Press Release
“Remembering what we lost with Glen Canyon, in my mind, is relevant today,” said Ken Sleight. “I can’t forget it and I don’t want others to forget it either.”
Ninety-three-year-old Sleight, iconic environmentalist and river guide, isn’t done yet! Sleight’s 60 plus years of activism to restore and protect Glen Canyon continues alongside the remembrance of all that was lost in a new exhibit at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum.
His enduring passion inspired a team of curators, historians and storytellers to tell the story of Glen Canyon before it was inundated in 1963 by the reservoir known as Lake Powell. Glen Canyon Dam forever changed the most idyllic canyon on the Colorado River, and river runners like Sleight still mourn this loss.
Sleight and other river guides who spent time in Glen Canyon before flooding have opened their personal archives to share the images, stories and objects, many of which have never been shown or told outside the guiding community. River gear, boats and memorabilia from the era take you back in time. Two canvas canoes owned by Dave Rust, who in 1923, became the first guide to offer outfitted river trips through Glen Canyon, have been loaned by the Grand Canyon National Park for the exhibit.
Native American artifacts removed from Glen Canyon during the US National Park Service archaeological salvage project in the late 1950s and early 1960s (on loan from the Utah Museum of Natural History) remind us of the rich indigenous cultural heritage now under water.
Archaeologist and wilderness guide Lyle Balenquah (Hopi) commented, “For Hopi people, Glen Canyon is recognized as a larger landscape containing connections to our ancestral past. Our Hopi ancestors were among the first to experience this unique landscape and call it home. Glen Canyon is hallowed ground.”
“Glen Canyon: A River Guide Remembers” is open to the public through June 2, 2024. Visit www.johnwesleypowell.com for more information about museum hours, admission and amenities.