In 1928 a pair of river runners who were on their honeymoon disappeared after they left the Grand Canyon. A month later a search party found their boat – fully loaded and in perfect condition. The mystery remained unsolved for 50 years, and then a young man found a skeleton with a bullet hole in its head.
by Robert Marcos, photojournalist
For 73 years Emery Kolb and his brother Ellsworth lived and worked at the Grand Canyon, as photographers. The brothers operated Kolb Studio which was located on the South Rim next to the Bright Angel trailhead. During their time there the brothers photographed one and a half million tourists, and were the first to use a movie camera to capture the majesty of the Colorado River as it flowed through the canyon.1
Emery Kolb died on December 11, 1976. In his obituary the New York Times said, “Over the years Kolb had become such an integral part of the Grand Canyon experience that tourists had begun to take pictures of him, instead of him taking pictures of them.”
Two of the people Emery Kolb had photographed 50 years before were newlyweds who’d been married in Twin Falls Idaho. Glen Hyde and Bessie Haley had decided to spend their honeymoon floating down the Colorado River in a boat that Glen Hyde had built specifically for that purpose. The couple began their adventure at Green River Utah and tied their boat up at the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Creek on November 15, 1928. They hiked 9 miles up to the South Rim to buy supplies. On their way back they stopped at Kolb Studio and were photographed by Emery Kolb. Kolb and others noticed that Bessie seemed to be completely exhausted and was ready to quit the grueling trip. Kolb urged the couple to wear life jackets, and offered to let them stay for the winter, but Glen refused. At that point the couple had already completed 424 miles of their 750 mile long voyage to Needles California – where Glen’s father was scheduled to meet them.2
Three weeks later Glen’s father arrived in Needles and then waited several days for the couple to arrive. When they didn’t he contacted the police and reported them missing. A massive air and ground search got underway and eight days later an aircraft spotted the couple’s abandoned boat intact and floating upright near river mile 237. However the authorities had great difficulty reaching the boat because it was floating in an extremely remote area surrounded by high cliffs that afforded no access from the land.3
To reach the area, Emery Kolb led a search party that included Grand Canyon Chief Ranger James Brooks, and John Hyde, (Glen father), to Peach Springs, Arizona. From there, Emery and Chief Ranger Brooks hiked 22 miles down a sandy wash to reach Diamond Creek, on the Colorado River. Emery’s brother Ellsworth joined the two men the following day. The men worked together to repair an old flat-bottomed boat that had been abandoned in Diamond Creek. When it was repaired the next morning they floated downstream for 14 miles until they reached Glen and Bessie Hyde’s boat, called “Rain-in-the-Face”, which they found upright and fully stocked.4
As Chief Ranger Brooks searched along the riverbank Emery and Ellsworth Kolb examined the contents of the boat. They were looking for anything that would give them an idea of what had happened to the young couple. But they came up with nothing. The boat was not only seaworthy, but it was fully stocked with food, clothing, campling supplies, and personal items including Glen’s wallet, money, and rifle, plus Bessie’s camera and her personal diary. By the end of the day the extensive examination carried out by the three men had found absolutely no evidence of foul play.5
Conspiracy theories began to circulate
The reason that the Hyde’s boat had stopped at its remote location wasn’t because of damage, or because of an eddy, it was because a rope that had been trailing off its stern got snagged by large rocks under the surface. Therefore when the Kolb brothers had completed their search and had transferred the Hyde’s more valuable possessions onto their own boat, they cut the rope that had – for a month – held the Hyde’s boat in place. Less than ten minutes later the craft floated downstream into a rapid, broke apart, and sank.6
In retrospect there was no reason for the brothers to have cut the boat loose. The boat had proven itself seaworthy and could’ve been put to good use elsewhere, or even returned to its owners if they had shown up later. The brothers had to have considered that possibility unless they knew otherwise. A conspiracy story that had begun to circulate suggested that the brothers had cut the rope in order to eliminate evidence that might’ve connected them to the Hyde’s disappearance.
Adding fuel to the fire
In 1977 – about a year after Emery Kolb’s death, Emery Kolb’s grandson finally began to clean out his grandfather’s boathouse. He was about halfway done when he found a dusty bundle that had been hidden up in the rafters, inside an old canoe. When the young man unwrapped the bundle he found that it contained a human skeleton. The Sheriff was notified and deputies who arrived at the scene found a bullet hole in the skeleton’s skull. The discovery made headlines: which fueled even more speculation that the Kolb brothers had in some way been involved in the young couple’s disappearance.7
Science and Archival photographs clear Emery’s name
The “Kolb Skeleton” as it became known was transferred from the Cococino County Coroner’s Office to a forensic anthropologist at the University of Arizona named Dr. Walter Birkby. The first finding that Dr. Birkby released was that the skeleton belonged to a man, who was 22 years of age or younger. Dr. Birkby also determined that the man had died in 1932 or later, and that the skeleton had belonged to a man who was significantly shorter than Glen Hyde was. 8
In 2006, several hundred historical photographs were donated to the Grand Canyon Museum Collection by the son of a former park ranger. Among these images were several depicting the skeleton of a man that had been found on a ledge under the canyon’s rim near Shoshone Point on June 4, 1933. The man had a single bullet hole above his right temple and was found to have shot himself. The pictures, along with a Superintendent Report from June 1933, were used to determine that the body found in 1933 was the same as the one discovered in 1977. Emery Kolb was a jury representative for the Grand Canyon region in Coconino County for several years, and it is now believed that he may have been asked to hold onto the remains for safekeeping. The remains that are currently identified as the “Kolb Skeleton” continue to be tested at the Ramapo College of New Jersey. 9
