Bert Loper

Green River claims Bert Loper, the self-taught boatman they called the Grand Old Man of the Colorado. Born in 1869 — the year Powell first ran the river — he spent half a century on the Green, San Juan, and Colorado, and was said to have logged more miles on that water than anyone alive. In 1949, three weeks shy of eighty, he died at the oars in a Marble Canyon rapid. His companions hauled his wrecked boat ashore and left it where it lay. The river kept him for twenty-six years, until a hiker found his bones downstream.

What the plaque says

Bert Loper Pioneer - Soldier - Prospector River Guide Born July 31,1869 at Bowling Green, Missouri. Lost July 8,1949 in the vastness of the Grand Canyon, the land of the blue horizons and the silent desert mesas that he loved so well. "I belong to the wonderous west and the west belongs to me."

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Green River — steps away
  A small desert town famous for its melons and river adventures
• John Wesley Powell River History Museum — 0.6 mi
  The only U.S. museum devoted to river history, on the bank of the Green River.
• Crystal Geyser — 4.3 mi
  A cold-water geyser that erupts from an abandoned oil well

More markers nearby

• Major Powell, Colorado River Explorer — 1.1 mi
• Woodside — 21 mi