Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Brave the Wild River

 

Book: Brave the Wild  River
Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References

Basic Information:

Author: Melissa Sevigny

Edition: ePub  on Libby from the Mountain View Public Library

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

ISBN:  9780393868234 (ISBN10: 0393868230)

Start Date: January 12, 2024

Read Date: January 19, 2024

304 pages

Genre:  History, Biography, Outdoors, OSHER

Language Warning:  None

Rated Overall: 3½   out of 5


History: 4 out of 5



Synopsis:

Clover and Jotter are botanists, and female. Their claim to fame is that they are the first women to go down the length of the Colorado River successfully. Most of the book concentrates the the trip down the Colorado with Nevills and his crew. There are the accounts of going through rapids, how the women were treated and their tasks, as well as the botanizing they did.


In addition there is background on people and places. A good portion of the book also talks about how the press treated this expedition. The last of the book talks about the status of the Colorado.



Cast of Characters:
  • Elzada Clover-lead female botanist. Born 1896 in Nebraska-was 42 when she went down the river. Family moved to Texas. Was a teacher and principal. Spoke Spanish. Got her Phd in Botany from the University of Michigan. Not ladylike. Adventuresome.
  • Lois Jotter-female botanist, Born in Weaverville in 1914 to a German Mennonite family. Her father was a forester. Jotter was expected to love science. Moved to Wisconsin when she was seven. Then Michigan. From early age wanted to become a botanist. Got her Masters in 1936 from University of Michigan. Working on Phd. More interested in lab work than being in the field. She had attended the Yosemite Field School.
  • Bessie Hyde-female who died trying to go down the Colorado in 1928
  • Harley H Bartlett-head of botany at University of Michigan.
  • Norman Nevills-family owned the lodge at Medicine Hat. Riverman. Lead on trip down the Colorado
  • Doris Nevills-wife of Norman. Ran the Medicine Hat Lodge
  • Carol Davidson-assistant to Clover on an early Utah trip
  • Eugene Atkinson-25 years old in 1938. Zoologist. Went on the first half of the trip.
  • Buzz Holmstrom-veteran river person. Ran the Colorado in 1937 and again in the Fall of 1938.
  • LaPhene Don Harris-one of the oarsmen. 27 years old and with the USGS, but was being transferred to Salt Lake City. Left the expedition halfway through as he needed to get to his job.
  • Bill Gibson-crewmember. Architect and photographer. He would be the one who made the movies. Also he was expected to be an oarsman.
  • Eugene Clyde LaRue-engineer who explored the area to see about the feasibility of building dams.
  • Loren Bell-recruited to go on the next stage of river
  • Dell Reed-42 year old prospector
  • Miner R Tillotson-superintendent of Grand Canyon NP
  • Claude Birdseye-colonel who led a 1927 expedition to map the Colorado for the USGS. LaRue was the engineer.
  • George Melendez Wright-park biologist who argued to let things go and do not disturb. Also to study and have a baseline
  • Emery Kolb-photographer, explorer at Grand Canyon. Nevills takes him on the rest of the journey



Places - I have put together a Google Earth file of the places and route talked about in the book.

  • Cataract Canyon-41 miles long and 62 rapids, almost all continuous.
  • Mexican Hat
  • Green River
  • Colorado River
  • Mile-Long Rapid in Cataract Canyon
  • Gypsum Creek Rapid (or possibly Gypsum Canyon Rapid)
  • Clearwater Canyon
  • Dark Canyon Rapid
  • Dirty Devil River
  • Glen Canyon
  • Ticaboo Creek
  • San Juan River
  • Rainbow Bridge National Monument
  • Lee’s Ferry
  • Badger Creek Rapid
  • Soap Creek
  • Stanton’s Cave
  • Vasey’s Paradise-fresh water spring. Lots of plant life.
  • President Harding Rapid
  • Little Colorado River-sacred place for several of the Native American nations
  • Tanner Rapid
  • Hance Rapid.
  • Upper Granite Gorge
  • Sockdolager Rapids
  • Grapevine Rapids
  • Kaibab Bridge
  • Bright Angel Creek
  • Granite Falls-I think this is Granite Rapids.
  • Hermit Rapid
  • Serpentine Rapid
  • Elves Chasm
  • Havasu River
  • Lava Falls
  • Separation Rapid
  • Lake Mead
  • Emery Falls-Grand Wash Cliffs-Now called Columbine Falls

Expectations:
  • Recommendation: Osher
  • When: January 11, 2023
  • Date Became Aware of Book:
  • Why do I want to read this book: OSHER Book
  • What do I think I will get out of it? An account of running the Colorado.

