What Lies Under “Lake” Powell Reservoir?
John Wesley Powell, the first Anglo to record his journey through the Glen, found in the canyon a sense of respite after his journey through the tumultuous rapids of Cataract Canyon. “We have [here] a curious ensemble of wonderful features,” he wrote, “Carved walls, royal arches, glens, alcoves, gulches, mounds, and monuments. From which of these features shall we select a name?” He named it, of course, Glen Canyon, to honor the cool groves of gamble oak in which he and his men found shade. Other writers found in Glen Canyon a beauty that rivaled, or at least complemented, that of the Grand Canyon. Wallace Stegner, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, found a sense of comfort in the Glen. “Awe was never Glen Canyon’s province,” he wrote. “That is for the Grand Canyon. Glen Canyon was for delight.” What did it mean to have such a place drowned? For Edward Abbey, drowning the Glen threatened to extinguish the very spirit of the Colorado Plateau. “The Canyonlands
