The Emerald Mile
by Kevin Fedarko, Paul Michael Garcia · first published 2013
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Narrative history using a record-setting boat run through the Grand Canyon to tell the Colorado River's story, including Glen Canyon Dam and its near failure. For readers of river, dam engineering, or Canyon history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the winter of 1983, the largest El Niño event on record, a series of "superstorms," battered the West. That spring, a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River toward the Glen Canyon Dam. As the water filled the dam, worried federal officials desperately scrambled to avoid a dramatic dam failure. In the midst of this crisis, a trio of river guides secretly launched a small, hand-built wooden boat, a dory named the Emerald Mile, into the Colorado just below the dam's base and rocketed downstream, where the torrents of water released by the dam engineers had created a maelst
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Edward Abbey is on my reading list but I haven't gotten there yet. I will definitely recommend The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko. It says its a story of the fastest trip down the Grand Canyon but its really a story of the history of the river and the balance that society has currently chosen between recreation/conservation…
on “Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink” ↗Three books anyone interested in the Colorado River generally or Glen Canyon Dam specifically should read are Cadillac Desert. A history of how all the dams came to be. The Emerald Mile. Things got pretty perilous at Glen Canyon Dam owing to it being too full at the wrong time of the year. In the midst of this, three guys decide to take advantage of flow levels we're unlikely to see…
on “U.S. takes unprecedented steps to replenish Colorado River's Lake Powell” ↗For people who find this interesting I would highly recommend the book Emerald Mile [0]. Amazingly well written book about glen canyon, grand canyon, lake powell, glen canyon dam, dorys people, racing boats down the canyon and a near catastrophe in the dam building. Also lets not forget…
on “Glen Canyon Revealed” ↗Just read the Emerald Mile - great read. I was interested in the story of running the river, but the story of the dam and its near failure was the best part. For anyone interested in the engineering of the dam, it’s well worth…
on “Glen Canyon Revealed” ↗There is a great book called The Emerald Mile that touches on some of this history, and other Grand Canyon history, using the story of the fastest traversal as the narrative device. Highly recommend. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15803144-the-emerald-mil...
on “When the Government Tried to Flood the Grand Canyon” ↗