Elzada Clover was the curator of the University of Michigan Botanical Gardens and professor in the Department of Botany. In 1938, she was a member of the Norman Nevill party which traveled the Colorado River from Green River, Utah through Cataract and Grand canyons to Boulder Dam. Clover made the trip to catalog the flora of the Grand Canyon. Clover and her graduate assistant Lois Jotter were the first women ever to complete the run of the entire Grand Canyon.