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E-book
Author Westwood, Dick, 1921-

Title Rough-water man : Elwyn Blake's Colorado River expeditions / Richard E. Westwood ; foreword by Bruce Babbitt
Published Reno, Nev. : University of Nevada Press, ©1992

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xxi, 259 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents pt. 1. San Juan River Expedition. 1. Preparation and Start. 2. Comb Wash to Mexican Hat. 3. Mexican Hat to Clay Hills Crossing. 4. Clay Hills Crossing to Piute Canyon. 5. Piute Canyon to the Colorado. 6. Cataract Canyon. 7. San Juan Mouth to Lee's Ferry -- pt. 2. Green River Expedition. 8. Green River to Red Canyon. 9. Red Canyon. 10. Browns Park into Lodore. 11. Hell's Half Mile to Split Mountain. 12. Split Mountain to Green River -- pt. 3. Grand Canyon Expedition. 13. Lee's Ferry to Soap Creek. 14. Soap Creek to the Little Colorado. 15. Lava Creek to Trinity Creek. 16. Trinity Creek to Specter Chasm. 17. Specter Chasm to Lava Falls. 18. Lava Falls to Travertine Canyon. 19. Travertine Canyon to Needles, California
Summary In 1902 the passage of the Reclamation Act and its mandate for the federal government to build dams for irrigation in the West created a need for accurate topographical surveys and geological studies of the rivers where the dams would be built. By 1920 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other agencies had surveyed the easily accessible stretches of the Colorado River and its main tributaries. The remaining segments had yet to be charted because they were located in deep canyons that were coursed by rapids and reachable only by boat. Rough-Water Man is the first detailed account of the USGS mapping expeditions of the San Juan Canyon in 1921, the upper Green River in 1922, and the Grand Canyon in 1923. It is also the personal story of how young Henry Elwyn Blake, Jr., the young boatman who was the only man to be on all three of these trips, evolved from novice waterman into expert rapids runner. Based on Blake's diaries, as well as the diaries and field notes of other USGS party members, Rough-Water Man details the adventure, the hardships, mishaps, and personal conflicts that occurred on Blake's expeditions of the Colorado River. Traveling in small wooden boats, their passage was more difficult and more dangerous than it had been in previous expeditions because the men had to maintain a line of sight from one survey to the next; this forced them to land every few hundred yards, even in rapids or where the canyon walls were almost vertical. In Rough-Water Man, the first detailed record of the surveys of the deep canyons of the Colorado River, Westwood provides a brief history of previous river explorations, outlines the results of the surveys, and includes comments on dam construction and present uses of the dams. He brings us up to date with a discussion of the controversies and environmental problems that surround the river and its use today
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
Subject Blake, Henry Elwyn, -1980.
SUBJECT Blake, Henry Elwyn, -1980 fast
Subject River engineering -- Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico) -- History
Boaters (Persons) -- Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico) -- Biography
Canyons -- Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
TRAVEL -- Museums, Tours, Points of Interest.
TRAVEL -- Hikes & Walks.
TRAVEL -- Budget.
TRAVEL -- Special Interest -- Ecotourism.
TRAVEL -- Parks & Campgrounds.
TRAVEL -- Reference.
TRAVEL -- Road Travel.
TRAVEL -- Special Interest -- Adventure.
Boaters (Persons)
Canyons
River engineering
Travel
SUBJECT Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel
Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico) -- Surveys
Subject North America -- Colorado River Watershed
Genre/Form Electronic books
Biographies
History
Surveys
Biographies.
Biographies.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 92001233
ISBN 0874174198
9780874174199