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Table 1. Diaries from historical river trips in Grand Canyon used in this study. Date ofTrip Author Part of Canyon Source of Material 1951 S. Reilly Lees Ferry to Phantom Unpublished diary 1952 F. Wright All Unpublished diary 1953 P.T. Reilly All Unpublished diary 1953 F. Wright All Unpublished diary 1953 G.White All Unpublished diary 1954 O. Marston All Unpublished diary 1954 G. White All Unpublished diary 1955 P.T. Reilly All Unpublished diary 1955 F. Wright All Unpublished diary 1956 P.T. Reilly All Unpublished diary 1956 F. Wright All Unpublished diary 1957 P.T. Reilly Lees Ferry to Phantom Unpublished diary 1957 F. Wright All Unpublished diary 1958 P.T. Reilly Phantom to Lava Falls Unpublished diary 1959 P.T. Reilly Lees Ferry to Pipe Creek Unpublished diary 1962 P. T. Reilly All Unpublished diary 1964 P. T. Reilly All Unpublished diary knowing full well that Bedrock had and Dubendorff had not. The Old Timers correctly recognized the changes in Bedrock Rapid and the lack of change in Dubendorff. By listening to the answers, we established the credibility of the Old Timers as very high in remembering specific and detailed information about changes in Grand Canyon. We also established that differences in water level between the pre-dam era and the Old Timer's Trip was extremely important to their memory of specific sites. Several did not remember the debris bars at Vaseys Paradise and the mouth of the Little Colorado River. These bars may have changed significantly, but both bars may have been covered with water when some of the Old Timers passed them. Some observations may seem trivial or unremarkable. For example, the large invasion of non- native tamarisk is generally recognized by scientists and river runners alike (Turner and Karpiscak, 1980; Stevens, 1989). On the other hand, tamarisk was advancing its distribution before Glen Canyon Dam was built and the rate of its spread is little known (see Graf, 1978). Because of such subtleties, we include the full set of observations. Other changes noted by the Old Timers, particularly those concerning wildlife, are probably inconclusive, a consequence of limited observations and lack of independent scientific verification. We include them anyway, albeit with appropriate caveats, to spur discussion. SPECIFIC CHANGES OBSERVED IN GRAND CANYON Aesthetics in Grand Canyon The aesthetics of river trips were a common theme among the Old Timers. Some, particularly Sandy Nevills Reiff and Joan Nevills Staveley, commented on how clean the canyon is now. Their most recent canyon experiences were just before the current policy of cleaning up trash and hauling human waste from campsites. When they did most of their trips from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, human waste and garbage were buried in sandbars. Others found the noise of aircraft overflights to be oppressive compared to the noise from the rare airplane that passed over the canyon in the pre-dam era. . Several Old Timers missed the effects of a sllt- laden river on the quality of the river trip. In particular, they missed the sound of sand scraping on the sides and bottoms of boats. The waves in rapids appeared to be different; the pre-dam sediment-laden waves appeared SPECIFIC CHANGES OBSERVED IN GRAND CANYON 7