In the summer of 1983, the flooded Colorado River threatened to overwhelm Glen Canyon Dam. The dam’s engineers had no choice but to open the floodgates. Down river, three boatmen had a crazy plan: use the raging river to slingshot a wooden boat called the Emerald Mile through the Grand Canyon faster than any vessel ever. In their attempt, the boatmen experienced the Colorado’s ancestral power, as it was before being shackled by two enormous dams. The journalist Kevin Fedarko has written a book about this epic story, and he joins us Tuesday to tell it.
Kevin Fedarko will give a reading of his new book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, on Wednesday July 31st at The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City. That event begins at 7 p.m. Click here for more details.
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Kevin Fedarko is a journalist and a part-time guide on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. His work has appeared in Outside, where he worked as a senior editor, as well as Esquire, Time, National Geographic and others. His new book is called The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon [IndieBound/Amazon]
