Sunk Without a Sound : The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde

by Brad Dimock

The mystery of Glen and Bessie Hyde is whitewater navigation's equivalent to Mallory and Irvine's disappearance on Everest in 1924. Just four years later in October 1928, the Hydes, a bright, attractive, and talented young couple built their own wooden sweep scow and launched on a honeymoon voyage down the Green and Colorado Rivers through Grand Canyon. Bessie was the first woman to ever attempt the river. Halfway through Grand Canyon they talked to the press, then disappeared into the gloomy November depths of the gorge. They were never seen again. Despite an extensive series of searches, no trace was found except, eerily, their upright, intact, fully loaded, and snagged in calm water. Glen and Bessie had vanished without a trace. For the next seven decades their tale evolved from simple facts to convoluted folklore and myth. A woman appeared on a river trip in 1971 claiming to be Bessie, having murdered Glen and hiked out. In 1976 a skeleton was found at Grand Canyon with a bullet through the skull. Size, age and circumstance suggested it was the body of Glen Hyde. In 1985 a woman surfaced with a tale of her father, Glenn Hyde, who had disappeared in 1928, but reappeared seven years later with tales of having rafted rivers. He said he had attempted the Colorado through Grand Canyon but "it didn't work out." And he carried a scar on his back from a knife wound, delivered by a woman named Bessie. And in 1992, when Georgie Clark, the most famous of all river runners, died, her past was discovered to be pure fiction. She had been born Bessie, and her lingerie drawer held a marriage record for Glen and Bessie Hyde. And a pistol. Author and boatman Brad Dimock tackled this story with an obsession, tracking each clue, lead, and rumor, even going to the extreme of building a replica of the Hydes' archaic sweep scow for a harrowing journey through Grand Canyon with his own bride. The resulting book, a masterful interweaving of past and present, of pathos and humor, is a classic in outdoor adventure, mystery writing, literary nonfiction, and investigative journalism. With 304 profusely illustrated pages, this beautiful book is not only a joy to look at, but a true page turner.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Adventure, True Crime, Mystery, American History

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2001

Reviews

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of the author retracing the footsteps of missing couple, Bessie & Glen Hyde. The two young newly-weds set out to voyage on the Green & Colorado rivers through the Grand Canyon in a sweep scow on their honeymoon in 1928. They kept their family up to date with regular letters sent from outposts until they disappeared & although their families searched for them, they were never found - just the boat moored at the side of the river still fully stocked with their food, camping equipment, money etc. Over the years several women have come forward claiming to be Bessie saying that she had killed Glen & escaped on foot. The author examines the (admittedly scant) evidence for the claims & tries to recreate their voyage down river to find out what may have happened.

I thought this was an interesting read. I'd never heard of Bessie & Glen or sweep scows. The boats are basically floating boxes with a sweep (a long oar) at the front & back for steerage, & the author finds through experience that they are not the ideal boat for a river such as the Colorado. There's lots of side information about Glen & Bessie's family history, the river itself, & previous attempts to navigate the waterway. Some areas of the Colorado river & their hidden dangers of rapids, eddies, & whirlpools were still almost unknown at this point, & Bessie would have been the first woman to complete it had they succeeded. I have to say that I pretty much agree with the author's conclusion. 3.5 stars (rounded up)

[Jeania · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched account of the disappearance and subsequent search for two honeymooners who traveled down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon running rapids in a scow. The year was 1928 (9 years after the Grand Canyon became a national park) and Bessie Hyde would have been the first woman to attempt such feat. The author makes a good point that aside from the adventure of the journey, Glen and Bessie lived in the age of “record setting and exploration” (Amelia Earhart, George Mallory, Charles Liindbergh) and a successful trip would have earned them enough fame to go on the pre-television Vaudeville lecture circuit that accounted for so many small theaters across America at the time.

