University of Arizona Press Publishes Books on Water in the West, With More Forthcoming

The following two books, Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dammed, were recently published by the University of Arizona Press. These publications are just the beginning of an expanding list of books on water scheduled for publication by UA Press. In the next few seasons, the Press will publish a guide to the San Pedro River by Roseann Hanson; a collection of essays edited by Char Miller on the history of water in the West, currently called Fluid Arguments; and an environmental history of the Santa Cruz River by Michael Logan, currently entitled Ever Dwindling Stream. The Press is looking for more books on water in the Southwest and West, specifically one-author river histories, environmental histories, and histories of water issues in the Borderlands.

Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell & the Canyon Country by Jarred Farmer, 288pp/20 photos, 3 maps/$26.95 cloth

Were Lake Powell and the Canyon Country invented? Invented implies the intervention of the human hand, and, in that sense, Lake Powell at least might have been invented. Inventing, however, also can mean creating with the imagination, and in that sense, lake and canyons were indeed invented, both figuring predominantly in human affairs. As this book emphasizes, human and natural history are intertwined.

The human history of canyon country begins with settlers gaining greater access to the area. Later came another breed, the tourist. Both groups — and others who arrived in between — were seekers. Those newly arrived wrought changes to the land, from roads and tourist facilities to the Glen Canyon Dam. Like it or not, these changes are part of canyon country, part of the human invention of the area

The author laments many of the changes to the area, the effects of millions of visitors. At the same time, however, he believes that the aesthetic thrill and spiritual solace that canyon country, and especially Lake Powell, provide to many of today's visitors are not to be underestimated. To them, the land still holds the sense of adventure and discovery that it did to early settlers of the area.

This book might be described as providing a balanced account, with both critics and supporters of Lake Powell able to find ideas and sentiments to their liking

Hoover Dam, the Photographs of Ben Glaha by Barbara Vilander, 69 duotones/4 halftones/$39.95 paper/$55 cloth

Hoover Dam still fascinates, even now when dams generally have a bad name. This is partly because its construction is the stuff of legend. Built during the depression, at a time when rivers were for taming, the project took on both natural obstacles and engineering risks, to create the mightiest dam of its time.

The Nevada Intake Towers at Boulder Dam before 1935. Photo by Ben Glaha.

This book provides cause to appreciate Hoover Dam, this time from an aesthetic perspective. The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation assigned Ben Glaha to photograph the dam during construction and to capture scenes justifying the project to politicians and the American public. Providing much more than the intended propaganda, Glaha's photographs display an aesthetic appreciation of the construction site. When focusing on the dam as a work in progress, Glaha found design and beauty in the scaffolding and the tunneling of the project and dignity among the workers.

The photographs represent a documentary of the project, from an image of Black Canyon before the dam to Roosevelt delivering a dedication address. The most impressive photos, however, are those that bring out the inherent beauty of a well designed, engineered project, during construction and at completion. For example, the photos show the monumental grandeur of intake towers and diversion tunnels.

The photos also demonstrate dams as cultural phenomenon. From a different time and era, Hoover Dam has stature. Closer to our time and constructed under much different circumstances, Glen Canyon Dam generally does not. Efforts to raise Glen Canyon Dam to an object of veneration and aesthetic regard would likely meet with stern resistence.

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