Bill Hamilton, the Mackenzie Country engineer who taught a boat to climb a river - NEWS WIRE

July 1960 saw Jon Hamilton pilot an 18-foot Kiwi through Lava Falls, proving a small, high-powered boat could climb the Grand Canyon’s fiercest rapid. Lava Falls drops about 13 metres in under a kilometre, with standing waves the size of houses. Over two days he drove four boats up the rapid, pausing to walk back and reposition the next craft. A rooster-tail spray rose as tall as twenty feet as the boats topped the waves near Lee’s Ferry. These boats were built in a shed at the foot of the Southern Alps by Jon’s father, a Mackenzie Country sheep farmer who fostered practical engineering. Powell’s 1869 Lava Falls portage showed expeditions could adapt, and this ascent underscored that ethos.