Survey boat GRAND

Description:

Grand is one of four boats used to survey the "ruggedest" 300 miles of the Colorado River's Grand Canyon during the 1923 expedition by the U.S. Geological Survey. Led by Col. Claude Birdseye, the expedition's primary purpose was to survey potential dam sites for the development of hydroelectric power. Indeed, the survey party mapped twenty-one new sites.

Grand is eighteen feet long, with a beam of four feet, eleven inches. Heavily built of oak, spruce, and cedar, the boat weighs about 900 pounds. Grand is one of three boats ordered in 1921 by the survey's sponsors, the Edison Electric Company, and built at the Fellows and Stewart Shipbuilding Works in San Pedro. The vessels were patterned after those designed by the Kolb brothers, who had based their boats on vessels used by trappers in the upper Colorado River canyons.

Date Made: 1921Associated Date: 1923

Associated Institution: US Geological SurveyMaker: Fellows and Stewart Shipbuilding Works

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: California, Los Angeles, San Pedro

See more items in: Work and Industry: Maritime, Energy & Power, Transportation, Measuring & Mapping

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: U.S. Geological Survey

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: TR.034381Catalog Number: 03438134381Accession Number: 71541

Object Name: boatboat - row boatboat - rowboat

Physical Description: wood (overall material)Measurements: overall: wt. 408.24 kg; 900.01984 lboverall: 31 in x 18 ft x 4 29/32 ft; 78.74 cm x 5.4864 m x 1.49962 m

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a3-4f9e-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_515965

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