Survey boat GRAND

Survey boat GRAND

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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.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
boat
boat - row boat
boat - rowboat
date made
1921
associated date
1923
associated institution
US Geological Survey
maker
Fellows and Stewart Shipbuilding Works
place made
United States: California, Los Angeles, San Pedro
Physical Description
wood (overall material)
Measurements
overall: wt. 408.24 kg; 900.01984 lb
overall: 31 in x 18 ft x 4 29/32 ft; 78.74 cm x 5.4864 m x 1.49962 m
ID Number
TR.034381
catalog number
034381
34381
accession number
71541
Credit Line
U.S. Geological Survey
See more items in
Work and Industry: Maritime
Energy & Power
Transportation
Measuring & Mapping
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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