Thoughts:

Towards the last of the book, Sevigny notes that both Clover and Jotter wanted to be know as botanists rather than the first women to boat the length of the Colorado successfully. This left me wondering, why did Sevigny write this book? Would it be to talk about a couple botanists? If it were men, would she write this book?What would Clover and Jotter have thought of this?



Prologue: Stranded

Sevigny sets the tone of the book in this chapter. The party of six, two of them female botanists, have had a rough stretch where one of the three boats had carried two of the party well past the established stopping point. And now one of them, Lois Jotter, was wondering if she should have really been along on this trip. No other botanists had traveled down the Colorado and no females had successfully made the journey-one had died.


Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter wanted to survey and bring back plant life from the Colorado. Clover had arranged this trip. Now in June 1938 it was happening.



On the Borders of Precipices

Gives background on Clover and Jotter. The author notes that For much of the preceding century, botany had been a suitable hobby for ladies. Much of it was field work, but this was shifting towards labs as well. Field work was being done by amateur ladies. The lab work more by men.


Clover was a school principal in Texas. The author notes that As the principal of South Mission School, Clover must have been complicit in a racist program of instruction that sought to “Americanize” children of Mexican descent and offer coursework “fitted to their needs,” which differed from the education white students received.


Talks about Asa Gray. Gray asked the question: Why were species of plants distributed over the Earth the way they were? Did they spread to new locations or stay forever fixed in place? What exactly was a species, anyway? These would influence Clover’s training.


Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton-a name I was not familiar with.


Clover loved to teach: a natural outlet for her gift of storytelling.


August 1937-Clover went to Medicine Hat to look for plants in Utah. Went with Davidson. It was during this trip where she met Norman Nevills. They roughed out a trip Clover was envisioning to go do on the Colorado and collect botanical specimens.



Have You Seen That River?

Clover and Nevills had a correspondence going. Was this trip on for 1938? Yes. Clover needed to get two scientists. Nevills had two river people lined up.


Sevigny talks about Continental Drift. It was a relatively new theory. Geologists were not on board yet. But it had gained cachet with botanists as it explained how come there were similar plants throughout the planet.


Sevigny also talked about conservation and preservation vs ecology. The idea behind conservation/preservation was either romantic of being in love with trees or preservation to look out for the future so that the trees were still there for use. conservation movement arose an ideology known as preservation, which spoke of wilderness in romantic terms. See the books by Pinchot: The Training of a Forester and The Fight for Conservation. Jotter’s father was like other foresters-looking at conservation as a means to protect the future. But he must have harbored a secret love of the sequoia, a love not satisfied solely by its utility.


They rallied supporters with nationalistic language, saying that the solemn groves of Yosemite Valley. By groves, I am thinking she means Sequoia, not the oaks, maples, and pines. What Sequoia groves are there in Yosemite Valley? The only three groves I know about there are Mariposa, Tuolumne and Merced-none are in the Valley. I believe there are a couple Sequoias at the Valley cemetery, but they were planted and nobody considers them groves.


Bartlett was initially reluctant to approve the expedition, but then as Clover presented more of what she was going to do, he came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t hesitate to do it myself, so why refuse my approval for her? This was not University support, but his own approval.


The Colorado River’s canyons had been mapped by surveyors and river runners, but never by a botanist.


Nevills thought more that this would be a commercial venture than as an expedition. His thought is that he wanted to turn going down the Colorado as a money making venture with tourists. So not having it be an University venture fit into those plans.


There were a lot of people concerned about women going into the wild. This was not done. This does not explain all the women who went West during the previous century.


