From international bestselling author Wade Davis comes a beautifully-written, fascinating history of the Colorado River that offers "both a love song and a paean of regret to America's most spectacular river" (Denver Post) and "a plea to save [it] before it's too late" (The Wall Street Journal).
In this remarkable blend of history, science, and personal observation, former National Geographic Explorer and anthropologist Wade Davis tells the story of America's Nile, how it once flowed freely and how human intervention has left it near exhaustion, altering the water temperature, volume, local species, and shoreline of the river Theodore Roosevelt once urged us to "leave it as it is."
Plugged by no fewer than twenty-five dams, the Colorado is the world's most regulated river drainage, providing most of the water supply of Las Vegas, Tucson, and San Diego, and much of the power and water of Los Angeles and Phoenix, cities that are home to more than 25 million people. If it ceased flowing, the water held in its reservoirs might hold out for three to four years, but after that it would be necessary to abandon most of southern California and Arizona, and much of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. For the entire American Southwest, the Colorado is indeed the river of life, which makes it all the more tragic and ironic that by the time it approaches its final destination, it has been reduced to a shadow upon the sand, its delta dry and deserted, its flow a toxic trickle seeping into the sea.
Yet despite more than a century of human interference, Davis writes, the splendor of the Colorado lives on in the river's remaining wild rapids, quiet pools, and sweeping canyons. The story of the Colorado River is the human quest for progress and its inevitable effects-and an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and foster the rebirth of America's most iconic waterway. A beautifully told story of historical adventure and natural beauty, River Notes is a fascinating journey down the river and through mankind's complicated and destructive relationship with one of its greatest natural resources.
Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.
Show moreFrom international bestselling author Wade Davis comes a beautifully-written, fascinating history of the Colorado River that offers "both a love song and a paean of regret to America's most spectacular river" (Denver Post) and "a plea to save [it] before it's too late" (The Wall Street Journal).
In this remarkable blend of history, science, and personal observation, former National Geographic Explorer and anthropologist Wade Davis tells the story of America's Nile, how it once flowed freely and how human intervention has left it near exhaustion, altering the water temperature, volume, local species, and shoreline of the river Theodore Roosevelt once urged us to "leave it as it is."
Plugged by no fewer than twenty-five dams, the Colorado is the world's most regulated river drainage, providing most of the water supply of Las Vegas, Tucson, and San Diego, and much of the power and water of Los Angeles and Phoenix, cities that are home to more than 25 million people. If it ceased flowing, the water held in its reservoirs might hold out for three to four years, but after that it would be necessary to abandon most of southern California and Arizona, and much of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. For the entire American Southwest, the Colorado is indeed the river of life, which makes it all the more tragic and ironic that by the time it approaches its final destination, it has been reduced to a shadow upon the sand, its delta dry and deserted, its flow a toxic trickle seeping into the sea.
Yet despite more than a century of human interference, Davis writes, the splendor of the Colorado lives on in the river's remaining wild rapids, quiet pools, and sweeping canyons. The story of the Colorado River is the human quest for progress and its inevitable effects-and an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and foster the rebirth of America's most iconic waterway. A beautifully told story of historical adventure and natural beauty, River Notes is a fascinating journey down the river and through mankind's complicated and destructive relationship with one of its greatest natural resources.
Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.
Show moreWade Davis is currently Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and was Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013. His 23 books, published in 22 languages, include One River, The Wayfinders and Into the Silence, winner of the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top nonfiction prize in the English language. He lives on Bowen Island, B.C.
"Often lyrically, Davis bemoans the state of a river that has been
hemmed in so that cities including Las Vegas, San Diego, Los
Angeles, Tucson and Phoenix can switch on their lights and have
their taps flow.... He does a good job of showing how we are all
connected to this river, whether we recognize it or not."
—Washington Post"Above all, the book—by turns lyrical, elegiac and
combative—is a plea to save the Colorado River before it is too
late."
—Wall Street Journal"River Notes is both a love song and a paean of
regret to America's most spectacular river. Wade Davis weaves his
own story of running the river with history, geology and quotations
from those who knew it in its free days. This is also a warning
about how easy it is to lose America's precious landscape."
—Denver Post"River Notes: A Natural and Human History of the
Colorado is both a requiem for a river lost and a tale of a river
rebounding. Wade Davis floods our imagination not just with facts
but stories, the kind of stories that enter our bloodstream with
the memory of red water and the force of erosion. River Notes is a
literary and historical testament to change, one that believes in
the sustaining power of reciprocity over greed, while giving us an
adventure story through time. The first six pages of this book will
break your heart. The remaining pages will repair what has been
broken."
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge and When Women Were
Birds"Many have followed the lead of pioneering river boatman John
Wesley Powell in writing about their journeys on the Colorado
River. But globe-circling ethnographer and best-selling writer
Davis (One River, 1996; Into the Silence, 2011) brings unique
expertise and a penetrating perspective to his enlightening
expedition chronicle. A former river guide, Davis experiences the
river's raw power when he pilots a raft through daunting rapids. A
passionate scholar, he is equally dramatic in recounting his
travels through the records of the region's volatile geologic past
and rich history of diverse societies and cultural collisions.
Native American tribes share the belief that 'rivers are sacred
lifelines.' Mormons were the first, 'in defiance of all logic,' to
attempt to tame the river. The Colorado, now harnessed with 25
dams, precariously supports 30 million people, from Las Vegas to
Los Angeles. With hard facts and river adventures rendered in
gorgeous prose, Davis exposes the vulnerability of the Colorado in
our time of drought and global warming in the hope that his
findings will inspire the restoration and protection of this
crucial river."
—Donna Seaman, Booklist
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