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EdwardAbbeyIntroductionandOverview1.pptx

Colorado River: Giving Life to the American Southwest

Glen Canyon Dam

Hoover Dam

The “Down the River” piece you’ve been asked to read is taken from Abbey’s Desert Solitaire. Abbey’s voice approaches that of Rachel Carson and Wendell Berry as a proponent of maintaining the balance between humankind and nature, and despite his varied biography he is most associated with the desert geography of the American southwest. We will consider two of his best-known works, Desert Solitaire and the Monkey Wrench Gang, recognizing that the desert geography and topography is an essential part of these works. In this desert climate, water is a scarce resource. And this map points out the major rivers in the only area in the U.S. where four states come together on a single point, the so-called “Four Corners” region that conjoins Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. We also see the importance of the Colorado River to this region, and you’ve been linked to some additional materials which provide context for that key geographical detail.

Water, the Colorado River, and the American Southwest: Sustainable Growth?

Here you see a couple of images of my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, which now stands as the fifth most populated metropolitan area in the United States. What’s noteworthy about that fact is that the region gets only about 10-12 inches of rain each year, as opposed to the 40-50 that we typically get here in Tennessee. Among his many goals in Desert Solitaire, Abbey seek to understand how this water-scarce region developed so dramatically over the course of the century, such that Phoenix is now the fifth largest city in the country. That’s a pretty astounding fact, when you think about it.

Edward Abbey: 1927-1989

Desert Solitare: one of 23 complete works, 9 of which are of fiction.

The Monkey Wrench Gang, another fictional work, affiliated Abbey with the Earth First! Movement.

University of Arizona—ongoing controversy over construction of Mt. Graham observatory: site of “monkeywrenching” protests.

Abel Duffy: Feb. 1994 Occupation of University of Arizona’s Student Union Clock Tower to protest University’s development of Mt. Graham.

Abbey’s record as a radical environmentalist is well-known. Of his twenty-three complete works, the Monkey Wrench Gang has had probably had the most direct impact, having been credited for inspiring the formation of the radical environmental group Earth First! Abbey’s connection with this group has proven hard to define, but Dave Foreman’s book titled Confessions of an Eco-Warrior makes the connection clear. Likewise, the selection from Walking it Off by Doug Peacock also includes some observations about Abbey’s book as told by the individual who had been credited for inspiring George Washington Hayduke, one of Abbey’s more memorable characters. In a quick biographical note, during Abbey’s time on the English faculty at the University of Arizona the university was embroiled in a land dispute as it attempted to build a world class observatory on the ecologically sensitive terrain of Mount Graham in southern Arizona. This was the site of many real-life monkeywrenching activities and other legal conflicts. Although Abbey passed away in 1989, the protests over Mount Graham continued, including the one described on this slide in 1994.

Other works about water, rivers, and their necessity for survival

About Rivers and Water:

John Graves, Goodbye to a River

Mark Reisner, Cadillac Desert

About Abbey and His Influence

Dave Foreman, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior

Doug Peacock, Walking it Off

Here are some related works. I’ll ask you to read the selection by Peacock, but if you’re interested in the history of using rivers to make water accessible for western states, a look at the selections by Graves and Reisner will serve you well.

Cadillac Desert explains how our dams were built. The Monkey Wrench Gang envisions them being blown up.

Here are a couple of images that might prove useful. The first is the original cover of Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang, a fictional account published in 1975, which carried forward some of the key arguments. It is set in the area around Glen Canyon, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border. The second is the Central Arizona Project, a public works effort which taps the Glen Canyon reservoir, the first of two lakes formed by dams on the Colorado, to bring water to Phoenix and points south.

Glen Canyon vs. Hoover Dams

Glen Canyon Dam:

Built 1956-66

Hoover Dam: Built 1931-35

Here are the two dams. The construction of the Glen Canyon dam serves as a backdrop for Abbey’s book Desert Solitaire, as he writes during the time when the area was rapidly transforming as a result of the prospect of water’s greater availability. Glen Canyon is near the town of Moab in Southern Utah, which is one of many satellite towns that grew because of the reservoir’s water. The second is the iconic Hoover Dam, which is closest to Las Vegas and is still considered an architectural and mechanical marvel even though it is now over 80 years old. I’ve linked you to a couple of articles about these dams and the region, and if you’re so inclined it would be worth your while to take a look at these.

Eliot Porter and David Brower, The Place No One Knew (Sierra Club, 1963)

Lost Image I:

The Dungeon

Lost Image II:

Twilight

In his opening message to this 1968 publication Abbey describes his book as “not a travel guide but an elegy,” a “memorial,” and a “tombstone.” What he means is explained by these pictures from the book The Place No One Knew, a collection of photographs by Eliot Porter and David Brower published in 1963. Unfortunately, with the construction of the dam these places are now underwater, lost to the ages and so recorded for posterity in these pictures. Abbey’s book was written during those final years before the dam’s construction was complete, and one of his chapters records in writing what is documented for history in these stark images.

The Arches National Park (near Moab, Utah): Setting for Desert Solitaire

Mainly, however, Desert Solitaire is set in Southern Utah at the Arches National Park—not far from where the movie 127 Hours, which starred James Franco, was filmed. Abbey portrays a time during the process of “modernizing” the park, which enhanced its accessibility for a wider variety of people. In short, he refers to upgrades in camp amenities, walkable trails, and paved roads. If you read his chapter titled “Polemic: Industrial Tourism,” think about what attitude Abbey has toward this process of modernization.

Desert Solitaire: Some Thoughts

Abbey’s work is multidimensional, combining description, story, travel writing, polemic, drama, history, and other literary styles to produce a full view of the American Southwest.

Abbey’s work exists within the Romantic tradition of seeing the environment in varied ways—alternately, as a benevolent, purifying instructional force and a potentially deadly, destructive force.

Desert Solitaire is visionary, predicting many of the problems faced by the overstressed National Park System and the American Southwest in the forty-plus years since the book’s publication.

Lastly, here are some points to consider about Desert Solitaire as a whole. It is multidimensional, fits within the Romantic tradition (which we will learn about later in the term), and visionary. As you make your way through this book, think about how it qualifies in these ways, especially in its envisioning of the problems that people in western states are facing, now with even greater intensity, almost 50 years after the book’s original publication.