Atkinson was chosen. For the other scientist slot, Clover was a bit slow on deciding. After considering, she asked Jotter to go on the trip. Clover was reluctant as it was one thing to risk her life, but she was asking someone else to risk there. Jotter had wilderness experience. She had attended the Yosemite Field School where rangers were trained.


This is something I am not sure about. Sevigny has that the people who came to the Yosemite Field School would build fires on top of Glacier Point and push the embers off. She says that the Park Service decided the display was an embarrassment. I have always heard that it was Camp Curry staff along with Park Rangers who would push this over the edge. That is was stopped because it was not consistent with the Park’s mission. She does cite a couple articles. I looked at M. E. Beatty, “A History of Firefall,” Yosemite Nature Notes 13, no. 6 (June 1934), 41–43 and did not find reference to either the Yosemite Field School doing this or the part was embarrassed. Also Education News, School Life 22, no 7, March 1937: 223 was in Sevigny’s notes. This is only a reference to openings at the Yosemite Field School.


Buzz Holstrom ran the river in 1937. In an article he says that a woman has no place on the river.


Sevigny gives a brief history of trips down the Colorado.


There is the back and forth between Jotter and her family which was generally supportive, but wanted to make sure she was not getting into something which she shouldn’t. Her response was that she would be bringing back as much interesting material as I can, as otherwise, I would not consider going just for the experience,” Jotter’s father told her this: You’ll come back changed. The river will change you.


Nevills was looking for one of the scientists to also assist in the boating. Clover said they did not have that kind of experience.


When the news got out, there was a lot of concern about women going down the Colorado.


June 7, 1938- loaded up gear to take to Utah.



A Mighty Poor Place for Women

Describes the trip to Utah. Chicago, Des Mones, Omaha-Each city a day trip away from the previous. Crossed the Continental Divide. Sevigny stopped giving town by town places where they stopped.


Talked about Powell’s original trip down the Colorado.


Talks about that Nevills was making each boat by hand, a unique design. Talks about how he met his wife and how on their honeymoon they went down the San Juan River. Because of this, He realized he needed to work with the river instead. He had kept trying to power through the river. Nevills’ boats were built for maneuverability rather than to utilize muscle. He also made it so the person with the oars was facing the direction of travel rather than on relying on someone else to watch. Nevills called this facing the danger.


June 12, 1938-Reached Green River, UT. Clover collected plants here to see if plants extended across basins. In this case, the Green River.


Boats were labeled Nevills Expedition. The boats were named Wen, Botany and Mexican Hat. This shocked Clover intro realizing they were passengers not the ones who were driving the voyage. Sevigny went through some of the luggage taken and the supplies.


June 19, 1938-Drove to the Green River and met the last of the crew, Bill Gibson. Drove to Green River to start. The start of summer and the rivers were high with snow melt.


June 20, 1938-Started their trip down the Green River.



There Goes the Mexican Hat!

Since the women were not working the oars, they did the camp stuff, like cook and start the fire. They also went through and collected plants when they could. So far the trip had been pretty calm. Nevills said that . “I feel certain that none of them realize just what real bad water is like.” They had spent four days on the Green River.


June 24, 1938-They meet up with the Colorado and see why it is called that as the water is red. They met their first rapid. after their tranquil days on the Green. “The character of the river changed,” Jotter wrote in her journal, “and slowly we realized the force of the Colorado.”


Then they came to Cataract Canyon. This is where the Prologue started us. Also they found an inscription from Wesley Powell-but it was from a steamship called that.


Description of Clover’s thoughts and observations concerning plant life. Though Clover was unfamiliar with Tansley’s concept of an ecosystem, she was nevertheless doing the work Tansley thought so important.


The Mexican Hat had slipped away and went down the first rapid. Harris and Jotter chased after it in the Wen. They caught up to it 6 or 7 rapids downstream. Harris went back upstream to let them know the status, leaving Jotter to tend to the boats. She stayed there overnight alone. It was an uncomfortable night for all. The river’s constant roar sounded full of fury. Nevills comforted himself with the thought: he had prepared for this. He was ready. There was nothing to do but carry on.

 

For a description of running this with modern day equipment, see the OARS site.



