thumb|300px|right|Glen Canyon

thumb|right|Glen Canyon in 1873, near the confluence of the Colorado and [[San Juan River (Colorado River)|San Juan Rivers]]

Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River. A small part of the lower end of Glen Canyon extends into northern Arizona and terminates at Lee's Ferry, near the Vermilion Cliffs. Like the Grand Canyon farther downstream, Glen Canyon is part of the immense system of canyons carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries.

In 1963, a reservoir, Lake Powell, was created by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, in the Arizona portion of Glen Canyon near the brand new town of Page, inundating much of Glen Canyon under water hundreds of feet in depth. Contrary to popular belief, Lake Powell was not the result of negotiations over the controversial damming of the Green River within Dinosaur National Monument at Echo Park; the Echo Park Dam proposal was abandoned due to nationwide citizen pressure on Congress to do so. The Glen Canyon Dam remains a central issue for modern environmentalist movements. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to dismantle the dam and drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon. Today, Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Before the Glen Canyon Dam

Prehistoric cultural periods

Studies indicate a chronology for the Lower Glen Canyon prehistory, "from pre-A.D. 1 to the 15th century and recorded history from 1776 to the present".

Historic period

The recorded history of the canyon begins with the Dominguez–Escalante expedition in 1776, during which Spanish explorers first documented the existence of Glen Canyon. The expedition members crossed the Colorado River in Glen Canyon at the site now known as the Crossing of the Fathers.

In the 1830s, trapper Denis Julien may have visited upper Glen Canyon by boat. In 1869 and again in 1871, scientific expeditions led by John Wesley Powell traveled through Glen Canyon en route to the Grand Canyon, resulting in the first formal surveys of the main channel and many of the side canyons. River Mile Zero is at Lee's Ferry, Arizona; the numbers increase as one travels upstream, ending at Mile 169.6 at the confluence with the Dirty Devil River.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! River Mile !! Points of Interest

|-

| 169.6 Right || Dirty Devil River confluence

|-

| 162.9 Left || White Canyon and White Canyon Uranium Mill

|-

| 162.3 || Hite Ferry (Chaffin Ferry, Chaffin Ranch, Dandy Crossing) and Hite Crossing Bridge

|-

| 150.1 Left || Red Canyon and Bert Loper Cabin (The Hermitage) and Blue Notch Canyon

|-

| 148.4 Right || Ticaboo Creek and Cass Hite grave

|-

| 136.2 Right || Tapestry Wall (136.3–135.4)

|-

| 132.1 Right || Smith Fork

|-

| 121.5 Right || Robert Brewster Stanton Dredge

|-

| 120.5 Right || Bullfrog Creek and Bullfrog Rapid, Bullfrog Marina

|-

| 119.0 || Halls Crossing, Utah

|-

| 88.25 Right || Escalante River confluence

|-

| 84.4 Right || Hole in the Rock crossing and Hole in the Rock Trail

|-

| 78.0 Left || San Juan River confluence

|-

| 76.1 Right || Hidden Passage (alt name Narrow Canyon)

|-

| 75.8 Left || Music Temple

|-

| 68.6 Left || Forbidden Canyon, Aztec Creek and Rainbow Bridge Canyon, Rainbow Bridge National Monument

|-

| 39.9 Right || Padre Creek, Crossing of the Fathers

|-

| 19.7 Left || Antelope Creek and Antelope Canyon

|-

| 15.5 || Glen Canyon Dam

|-

| 0.0 || Lee's Ferry

|}

Glen Canyon Dam

In the 1950s, with the proposal of a dam upstream of the Grand Canyon for water storage and hydroelectric power generation, many environmentalist groups rallied to prevent the inundation of the largely undeveloped canyons in the upper Colorado River watershed. The Sierra Club and many other conservation organizations were instrumental in blocking the proposed Echo Park Dam in Dinosaur National Monument. While Flaming Gorge Dam was built as an alternative to the proposed Echo Park and Split Mountain dams within Dinosaur National Monument, Glen Canyon lacked any protection as either a National Park or Monument. Without that protection, Glen Canyon Dam was authorized and constructed. In 1962, the Sierra Club's David Brower and many others floated the Colorado River through the canyon and realized the tremendous resource it was. The experience transformed Brower's attitude towards environmental preservation, making him more radical and less likely to compromise. His experience has been compared to the experience of John Muir with the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in California. For Brower, it steeled him for the 1960s battle over the proposed Marble Canyon Dam in the Grand Canyon.

American writer Edward Abbey also documented his experience exploring Glen Canyon from the Colorado River prior to the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in his 1968 memoir Desert Solitaire, in the chapter titled "Down the River".

See also

  • Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
  • Glen Canyon Institute

References

  • Jennings, Jesse D. Glen Canyon: An Archaeological Summary. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1966, republished 1998. .

Further reading

  • Crampton, C. Gregory. Ghosts of Glen Canyon: History Beneath Lake Powell, revised edition (2009). .
  • Eliot Porter (Photographer), Daniel P Beard (Preface), David Brower (Foreword) (Eds., 1997). The Place No One Knew – Glen Canyon on the Colorado. Publisher: Gibbs Smith, Publisher; Cmv edition (July 21, 2000). .
  • Fowler, Don D. The Glen Canyon Country (2011). .
  • Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire, Chapter 12, "Down the River" (1968). Publisher: McGraw-Hill. .
  • canyonconservancy.org, information from Glen Canyon Conservancy, the official nonprofit partner of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument.
  • glencanyon.org, information from the Glen Canyon Institute
  • livingrivers.org