2007 Grand Canyon History Symposium Alfred E. Holland, Jr. Holland ran rivers professional between 1959 and 1969, then returned to civilization to be a married man. He remains married to his first bride but has changed professions a few times through the years, settling on the best job he has ever had, teaching history in college. He received his training at California State University, Sacramento, and University of New Mexico. He teaches American History, History of the American West, Environmental History, and Historical Methods courses at California State University, Sacramento. He has presented his scholarship to diverse audiences including the Western History Association Convention, the Arizona History Convention, the Grand Canyon River Guides and Colorado Plateau River Guides training seminars, and the Colorado River Symposium. Presentation Abstract... A Conclave of Curmudgeons: Authorities, Collectors, and Historians of the Colorado River, 1869-1969:   Holland's presentation is a historical biographical and biographical talk titled "A Conclave of Curmudgeons: Authorities, Collectors, and Historians of the Colorado River, 1869-1969." It examines the accomplishments, personalities, and influences on the history of the Colorado River's exploration and exploitation by historical figures ranging from Tí-yo, the Hopi lad who descended the river to the sea and returned with the Snake Dance to bring rain to his people's corn patches, to "PT" Reilly, the last of the first generation of boatmen turned historians. Not withstanding Lewis R. Freeman's sage advice, "There is only one worse thing that a river-rat can do than turn turtle, and that is to turn historian," Clio's siren song has lured many river runners to practice the historian's craft. This talk's analysis, based on their writings, their several, sometimes scattered collections, and on limited secondary sources, traces the personal histories of James White, John Wesley Powell, Robert Brewster Stanton, Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh, Julius Frederick Stone, Clyde Eddy, Otis "Dock" Marston, and Plez Talmadge Reilly, emphasizing their lasting influences, for good and ill, on our understanding of river running history.