Brief by Central Staff
Recreation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
The rafting industry sometimes appears to be two industries. One offers “thrilling white-water adventure,” and the other provides “safe family recreation.”
The safe side seems to be coming out ahead in the marketing department, according to a short article in the May 18 edition of the Wall Street Journal.
It quotes David Brown, executive director of America Outdoors, a rafting trade association: “The same people who used to want gonzo trips are now bringing their kids.” Thus, less adventure and more upscale options.
Among those is a string quartet providing Handel and Mozart serenades from local outfitter Bill Dvorak, the Journal reports, along with massage breaks on West Virginia float trips, as well as special activity guides for children along many rivers — the guides play games and teach environmental awareness.
The $245 billion adventure travel market is down by 25% from 2000, so outfitters are creating new attractions. A company called Wilderness Tours dresses its guides as French-Canadian voyageurs, and has seen a 35% increase in the past five years. Another, Rocky Mountain Adventures, uses carrier pigeons to fly film from the river to a processing lab, so the pictures are ready when the passengers get to shore.
We tried to think of some historically accurate way for local river guides to dress, but the trappers and prospectors hereabouts didn’t travel by water. All we could find for major river trips in Colorado was Coxey’s Navy in 1894.
Colorado’s economy had crashed with the collapse of silver prices in 1893, and that was part of a national depression. Jacob Coxey, an Ohio idealist, wanted to lead “Coxey’s Army” of the unemployed to march on Washington for some relief.
Many of his Colorado followers gathered in Denver, where someone got the not-so-bright idea of building boats and starting the trip east by floating down the South Platte to the Mississippi, then up the Ohio to at least Pittsburgh. They started out on June 7, 1894 aboard 100 flat-bottomed boats. Only 50 made it as far as Brighton, 20 miles from Denver, and they gave up there.
So we suppose our outfitters could provide some quasi-historical color by getting their guides to dress up as unemployed miners — but we doubt that would be much of a marketing tool.