Because their bodies were never found, there were several stories that grew up around the disappearance that the author revisits, along with their backgrounds before they got together that added to the mystery of who they really were. For example, Bessie, only 23, had been married before. The book has substantial discussion of rafting that may interest and benefit someone who has done or will do such a trip. However, the technical details are not so overwhelming as to turn off the more casual reader who is mostly interested in the mystery part of the story. I know enough about the area and some of the places and names that it was easy and entertaining for me to imagine the trip. I also enjoyed Bessie’s pieces of poetry (just simple rhymed verse, many tied to the river and exploration) at the start of each chapter. The author had access to a phenomenal amount of photos (many of which I wished were larger as sometimes small ones were surrounded by the blank space of a whole page) that evidence the access the Hyde family and others gave him to any surviving records of the two. The author’s work is a labor of love for the sport and the couple.

On the other hand, I did come away from the book thinking the story was unfinished. I didn’t feel there was complete commitment by the author on settling on what happened to the couple – he in fact asks people to contact him if they find out any more. One thing I would have liked to have known more about was why Georgie had a copy of Bessie and Glen’s marriage certificate. I don’t think that question was answered with any certainty, so maybe more time in the book should have been spent researching these other “Bessies” and “Glens” if the real Bessie’s and Glen’s final ends were not clear. To me, this part of the book was the most curious, but too short in comparison to the setup and technical details of the river and painstakingly mapped out route.

Overall though, I think the author did a very nice job and could recommend the book to several people.

[Troy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The one-phrase rundown: not bad, but not great, either.

I was intrigued by the story when I saw the book in the Canyonlands VC, as it seemed like a local myth. It is indeed, but more to the Grand Canyon than the upper Colorado or Green, where I was.
The disappearance of the Hydes is a myth which has grown all out of proportion to its beginnings, and in that regard the book is well-researched and explains the reality of the 80-year old case: the contemporary (well, the 70s and 80s) twists and turns, what is known, and importantly, what is not. Some this was fun reading.

However, with the plentitude of historical facts and sometimes interesting sidelines came a tedium that was eventually too much for me. In retrospect, I would have been happy learning about 1/3 of the information contained in the book.

I suspected that I might get TMI when I started reading the book, so I can’t complain too much about reading about previous generations of the victim’s families. The author, a boatman himself, goes into detail about the scow (the type of boat the couple took), the hydraulics of the river, and the rapids the Hydes would have faced, as well as various locations in the Grand Canyon, which enrich the story but ultimately meant very little to me. I highly suspect that locals, canyon folks, and in particular river runners, would get more out of the story thus told.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of his research for this book, the author Brad Dimock actually attempted to recreate the setting of Glen and Bessie Hyde's disappearances. Both professional boaters, Dimock and his wife made a sweep scow like the Hydes' boat, as reconstructed from photographs, and rafted down the same rivers they did to get a feeling of what it was like. Dimock's experience on the river no doubt contributed to the conclusions he reached about Bessie and Glen's disappearance.

