by Dick Westwood
In 1902 the passage of the Reclamation Act and its mandate for the federal government to build dams for irrigation in the West created a need for accurate topographical surveys and geological studies of the rivers where the dams would be built. By 1920 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other agencies had surveyed the easily accessible stretches of the Colorado River and its main tributaries. The remaining segments had yet to be charted because they were located in deep canyons that were coursed by rapids and reachable only by boat. Rough-Water Man is the first detailed account of the USGS mapping expeditions of the San Juan Canyon in 1921, the upper Green River in 1922, and the Grand Canyon in 1923. It is also the personal story of how young Henry Elwyn Blake, Jr., the young boatman who was the only man to be on all three of these trips, evolved from novice waterman into expert rapids runner. Based on Blake's diaries, as well as the diaries and field notes of other USGS party membe
V. E. Schwab
Alex Popa
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