Some people seem to be plucked straight out of an adventure novel, and Bert Loper was one of those guys. In 1920, he was a lead boatman on a survey mission along the area of the planned Hoover Dam, and according to The Paris News (via Find A Grave), he spent most of his life as a river runner.

And he didn't let age get in the way, either. In 1939, the 70-year-old Loper boated a 250-mile stretch of the Upper Colorado, and for his 80th birthday, he planned another trip. Only this time, it ended in tragedy. On July 8, 1949, his boat capsized for only the third time in his 56 years on the river. Loper vanished beneath the foaming waters.

A search party was immediately sent out, and they did find his boat — which they dragged ashore and left there (pictured). Loper's wife returned the following year to try to find out just what had happened. She was unsuccessful, and the year after that, she returned again to the site where Loper's boat still sat. There, she built a memorial from canyon marble and left a bronze plaque that read, "Bert Loper, Born July 31, 1869, lost July 8, 1949. The Grand Old Man of the Colorado River, I belong to the wondrous West and the West belongs to me."

His remains weren't recovered until 1975 — 26 years later. He was ultimately buried beside his wife in Salt Lake City.

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