Norman Nevills

Who was Norman Nevills?

Norman D. Nevills was a pioneer of commercial river-running in the American Southwest, particularly the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He led trips including Dr. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, the first two women to successfully float the Grand Canyon, and Barry Goldwater.

Nevills was the son of William E. and Mae Davies Nevills of California. The elder Nevills left California in 1921 to pursue a career in oil drilling. Norman moved to Mexican Hat, Utah in 1927 after two years of college at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California. William E. Nevills had some experience running whitewater on the Yukon River during the Klondike gold rush, and the younger Nevills adopted his father's interest in running rivers. Norman became interested in running rivers, floating the San Juan River in an open boat in 1932, carrying supplies to a miner downriver from Mexican Hat. The next year, he worked for a while for the Rainbow Bridge/Monument Valley expedition, including using their Wilson Fold-Flat boats on the river.

Nevills met Doris Drown in July, 1933; they married in October of that year. For their honeymoon, they floated the San Juan in a boat that he had built from his mother's horse trough. They had two daughters, Joan, born October 7, 1936, and Sandra, born March 28, 1941.