In April 1978, a small group of rafters set out from Thurmond, West Virginia (Fayette County), and Class VI River Runners, Inc. was under way. The company had five boats, a couple of cars and trailers, and one wooden building. Today, Class VI's complex, near Fayetteville, has five huge log buildings, thirteen buses, two large equipment trucks, four trailers, and hosts more than 25,000 rafting "guests" each season.

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Geography

Located on the Allegheny Plateau, Fayette County has been known for its coal, livestock, dairy products, fruit, tobacco and timber. Today, rafting is a major geography-related industry.

Class VI River Runners is located just north of Fayetteville, near the New River -- not too far from where it meets the Gauley River at Gauley Bridge. (West Virginia's rafting industry supports similar rafting companies along the New, the Gauley, the Cheat and other rivers.)

The late season, "Gauley Season," lasts for several weeks after Labor Day. This is when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases the summer's accumulation of water from Summersville Lake into the Gauley River. The organized "Gauley season" is a genuine change from rafting's early years, when such releases came with little or no notice. Rafters had to guess when the "big water" would come down river. Today, the Corps of Engineers schedules releases, and rafting companies can book trips specifically around those dates.

Careers

Class VI River Runners offers customers many different "packages," for trips on the Gauley and/or the New River during both the regular season and "Gauley season." The typical rafting trip consists of several rafts, each with as many as eight passengers.

For its busiest times of the year, Class VI draws from a "pool" of about fifty guides. (There are almost 200 people -- both part-time and full-time -- on its annual payroll.) Other company employees take phone reservations, booking camping trips, business "team-building" trips, "kayak clinics," or raft/biking/rock climbing excursions. Still others manage the trips, the personnel, and the equipment needed to give Class VI's many guests a good time on the river.

There's plenty of paperwork that goes along with rafting. Today, the industry is regulated by the state government. The Department of Natural Resources monitors rafting companies to make sure their river guides have enough training and experience. They must also be trained in first aid and meet certain safety standards.

Manager of River Operations: Industry 'More Than a Fad'

As manager of river operations for Class VI River Runners, Randy Dotson coordinates the daily schedule. He also sets up training programs, and hires new guides. Class VI takes more than 25,000 visitors down the New and/or Gauley rivers each season.

Assistant Office Manager: 'Life on the Line'

During a summer day, Krista Shumaker might have as many as fifty phone conversations. Hundreds of people a day call Class VI ("Class Six") River Runners, where Ms. Shumaker is an assistant office manager, to ask about the company's white-water rafting trips.

Service Manager: 'Trouble-shooting'

Aletha Stolar grew up in a family of seven children. She never thought she'd go to college, much less be working with computers in a growing sector of the "adventure" industry.