A Beautiful Pea-Green Boat

June 25, 1938-They all reunite. It had hit them differently, some felt shell-shocked others felt like they could conquer the River.


In the afternoon, they approached Mile-Long Rapid. Nevills demanded that they not run the rapid. He would not be swayed by what he called “incompetent opinions.” That seems harsh but wise. They stayed above it that night to go down it in the morning.


June 26, 1938-After working their way down the River and getting only 100’ further, Nevills reconsidered.


Sevigny talked about a survey team which met with a disaster on Mile-Long Rapid. They were not prepared to take the rapids and boats splintered and sank. Stanton was the engineer who had command of the expedition. His name is on several places.


Nevills brought each boat down the rapids individually. Most of the people walked it. After this, they stopped for the night.


June 27-28, 1938 - Days blurred. Nevills did not think highly of the men-each had their own weakness. He thought the women were standing up well. I wonder if this is because of expectations. He was not expecting much from the women and they did better than he thought, while the men were the opposite. If they[Clover and Jotter] came to the Colorado to prove their courage, it was only to themselves.


They found plenty of tumbleweed. Sevigny talks about how tumbleweeds spread. They thrived on disturbance, and there was plenty of that in canyon country.


Only one topic consumed her[Clover] more[than plants]. That was running the rapids.


June 29, 1938-Only made it about 15 miles. The waters are receding. They get to Gypsum Canyon (Gypsum Creek Rapid) about 1pm. They get caught up and the Botany flips up and causes both Atkinson and Gibson to be flung from the boat. They were able to save the boat. Clover had the nursery rhyme about the Owl and Pussycat who sailed the seas in a pea-green boat.


There are several features named which have multiple locations, some official and some not. Here is one which I have been wondering about. She calls this Gypsum Creek Rapid. But Gypsum Creek and the rapid is on the San Juan River, many miles away. Seems like the current popular name is Gypsum Canyon Rapid. [Note to Gary: see if you can get an older, pre-dam map of the area. I did. On the 1923 maps, there is only the words Cataract Canyon. On the 1953 map I see Gypsum Canyon also there are rapids noted at the mount of the canyon]


June 30, 1938. They had spent the night above Clearwater Canyon. Nevills was second guessing brining this bunch on the trip as they nearly avoided disaster.



Delayed

At the start of the chapter, Sevigny talks about some of the plant life Clover finds. One was the Indian Paintbrush. She says: innocent-looking Indian paintbrush which sent sneaky root tendrils underground to steal from its neighbors. Finally found a reference which noted that Indian Paintbrush lives off of other plants..


June 30, 1938-Lay over day to recover from Gypsum Canyon Rapids. Talked about Clyde Eddy’s book on the River. Turns out that this expedition was running late. They expected to make Lee’s Ferry by July 4th.


July 1, 1938-Dark Canyon Rapid. Nothing is said about it. Just an ominous name. They did spot names they recognized on rocks. Camped at Dirty Devil River. Harris is thinking about bailing at Lees Ferry so he can be at his job by July 28th-concerned about the progress the group were making. They were about to enter Glen Canyon.


July 2-4, 1938-Talked about Glen Canyon being more leisurely than what they had encountered. Also Hite-I do not think this is related to the prospector at Hite Cove in California. Even though both were miners. They stopped at Hite and were greeted by a couple who were trying to make a go of it. Treated well. Floating along.


Jotter, Harris, Atkinson, and Gibson were discontent.


July 5, 1938-Passed the mouth of the San Juan River.


July 6, 1938-Walked up to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Describes their walking the six miles to the bridge and them looking around. They seemed to be loose about the customs of the place as well as raiding a storage place for food.


Meanwhile the world was wondering where they were. How come they were late? Were they still alive?


July 7, 1938-Search planes had been sent out. They made contact with the expedition.



Hell, Yes! What River?

July 8-12, 1938 - They made it to Lee’s Ferry. Spent the time here recruiting and resting. Harris was leaving. Atkinson was on the fence and Nevils pushed him off. Nevills went to Medicine Hat-Clover went with him.


Talks about how Lee’s Ferry is the dividing line on how the water is split among states. LaRue knew the Colorado River Basin had experienced times of deep drought—droughts that lasted decades or centuries, the kind of drought that shriveled sagebrush and gave the cacti sunburn.


