alert Ken Hart, Moab could have had another first in the record books as the site of the first "ship" to be lost by fire in the desert. Fortunately, Ken noticed the sparks and warned the crew working on the wheelhouse, because within seconds smoke was billowing as life jackets caught fire. Quick response by the crew limited the damage to only two life jackets lost. By about 4 p.m., the height had been reduced to 22 feet so the move through Moab could continue. The intercity move went smoothly with several hundred people watching as crews from the power company, com-pany, Town TV and Continental Continent-al Telephone Company assisted assis-ted in getting the boat under wires. Shortly after five o' clock it looked like it was going to be smooth sailing from the south side of town but it was too late to reach Monticello as planned. The next problem was to find a place big enough to accommodate a 93 foot long, 26 foot wide rig. It's doubtful whether even the most modern trailer camp park would welcome a guest of this size on their premises. Dusk found the party at the bottom of Blue Hill, 12 miles south of Moab and no place to get off the Highway. It took another two hours to cross the next three miles to a turnout across from Kane Springs Park where they Canyon King was bedded down for the night. We left a pretty downhearted downhear-ted Cap'n Tex that night. But as we pulled in to join the procession at six o' clock the next morning we were greeted by a jubilant Tex and Millie, his wife. After all the delays of the day before, it was a little hard to understand the Christmas Christ-mas morning type atmosphere. atmos-phere. Then they explained that Tex had received a phone call the night before telling him he had passed the test to receive his pilot's license. In light of the current circumstances circum-stances and where the Canyon King was sitting, we thought a chauffer's license would be more appropriate. However, we learned that in order to operate on any navigable waters under Coast Guard supervision in the U.S. with over six commercial passengers passen-gers aboard it was necessary to get this license. Tex remarked that although the Colorado is designated as a navigable waterway, the Coast Guard hasn't been active in this area. But with increased commercial use of the river, the agency is going to become more involved with operations on the Colorado. Furthermore, the license authorizes him to operate any vessel weighing up to 100 tons on any inland waterway in the U.S. as well as 20 miles out to sea from the U.S. coastline. That cherry note seemed to set the mood for the day as the Wells' moving crew got under way promptly at 7 a.m. They rounded the corner at Hub and Pat Davis' Hole 'N The Rock just as the sun was touching the cliffs on the west side of the highway. In contrast to the delays of the day before, everything went well. The ten x - - t t ' I .' - r- !r: ! : This picture shows the Canyon King on its last voyage on the Colorado River near Moab. miles to Wilson Arch was covered in just an hour and a half. Before reaching the arch, two trucks loaded with two army tanks, cannon and all, were in the lineup. This brought more comment from the CB. operators such as "Why don't they just use torpedos?", and "Well, it looks like the army's in pretty good shape but if that's our navy we're in trouble!" At 10:10 a.m., some 25 miles from the morning starting point the drivers stopped at the Church Rock turnout for a break. Good luck was still holding because traffic was very light compared to what had been expected. In fact, it wasn't until the boat reached Monticello about noon that traffic became a problem and the boat became a problem for traffic. The steep hills and mountain road between Monticello and Blanding slowed down the pace considerably. It took more than four hours to travel the 22 miles between towns with numerous stops on the way to let traffic by. Because the boat was wider than the highway in most places, traffic couldn't proceed until the movers pulled over and stopped. As the convoy reached Blanding shortly after 5 p.m., there were hundreds of people in cars lined up by the side of the road. All had come to experience the once in a lifetime thrill of watching a Mississippi River type paddlewheeler paddle-wheeler pass through their town. Utah Highway Patrolmen Patrol-men and city police officers were on hand to direct traffic. Everyone concerned with the move expressed appreciation Continued on B2 Craft was loaded on trailer wheels and began its spectacular move to Lake Powell last week. Paddlewheeler . . . Continued from Bl for the help because even under the best of conditions it was feared there could be complications getting through Blanding. The biggest concern was the 90 degree turn to be made under the traffic light on main street. Thanks to cooperation cooper-ation from law officers everything every-thing went without a hitch and well before six o' clock the Canyon King was again bedded down just off Utah Highway 95, three or four miles south of Blanding. Moving operations won't start up again until Thursday, May 6. In the meantime, Tex and his crew will start, rebuilding the pilot house and taking care of other maintenance. mainten-ance. The delay was decided upon because it will be easier to do necessary rebuilding where the King is now drydocked than it would be at Lake Powell. Plans now are to splash down at Hall's Crossing sometime Friday, May 7. Tex will then "sail" his flagship, paddles flying, the 60 miles or so to the permanent berth at Hite. Once at the permanent home, Tex will use the paddlewheeler paddle-wheeler in conjunction with raft trips through Cataract Canyon. When passengers arrive at the North Wash area, they will be taken off the rafts and go aboard the Canyon King to finish the trip to Hite 30 miles further South. There will be one overnight stop between North Wash and Hite where the passengers will either camp out on shore if possible or right on the boat at their option. Tex and Millie will continue to operate the river expeditions expedi-tions as wells as canoe trips and float trips- out of Moab, with Tex leaving Moab on Wednesdays to take the King upstream to meet passengers. m |