In November, 1937, Buzz Holmstrom, a service station attendant from Coquille, became the first person to run the Green and Colorado Rivers alone. His eleven-hundred-mile solo journey in a handmade wooden boat brought him national acclaim. After running the last rapid of the Colorado, he wrote in his journal:
I had thought once past there my reward will begin, but now everything ahead seems kind of empty and I find I have already had my reward in the doing of the thing; the stars and cliffs and canyons, the roar of the rapids, the uncertainty and worry, the relief when through each one, the real respect and friendship of the rivermen I met and others.
Some people have said that I conquered the Colorado River. I don't say so. It has never been conquered and never will. I think, anyone who it allows to go through its canyons and see its wonders should feel thankful and privileged.
Holmstrom died on the Grand Ronde River in northeast Oregon in 1946 and is buried in Coquille.