Thoroughly researched and packed with photographs of Glen, Bessie, their family members and other people involved in their story, Sunk Without a Sound is a real gem of a book. Dimock provides extensive biographical history on the Hydes, maps of their routes, and quoted reminiscences from those who knew them and from Glen and Bessie's own letters and notes. Most importantly, Dimock is a good myth-destroyer. By sweeping all the extraneous campfire gossip aside, he enables the reader to see as well as is possible what must have happened to Glen and Bessie. The old adage about how the simplest explanation is most likely to be the correct one definitely applies here, and I write this with a certain sadness, for I grew fond of the Hydes as I read about their lives. I highly recommend this book, to mystery buffs, historians and outdoor lovers alike.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wilderness adventure wrapped in a mystery with a thriller on the side. Dimock interviewed everyone alive who had even marginally entered the Hydes' orbit, which makes for some confusion, but so does a wave train on a wild river. The many photographs offer a breath-catching eddy to slow the charging pace. Descending the Colorado in a sweep scow unsupported was a crazy idea, but it was a decade of crazy ideas that worked out better than this trip. A father's search for his missing child is the heart of the story, and Bessie Hyde's poetry is a mournful reminder that the couple were young, smart with a bright future ahead, but for this crazy idea.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a subject that I've long been fascinated by, but never got around to purchasing this book. Finally did after listening to a podcast that recommended it. It has a lot of new (to me) information and new (to me) photographs; the new information mostly being the fleshing out of details that most who know the story would already know. There's a lot of rafting related information in it that will interest someone who likes rafting in general and that would delight anyone who has done one of the commercial trips that exist today, because they'd really feel like they were there as it happened to the Hydes - Dimock mentions that when he reached where they likely lost their lives, he felt as if he 'had to watch them die' and I honestly felt that reading this, as someone who like Dimock has grown to care about these people who passed before one of my grandparents was even born. The technical stuff in the book is not so heavy handed though that people who are just into the story itself would become disinterested. It is, in my opinion, extremely well balanced.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cool book. It explored the mysterious disappearance of honeymooners Glen and Bessie Hyde. They were using a homemade boat from Idaho called a scow to run the Green and Colorado Rivers into the Grand Canyon in 1928. The author used whatever he could from the Hydes' past so we would have some background information on the couple as people. He also took a rafting trip with his wife in a homemade boat to try to better understand what may have happened to the Hydes. Finally, the author alluded to some of the people who appeared to have a linked past with the honeymooners. Ultimately, it seems the river did not give up the Honeymooners but it was interesting to read all the theories fleshed out.

[Jeremy Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. The premise was enticing, the author seemed to work incredibly hard researching and experiencing it, and a nonfiction book sticking to under 300 pgs is always a good sign - I appreciated the author's comment that authors should stay out of their work, and I was fine when he didn't.
I just don't think there was enough story here, partially because it was the 1920s and no one went hard on the research while those involved were alive, and partially because there just isn't quite enough mystery. The disappearance itself somehow ended too logically and unsatisfyingly at the same time, so I needed more after-the-fact mystery. Every instance where the Hydes "appeared" was instantly gripping, but fell apart too quickly.
Ultimately I think I would have been fine reading the Wikipedia article, but I appreciated the author's effort, and at least it wasn't way too long.

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Glen and Bessie Hyde mysteriously disappearing on their honeymoon trip through the Grand Canyon is, in and of itself, pretty interesting, at least for someone like myself who is kind of obsessed with missing people. (By "kind of," I mean "very." I DID get this book rec off the Charlie Project website.) Parts of this book really held my attention and parts got a little long and boring. I skimmed through a lot of the description of the author and his wife taking their own boat trip down the same route. If this story really interests you, you will probably find some things to like about this book.

[Lee Roversi · Rating 4 out of 5]

nothing like a mystery to keep my interest. especially one that was recommended by our river guides on my recent grand canyon rafting trip. this tale took me right back to our time on the river --- the exhilarating rapids, the calm stretches in between, the sheer majesty of the cliffs and the sometimes feeling of real terror. one can only imagine the fate of bessie and glenn. but, the number of well-researched potential theories kept me riveted, as well as the author's own adventure.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history about the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. A great mystery. Truly enjoyed the book. Fast read.

[Melinda Brasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fascinating��both a fascinating but tragic story and a well-written, accessible, fascinating telling of it.
Some of the details of running specific rapids got a bit long for me, since I'm not familiar with the terms and have a hard time visualizing it, but that's a very minor issue, and river runners will probably love it for that.

The structure of the book was also very good. We learned about Glen and Bessie's early life and courtships. We saw their journey through pieced-together accounts. We went with the author as he and his wife reenacted the journey in the same type of boat. We learned about the boat itself, and how time (and dams) have changed the Colorado. We met other characters, like the Kolb brothers, those who searched for Glen and Bessie, and other survivors or victims of the river. We were stumped by the mystery and led through all the possible theories, some far-fetched and dramatic. We suffered with Glen's dad and as he and others searched and searched. Then we got a measured analysis of what likely happened. And all this was woven together very logically and smoothly.

Now I'll have to look of more of Brad Dimock's books.

