Seventy-five years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt declared Hoover Dam — then called Boulder Dam — “a marvel of the 20th century.” But I predict that when the dam turns 100 in 2035, no one will be celebrating what now appears to be a 20th century folly. The third decade of the 20th century and the […]
John Weisheit
Posted inWotr
The return of the Colorado River — almost
As our rafts bounced through what was supposed to be the last rapid on the Colorado River before its transition to the slack water of Lake Powell, we were surprised to hear the rumble of whitewater downstream. The half-mile-long Imperial Rapid, submerged for three decades, had re-surfaced. The natural draining of the nation’s second largest […]
Posted inWotr
Lake Powell: Going, going, gone?
Who would have believed it? Water levels at Lake Powell have dropped to 50 percent for the first time since it filled in 1980. This draining is likely to continue to the point where the reservoir could vanish in the next three-to-four years. With snowpacks below 25 percent of normal, and continued warnings from the […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
In defense of Stegner’s Powell
Dear HCN, Karl Hess tells us, in “Imagine a West Without Heroes,” that the West would best be managed by New Westerners and not by federalists, justifying his conclusion by portraying John Wesley Powell as a worn-out hero (HCN, 5/27/96). It seems that many Western writers prefer to wrestle with the ghost of Powell. Perhaps […]