A trailer full old kayaks has made its way to the heralded John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River, Utah, thanks to the efforts of industry veterans Landis Arnold and Tom Martin.
“I drove up from Flagstaff, Arizona, up and over the Continental Divide to meet Landis Arnold on the Front Range and pick up five of his historic kayaks for delivery to the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River, Utah,” says Tom Martin of River Runners for Wilderness.
“One is a 1950s Klepper that was once in the Steinway family. This foldboat may be the one used by a Steinway to run Glen Canyon in the 1950s. We helped Landis wrap this boat up, as well as two 60-year-old beautiful handmade fiberglass boats Steve Bradley built and boated in a lot. These 4- and 4.5-meter boats are just beautiful and a great addition to the museum.”
Arnold, a longtime kayaker and former importer of Prijon kayaks to the U.S., is glad the boats have found a new home. “It’s been a fun project that Tom and John have facilitated with the John Wesley Powell River History Museum,” he says. “I have been the caretaker for boats well built and cared for by the owners before. I always thought a museum was needed for them instead of me and this is working out. Thank you Sascha Steinway and your dad The Steven Bradley Family, Mike and Sue O’Brien, as well as my parents, Andy and Becky Arnold for the love, creativity, and care you put into the boats and the river travel the boats facilitated.”