Bell is recruited to go on the next stage of the river. Also Reed


Newspapers were having a field day with both accurate and inaccurate stories.


Came back through Grand Canyon and met Tillosten.


Jotter met Holmstrom and got along well.



Paradise

Most of the chapters on when they were running the River has to do with either: running the rapids and how dangerous they were; plants which was being collected; descriptions

of places or events; and camp life.


July 13, 1938 - They now were entering the Grand Canyon.. They also had two others along for a day’s ride. They met their first rapid at Badger Creek Rapid. Without Atkinson, there seemed to be better relationships. One bad apple? Soap Creek was the next rapid.


Talks about the Birdseye expedition to lay the groundwork for damming the Colorado.


July 14, 1938 - Soap Creek was the next rapids. This was a dangerous rapid where people had died.


Talks about the stories of the Grand Canyons and the mystery of it.


July 15, 1938 - Talks about after they camped and gathered samples. Clover was finding the Canyon not oppressive, but a nameless beauty.


July 16, 1938 - They passed Stanton’s Cave. They did not stop here, but a short distance was Vasey’s Paradise. Talks about a biologist named Merriam. Clover thought that his work was OK as a generalization, but when it came to particulars, there were other factors. They only had time for an hour to do this.


The next set of rapids was President Harding Rapid.


July 17, 1938-Ran 25 miles. Went past the confluence with the Little Colorado River. They hit Tanner Rapid before camping.



A Most Unusual and Hazardous Means

July 18-20, 1938 - Crowd gathers on the Rim to see the boats come in. They navigated Hance Rapid. Then entered Upper Granite Gorge. Series of rapids which you could not go around. The most notorious was Grapevine. All made it through, but one had a tougher time than the others.


They landed at Bright Angel Creek. Compared to the isolation of the preceding weeks, this place seemed crowded; This is where Phantom Ranch is.


Talks about the background of the area and the intentional introduction of non-native animals. Also about Phantom Ranch.


Wright’s document: Fauna No. 1,” set forth a series of blunt recommendations.


They climbed out to the south rim-high heat. Describes the time they spent on top of the rim, including an interview with NBC Radio. They stayed an extra day. Also talks about the Great Deer Hunt as an example of why Nature is best left to itself to take care of issues. Wright got into this. Wright may have been the first person within the Park Service to clearly articulate the idea that “unimpaired” meant keeping healthy, functioning ecosystems intact.


Nevills asks Kolb if he would like to accompany them the rest of the way. Yes.


The next day they went back down to the boats.



A Hundred Personalities

July 21?-, 1938 More rapids run. Women continue to be asked to walk the rapids instead of running them. Paused before running the Hermit Rapid. Needed to evaluate how to attack it. He decided not to run it, but let the boats be lined up. Next came Serpentine Rapid. Bell was injured on it and Reed took over the oaring duties.


Stopped at Elves Chasm to take a look at. Clover collected some samples of algae. But Nevills later on mistakenly tossed them.


Boating the Colorado had become routine, even though there was plenty of excitement. I understand this as hiking the JMT with all of its beauty tends to become Sleep, Eat, Hike and do that again the next day.


Stopped at Havasu River four days after returning to the river. Stopped to swim and collect plants. Then onward they floated. Description of a rainstorm. Then how the River was changing. At Lava Falls, more plant life. The rapids here were too much so they lined the boats. They were now a day or two away from Lake Mead.


Kolb told Clover the story of the Hydes who died around this area. Clover wrote It’s a great river with a hundred personalities,” she wrote, “but it is not kind. As the trip was coming to an end, She didn’t want to leave the river. They came to the Separation Rapid. That night they camped-something was missing. No roaring of the river. They had reached Lake Mead


She names a place as Granite Falls. But I think it is Granite Rapids. Looks like at one time it was named Granite Falls. But well before this expedition, it was changed to Granite Rapids in 1930. Note: She uses Hermit Rapids, but it used to be known as Hermit Falls. It got changed at the same time as Granite Falls did. So why use one or the other?



