Thanks, Tom, my order has been placed through RRFW. I'm counting on your book to get me through the end of the college football season to the start of boating season here in Oregon!
Ok 90-D, let's see what you think when you get the book. One person wrote back he was not aware the book was "...of biblical proportions..." Guess he underestimated Marston... Yours, tom
Ok 90-D, let's see what you think when you get the book. One person wrote back he was not aware the book was "...of biblical proportions..." Guess he underestimated Marston... Yours, tom
Sounds like it should suit me just fine - something to distract me from reading Colin Fletcher's River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea yet again....
Thanks Tom for the great work pulling all of Marston's writings together. It is such an amazing book that ties all of the first 100 together. A virtual bible and a fascinating read. This one will get read over and over. Tell Hazel hello for us!
Hi Don (and Gini and Shutzie who sent very nice pm's), so glad you are enjoying the Powell to Power journey. We owe it to the river historians who went before us to get their stories out there, both for history and for the future of river re-creation on flowing water. All the Best to you and yours in 2015 and beyond, tom
I'm about half way through, and must say, this is the read of the decade.
The early controversies centered on "To portage or not" and even"to wear a life jacket or not". Things have evolved so that the big controversy today is "to drain or not to drain".
Having run most of the remaining river from Green River to Lake Mead it's interesting that so much of the river corridor remains "uncivilized" (the runnable portions anyway) while the act of getting onto the river has so dramatically changed; the issue in 1900 wasn't "can we get a permit?" the issue was "Can we survive?"
Thank you again for your hard work.
I'd love to see a history of how the boating industry evolved; once surplus rafts became cheap and readily available running the canyon quickly evolved from survival mode to adventure mode.
Commercial growth ended up feeding recreational growth; a full circle if you will.
Hey Schutzie, just back from a Diamond to Pearce with a bunch of hiking. Thanks for your kind words and I am glad you are enjoying the read. Yes, things were different then. It's interesting that the 100th person went through in 1949, and the National Park Service implemented the Permit System in Grand Canyon in 1955. Maybe 300 folks had done the cruise by then. The permit system was easy. If you had gone before, you got a permit. No prior Grand Canyon experience? No permit. Easy. If Buzz Holmnstrom and Norm Nevills had come to the GC 17 years later than they did, they'd have been denied a permit. Same for Bert Loper, the Kolb Brothers, Stone, the Dusty Dozen, all those folks would not have gotten a permit if they showed up in 1955. The period from 1955 to 1972 allowed for as much of an increase in commercial running permits as the businesses wanted, while the do-it-yourself folks were turned away. I wrote about this a little in Big Water Little Boats. There will be more written on this soon. Yours, tom
Indeed. Times they have changed.
But then, could you imagine Powell and the boys, or for that matter the Kolbs rolling up to Lees Ferry and being confronted by a ranger?
"Okay, lets see your life jackets, and then I'll need to see your toilet system, and then I'll want to see to your kitchen gear.............Oh, and while we're at it, I'll need to see some ID..........."
Schutzie, that's so true. But then, the water was warm in the summer, there were no dams, and between trips fifteen years or so would go by! All the best, tom
I read a chapter or two every night after work. Tom and Dock have done a great job on this book . When I'm done with this one I'll get Tom's other book. Thanks for the good read.
For contrast, get Edward Abbey's the Monkey Wrench gang. Alternate; One chapter of Powell to Power, one chapter of the Monkey Wrench gang. Drink lots of booze.
What you will have is a Grand mind meld.
Live long and float
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