Grandpa's good friend Ted Trueblood, Associate Editor for Field and Stream magazine wrote this forward in the book, The Rogue, A River To Run.
"This is a story of a unique man. One of the definitions of unique in my dictionary is "being without a like or equal." That fits Glen Wooldridge to a T. He is a river man. There are none like him and I contend he has no equal.
He began guiding Rogue River float trips in 1917 and he was the first to run it upstream from Gold Beach to Grants Pass, in 1947. The next year he accepted the challenge of Idaho's River of No Return, the Salmon, so-called because early day boatmen could run it downstream, but not back up. Wooldridge ran it upstream from Riggins to Salmon City, virtually across the state. He was the first, as he was to run the Klamath upstream.
Other rivers he has mastered are the Yankee Jim Canyon of the Yellowstone, part of the Colorado, the Hells Canyon stretch of the Snake, the Yukon, and in British Columbia the Bella Coola, Atnarko, Dean and the North Fork of the Thompson.
But his first love remains the Rogue and if you move a rock anywhere along it I'm sure he would notice the change. He was the first Rogue River guide and the most famous. His clientele included Zane Grey, Victor Moore, Guy Kibee, Clark Gable, and Herbert Hoover, as well as many others who could afford to go anywhere they chose. One reason was that he is a superb boatman and splendid angler. Another is his personality. I've been on the river with him when the gray clouds hung in the tree tops, the cold rain would have chilled an otter, and fish were not to be found.
Yet he was never cross, never impatient, and if he was ever discouraged he concealed it well. His conversation is spiced with witticisms and he has a story for every bend in the river.
He is the best story teller I know. Most of this book is in Glen Wooldridge's own words - the same stories that charmed his guests for more than 60 years on the Rogue River."
Ted Trueblood and Glen, 1972.
This is Glen with Ginger Rogers. One of the many celebrities he took down the river.
Glen Sr. with one of his early aluminum drift boats. He built his first aluminum drift boat in 1962.
This is Glen Sr. in 1975 at the age of 79. The first man to run Hells Gate on the Fraser River.
Glen invented the Jackass Motor Lift in the 40’s to allow a prop to run in shallow water.
This is an example of using the Jackass Lift to haul a load of lumber up the Rogue River.
Glen was the first to run the salmon from Riggins to Salmon City in 1948.
