In 1937, Buzz Holmstrom, a filling station attendant from Coquille, Oregon, ran over one thousand rapid-filled miles of the Green and Colorado Rivers alone, in a small wooden boat he had built himself. After running Lava Cliff Rapid, the last major rapid on the Colorado, Holmstrom wrote:

the bad rapid--Lava Cliff--that I had been looking for, nearly a thousand miles, with dread --I thought: once past there my reward will begin, but now everything ahead seems kind of empty and I find I have already had my reward, in the doing of the thing. The stars, the cliffs and canyons, the roar of the rapids, the moon, the uncertainty and worry, the relief when through each one--the campfires at night, the real respect of the rivermen I met and others...

Winner 1998 National Outdoor Book Award History and Biography Category

In 1937 Buzz Holmstrom achieved brief fame across America by being the first to row, alone, the eleven-hundred miles of the Green and Colorado Rivers, in a boat he designed and built himself. He did not plan a solo trip. His partner was unable to make it, and it was simply time to go. He hastened his own exit from the national eye by refusing to speak of "conquering" the rapids of the Colorado. Instead he spoke quietly of the unearthly beauty of the canyons, how he "listened to the river" to mark his runs, and took comfort in his friend, the moon, at night.

Holmstrom soloed three of the West's most difficult rivers. In the afterglow of these voyages, he eschewed what opportunities were offered, returning home to the small town of Coquille, Oregon, to work at the local gas station. There, in the basement of his mother's home, he would create the next boat, for the next trip.

This is a story about rivers and wooden boats, about heroes, humility, unbearable beauty, solitude and sudden death. Holmstrom straddled the old and the new West, and he ushered in the era of modern river running--not through his superb oarsmanship, though his rowing feats still stand today as singular achievements; nor with his evolution of boat design--but through his relationship to the River itself and the solace he sought there from an increasingly complex world.

Three veteran whitewater guides, Vince Welch, Cort Conley, and Brad Dimock have extensively researched Holmstrom's life, adventures, and tragic end. They have run the same rapids, admired his boats, envied his brass and skill, and felt the same pull of the river. They have created this book to honor his legacy.

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In 2001 -2002, Brad Dimock, one of the three authors, recreated Holmstrom's magnificent boat and ran it down some 1,700 miles of the same rivers Buzz ran. Follow this link to a story about the project.

Trade Paperback: This is a perfect-bound trade paperback, bound for years of bedside, fireside, riverside reading. 3rd printing.
The Doing of the Thing Softbound
IS BN 1-892327-07-4 $16.95
 

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Hardbound:
The hardbound edition of 500 sold out in 1999. But you can try here for a copy:
Five Quail Books