Speakers
2019 Jack Schmidt: The Future of the Colorado River
photo credit: M Miller, USGS Today’s decisions about the Colorado River’s future are of two types – those that concern allocation of a decreasing water supply that meets the needs of a growing population and those that concern environmental management of the river segments that intervene between reservoirs. Can these two types of decisions be […]
James M. Aton: The Crimson Cowboys: The Remarkable Odyssey of the 1931 Claflin-Emerson Expedition
In 1931 a team of six archaeologists from Harvard’s Peabody Museum and three guides set out to do what no archaeologists had done before nor have tried since: explore, survey, and excavate Fremont Indian sites on the Tavaputs Plateau. Their 400-mile expedition is the longest horse-pack archaeological trip in the history of American archaeology. It […]
Heather Hansman: Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
The Green River, the largest tributary of the Colorado River system, is crucial, overused, and at risk. Author Heather Hansman paddled the river from source to confluence and see what the experience might teach her about those risks. She’ll discuss her new book about the Green, “Downriver,” and talk about why it’s important to tell […]
Into the Canyon
Escalante High School AuditoriumIn 2016 filmmaker/photographer Pete McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko set out on a 750-mile journey on foot through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. From the outset, the challenge was far more than they bargained for. More people have stood on the moon than have completed a continuous through hike of the Canyon. McBride […]
James Swensen: ’As Grand and Unusual Sights as The Heart Could Desire’: An Exploration of John Wesley Powell’s Photographers
Fennemore Mukuntuweap Valley (Zion Canyon), Utah, American, April 1872 In 1871 John Wesley Powell returned to the Colorado Plateau. Two years earlier he and his intrepid crew made one of the most-daring expeditions in American history when they journeyed down the Green and Colorado Rivers, mostly sight-unseen. When he returned he came with a different […]
Paula L. McNeill: Partners in Art – the Art of Bradley C. Spencer and Ruthanne Oliver
Paula L. McNeill will discuss the art and lives of the 2019 Featured Artists, Escalante native and painter Bradley C. Spencer and self-taught Western fiber artist Ruthanne Oliver. This presentation will focus on how the flora, fauna, and magnificent, often mysterious, landscape and light of southern Utah informs and inspires their work. McNeill is a […]
2018 Marsha Holland: Southern Utah Oral History Project – A Record of Living with the Land
Historian Marsha Holland, Tropic, Utah, resident has been visiting with local residents recording their stories for several years. This oral history project was one of the first Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument science initiatives. Since 1998, historians have gathered nearly 300 interviews from longtime residents, documenting cultural ties to wild country in and around the Monument. Learn […]
2018 Christa Sadler: Seeing Things 2018 Whole: John Wesley Powell and an Understanding of the American West
Although most people are familiar with John Wesley Powell as the intrepid one-armed Civil War veteran who became the first European to explore the canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers in 1869 and again in 1871-72, it is the work that Powell did following his epic journeys for which he truly should be famous. […]
2018 The Colorado – The Film
Escalante High School Auditorium THE COLORADO from Murat Eyuboglu on Vimeo. For five million years the Colorado has carved some of the most majestic landscapes on the planet. It has also become the lifeline of a vast portion of North America, providing the water that sustains nearly forty million people, half a dozen major cities, and an immense […]
2018 Scott Richardson: An Accidental Paleontologist
This program will condense Scott's 16 years of working in the Kaiparowits Plateau with Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument paleotologist, Dr. Alan Titus, as he shares a myriad of stories, photos, finds and excavations. Scott has a B.S. in geological engineering and has discovered several new species of dinosaurs in the last 15 years. He worked […]