Martins book depicts the battle between those committed to transforming the West for the collective good and others certain that space--open, undisturbed, and wild--was something our technology could never recreate; thus, we should never entirely destroy it. It is also the story of a Colorado plateau, named by geologist and explorer John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), when he passed by on his Geographic Expedition, in August 1869. Powell later proposed, presciently, policies for the development of the West. There were other ideas: industrialists proposed running a railway through it, miners saw gold in the sands, and federal dam builders took a gander. In 1940, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes proposed Glen Canyon become a vast national monument, but was trumped by conservationists who argued that it should not be. Martin recounts how it came to be dammed in the interests of water, power, and play for the public good. He reminds us of our quandary: should we develop to serve our material needs or protect it. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
