The Name in the Hyphen

Barker-Ewing has been around since 1967 and has a name in the hyphen. Our first hired guide was Verne Huser, who liked to say that he was the “hyphen” in the name. He and his family worked with us for a few years and then he moved on to year-round” jobs before returning for a couple of seasons after he retired. Verne is an author and wrote guidebooks describing the ever shifting Snake River and a wonderful book about the River portion of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery called On the River with Lewis and Clark. As a river man, Verne realized the importance of their river journey and points out that of the 10,000 miles the Corps traveled, 9,000 miles was by river! I never had a chance to work with Verne, as I was a child when he first arrived on the scene. He returned after I retired from floating for the first time, and was again gone when I came back for my second round. However, because he was often visiting and loomed so large in Barker-Ewing lore, I got to know him very well. Verne is 88 years old now and his daughter just had many of us put together memories of him for his birthday.