In the late autumn of 1928, a 29-year-old man named Glen Rollin Hyde, along with his new wife Bessie, embarked on a daring honeymoon adventure that would etch their names into the lore of the Grand Canyon. Glen, a farmer from Idaho with some river-running experience, and Bessie, an artist and recent divorcée, set out to navigate the treacherous rapids of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in a 20-foot wooden scow that Glen had built himself.
Their ambitious goal was twofold: to set a new speed record for the journey and for Bessie to become the first woman known to successfully run the canyon's formidable rapids. The couple launched their journey in October 1928, making their way down the Green and Colorado Rivers. They were last definitively seen by another person on November 18, 1928, after they had hiked out to the South Rim to restock supplies and were photographed by noted canyon photographer Emery Kolb. After this encounter, they descended back into the canyon and boated away downriver below Hermit Rapid, vanishing from sight.
The alarm was raised in early December 1928 when the couple failed to arrive at their destination of Needles, California. Glen's father, Rollin, initiated a search even before they were officially considered overdue. On December 19, a search plane made a crucial discovery: the Hydes' scow, adrift and eerily intact, near river mile 237. Searchers who reached the boat found it in a state that suggested a sudden and mysterious departure. It was upright and still held their supplies, food, coats, and Bessie's diary, all neatly strapped in. A camera recovered from the boat contained a final photograph taken around November 27. The last entry in Bessie's journal, dated November 30, noted that they had successfully navigated the rapid at mile 231. Despite extensive and repeated searches of the river and surrounding canyon, no trace of Glen or Bessie Hyde has ever been found.
The complete absence of evidence regarding their fate has fueled decades of speculation and numerous theories. The initial presumption was that the couple met with a tragic accident in the turbulent waters, perhaps being thrown from their boat in a violent rapid. Historians have pointed to the treacherous stretch of water near river mile 232 as a likely spot for such an incident. However, the upright and orderly condition of their scow has always been a confounding detail for those who believe they simply drowned. Over the years, other, more sensational theories have emerged, including tales of arguments and foul play. A woman on a river trip in 1971 famously claimed to be an elderly Bessie Hyde, alleging she had stabbed her abusive husband and escaped the canyon, though she later recanted the story. Skeletal remains discovered on separate occasions in the decades following their disappearance were initially thought to belong to Glen, but forensic examinations ultimately ruled him out in each case. The story of the Hydes remains one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries of the Grand Canyon, a haunting narrative of a honeymoon adventure that ended in silence, leaving only an empty boat and unanswered questions.Last Seen: Nov 15, 1928
