Pioneer of Safe Passage
Some of the routes you will see as you make your way down the Wild & Scenic section of the Rogue were previously impassable by boat or raft. With towering boulders the size of a small car, these waterways were dynamited for safe passage by pioneer river guide, Glen Wooldridge. Wooldridge used expired dynamite from the Department of Fish and Wildlife to blast boulders in class IV rapids such as Kelsey Falls and Blossom Bar, reducing hazards and portages to improve navigation.
Wooldridge was born near Gold Hill in 1896 and explored the Rogue at an early age. In 1915, he was the first to run the river from Grants Pass to Gold Beach. Two years later, he became the Rogue’s first commercial fishing guide, guiding anglers into the 1970s, including the likes of Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, Herbert Hoover, Betty Grable and Zane Grey.
More exciting tales about the “patron saint of the Rogue’s ‘river rats’ and fishing guides” can be found in Glen Wooldridge’s biography by Florence Arman: “The Rogue, A River to Run.”
Like Glen Wooldridge, we know you will fall in love with the Rogue River and all of its wildness.
“The Rogue is a wild brawling river and you had better respect it. I craved fast white water like steelhead and tried lots of rivers like the Klamath, the Salmon River of No Return and Canadian rivers, but for me, the Rogue beats them all.” – Glen Wooldridge.
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Sources: Glen Wooldridge obituary published in the Grants Pass, OR "The Daily Courier" on Feb 3, 1986.
