Cataloger Note: This folder was originally dated at 1957, but according to the local newspapers, the first Friendship Cruise was in 1958, not ’57. It was a warm-up for boaters to familiarize themselves with the river prior to a “marathon” race to be held a few weeks later by the Canyon Country Marathon Association.

The Moab Times-Independent, issue of June 12, 1958, covered the first two-river marathon, and makes reference to preliminary runs, including one on May 10 and 11, with 105 boats. This may have been the first “Friendship Cruise,” though not so named until the following year. But there were more early runs: “Since that week-end, a number of boats have made the run each week-end, over thirty running the two rivers on the long Memorial Day week-end.”

A single slide, P0789n1_01_46, is dated from May 29-31. Since this was before Monday became the official holiday, the span of three days was probably Friday to Sunday, and in 1958, Memorial Day was officially on Friday, May 29. So if the notation is correct, the most likely year for this set was 1958, rather than 1957. That erroneous year was probably added years after the fact. Meanwhile, research in the Aaron Ross papers (ACCN 1714) discloses the following: In June of 1957, Aaron B. Ross and his family took a raft down from Green River, but met with a mishap in Desolation Canyon. After this, Ross bought a motorboat. So his participation in the first Friendship Cruise (which was a motorboat event), on Memorial Day weekend in 1958 makes sense.