Glen Canyon Voices
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The Glen Canyon Reader cover scan
— Mathew Barrett Gross,
The Glen Canyon Reader
Glen Canyon, which now lies mostly under Lake Powell, is often called “the place no one knew.” In truth, many writers, miners, adventurers and Boy Scouts knew this lost treasure intimately, and The Glen Canyon Reader, edited by river runner Mathew Barrett Gross, is a collection of their musings.
The chronological collection includes excerpts from The Domínguez-Escalante Journal (1776) and John Wesley Powell’s Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons (1875), as well as essays by such Western notables as Zane Grey, Ed Abbey, Wallace Stegner, Barry Goldwater, David Brower and John McPhee. There is even an article by Floyd Dominy, the man responsible for damming the canyon. Essays by lesser-known writers provide poignant reading fodder for those already well-versed in Glen Canyon lore.
Although many of the canyon’s natural wonders lie hidden beneath water and rising sediment, Gross suggests that the places that do remain visible should remind us that it is possible to reclaim what once was.
The Glen Canyon Reader
By Mathew Barrett Gross 210 pages, softcover: $17.95. University of
Arizona Press, 2003.
