Greene Family Collection

Arthur Art Hayward Greene, Sr. (1895-1978) was born to Allan Butler and Annie Elizabeth (Morgan) Greene in Telluride, Colorado. When he was 18 years old and living in Aztec, New Mexico, he was fascinated by the potential of river float trips. He began running such trips down the San Juan River and soon built a successful business transporting entrepreneurs with mining interests.

Greene married Ethel Cady Johnson (1897-1957) on August 11, 1917 and the couple had five children: Ruth Lorene (Greene) Baker (1918-1994), Grace Katherine (Greene) Williams Schoppman (1920-1987), Arthur Hayward Bill (1921-1998), Annie Irene (Greene) Johnson (1923-1974), and Opal Lee (1927-1931). In 1943 Greene moved his family to Granado, Arizona, where he worked for the Hubble Trading Post. Later that year he moved his family to Marble Canyon to operate Marble Canyon Lodge. While there, Greene began running Colorado River trips from Lees Ferry to Rainbow Bridge. With his son, Bill Jr., and sons-in-law, Earl Johnson and Vern Baker, Greene pioneered the use of power boats on commercial river trips.

In 1944 Greene learned about the coming of Glen Canyon Dam. He adapted his business by building an 8 foot by 24 foot flat bottom boat and adding a 45 HP Pratt Whitney Radial motor attached to an airplane prop for propulsion. The local Navajo people named the boat Tse-nan-ni-ago-atim, meaning Trail to the Rock that Goes Over. As Bill Greene and his brothers-in-law returned from military service, they directed their time and energy to river running and other family businesses. In 1949, the family purchased the Cliff Dwellers Lodge and continued river trips to Rainbow Bridge. Art and Bill Greene also transported Bureau of Reclamation personnel up the river numerous times and helped them to determine the site for Glen Canyon Dam.

The Greene family formed Canyon Tours, Inc. and purchased leases on six sections of Arizona State land from Curly Tsoe in 1953. The first Wahweap Lodge was completed on this land in 1956. In 1957, the Bureau of Reclamation informed the Greenes that they would have to move from their new business site due to the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. With the help of Senators Barry Goldwater and Carl Hayden, the Greene family was able to maintain their enterprise. The National Park Service later told the Greenes that they would have to move because their business was located in a National Recreation Area, but the family (again with help from Senator Goldwater) managed to retain both their land and their concession rights to the Wahweap area.

In 1959, the completion of the Glen Canyon Bridge brought a highway to Page, Lake Powell, and Wahweap. In 1966, water backed up to form Wahweap Bay and marked Wahweap as a premier tourist attraction.