The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (81 page)

manhole covers in the parking lot next
: Schultz, “Design Features of the Glen Canyon Dam.”

heaved upward and began to tilt
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.

the discharge they were sending through the dam would decrease
: “Report of Telephone Call,” from Bruce Moyes to Tom Gamble, Water and Power Resources Service, Division of Design, June 8, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives in Denver.

something
was being rattled
: Author interview with Parsons.

Those vibrations were especially noticeable in the lunchroom
: Ibid.

something about a dam break that seems
: For details about the history of dams and dam breaks, see Smith,
History of Dams
and Barcott,
Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw.

the oldest structure for which evidence remains
: For insights on Sadd el-Kafara, I am indebted to Barcott,
Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw
, 78–79.

“then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money”
: For insights on Hammurabi’s laws, I am similarly indebted to Barcott,
Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw
, 78–79.

cascading through the Conemaugh Valley toward Johnstown
: For the definitive account of the Johnstown dam break, see McCullough,
Johnstown Flood.

The exact number of victims is still unknown
: The only disaster that has taken a greater toll of life in California’s history is the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The dam collapse was the worst civil-engineering disaster in the United States in the twentieth century. See Reisner,
Cadillac Desert.

By eight o’clock that night, the Teton reservoir
: For details on the Teton Dam break, see Reisner,
Cadillac Desert.

ninety-four times bigger than the volume of Johnstown
: The little lake surrounded by the hunting and fishing retreat above Johnstown, which was one of the largest man-made reservoirs on earth at the time, contained 15,000 acre-feet. The St. Francis reservoir held 38,000 acre-feet, and Teton contained more than 234,000. See McCullough,
Johnstown Flood
, and Reisner,
Cadillac Desert.

The initial dam-break wave, traveling about twenty miles an hour
: For details and calculations on the effect of a dam-break wave traveling through the Grand Canyon, see Latham,
Dam Failure Inundation Study: Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona
, 7–9.

“would have to climb the equivalent of a 40-story building”
: Ibid.

Glen’s chief designer was an engineer
: For details on Louis Puls and the design decisions that he made at Glen Canyon, see Martin,
Story That Stands Like a Dam
, 187.

As a result, Glen was spectacularly strong
: For this analysis of Puls’s design, I am indebted to Martin,
Story That Stands Like a Dam
, 188–89.

The first—overtopping the dam
: In Burgi’s view, the eleven feet of additional storage in the reservoir made the overtopping of the dam’s parapet extremely unlikely, especially given that flows would also be passing over the tops of the radial gates. In essence, Burgi did not think the runoff was sufficient to overwhelm the parapet.

a number of the Denver engineers did harbor concerns
: Author interview with Burgi. Also see Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.

Each plug was 150 feet long and notched into
: See Martin,
Story That Stands Like a Dam
, 209. Also see
Glen Canyon Dam and Powerplant: Technical Record of Design and Construction
; and author interview with J. David Rogers.

the Denver engineers had weighed this possibility
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 19. Also, author interview with Burgi.

“The inherent stability of the dam and its ability to bridge”
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 18–19.

“a lateral progression of any damage pattern”
: Ibid.

Hoover itself would be fine
: Author interview with Rogers.

Everyone was confident that this was unlikely
: Author interview with Burgi.

All but one of the fourteen major reservoirs
: Roy D. Gear, faxogram; To: Commissioner, LBR, Washington, DC; From: Regional Director, LBR, Boulder City, Nevada; Subject: Increased Flows in the Colorado River from Hoover Dam to Mexico, June 20, 1983. Memo states that “all upstream reservoirs on the upper Colorado are now ‘essentially full’ ” and that “remaining storage space has been calculated to fill before the complete volume of the snowmelt runoff is completed.”

shimmering blue reservoirs linked by
: Udall, “Floods Reveal Water Policy Chaos.”

was still rising roughly five inches every twenty-four hours
: During the previous week, the reservoir had risen 5.76 inches on Tuesday, 3.48 inches on Wednesday, and 4.56 inches on Thursday. On Friday it increased another 4.08, on Saturday an additional 5.52, and another 4.68 on Sunday. Glen Canyon Dam data tables, Bureau of Reclamation Archives in Denver.

And at 12,000 cfs, the lining in the right tunnel
: “Report of Telephone Call” from Wayne Cook to Wes Hirschi, Jim Brown, Tom Gamble, Jim Wedge, and Bruce Moyes, Water and Power Resources Service, Division of Design, June 13, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives in Denver.

For Burgi, who had by now returned to Denver
: Author interview with Burgi.

Burgi and his team sat down and devised
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, 20.

Moyes telephoned Gamble and told him
: Ibid., 2. Also see “Report of Telephone Call” from Bruce Moyes to Tom Gamble, Water and Power Resources Service, Division of Design, June 15, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives in Denver.

Burgi warned Gamble that the booming
: “Report of Telephone Call” from Bruce Moyes to Tom Gamble, Water and Power Resources Service, Division of Design, June 16, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives in Denver.

Gamble was pleased to report
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.

“A calm weekend is expected”
: Bruce Moyes, personal notes, June 18 and June 19, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives in Denver.

the ominous “belching”
: Bruce Moyes, “Proposed Operation Plan for Discharge of Flows at Glen Canyon Dam,” June 21, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, Denver.

Moyes and Burgi left for the airport at 4:00 a.m.
: Moyes, personal notes, June 18 and June 19, 1983, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, Denver.

During the three-hour flight
: Ibid.

By the time the two men arrived at the dam
: Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.

the discharge was increased, first to 17,000 cfs
: Ibid.

“The thing that affected me the most”
: Author interview with Parsons.

“Will this ever stop?”
: Author interview with Gamble.

