Editor’s note: Recently Melissa Sevigny, science writer and winner in the 2019-20 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, announced the publication of her new book Brave the Wild River. The book sounded right up my alley, so I snabbed it out of the library and gave it a read. If you’re interested in whitewater, the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, or the American Southwest, or you just want to read a great book, Brave The Wild River is for you.
Brave the Wild River – whitewater, adventure, romance, ambition, the beauty and splendor of the Grand Canyon, western water policy, gender politics, clashing cultures – this book touches on all these topics and more while weaving them into the fascinating story of two botanists, Dr. Elzada Clover and graduate student Lois Jotter, who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon in 1938. Their intent was to “botanize” the canyon, but their adventure had a greater impact than they ever imagined.
They were the first women to travel down the Colorado River and live, but that was less important than their scientific legacy. Their work laid a baseline so that later generations can understand how things have changed since the early 20th Century, helping shape policy as demands rise on both a river that serves seven US states and a National Park that serves the world. Their names are remembered in the botany and river running communities. A New Mexican cactus bears Dr. Clover’s name. Every year, scientists who raft the Grand Canyon carry a plant guide partly shaped by their findings. The plants they collected are housed in the herbariums of the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan, and in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Their lectures inspired a new generation of scientists and their research helped form the way people think about the environment today.
Drawing mostly from the journals of Clover and Jotter and the other expedition members, their 43-day journey is described in vivid detail. Hearing about what it was like to run the Colorado before it was tamed by dams and tourism is a revelation. Hearing about what could have happened to the Grand Canyon because of people’s short-sighted, hubristic fantasies is terrifying.
As a result of human endeavor, earth-shattering change came to the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River in the 20th Century, paralleled by societal shifts in the way we view science, economics, education, women, race, and human impact on the earth. Today it would seem that a more holistic view than has been prevalent is gaining ground, but it remains to be seen how things shake out in the 21st Century. This book offers readers a new and deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of the American Southwest.
Within the last century, humans have both deliberately and inadvertently triggered massive changes in the ancient landscape of the Grand Canyon. Those changes have had massive consequences, and as a result, as this book shows, management policies have shifted, in many ways for the better. Natural processes are being taken into consideration, and there’s more respect for the inherent value of plants, animals, and the earth itself. Indigenous people are getting a voice in their destiny, and women and non-white people are not as marginalized and dismissed as they used to be. Ironically, while Clover and Jotter, as women, became the default cooks on their expedition despite being the scientists who prompted it, Sevigny quotes a modern blog for women on river trips: “You absolutely do not need to cook every night – or any night.” No, you don’t. Even Buzz Holstrom, a dedicated riverman who took a homemade boat from the Colorado’s headwaters in Wyoming all the way to Lake Mead in 1937 and who famously said, “Women have their place in the world, but they do not belong in the Canyon of the Colorado” changed his tune after meeting Clover and Jotter. In fact, they all became good friends.
This book is well-written, well-researched, and so interesting I read it in two days. Kudos to the author for taking many different strands and weaving them into a complete picture of this complex environment that both educates and entertains. Check it out!
Please let us know if you have questions or comments. To check out Melissa Sevigny and read more of her stuff, go to https://melissasevigny.com/writing/ To check out actual footage from the University of Michigan showing Elzada Clover running the rapids of the mighty Colorado River, click here. Badass!
Sounds like a great book. I’m putting it on my reading list.
Hey John, I think you’ll really like this book. Enjoy!
I’m sure I will!