Historic Wooldridge Pictures

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#101

Post by glen wooldridge »

FOUND: Old Super 8 Footage - The original owner, Ron used this boat on the Unik River to haul materials and supplies. It was later used for hauling cargo from Ketchikan to Bell Island Fishing Resort. The boat is 29’ Long, 7’ Bottom and is powered by twin 350 OIds mated to 773 Hamilton Pumps. Top speed when empty was 53 mph.

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[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBiJECVazw[/video]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#102

Post by glen wooldridge »

FOUND: Old Super 8 Footage - Upper Rogue River using 18’ open boat powered by a 181 Chev and a 772 Hamilton pump.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oroO5hU ... e=youtu.be[/video]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#103

Post by glen wooldridge »

FOUND: Old Super 8 Footage - Lower Rogue River using 21’ boat powered by 351 Ford and 773 Hamilton Jet running Graves Creek Rapids. The open outboard jet is my cousin Mark with a boat he built in Grants pass. He is intentionally running right down the tongue trying to see how much air he can get.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxzGXVBIPWo[/video]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#104

Post by glen wooldridge »

FOUND: Old Super 8 Footage – This is from the trip in the late 70’s. We launched at Pittsburgh landing. The two boats on the beach are Chucks 18’ and my 21’ Classics, both with 351 three stages. Both boats have 5’ bottoms and 24” sides. My tow truck was a 1961 GMC.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0NOx3o ... e=youtu.be[/video]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#105

Post by glen wooldridge »

Picture of a boat getting shipped to the interior of Alaska in the 1970’s

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#106

Post by glen wooldridge »

Picture of an early tour boat

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#107

Post by glen wooldridge »

Here is a picture from Clay Hill on the Rogue in 1945 with Grandpa.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#108

Post by glen wooldridge »

glen wooldridge wrote:Picture of an early tour boat

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I found some more details on this boat. Quote:
“I had started a tour boat run from the city park to hellsgate and back. It was a 50 mile run, and would stop for lunch at Galice.”
“I built one boat here in Grants Pass, a 26 footer that would carry 6 passengers. I was charging $5.50 a person.”
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#109

Post by glen wooldridge »

On Sep, 20 1975, my grandfather was the first one to run up Hellsgate on the Frasier in Canada. He did it 8 times that day. He was 79 years old when he did it. He used a 21 foot boat that my Uncle Bruce and Cousins Mike and Mark built in grants pass. The next day, he ran up the Thompson to the Spence Bridge.
Check out the Video.

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38WCO1ykWy0[/BBvideo]
Last edited by glen wooldridge on Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#110

Post by glen wooldridge »

In 1947, grandpa was the first one to run upriver from Gold Beach to Grants Pass. The next few posts will show pictures from that trip.

Quote from: The Rogue: A River to Run

“During those first twenty to twenty-five years of downriver guiding, Glen kept thinking how it would be to make an upriver run. As early as 1941 he was convinced that such a trip could be made. He started testing and experimenting with boats and equipment to make the trip.”

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#111

Post by glen wooldridge »

Quote from: The Rogue: A River to Run

“When the war was over, Glen bought some of the surplus motors built for war use. They were 22hp Evinrudes, not as powerful las he would have liked, but he spent time making trial runs and gauging their strength against the falls and rapids of the Rogue.”

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#112

Post by glen wooldridge »

From: The Rogue: A River to Run (Quoting Grandpa)
“That was quite an experiment; the motors didn’t amount to much, back then. I had to wait several years, until they came up with a motor I thought would do the job. In 1947, they came out with a good 22 horse Evinrude, but the propeller on it wasn’t much good. We had to get them to work it over to our specifications.
If a prop isn’t made right it has a tendency to slip, where there is a lot of air in the water. The two-blade propeller wasn’t worth a hoot for upriver running. The first good one we got two work was an aluminum prop from Evinrude. It was a three-blade flat propeller.
The diameter and pitch of the prop are very important. We did a lot of experimenting to find out what would be the best job on a certain motor.
A motor has to turn up about is recommended speed or you don’t get much power out of it. So we had to change the pitch of the propeller to get it down so we could get the right rpm off the motor.
A lot of trial and error went into that stuff, but running up the Rogue was a big thing. It had never been done before.”

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#113

Post by glen wooldridge »

Quote from: The Rogue: A River to Run
“The boat Glen built for the trip was twenty feet, two inches long, with a seven foot, four inch beam. It had plenty of rake and flare. He painted it bright red so it would show up in the water.”

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#114

Post by glen wooldridge »

Quote from: The Rogue: A River to Run(Quoting Grandpa)
“Several Newspapers and magazines and newsreel companies had showed interest in covering the trip. When the Oregon Journal newspaper head about it, they sent word they would have a helicopter fly over us to take pictures. But they couldn’t get off the day we planned, on account of making repairs on their helicopter. We postponed the trip for a couple of days so they could cover it.”

