Mile 12 - Brown’s Riffle

Frank M. Brown -President of the Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railroad Company- perished here in 1889. As his wooden boat left shore it rolled over in a large boil or whirlpool. This action tossed Brown and another man by the name of Harry McDonald into the river. In the cold-water sans life preservers, they were carried swiftly downstream. Brown made attempts to keep his head above water, but eventually drowned. McDonald barely escaped the same fate by swimming to shore and climbing onto the rocks at water’s edge.