Lonely for the River

Without the force of the river, rowing across Lake Mead became a slog. Each took turns rowing. After a day and a half of rowing, they heard a motor boat. Holmstrom had come out and was giving them a tow. He got them to Columbine Falls. Then a Dept of Interior boat came and towed them the rest of the way in.


They stayed in Boulder City. Strange, the author does not give a date. They had left Green River 43 days before. So that would put it as August 3, 1938. All that time, their lives had been hitched to the river’s rhythms.


Clover stayed in Boulder City for a week. Nevills also stayed around because his wife ended up in a hospital. Rest of them split up shortly after arriving. Clover spent time by the pier-

She went down to the pier just to feel the water rising and falling beneath the boats. This is very common among those who do something epic. They now wonder what else is left and pine to get back on the trail.


After Nevills wife got out of the hospital, they went back with Clover, going to return to get her vehicle. Homstrom was going to go down the Colorado. Clover had spent time organizing her plant pressings. Nevills invited her for a couple week trip down the San Juan. Then she went to Texas for more botanizing.


Back in Michigan, both Clover and Jotter were somewhat celebrities. There were missing plants which detracted from there work and the samples were not good quality-hard to keep them dry river-running. It was a bad thought, that they would be remembered (if they were remembered at all) because they were women, not botanists. But isn’t that why this book is written? If she was a male botanist, would the author had taken up her pen to write this account?


A partner of Holmstrom found the missing plants and they were sent to them. They published papers and worked on their samples. Clover went back and did hikes in the area, sampling the plants. They published their complete list in the American Midland Naturalist.


Emery Falls is now called Columbine Falls.



Heaven As I Go Along

THE OLD RIVER RUINS PEOPLE FOR SETTLING down doesn’t it? I do not know about rivers, but when you come to a trail and been on it for awhile, it is hard to get it out of your system.


Clover found that most people thought more of the accomplishment of a woman who ran the river than the botanist who studied it. She wasn’t interested in river running merely for sport: she wanted to botanize.


Nevills gave Harris the Mexican Hat which was what was agreed to. Harris ran the Colorado with it. Nevills started taking paying customers down and made a living doing that. He invited Clover and Jotter to accompany him. Both women declined, busy with teaching and perhaps (though they never said so) unwilling to go with Nevills again. Seems more like speculation than fact.


Women running the Colorado now became regular. Almost all of Nevills trips included at least one woman.


Clover was reported to have more show and tell to boys and girls, rather than as a full-fledged botanist wanting to study plants. This infuriated her.


Nevills and his wife died in a plane crash. But Nevills company still exists under the name Canyoneers. They even have trips with botanists.


Clover continued to collect specimens, even returning to the Grand Canyon. Some of hers and Jotter ended up at the United States National Herbarium. If you go to their site, you can search by either Jotter or Clover and see the specimens in the collection


Jotter married a scientist at Cornell by the name of Victor Cutler. She got her Phd and had a child. Jotter preferred to see new places and new plants on every trip. She did not run the river again.


Glen Canyon Dam started operation in 1963.


Clover retired in 1967.



Legendary

The Colorado was changing. Dams changed the river. More people were running it. Below dams, the flow of the water was controlled. Instead of torrents and dryness, the water would flow when the need for electricity was needed.


Jotter was invited to go down the river to see how the gorge had changed. She accepted it to be part of the “Old TimersTrip.” Other scientists who had run it before the dams were invited to see if they could identify the changes. The trip was very luxurious compared to her trip.


The reactions were mixed. These kinds of conversations revealed why Clover and Jotter’s plant list mattered: as a hedge against the human tendency to forget how the world used to look. Things like the sandbars were disappearing. Vegetation was different. But there was also a very biodiverse system which had grown up in its place. So trying to simulate the previous river would remove that. “These people remind us,” Schmidt told an interviewer during the trip, “that the fundamental experience of this place is a place where you can have high adventure and really rich personal experiences.


The river’s ebb and flow was predictable. In fact, the more she [Jotter] thought about it, the more she realized that nothing was the same—nothing but the canyon walls, the Kaibab, Coconino, and sheer Redwall rising above the river in beige, rose, and mauve, changing in color with the time of day and season yet indifferent to them.


