Crew member and photographer on the Brown-Stanton Expeditions, 1889-1890

Expeditions leader, Frank Brown, had formed the Denver, Colorado Canyon and Pacific Railroad and proposed the feasibility of a railway route along the Colorado River through the depths of the Grand Canyon. Among those Brown hired were Robert Stanton as chief engineer and photographer Franklin Nims. He then outfitted an expedition to survey the route. Brown purchased light weight boats and against advise from Major Powell, failed to provide life preservers for him and his crew members. The expedition party of 16 men and six boats started from Green River, Utah Territory on May 25, 1889.

In July, the expedition entered Marble Canyon in Arizona Territory. Disaster awaited them and the survey lost three men to the Colorado River in a five day period. Expedition leader Frank Brown, Peter Hansbrough and Henry Richards.

Shaken by the tragic deaths and unable to recover their bodies, Stanton decided to abandoned the survey in "Death's Canyon". The surviving party climbed out at South Canyon into House Rock Valley, making their way to the Bar Z cattle headquarters at Cane Ranch. From there they were taken to the railway at Milford, Utah before returning to Denver.

Stanton reorganized the expedition, outfitting them with better boats, including life preservers. The second expedition launched on December 10, 1889 from the mouth of Crescent Creek, just above Dandy Crossing in Utah Territory. The party of twelve men and three boats, included four original crew members.

On December 23rd, the expedition emerged from Glen Canyon and stopped to rest at Lee's Ferry in Arizona Territory. Here they enjoyed Christmas dinner with ferryman Warren Johnson and his family. Nims set up his camera and Al Huntington snapped the shutter capturing the festive occasion. Below them, the river flows into Marble Canyon.

On New Years Day, 1890, fifteen miles below the ferry, the expedition was beset again in "Death's Canyon". Nims had climbed a cliff to take photographs, lost his footing and fell 22 feet. He was unconscious and bleeding from his mouth and ears. It was determined Nims had suffered a broken leg, a fractured skull and serious internal injuries.

The next morning Nims was loaded onto a boat and the crew started looking for a side canyon to extricate him. Two miles further down, they pulled in above House Rock rapid at Rider Canyon and made camp. The next day, Stanton, Harry McDonald and John Hislop started up the canyon to find a route out. A break in the cliffs was located about two and a half miles up the canyon. The trio topped out on the south rim of Rider Canyon about noon. McDonald and Hislop started back down while Stanton headed the canyon and walked twenty five miles back to the ferry, arriving after midnight.

The next morning, Stanton and Warren Johnson hitched a team and wagon and with Johnson's eleven year old son Frank driving, started for Rider Canyon. Meanwhile, eight expedition crew members readied Nims in a makeshift stretcher and began carying him up the canyon.

It was a strenuous task packing and hoisting Nims up through the ledges, 1,600 feet to the rim into House Rock Valley. Expecting to meet Stanton and the wagon on top, they brought no food or bedding. By evening, Stanton had failed to arrive. Several of the party headed back to the river while the remaining men built a fire and waited.

Stanton and Johnson had gotten to a late start and ran into darkness a few miles south of Soap Creek. With snow beginning to fall and the wagon team exhausted, they stopped, built a fire and awaited daylight. Mid afternoon the next day the wagon finally arrived. Nims was loaded onto a mattress in the back of the wagon. Stanton and his men returned to their task on the river while the Johnson's and their ward started back. They made their way to the Honeymoon Trail as darkness set, arriving back at the ferry well past midnight.

Nims was placed on a matress on the kitchen floor where Permilia and her daughters watched over him. Nims didn't regain consciousness until January 12th. On January 17th, Nims was loaded into a wagon with a company of Mormons traveling from St. George, Utah, heading to their homes in New Mexico. Frihoff Nielson and James Garn agreed to take him to the railroad at Winslow, Arizona, 150 miles south.

The party reached Winslow on the 26th where a doctor finally examined him before placing him aboard the train. Nims arrived in Denver on the 31st day of January.

Stanton and his crew went on to complete the survey, arriving at the Gulf of California on April 26, 1890. Nims though, remained incapacitated until mid June. In spite of tragedy and the heroic effort of the crews, the railway was never built.