Hell Or High Water

Although John Wesley Powell and party are usually given credit for the first river descent through the Grand Canyon, the ghost of James White has haunted those claims. White was a Colorado prospector, who, almost two years before Powell's journey, washed up on a makeshift raft at Callville, Nevada....

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Main Author: Adams, Eilean
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: University Press of Colorado 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:ONIX_20231005_9780874214659_1481
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author Adams, Eilean
author_browse Adams, Eilean
author_facet Adams, Eilean
author_sort Adams, Eilean
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Although John Wesley Powell and party are usually given credit for the first river descent through the Grand Canyon, the ghost of James White has haunted those claims. White was a Colorado prospector, who, almost two years before Powell's journey, washed up on a makeshift raft at Callville, Nevada. His claim to have entered the Colorado above the San Juan River with another man (soon drowned) as they fled from Indians was widely disseminated and believed for a time, but Powell and his successors on the river publically discounted it. Colorado River runners and historians have since debated whether White's passage through Grand Canyon even could have happened. Hell or High Water is the first full account of White's story and how it became distorted and he disparaged over time. It is also a fascinating detective story, recounting how White's granddaughter, Eilean Adams, over decades and with the assistance of a couple of notable Colorado River historians who believed he could have done what he claimed, gradually uncovered the record of James White's adventure and put together a plausible narrative of how and why he ended up floating helplessly down a turbulent river, entrenched in massive cliffs, with nothing but a driftwood raft to carry him through.
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publisherStr University Press of Colorado
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1157082024-04-02T13:59:57Z Hell Or High Water Adams, Eilean History Ecology & Evolutionary Biology thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHB General and world history thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WN Nature and the natural world: general interest::WNW The Earth: natural history: general interest Although John Wesley Powell and party are usually given credit for the first river descent through the Grand Canyon, the ghost of James White has haunted those claims. White was a Colorado prospector, who, almost two years before Powell's journey, washed up on a makeshift raft at Callville, Nevada. His claim to have entered the Colorado above the San Juan River with another man (soon drowned) as they fled from Indians was widely disseminated and believed for a time, but Powell and his successors on the river publically discounted it. Colorado River runners and historians have since debated whether White's passage through Grand Canyon even could have happened. Hell or High Water is the first full account of White's story and how it became distorted and he disparaged over time. It is also a fascinating detective story, recounting how White's granddaughter, Eilean Adams, over decades and with the assistance of a couple of notable Colorado River historians who believed he could have done what he claimed, gradually uncovered the record of James White's adventure and put together a plausible narrative of how and why he ended up floating helplessly down a turbulent river, entrenched in massive cliffs, with nothing but a driftwood raft to carry him through. 2023-10-05T10:45:35Z 2023-10-05T10:45:35Z 2001 book ONIX_20231005_9780874214659_1481 9780874214659 9780874214260 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/115708 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt46nsf1 University Press of Colorado Utah State University Press 10.2307/j.ctt46nsf1 10.2307/j.ctt46nsf1 bdb618a1-113c-44b5-a845-a542cf87281e 9780874214659 9780874214260 Utah State University Press open access
spellingShingle History
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHB General and world history
thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WN Nature and the natural world: general interest::WNW The Earth: natural history: general interest
Adams, Eilean
Hell Or High Water
title Hell Or High Water
title_full Hell Or High Water
title_fullStr Hell Or High Water
title_full_unstemmed Hell Or High Water
title_short Hell Or High Water
title_sort hell or high water
topic History
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHB General and world history
thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WN Nature and the natural world: general interest::WNW The Earth: natural history: general interest
topic_facet History
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHB General and world history
thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WN Nature and the natural world: general interest::WNW The Earth: natural history: general interest
url ONIX_20231005_9780874214659_1481
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