More accurate rating: 4.5 stars

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

🖍️ Quite an eye-opening and fascinating history of the disappearance of newlyweds Bessie and Glen Hyde in the Grand Canyon of Arizona in November 1928. To this day, no one really know what happened to them – did they disappear on their own to start a new life, or did they die? The most fascinating part of this are the reprints of poems Bessie wrote. She knew how to write them!

A couple of her poems:

#1 –
A cigarette
May be a ritual,
After a day
Of accomplishment.
Then the thin smoke
Drifts upward
Like incense.

#2 –
The small, brown, shack-like cottage
Hung close to the top of the hill,
The door lamp gave a pale, dim light,
And the leaves and the wind were still.

જ⁀➴🔻 The e-book version can be found on Google Docs and Internet Archive.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed his in-depth research and discussion of what is actually known of the Hyde's trip and what could have happened. It's pretty impressive how much info he tracked down of the rumors and the research he did that debunk them, compiling the facts vs fiction. I found he and his wife's attempt down the Grand in their own sweep boat relevant to all the research he'd been doing and enjoyed reading about their (mis)adventures in the canyon. I also think he did a good job of making the story accessible to non-rafters or others not familiar with the river through Grand Canyon. A fun read!

[Curtis Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of research went into this book. There's probably something for everyone, but maybe some boring parts for everyone too. Reading it was kind of like going down a river; some exciting parts with slow periods along the way.

It'd probably be a good read during or just before doing a river rafting trip. It'll get you in the mood.

[Rebecca Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book within a week of rafting the Grand Canyon. So the places in it were fresh in my mind. I had seen notes about the couple and was aware of them because I had rafted the Canyon twice before. Their story was interesting. I particularly liked how author Dimock brought it via his and his wife's own experience in the Canyon.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this while visiting the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The topic is interesting but a feature article would have sufficed. Skimmed some of the river details and most of the author’s and his wife’s boat trip. Well researched but not a smooth read.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended my survival themed reading run with Sunk Without a Sound by Brad Dimock. It is a non-fiction book about Glen and Bessie Hyde who disappeared in 1928 while on their honeymoon trip taking a wooden scow down the Grand Canyon. They most likely drowned but their bodies were never found. However their wooden sweep scow was found upright and fully loaded. There were enough other oddities to cast some doubt on their fates. It was an interesting read.

[Chandra Boulden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember watching this story on Unsolved Mysteries as a kid; so it was fun to get a more in depth perspective of it. I enjoyed all the side stories and learning about some of the cultural lore of the Grand Canyon. It makes you wonder if it was today what would have happened.

[Pat Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. I am intrigued by the mystery of the event, love the adventures of white water rafting the Grand Canyon. Also I appreciated the author’s point of view from simulating the experience by building the same sweep-scow raft, and floating the same river run with his own wife.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. I was fascinated with Glen learning to run sweep boats in Idaho, and how they would build their wooden sweep boats in a day or two at the river. The geneology of the Hyde and Haley families was also interesting to me. All things Colorado River and Grand Canyon floating as well.

[Carol Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A newlywed couple disappears in 1928 while working their way through the Grand Canyon on a scow boat. The boat is found with everything in it. The couple is never seen again, even after extensive searches.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a raft guide who has been down the Colorado, the mystery of Glenn and Bessie Hyde has always haunted me. This book tells their story, and tries to determine what happened. Very good. Read in one sitting last year and wanted to add it to my read list.

[William Graney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting research into the mystery and the photos added a lot. I liked Bessie's poetry snippets at the beginning of each chapter too.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing!

[Elaine Vinas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend! Page-turner with a satisfying and reasonable conclusion.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one up at the gift shop at the Grand Canyon. It is full of all mysteries and catastrophes out of the Grand Canyon. I found the stories fascinating, but the main mystery of the book isn't half as mysterious as the book title makes it out to be.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story. Fun to mix his travel with the old story. But very detailed on rafting, which takes a while to process.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventure, history, youthful hubris, the Grand Canyon, mysterious disappearance, old bones, and eerie coincidences. This was a very good read!