Early 1970s PROA guide certification cards

After rafting started booming as an outdoor sport in the early 1970s, the Bureau of Land Management pushed outfitters to start a standard guide license, to ensure safety. The Pacific River Outfitters Association (PROA), the successor group to Stanislaus River Recreation, took on creating a licensing program in 1972. The licensing included a written test and an on-river test of rafting skills. If you passed, you got to get a great picture taken (ARTA guides – Larry Orman, on top, was one of many who went over to the historic town of Columbia which let you dress up in period clothes and get a photo taken; Steve Tichenor is at bottom in plain clothes) and were issued these plastic covered license cards. The whole system ended up being too cumbersome to manage and was abandoned at the end of the 1974 season, leaving companies back to certifying their own guides. See also this other post from Ty Childress .