Westwater Lost and Found

Expanded Edition

Mike Milligan

• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781646426089, 9781646425440
• eBook ISBN: 9781646425457
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Westwater Lost and Found: Expanded Edition is the continuing story of Westwater—a relatively short, deep canyon near the Utah-Colorado state line that has become one of the most popular river-running destinations in the Southwest—and its lasting significance to the study of the Upper Colorado River. Thousands of recreational river runners have pushed this backwater place into the foreground of modern popular culture in the West. Westwater represents one common sequence in western history: the late opening of unexplored territories, the sporadic and ultimately often unsuccessful attempts to develop them, their renewed obscurity when development doesn't succeed, their attraction to a marginal society of dreamers and schemers, and the modern rediscovery of them due to new cultural motives, especially outdoor recreation, which has brought many people into thousands of remote corners of the West.
 
This expanded edition brings to light historical events and explores how Westwater's location greatly contributed to early Grand (Upper) Colorado River boaters' knowledge and how the lush Westwater Valley and Cisco became critical stops for water, wood, and grass along the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail. Other new additions include explorer Ellsworth Kolb's unpublished manuscript describing his 1916–1917 boating experiences on the Grand and Gunnison Rivers; two stories relating to Outlaw Cave, one of which expands upon the mystery of the outlaw brothers; a letter from James E. Miller to Frederick S. Dellenbaugh in 1906 revealing new information about his boating excursion with Oro DeGarmo Babcock on the Grand River in 1897; and a portion of botanist Frederick Kreutzfeld's little-known journal of 1853 that describes Captain John W. Gunnison's railroad survey.
 
Loaded with extensive information and river-running history, Milligan's guide is sure to enhance readers' knowledge of the Upper Colorado River and Grand Canyon regions. Boaters, river guides, scholars of the American West, and historians of the Colorado, Green, and Gunnison Rivers or the Old Spanish Trail will gain much from this new edition.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword by Roy Webb
• Acknowledgments
• “Life’s Depths”: A Poem
• Introduction
• 1 Westwater Camp: Water, Wood, and Grass
• 2 The Outlaw Brothers
• 3 Those Darn Woman’s Shoes Found in Westwater’s Cave
• 4 Dentists’ Sabbatical on the Grand River in 1897
• 5 Ellsworth Kolb: Losing His Boyhood
• 6 Fellows and Torrence: Overcoming the Narrows
• Epilogue
• Appendix A: Frederick Kreutzfeldt (Creutzfeldt)—Partial Journal Notes from 1853
• Appendix B: Westwater Camp and Water Stop Chronology
• Appendix C: Dr. James E. Miller’s Letter to Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, November 2, 1906
• Appendix D: Robert Brewster Stanton’s letter to Dr. James E. Miller, May 11, 1909
• Appendix E: Ellsworth L. Kolb’s Newspaper Accounting of Section Three of Black Canyon of the Gunnison River
• Appendix F: Ellsworth L. Kolb’s 1918 Manuscript of the Grand and Gunnison Rivers
• Appendix G: Colorado River Sites—Westwater Area
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index