Rough-Water Man : Elwyn Blake's Colorado River Expedition / Richard E. Westwood ; foreword by Bruce Babbitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Westwood, Dick, 1921-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canyons--Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico).

Boaters (Persons)--Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)--Biography.

River engineering--Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)--History.

Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)--Surveys.

Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)--Description and travel.

Blake, Henry Elwyn, -1980.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (237 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Place of Publication:

Reno, Nevada ; Las Vegas, [Nevada] : University of Nevada Press, 1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The passage of the 1902 Reclamation Act created a mandate for the federal government to build dams on the Colorado River and its powerful tributaries. By 1920 the US Geological Survey had surveyed the river's main courses, but still needed accurate charts of the last stretches of deep canyons and white-water rapids, accessible only by boat. Rough-Water Man is the first detailed account of these mapping expeditions by the USGS-the San Juan Canyon in 1921, the upper Green River in 1922, and the Grand Canyon in 1923. Illustrated throughout with period photographs, it is also the personal story of twenty-four-year-old Henry Elwyn Blake Jr., the only boatman to crew on each of the three trips, evolving from novice waterman to expert rapids runner. Drawing on Blake's diaries, as well as the writings of other USGS surveyors, Rough-Water Man conveys the danger and hardships of navigating these waters with heavy wooden boats and oars. Even today, in rubber pontoons, traversing these canyons is an awesome and exhilarating experience. When Blake and his companions surveyed it, the Colorado ran free and wild from Wyoming to the Sea of Cortez. Westwood gives us mile-by-mile and day-by-day accounts of running these rapids before their canyons were flooded and waters tamed, before the rivers had ever been charted.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780874174199

0874174198

OCLC:

44957902