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Show Background Report ... Succeeding fibre Others time Foiled, Moab River Runner iipecfs Big Year Tex McCLatchy is cruising the home stretch this year on. a business venture which has defeated other boaters at regular intervals through out the century. "Tex's Colorado River Cruises" is the first com-mercfal com-mercfal Boating venture to succeed in. oyer '60 years of attempts to conquor the cagy Colorado and Green rivers. Over 10,000 passengers have made the scenic Colo, and Green rivers tour since Tex launched his first jet-propelled jet-propelled boat at the Moab dock in 1959. If predictions of his advisors come true, there will be that many each year booking passage on the fleet of boats. The former schoolteacher and Commercial pilot moved mov-ed to Moab because there was everything .here he linked (especially the Colo.; river. He had long tampered tamper-ed with the idea of running a passenger iboat on the scenic' stretch of Water between be-tween Moab and Green River, Riv-er, the only navigable portion por-tion of the entire length of the rivers. History of previous prev-ious attempts was discouraging, discour-aging, though. Meandering sand bars were unpredictable, unpredict-able, and noone had ever been able to chart a permanent perm-anent course in the waters. But Tex was living in a new era; jet powered boats had just been improvised which could travel in mere inches of water. These might skim over the blockading sandbars. Tex obtained one of the first Buehler Turbo- crofts made in New Zealand and that year astonished the spectators lined up on the Moab Dock to watch the annual Marathon Race, by skimming shallow waters a-long a-long the shore which would have shattered outboard motors. He had it made! Within 3 years he launch- ! ed the 3-jet "Cliff Dweller" j a 40-passenger craft custom ' made from his design by Arnold Feller, of Grand Junctoion. A smaller twin jet, the 20-passenger "Major "Maj-or Powell" went into operation opera-tion the same year. Tex demonstrated the (commercial boats for the first time at the annual 1963 .Friendship Cruise with a flamboyant grand entrance at the Anderson Bottom o-vernight o-vernight camp. A brass band played from the top deck; passengers waved from below, as the Cliff Dweller, spurting water from its jets like a giant sea monster, towed a couple of water skiiers past the open - mouthed boaters a-shore. From that time Tex's Colo rado River Cruises have been in daily operation. Additional Ad-ditional boats have been added to accommodate the demand until by the opening open-ing season this year, with the whole fleet in operation, Tex's Colorado River Cruises Cruis-es can carry 160 passengers at one time. The Cruises have proven one of the most popular tourist attractions of the area The scenery along the rivers is some of the most spectacular in the world. The tours are comfortable, (cool enough to invite use of . a sweater on the boat on the hottest day in the jVapley.) and native wild-.life, wild-.life, beaver and blue heron .along the route intrigue the .guests. Midway on one tour jfTex serves a "cave man buf-vfet" buf-vfet" in a dripping water natural cave as an added bonus to his passengers. 1 The enterprising boater is ljust getting wound up. This lyear he will add a couple imore single jet 12-passen-,ger boats, and will operate ifrom both Moab and Green River, into the Canyonlands and Zane Gr.ay's Robbers iRoost countries. A Piper iSupercub Plane, on floats, iwill be permanently station-led station-led at the Moab dock as a itrouble shooter if mechanical mechan-ical troubles develop on the fleet, or for other rescue iWork along the river. On ithe drawing board is a ("Showboat Steamer", a-la-ijet-age. ' I The Cruises will move in-to in-to Downtown Moab this isummer via a novel land-moving land-moving Mississippi Pad'dle (Wheeler, fashioned from the ichassis of a bus. The color-iful color-iful canopied boat on wheels will , be parked downtown, and at scheduled hours pick iup CruiseJbound passengers ifrom various Motels in the city. , The fame of the River jicruises has spread nationwide. nation-wide. This year the sports-loving sports-loving Kennedy family have (made tentative plans to (board Tex's boats for the annual Friendship Cruise in 'ate May. i "He has booked Scout groups, school children, contentions con-tentions and senior citizens groups, passengers have iranged from babes in arms to the aged, some in wheel phairs. i Tex is ably assisted in his boating venture by his iwife, Joy, and daughters, Chris and Alice. There's little doubt a place in business bus-iness is awaiting 2-year-old Ahna as soon as she grows jnto it. -! Much credit, too, goes to his chief jet boat Pilot, Fred Radcliffe, who besides helping help-ing with the tours is a self-taippointed self-taippointed publicity agent. 1 Radcliffe holds an honorary (membership to the Moab Chamber of Commerce for promotion work for the ;area. ' i Tex admits there's no doubt his success on the un-icohquored un-icohquored river came because be-cause he was at the right .place, at the right time, With the right idea. Mainly through, because "recreation" "recrea-tion" is the national magic word today. Canyonlands .National Park provides the publicity and drawing card Sot visitors, and both the iMcClatchys were able to ,subsist the struggling business bus-iness by teaching until it got on its way. i Tex has only one regret. Demands for his Cruises have increased so fast he has been unable to build the business at the easy-going |