George Flavell 1896
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 41° 31.436 W 109° 28.350
12T E 627444 N 4598047
This Historical Marker is located at the northwestern end of Island Park on Expedition Island in Green River, Wyoming.
Waymark Code: WMFCE4
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 09/27/2012
Views: 2
George Flavell 1896
Trapper, hunter, prospector, and tattoo artist - George Flavell and his passenger/partner Ramon Montez were the first men to float the "distance" of Green River, Wyoming to Needles, California primarily for the "adventure."
The two arrived in Green River in mid-August 1896, built their own boat - the Fanthon, and launched on August 27th, 1896. Far downstream in Yuma, Arizona, Flavell told a reporter the reasons for the journey, "First, for the adventure; second, to see what so few people have seen; third, to hunt and trap; fourth, to examine the perpendicular walls of rock for gold."
One of the major river controversies which remains today is whether it was actually George Flavel instead of Than Galloway who was the first to use the facing downstream method of running rivers and to build the newer style boats better suited for river travel.
In any event, Flavell's diary records running all the rapids except for 6 on the entire journey from Green River to the ocean. Regardless of who was "first", the new era of river running was at hand.