In Glen Canyon Betrayed, Katie Lee, an aspiring, young Hollywood performer in the 1950s, falls suddenly, unexpectedly, passionately in love. Not with a man, nor even a woman, but with a place: Glen Canyon, on the Colorado River. When a childhood friend invites her on a Grand Canyon trip, she is smitten by the river. But it is another year before she meets her true love, as she floats the San Juan River and enters Glen Canyon.
With a combination of contemporary narrative and journals of her many expeditions, Katie takes us through the initial flush of first love, to an infatuation overwhelming her mind and body, and on to the inevitable heartbreak as Glen Canyon is snuffed out before her eyes by Glen Canyon Dam. As she looks on helplessly, the reservoir rises, killing, canyon by sacred canyon, mile by irreplaceable mile, her beloved river. Curiosity, love, wonderment, and delight; foreboding, disbelief, horror, and fury; and finally sorrow, heartbreak, and a resolute conviction to neither forgive nor forget, keep this love story moving, much as it has kept Katie vibrantly alive when others her age have faded or passed on.
In Glen Canyon, Katie Lee found her love requited, found a peace and perspective she had lost in her other life in the limelight. As its end approached, Katie vowed to memorize and keep the dying Canyon within her, resolutely returning to its deathbed again and again during its final days. She has remained true to her love--her rage has simmered for some forty years.
In Glen Canyon Betrayed, she has reconjured the heart of the canyon country, complete with its subtleties of light, its sensual forms, its erotic canyon sinuousities, down to the giggling, gurgling, sighing voice of the river itself. For those of us too young to have known the Glen, she paints a vivid and irresistible portrait of her lover. It is only through this meticulous recreation of the Glen as a living, breathing entity that we are able to share her outrage and horror in its needless death--the deliberate drowning of an innocent Canyon, the pointless crucifixion of a gentle, loving and magical river. Now Katie, a devout Pagan, and her audience await, like Christians awaiting their entombed Christ, for the rolling back of the stone, the voiding of Glen Canyon Dam, and the resurrection of what was, and will once again be, the salvation of the human soul.
Originally published as All My Rivers are Gone in 1998, this new edition contains new text, photographs, and a fiery new afterword by Katie Lee. Her companion DVD, Love Song to Glen Canyon, is also available from Fretwater Press.
Katie Lee, in her 40-year career in the entertainment industry, has been an author, musicologist, folk singer, storyteller, Hollywood actress, song writer, filmmaker, photographer, poet, and river runner. She has been active in environmental causes ever since the destruction of her beloved Glen Canyon. Her first book, Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle, tells the story of the American cowboy in song, story, and verse. Her documentary, The Last Wagon, won the 1972 CINE Golden Eagle Award. She is featured in many documentaries, including PBS's Cadillac Desert, based on Marc Reisner's acclaimed book.
For more of Katie's books, music, and information, be sure to visit www.katydoodit.com
Meredith W. Ogilby photo