What does “wild” mean, anyway?


A wild place isn’t one unchanged by humans. It’s a place that changes us. Jotter understood that the 1938 trip had changed it.


In 1996 the Glen Canyon flood gates were opened to simulate a weeks worth of full river run. The hope was to build back up the sandbars and some of the other natural occurrences. Starting in 2000 drought hit. Reservoir water lines dropped till many of the natural features were exposed.


Sevigny says It’s a time to rethink the old laws and policies that govern the Colorado River, and to imagine new kinds of futures in which human desires don’t subsume a river’s needs. Followed by no landscape is unchanged by people, nor any person unchanged by the land.


Jotter died in 2013.



Epilogue: A Woman's Place.

Sevigny made a trip with a group to root out invasive species. She brought along Jotter/Holmstom’s match case and a guide based upon their observations. Earlier explorers saw the river for what it could be, harnessed for human use. Clover and Jotter saw it as it was, a living system made up of flower, leaf, and thorn, lovely in its fierceness, worthy of study for its own sake.


About a third of the guides are women. Sevigny talks about sexism in the sciences and the outdoors.



Notes

In some cases, I have reimagined the exact wording from situations recalled by those involved.



Evaluation:

When I look at a history or biography there are two things which I look at. First is the subject matter-is this something which I am interested in and how well is it written. The second is how well do I trust the narrative being presented. Sevigny is a science writer from Arizona. So the Colorado River is her backyard and she knows the area and knows how to describe both the features and the science behind the two women botanists who went down the Colorado River when it was considerably wilder.


Let's tackle the first part: Is it interesting? Is it well written? I enjoy good outdoor stories, even if I am not much of a water travel guy. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter were the first females to travel down the Colorado. They went as botanists with a crew of four men. There was some disagreement of perspective-was this an expedition to study the plant life along the Colorado or a paid commercial venture with two botanists along. From how Sevigny presents it, it ends up being the latter.


Being the first of anything, there is the tension of should you do it? Is it feasible? Is it noteworthy? In this regard, Sevigny presents a good story, showing the sexist attitudes of that time. The river people felt that the River was too demanding and the newspapers were playing up this tension. It would have been good for Sevigny to note if women were going down other wild rivers and running rapids elsewhere.


As far as the botany aspect, in almost all of the chapters Sevigny lists a sampling of the plant life found. She talks a bit of the travails of being a woman botanist. She notes that there were species they found which were new to science.


In outdoors books, there tends to be a rhythm. In this one it goes something like sleep, eat, go down the river, there is a wild rapid-how do we run it? And botanize. The trick to writing a good outdoors book is to get the reader into the rhythm of the adventure which is mostly placid. That way the excitement of running a rapid becomes a counterpoint to the daily grind of rowing or the blandness of camp food. Sevigny more matches the constant thunder of the Colorado than the rhythms of outdoor life.


Sevignys does invoke the history of place and events. She talks about what happened at various rapids, caves and springs along the way. I enjoy hearing about these things. There are times it seems like these are fillers, but for the most part, I liked having them in there.


The second thing which I look at in a historical account is accuracy. There are some small nit-picking things, such as the names of places. Some of them she uses the older names (Granite Falls instead of Granite Rapids) and then turns around to use a new name of a rapid right beside the other. The item which really annoyed me was a paragraph on Jotter’s time in Yosemite. From how Sevigny portrays the Glacier Point Fire Fall, it was the Yosemite Field School which started it and the Park Service was embarrassed over it-her word. The Fire Fall was started well before Yosemite was a Park. And it ended in 1968 when the Park Service decided it no longer was congruent with its mission. Her paragraph here made me wonder what else did Sevigny have not quite right?


Sevigny notes that they [Clover and Jotter] would be remembered (if they were remembered at all) because they were women, not botanists. This gets to the question, why read this book? First, it is an interesting book about running the Colorado and secondly because it was the first successful time down the length of the Colorado by women. As much botany as Sevigny throws into the book, it was not the type of references which would make me interested. The bottom line is that it is not a bad read.


