Glen and Bessie Hyde
Newlyweds Glen and Bessie Hyde, running the Colorado River in a homemade scow on their honeymoon, were last seen on 18 November 1928 below Hermit Rapid in the Grand Canyon; their boat was found upright and fully loaded in December.
1928 CE · 36.10, -112.21 · status: unexplained
The account
Bessie would have been the first woman known to run the canyon. Legends later claimed she survived and lived under another name, including a 1971 story about a woman on a commercial river trip.
The sceptical view
Historian Otis Marston argued the pair were thrown from the scow in heavy rapids near river mile 232.
The researched reading
A honeymoon couple lost on the Colorado River. Drowning in a rapid explains it well; the murder and survival stories are unproven.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | The scow was found upright and loaded; being thrown out in a rapid in cold November water is a classic river death, as historian Otis Marston argued. |
| Undetermined | 39% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A cultural story | 10% | The story has become a river legend with fictional retellings. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Claims that Bessie killed Glen and later reappeared as river guide Georgie White, or as a woman on a 1971 trip, have been investigated and are not supported; murder by either is unproven. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 3% | Stories of Bessie’s unhappiness feed speculation. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | A river drowning explains it. |
| Something in the surroundings | 1% | Not relevant. |
Official position: Searches found the boat but no bodies; drowning is presumed.