Historic photograph of boats on a beach along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, 1923 by E.C. LaRue during the Birdseye Expedition

This historic photograph shows boats on a beach along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, by E.C. LaRue during the 1923 Birdseye Expedition through Grand Canyon. The Birdseye Expedition surveyed a 251-mile stretch of the Colorado River from Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek. The two major goals of the expedition were to locate potential dam sites and create a series of maps and profiles of the area. Emory LaRue was an engineer for the USGS until 1927 and was the Birdseye Expedition hydrologist and photographer. The location is River Mile 74.4, looking upstream on river right at the lower end of Rattlesnake Camp. National Archives photo LaRue #411. This photo is the first in a series of repeat photographs in the SBSC's Southwest Repeat Photography Collection, stake (camera point) s2505. Later photographs in 1991 and 2002 show ecological change at this site.