by Roy Webb

Bus Hatch, a hard-drinking, hard-fighting carpenter from Vernal, Utah, became one of the seminal figures in Western river running. Together with his inlaws (and a few outlaws) they began boating the Green and Colorado Rivers around 1930. It was they that introduced having a riotously good time to an occupation formerly considered very serious business. By the 1950s Hatch was hauling hundreds of clients downriver through Dinosaur National Monument and river throughout the West. Bus Hatch's river business--now run by his grandson--is still one of the best known in the country.