The passage of the 1902 Reclamation Act created a mandate for the federal government to build dams on the Colorado River and its powerful tributaries. By 1920 the US Geological Survey had surveyed the river's main courses, but still needed accurate charts of the last stretches of deep canyons and white-water rapids, accessible only by boat.
"Rough-Water Man" is the first detailed account of these mapping expeditions by the USGS--the San Juan Canyon in 1921, the upper Green River in 1922, and the Grand Canyon in 1923. Illustrated throughout with period photographs, it is also the personal...