History

After World War II, the public was able to purchase decommissioned rubber rafts. They were awkward crafts but they were stable. They took on water since the floor was a sheet of rubber with no holes punched in it. And consequentally, every set of rafting gear included buckets for bailing the excess water out and back into the river.  It was clumsy but it worked.

No one knows for sure when whitewater rafting started in California, but most people agree it started on the South Fork of the American River. Sometime in the early 1960s, the Sierra Club started offering downriver trips to the general public. This activity coincided with the beginning of the environmentalist movement. This was the reaction to a long era in American history when industrialism and mass farming had run unchecked, leading to the near-eradication of old growth forests, the extinction of many native species, the clearing of any land available for agriculture, and the pollution of waterways. In the West, dam projects were being completed almost as fast as they were proposed.

The Sierra Club wanted to incite change by bringing voters to the endangered places. Some dams were stopped. Others were slowed. Their idea worked at times. There's a first-hand account from a 1962 Sierra Club trip that describes "Satan's Cesspool" rapid as too big to run. The guides would unload everyone onto the rocks, line the rafts through the violent waves, and reload the guests again. It's hard to imagine when measured by today's standards, but that's the way it was.

In 1962, the first and longest lasting commercial rafting company (it still exists and is thriving) was born. George Armstrong, a father from Walnut Creek, founded All-Outdoors and began taking people on the Camp 9 section of the Stanislaus River. Word got out and other entrepreneurs followed suit. By the 1970s, the commercial rafting industry had exploded. River canyons ceased to be blank spots on the map. They had become meccas for the urban population centers. The public was looking for places to get away from the sights and sounds of the city. Long days in clean water, and long nights under the stars were in high demand. When a river became crowded, new corridors were explored and offered to the public.

By the late 1970s, the South Fork of the American River had become a hotspot. The Stanislaus was being dammed and outfitters were looking for a replacement. All summer, busloads of Los Angelinos were transported North up to the Coloma Valley. They slept on tarps and ate simple camp food. And they went on adventures with guides who barely had more experience than they did. Campgrounds were full. Bathroom facilities were rare. It was like the wild wild West.

In the early 1980s, El Dorado County was fed up with the crowds. The local government passed an ordinance outlawing any form of downstream travel. The river was only open for fishing and swimming. The locals only valued these activities, and that's what they wanted to see the space used for. And they didn't like the city folk trespassing and making noise. Luckily, California State and the federal govenment didn't agree with the ordinance. When a lawsuit was filed, the rafters won thanks to laws dedicating rivers as transportation corridors. El Dorado County was even more bothered! They enacted a permitting system that closed the river to new use. They required all outfitters to pay for and maintain a permit. 72 separate parties applied for the new permits. And 72 small and large rafting companies took shape.