Edith Clegg’s “Voyage of Discovery”

Photos Courtesy Cambridge Museum

58-years old. Widow. Grandmother nine times over. These are not usually terms one associates with adventure. But Edith Clegg was no ordinary person. Long a fan of Lewis and Clark, Clegg often dreamed of conducting her own “Voyage of Discovery” – in her case, crossing the country by an all water route.


Clegg’s guide was “Buzz” Holmstrom, one of the best boatmen of the day, whose credits included a solo trip down the Grand Canyon. “Buzz” hired, Earl “Doc” Hamilton, Clarence Bean and Willis “Bill” Johnson. In 1992 Johnson told author Cort Conley that Clegg paid him $150 for the month long trip, nearly twice what he made working in a mine.


On April 23, 1939, Edith Clegg’s “Voyage of Discovery” got underway from Portland, Oregon. Her journey would take her up the Columbia and Snake River, and from there, by water to the Atlantic – a feat accomplished only once before. Less than three weeks after starting, they began their upstream trip through Hells Canyon – a feat accomplished only once before.


The trip was exhausting and dangerous. The group would motor their boats to the head of a rapid and unload everything. After packing supplies around the rapids, they would line the boat through the rough water. Occasionally, they would run the empty boats through the rapid. At Mountain Sheep Rapid, Holmstrom was tossed from the boat without his life jacket. “Doc” Hamilton managed to pull Holmstrom into his boat. Once on shore, the exhausted Holmstrom collapsed and the grateful Clegg swore to St. Christopher that she wouldn’t smoke for the rest of the trip.


After a month in Hells Canyon, the group reached Weiser. Although still thousands of miles from the Atlantic, they knew the worst was now behind them. Johnson, Hamilton and Bean were dismissed, and Clegg and Holmstrom continued to New York. They reached the Atlantic on September 12, 1939, less than five months after leaving Portland. Edith Clegg’s “Voyage of Discovery” was over.


Rattlesnakes and Rapids. A Woman’s Journey Against the Current in 1939.
The Doing of the Thing.
Program Transcript