 
Notes from my book group:

Before the trip, Jotter says interesting material as I can, as otherwise, I would not consider going just for the experience. Is a trip done for the experience wasted? When you go on a trip what do you look for? What makes it successful? Does it need to be meaningful?


As Nevills gained experience with the river, he realized that He realized he needed to work with the river instead [of fighting it]. What led him to realize that? What difference did it make in how he handled or constructed a boat? Where have you come to that conclusion in your endeavors?


When tackling a rapid, Nevills evaluated it for how well they could run it. While others wanted to challenge some of the rapids, Nevills said that he would not be swayed by “incompetent opinions.” Did this seem harsh to you? Should leadership be a democracy? When should a leader take a decision themselves and when should it be put out to others?


Jotter’s father noted that You’ll come back changed. The river will change you. Have you had experience where doing something challenging outdoors has left a mark on your life? Talk about it. Why does things like that change a person? Clover said that THE OLD RIVER RUINS PEOPLE FOR SETTLING down doesn’t it? How was her life unsettled by the River?


When traveling slow, there tends to be a rhythm. their lives had been hitched to the river’s rhythms. Describe the rhythm the expedition had fallen into.


Was Clover and Jotter’s trip important scientifically? Why? When Jotter went on the Old Timers Trip, there was a statement made: These kinds of conversations revealed why Clover and Jotter’s plant list mattered: as a hedge against the human tendency to forget how the world used to look. What scientific inquiry is wasteful?


Sevigny raises the question: What does “wild” mean? How do you answer that?



Discuss her statement of A wild place isn’t one unchanged by humans. It’s a place that changes us.


Sevigny notes that they [Clover and Jotter] would be remembered (if they were remembered at all) because they were women, not botanists. Why do you think Sevigny wrote this book?


There are some remarks Sevigny makes about Yosemite: Sequoia(?) groves in Yosemite Valley and Fire falls being done by the Yosemite Field School. While neither is said implicitly, they are implied. How do you respond when an author misleads the reader? She also says that In some cases, I have reimagined the exact wording from situations recalled by those involved. What parts of this book can you rely on being factual?


How do you want your life to change because you read this book?



Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.

Why the title of Brave the Wild River?

Does this story work as an adventure? Scientific journey?

Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?

Which character was the most convincing? Least?

Which character did you identify with?

Which one did you dislike?

Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?

Why do you think the author wrote this book?

What would you ask the author if you had a chance?

What “takeaways” did you have from this book?

What central ideas does the author present?

Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?

What was memorable?

 

New Words:
  • Taxonomy: the branch of science concerned with classification, especially of organisms; systematics.
  • Lachrymose: tearful or given to weeping.
  • Isohyet: a line on a map connecting points having the same amount of rainfall in a given period.
  • Geocarpy: either the production of fruits underground, as in the arum lilies (Stylochiton and Biarum), in which the flowers are already subterranean, or the active burying of fruits by the mother plant, as in the peanut (Arachis hypogaea)


Book References:
  • Botany for Beginners by Almira Hart Lincoln
  • Familiar Lectures on Botany by Lincoln Phelps
  • Flora of North America
  • Elements of Botany
  • On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
  • Down the World’s Most Dangerous River by Clyde Eddy
  • The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by EDWARD LEAR
  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
  • River and Desert Plants of the Grand Canyon

Good Quotes:
  • First Line: THE NIGHT WAS FULL OF NOISES. THE DRIFTWOOD campfire snapped and spluttered, casting a circle of light on the river-rippled sand.
  • Last Line: They go ahead and, like stars reflected on the river, show the way.
  • What does “wild” mean, anyway? Chp Legendary
  • A wild place isn’t one unchanged by humans. It’s a place that changes us. Chp Legendary
 
Table of Contents:
  • Prologue: Stranded
  • On the Borders of Precipices
  • Have You Seen That River?
  • A Mighty Poor Place for Women
  • There Goes the Mexican Hat!
  • A Beautiful Pea-Green Boat
  • Delayed
  • Hell, Yes! What River?
  • Paradise
  • A Most Unusual and Hazardous Means
  • A Hundred Personalities
  • Lonely for the River
  • Heaven As I Go Along
  • Legendary
  • Epilogue: A Woman's Place.


References:
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)