Glen and Bessie Hyde

Adventurers / Missing Persons

Glen and Bessie Hyde were last seen on 18 November 1928, rafting the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The two newlyweds were on a remarkable honeymoon trip in a home-built wooden boat, with Bessie attempting to become the first woman ever to raft the river's treacherous rapids. One month later their boat was later found floating in calm water, loaded with supplies, but the Hydes had vanished. No trace of the couple ever appeared; eventually it was presumed that they had drowned. The tale of the Hydes became a popular legend and ghost story among river guides on the Canyon.

Extra credit: The Hyde story now includes an added legend: in 1971 an unidentified gray-haired woman on a rafting tour supposedly made a campfire confession that she was Bessie Hyde -- and that in 1928 she had killed her husband, hiked out of the canyon alone, and started a new life... In 2001 two new books about the case appeared: Sunk Without A Sound by river guide Brad Dimock, and the novel Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels.

The Hydes appear with Amelia Earhart in our loop on famous Disappearing Acts.

Blog posts mentioning Glen and Bessie Hyde:
The Strange Case of the Boy in the Box