ABOUT GAYLORD

Gaylord Staveley discovered the Colorado River in 1956 and unexpectedly found himself operating the whitewater boating company established by Norman Nevills, who was widely known as the World’s Number One Whitewater Boatman at the time of his death in 1949.

In 1957 Gaylord bought his partner's interest in the Nevills' company which was then called Mexican Hat Expeditions. In 1969 the company's name was changed to Canyoneers, Inc. Today, Canyoneers continues as the oldest Colorado River running outfitter in Grand Canyon. Gaylord currently serves as the CEO of Canyoneers.

For more than fifty succeeding years, Gaylord has lived and worked “inside” professional river running, a period spanning the construction of dams on the Colorado River system, the explosion of whitewater boating as popular adventure travel, and the developing fray over who gets to use the river, what for, when, and how much.

For fifteen years he served as chairman of the Colorado River Outfitters Association (CROA) and its successor, the Professional River Outfitters Association (PRO).

Books by Gaylord include:

• Broken Waters Sing (Little Brown / Sports Illustrated, 1971)
• Ammo Can Interp, a boatman's "encyclopedia" (co-author and publisher, 2006)
• The Rapids and The Roar (Fretwater Press, 2015)
• Taking Big Red (Fretwater Press, 2016)