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why we give


WE GIVE TO … run the rivers


central fantasy funding cooperative


In the early ’70s—just as The Trust for Public Land was getting its start—a group of young post-doc researchers took a rafting holiday on the Colorado. In the cool shadow of the high canyon walls, they caught a bad case of “river fever”: they vowed to run the rapids again, next time on boats they’d own and guide themselves. Their vision took shape as a cooperative they called Central Fantasy Funding. Though glibly


named, the club made short work of turning a dream to reality: its members incorporated, pooled resources, bought equipment, and set about teaching themselves the ways of whitewater rafting—then only just gaining popularity as a recreational sport. Craig Dahl joined the group while he was still in college. “What members had in common


Rafters are dwarfed by the Grand Canyon’s Redwall Cavern in Craig Dahl’s shot from a CFF trip in 1983. Carved out from the limestone cliff walls over time, the cavern is a popular spot to view fossils and rock formations.


was that we were people who liked to be in the driver’s seat,” he recalls. “New rafters would come into it not knowing anything, but pretty soon they’d be guiding boats. Everybody got to be the captain.” Though many members had other outdoor hobbies—backpacking, skiing, climbing—they found that running rivers held a unique and addictive appeal. More than other sports, rafting fostered friendships that formed fast and lasted long. “Rafting put me deep into the wilderness at a level I’d never experienced before,” Dahl says.


“The adrenaline is unlike any other wilderness sport. And it takes teamwork to survive and be safe, so you can build a level of trust in people very quickly.”


22 · LAND&PEOPLE · FALL/WINTER 2013


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