Located within Riverside Park is a citizen memorial dedicated to Glen Wooldridge. It contains a wall of with two plaques and centered with a nice bronze relief of Glen created by Clyde Ellis, sculptor. This memorial was formally dedicated in August, 1990 as indicated by a plaque on the right. The plaque on the left reads:
The history of Wooldridge Boats and company founder Glen Wooldridge has been chronicled in numerous books, magazines and films since 1915.
The book, "The Rogue, a River to Run", by Florence Arman, gathers up many of the adventures, along with fascinating historical photos and facts.
That Rogue River trip was just one of Glen’s many “first-evers.” The adventures ranged from Alaska's Yukon River to California's Klamath, including the powerful and intimidating Idaho rivers and those seldom touched in British Columbia. At age 79, "Grandpa" Glen was first to run the fearsome Hells Gate on BC's Fraser River.
Ted Trueblood, famous associate Editor of Field & Stream, who ran rivers and fished with Wooldridge, wrote a glowing foreword to Arman's book, part of which we've reprinted in this website’s historic section.
Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, Herbert Hoover, Zane Grey and countless others, famous and not, chose Glen Wooldridge for their fishing and adventure trips. At the root of it all was a Wooldridge Boat.
It was 1915 when "Grandpa" Wooldridge (1896-1986) built his first river boat to make that first-ever float down Oregon's Rogue River. The evolution of Wooldridge Boats from the past to the present was laced with many firsts, like the first-ever trip up the Rogue River in 1947 (with a prop, of course, no jets back then).
The Rogue River Hellgate jet boat excursions are based right across the river from this memorial and are a popular activity for visitors staying in Grants Pass.