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#115

Post by glen wooldridge »

Quote from: The Rogue: A River to Run
“The trip upriver ran into difficulty at Black Bar Falls. They had to make four attempts before clearing this five-foot steep climb, and it took Glen at the motor and all four hands at the oars to do it.
Anywhere people could get to the river banks, they waited to see the boat come by. When Glen and his crew arrived at Riverside Park, in Grants Pass, at six o’clock in the evening on May 9, there was a big crowd waiting to greet them.
It had taken fourteen hours and fifteen minutes running time to make that first trip up the Rogue.”

End of first run up the Rogue, 1947 left to right, Bob Pritchett, Glen, and Charley Foster.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#116

Post by glen wooldridge »

For several posts, I will do excerpts from a special video.

My Dad needed an operation, the way my grandfather paid the Dr. for the operation was with a float trip down the river. The trip took place in 1941. It is from Grants Pass to Gold Beach. The Dr. brought a color movie camera and filmed the trip. It had to be very unusual to have a color camera as just 2 years earlier, the Wizard of Oz was released in color.

This is the only known footage of the Rogue Canyon from the 1940’s
I hope you enjoy it.

Glen.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZt855g ... e=youtu.be[/video]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#117

Post by glen wooldridge »

Here is a clip from the 1941 Movie

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0z8B1a ... e=youtu.be[/video]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#118

Post by glen wooldridge »

Here is a clip from the 1941 Movie

For the sportsman in your family who is hard to shop for: We are offering a holiday gift package that is sure to please him or her. Our package includes the book Rogue: A River to Run, The 1941 Rogue River Trip with Glen Wooldridge DVD, and the Alaskan Adventure DVD.
The Rogue: A River to Run this book is jam-packed with more than 265 pages of historic photos, facts, interviews and personal glimpses into the life and times of Glen Wooldridge (1896-1986) and the evolution of river boats!
The historic 1941 Rogue River Trip (DVD) captures in full-color one of the many early-day floats Glen Wooldridge (1896-1986) made down the Rogue River. It includes the only known photos of Blossom Bar after Glen opened up the south channel. We aren’t aware of any other pre-war movie of floating the Rogue and this Collector’s DVD includes the Wooldridge adventure from start to finish. Check out launching boats with his 1934 Chevy in Grants Pass, then conquering big rapids, deep canyons, making tight turns and fishing, camping and more!
Finally, fly along with Glen, Grant and their friend Jim as they fly, boat and fish through a great Alaskan Adventure!
This package is available on the Wooldridge Website for $29.95, a $62.85 value
The book was $24.95 and is now on sale for $19.95
The 1941 Rogue River DVD was $24.95 and is now on sale for $12.95
The Alaskan Adventure DVD was $12.95 and is now on sale for $2.95

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICLqgWS ... e=youtu.be[/BBvideo]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#119

Post by glen wooldridge »

My Grandpa ran the Salmon River from Riggins to Salmon City in 1948. Then in 1949, he ran it again shooting some movie footage. We have still from 1948 and clips from 1949. We will show you some of both.
It was 180 miles to run and the river drops 2500 feet in that distance. I had never seen the river, but I knew there had to be some pretty big rapids somewhere with that much fall to the river. It falls much faster than the Rogue. I built the boat a little longer than the one I ran the Rogue in the year before. I made this one 22 foot long. I decided the longer boat would keep the propeller in the water longer when the boat was going up the rougher places. That cuts down on the cavitation a little.
(This is a quote from The Rogue: A River to Run about the 1948 Salmon River trip)

Glen and Ruell Hawkins, first trip up the Salmon River in Idaho.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#120

Post by glen wooldridge »

We put the boat in at Riggins, it was just a little town at the foot of the canyon. We didn’t have a ramp or any special place to put the boat in the river, because there wasn’t anybody boating in that country at that time. We just had to find a place where it wasn’t too much trouble to put the boat in.

[BBvideo 560,340]www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dIOrhYVS6g&feature=youtu.be[/BBvideo]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#121

Post by glen wooldridge »

Glen and Ruell above first riffle above Riggins, 1948

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Glen and Ruell on Salmon River, 1948

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#122

Post by glen wooldridge »

We had a lot of trouble with the propeller just letting go of the water. It was a poorly shaped prop to begin with, and then with the big, bulky lower unit, it would go into a fit of cavitation, and wouldn’t pull anything until we got it to grab hold again.
If a propeller isn’t made right, it has a tendency to slip, cavitate. Where there is a lot of air in the water, it just lets go. Then we’d have to go back and try it again.

“On this trip, he asked Ruell Hawkins, the boatman on the lower Rogue, to go along and handle the oars.”

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUVEkn8Bks[/BBvideo]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#123

Post by glen wooldridge »

Glen ran the boat only about 5 hours each day because of the strain of handling the boat against the rough forceful river. They camped on the sand bars at night and cooked over campfires.

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wF_5qv ... e=youtu.be[/BBvideo]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#124

Post by glen wooldridge »

I believe this rapid is Ludwig

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSsjwsHWHyA[/BBvideo]
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#125

Post by glen wooldridge »

Wild game was plentiful in the isolated canyon. They saw mountain goats, mountain sheep, lots of deer and elk, and even one baby moose.

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTz-LjE ... e=youtu.be[/BBvideo]
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