“discharges from Glen Canyon Dam be immediately raised to 70,000”
: Faxogram, June 23; To: Regional Director, LBR, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boulder City, Nevada; From: Assistant Commissioner, Engineering and Research, LBR, E&R Center, Denver, Colorado; Subject: Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam Operations, Colorado River Storage Project, Arizona and Boulder Canyon Project, Nevada and Arizona, Bureau of Reclamation Archives, Denver. Also see Moyes and Burgi,
Glen Canyon Dam Chronology of Events
, Bureau of Reclamation Archives.

Part VI The Maelstrom

“The black stream, catching on a sunken rock”
: Frost,
West-Running Brook
, in Lathem, ed.,
The Poetry of Robert Frost
.

17: The Grand Confluence

“Life is either a daring”
: Keller,
The Open Door.

Hernando de Soto stumbled upon
: Garcilaso de la Vega,
The Florida of the Incas
, quoted in H. C. Frankenfield, “The Floods of 1927 in the Mississippi Basin,”
Monthly Weather Review
, suppl. 29 (Washington, DC, 1927), 10; cited in Barry,
Rising Tide
, 173.

in the spring of 1927, the river’s width
: Barry,
Rising Tide
, 170–71.

an inland sea that stretched from Yazoo City
: Veronica Devore, “As Mississippi Rises, Historian Discusses ‘Great Flood’ of 1927,” PBS
Newshour
,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/05/as-mississippi-rises-flood-historian-discusses-great-flood-of-1927.html
(accessed 11/16/12).

hydraulic sweet spot around 45,000
: Reilly, “My High Water Experience,” 3. “In my opinion, our 1962 trip provided the best flow for river running that I ever encountered; from June 25 through July 14 we averaged 45,500 cfs per day. This level was pure pleasure.”

boats were ferrying nearly thirteen hundred guides and passengers
: According to the Park Service’s river permit records, between 94 and 150 commercial passengers launched from Lee’s Ferry on twenty-six out of thirty days in June 1983. Twenty-one of those days also saw at least one launch of a private boating expedition that included up to twelve members.

accelerated from three miles per hour to six
: Graf,
Colorado River in Grand Canyon
, 2.

white water was actually moving
upstream
: Reilly, “My High Water Experience,” 3.

if they heard anyone yell “High ground!”
: Author interview with Dick Kocim.

which took place on Saturday, June 18
: Quiroz,
Case Incident Record No. 831466
, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

While most outfitters equipped their expeditions with VHF
:
William R. Wert Fatality, Case No. 831592
, Grand Canyon National Park Archives.

opened the bag for the message
: Ibid.

a rather tempestuous affair
: Author interview with Steve Reynolds.

Whenever he spotted a passenger who was struggling
: Author interview with Petschek.

river folk sometimes refer to as a looker
: Ibid.

“If anything happens”
: Author interview with Reynolds.

they would do this thing together
: Ibid.

Sauer, a reasonable man
: Details of Sauer’s and Grua’s interaction are documented in
Case Incident Record No. 831941
, Grand Canyon National Park Archives.

“He basically raised me from a kid to where I am now”
: Grua, oral histories, NAU.

which Litton found rather abhorrent
: Author interview with Martin Litton.

Kenton, you already
have
the record
: Ibid.

Grua launched into a soliloquy
: Ibid.

Litton sighed and agreed that he did
: Ibid.

According to the legend that is told on the river
: Steiger, “Speed.”

was simply to get Grua off the damn phone
: Author interview with Litton.

18: The White Demon

“Out there in the middle of the maelstrom”
: Blaustein,
Hidden Canyon
, 64.

on the morning of Thursday, June 23, Brian pulled into
: Thybony, “Crystal Rapid, 1983,” 17. Also, author interview with Stan Steck.

had grown progressively more vicious
: Kieffer, “The 1983 Hydraulic Jump in Crystal Rapid,” 394.

when the engineers took the discharge up to 59,000 cfs
: USGS surface-water statistics for the Bright Angel gauging station.

spillway tunnels the previous night reached Mile 98
: USGS surface-water statistics for the Bright Angel gauging station indicate that the 70,000 cfs hit Phantom Ranch at 6:45 a.m. If the current was traveling at 6 mph, this surge would have taken approximately another two hours to reach Crystal.

directly into the soles of the flip-flops
: Aronson, “High Water of 1983,” 36.

they were looking at an almost perfect hydraulic jump
: Author interview with Steck.

a series of hollow, cannonlike booms
: See Zwinger,
Downcanyon
, 142; and Kieffer, “Hydraulics and Geomorphology of the Colorado River,” 375.

the boulders at the bottom of the river were shifting
: Kieffer, “The 1983 Hydraulic Jump in Crystal Rapid,” 394.

Brian’s attention was drawn upstream
: Thybony, “Crystal Rapid, 1983,” 17.

By the spring of 1983, White
: For details on Georgie White, see Westwood,
Woman of the River
, and Sayre, “Georgie’s Roaring River.”

an estimated gross displacement of thirty-nine tons
: See Sayre, “Georgie’s Roaring River.”

Known as the
Queen Mary
: Ibid.

As the rangers watched, stupefied
: Thybony, “Crystal Rapid, 1983,” 17. Also, author interview with Steck.

“Not only were they catapulted
out
”
: Thybony, “Crystal Rapid, 1983,” 17.

Others had swallowed water and were vomiting
: Author interview with Steck.

“Georgie, what happened?”
: Thybony, “Crystal Rapid, 1983,” 17.

“They don’t make passengers like they used to”
: For this marvelous quote, which is a staple of most river stories about Georgie White, I am indebted to Scott Thybony, ibid.

was running a thirty-five-foot raft with twenty-three passengers
: See
Case Incident Record No. 831574
, Grand Canyon National Park Archives.