Dam pictures.

“Twenty fathoms under in a milky green light the spectral cabins, the skeleton cottonwoods, the ghostly gas pumps of Hite, Utah glow dimly through the underwater mist, outlines and edges softened by the cumulative blur of settling silt.  Hite has been submerged by Lake Powell for many years now, but Smith will not grant recognition to alien powers.”  - Edward Abbey, “The Monkey Wrench Gang”.

I first read this book when I was in high school, it has become somewhat of a family icon since then.  The license plate on my Jeep reads “BEYOND2”, my brother’s 4-wheel drive vehicles follow suit in honor of Seldom Seen Smith’s river running business “Back of Beyond Expeditions”.  I credit that quote for my fascination with ghost towns and abandoned buildings.  It probably has something to do with why I bought my tiny 100 year old home instead of a brand new one in a subdivision where I could have got a much bigger house.

Last night we were looking through my older brother’s new house and found some pictures in the garage.  The original owners haven’t completely moved out, so all I could take were pictures of the pictures.  Here are the three pictures they had of the Glen Canyon Dam being built.  The dam that created Lake Powell, that covered Hite, Utah in water.  The dam that G.W. Hayduke, Seldom Seen Smith, Doc Sarvis and Bonnie Abzug longed to blow up.

Lake Powell

(Twenty fathoms under in a milky green light the spectral cabins, the skeleton cottonwoods, the ghostly gas pumps of Hite, Utah, glow through the underwater mist, outlined and edges softened by the cumulative blur of slowly settling silt.  Hite has been submerged by Lake Powell for many years now, but Smith will not grant recognition to alien powers.)
– Edward Abbey, “The Monkey Wrench Gang”.

In 1966, the Glen Canyon Dam was finished and Lake Powell was born.  There’s been a lot of controversy over the flooding of Glen Canyon, Edward Abbey made his feelings clear in 1975 in the book “The Monkey Wrench Gang”;  their ultimate goal is to blow up the Glen Canyon Dam.  And there are still environmental groups advocating draining the lake and restoring Glen Canyon.

Personally, I don’t know how I would have felt about the destruction of such a beautiful area back in the 60’s when they were building the dam.  At the time I wasn’t even old enough to be in grade school, and I was living a couple thousand miles away.

But now I think fighting to drain the lake is a waste of energy. 

First off, it isn’t going to happen.  We need the water and electricity it provides too much. 

Second, it’s become a part of life in Utah.  I don’t think I know anyone who hasn’t spend a decent amount of time down there camping, fishing, boating and overall recreating.  It’s a beautiful lake, with amazing scenery everywhere you go.

And finally, after 46 years of settling silt from the the rivers that flow into it, even if you did drain the lake, it would not be the same.  It would take decades, if not centuries, before it was even close to what it was before.

Old pictures of the day.

Camping at Lake Powell, like much of Southern Utah, used to be a lot of fun.  Then, about 10 years ago the rest of the world discovered it and ruined it for those of us who have been enjoying it since the mid 70's (and before).  Edward Abbey knew this and was smart enough to die before it happened.

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Anyway, it was about 1979, I was working at Free Wheeler Pizza and had just bought my first brand new car.  The 1979 Mazda GLC Wagon you see below.  ($4,500 with tax & license).  Free Wheeler decided to shut down the store and have a company party at Lake Powell.  This was not an unusual thing, Free Wheeler would open 2 to 3 hours late so we could all play in the company football team up at the U.  So my best friend Ed, another worker (Kathy if I remember correctly), her dog and I packed all our stuff into my great little car and headed down.  You may or may not have heard of the Burr Trail, in '79 it was 100 miles of dirt road between Capitol Reef and Bullfrog, through an area called Waterpocket Fold.  The road  was on the map, even showed the town of Notom about 15 miles down.  I'd always  wanted to drive down Waterpocket Fold, so we decided to make a day of it and go down the dirt road rather than take the longer (distance, not time) highway route.  I had about a quarter tank of gas and planned on filling up in Notom.  We get about 20 miles down the road without any sign of Notom, stop at wash that crossed the road to determine if the car was going to make it across and take a break.  While we were stretching our legs a ranger comes from the other side, says "howdy" and we get to talking.  I was a little concerned about how deep the wash got, since I didn't have 4WD I didn't want to get stuck, but the ranger assured me the car would make it through fine.  The I ask "How much further to Notom?"  Notom, well, Notom's about 5 miles back.  "Five miles back?" I sez, "All I saw there was a clump of trees."  Yup, that's Notom.  Nice, it's just a farm, no gas station.  Well, it's 75 miles to Bullfrog and all I've got is 1/4 of a tank of gas.  I ought to turn back, go to Capitol Reef and fill up, right?  Yeah, right.  I'm 19, Ed's 19, Kathy's maybe 21.  No way we're going back.  Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.  Now, 50 miles later we come over a little hill.  The road goes down, through the wash again and up another hill.  On the other side of the wash, on my uphill side, are three Jeep's parked at the side of the road.  The guys are out locking in the hubs, getting ready to forge this huge river when they see that overloaded Mazda come over the hill.  I could hear them chuckle.  I came to a stop, surveyed the situation, determined the wash was no deeper than the spot we went through earlier, hit the gas, come screeming down the hill, splash through the water, continue straight up the hill and over to the other side.  Laughing all the way, 'cause you should have seen their faces.  Jaws on the ground, eyes wide open in disbelief.  Yeah, I wasn't even thinking about the gas situation at that moment.  As for the gas, we did make it to Bullfrog.  Put 11.9 gallons in an 11.5 gallon tank.  Drivin' on fumes I was. 

The contrast between the red rock canyons and the blue water is beautiful.

This is Al, Mitch and Mike, the original owners of Free Wheeler Pizza.