Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell's account of his treacherous exploration of the Colorado River in 1869 with nine other men, in which he discusses the region's terrain, its Native American inhabitants, and such dangerous parts of the journey as famine and mutiny.

When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today...

In 1973, Marilyn Sayre gave up her job as a computer programmer and became the first woman in twenty years to run a commercial boat through the Grand Canyon. Georgie White had been the first, back in the 1950s, but it took time before other women broke into guiding passengers down the Colorado River. This book profiles eleven of the first full-season Grand Canyon boatwomen, weaving together their various experiences in their own words.Breaking Into...

The environmental history of the Colorado River delta during the past century is one of the most important—and most neglected—stories of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Thanks to entrepreneurs such as William E. Smythe, the surrounding desert in Arizona, California, Sonora, and Baja California has been transformed into an agricultural oasis, but not without significant ecological, political, economic, and social consequences.Evan Ward explores the...

"'Taking Big Red' is aboout present-day frays over the condition of the Colorado, who gets to use it, what for, how much, and when. We who run boats down the Colorado River for fun or adventure have no water rights or water allocations. We don't consume the river; we simply ride it as it rushes downstream. But although the unique experiences and considerable revenue provided by river runners (and sports fishermen and other recreational users) have...

"From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the epic adventure tale The Emerald Mile comes the most dramatic and deeply moving account ever of walking the Grand Canyon, a highly dangerous, life-changing 750-mile trek. The Grand Canyon is an American treasure, visited by more than 6 million people a year, many of whom are rendered speechless by its vast beauty, mystery, and complexity. Now, in A Walk in the Park, author Kevin Fedarko...

An account of the author's experiences, observations, and reflections as a seasonal park ranger in southeast Utah. When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures...

Grand Canyon is one of Earth s most recognizable landscapes. Though scientists have studied the canyon for more than 150 years, a definitive answer as to how and when the canyon formed eludes them. The one thing they do agree on is that the canyon was carved by the erosive power of the Colorado river, but the river itself carried away the evidence of its earlier history. Carving Grand Canyon examines the many intriguing ideas and innovative theories...