Research on the Road: Sacramento! Madi and Allison met with the daughter of Ray Garner, a film maker and photographer for the Expedition in 1937. We had a fantastic and insightful conversation, learning about how Ray and Gay’s life were affected by the Expedition and their love of the West. Ray’s children offered us diaries, letters and other priceless archival pieces to let us read about his experiences. The West and the Expedition inspired so much of Ray’s life by exposing him to photography and giving him an outlet to explore. While in Sacramento we also worked in the archives at UC Davis, looking through boxes of letters and papers from RBMVE organizer Ansel Hall.
Later on in the trip we spoke with Roger Hall, Ansel Hall’s son. Ansel Hall was the organizer of the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expeditions and his son Roger has some fantastic personal stories and memories about the Expeditioners and the Southwest landscape.
