Hell Or High Water: James White's Disputed Passage through Grand Canyon, 1867

Although John Wesley Powell and party are usually given credit for the first river descent through the Grand Canyon, the ghost of James White has haunted those claims. White was a Colorado prospector, who, almost two years before Powell's journey, washed up on a makeshift raft at Callville, Nevada. His claim to have entered the Colorado above the San Juan River with another man (soon drowned) as they fled from Indians was widely disseminated and believed for a time, but Powell and his successors on the river publicly discounted it. Colorado River runners and historians have since debated whether White's passage through Grand Canyon even could have happened. Hell or High Water is the first full account of White's story and how it became distorted and he disparaged over time. It is also a fascinating detective story, recounting how White's grand-daughter, Eilean Adams, over decades and with the assistance of a couple of notable Colorado River historians who believed he could have done what he claimed, gradually uncovered the record of James White's adventure and put together a plausible narrative of how and why he ended up floating helplessly down a turbulent river, entrenched in massive cliffs, with nothing but a driftwood raft to carry him through.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; I Prologue; 8 CHAPTER I Callville; II CHAPTER 2; Who Was James White?; 15 CHAPTER 3; White's War; 19 CHAPTER 4; The Road to Gold; 24 CHAPTER 5 The Rescue; 32 CHAPTER 6; Downriver Crier; 35 CHAPTER 7; The News Spreads East; 42 CHAPTER 8; General Palmer and the Railroad Survey; 53 CHAPTER 9; Dr. Parry's Report; 59 CHAPTER 10; Major Calhoun's Version; 68 CHAPTER II Major Powell; 77 CHAPTER 12; On the Road Again; 84 CHAPTER 13; Powell's Conquest of the Grand Canyon; 91 CHAPTER 14; Enter Robert Brewster Stanton; IoI CHAPTER 15; Senate Document No. 42; III CHAPTER 16; Battle of The Trail; 123 CHAPTER 17; The White Family and Dock Marston; 127 CHAPTER 18; Grand Canyon History: Discoveries and Rediscoveries; 133 CHAPTER 19; Bob Euler and Square One; 141 CHAPTER 20; In James White's Footsteps; 149 CHAPTER 21 Summary and Conclusions: Part A; 154 CHAPTER 22; Summary and Conclusions: Part B; 160 CHAPTER 23; Summary and Conclusions: Part C; 169 CHAPTER 24; Resolution; 181 APPENDIX A: James White's 1867 Letter; 184 APPENDIX B: James White's 1917 Statement; 186 Chapter Notes; 192 References and Sources; 209 Author's Note; 218;