' ' ''vIvV-Xv- ' . .; ;;; v.-- V.;.V v.; ;. v : KATIE LEE! Keeping Glen Canyon Alive With A Story 6 A Song By Barry Scholl In another generation or two, no one alive will have a personal memory of Glen Canyon. The once pulsing lifeline at the heart of the canyon country, its dim and soaring side canyons, its native American ruins and pungent shares will exist only in books, photographs, and journals, phantasmal as Troy or the passenger pigeon. The remains of Glen Canyon lie under what is quite literally a landing sheet of water. To abolish a landscape is not merely to destroy; it is to engage in collective amensia. It becomes incumbent upon us to keep Glen Canyon alive if only as a wound that will not heal, to give us eyes and hearts, the precedent and the rage to defend what is left. -- plain-spoke- good-nobo- Bruce Berger There Was a River Berger wrote those words after taking a Glen Canyon river trip with Katie Lee.Thirty-fiv- e years after she introduced the young author to Hite, Olympia Bar, Forgotten Canyon, Music Temple and Dungeon Canyon, among other, lesser-know-n wonders, Katie Lee and more importantly, remains angry, directed. Her mission is to make sure people don't forget Glen Canyon. "Anger," she says, "keeps you on track. I have kept my anger in full gear ever since I saw the river die. I want people to know Eden was lost." She speaks from experience. Between 1954 and the Katie took 16 Glen Canyon, introducing trips through friends and acquaintances to this n paradise. Alone and with others, she explored heretofore unknown tributaries, swam the waters 'A-Tisk- et, n, of the river, picked chives on pre-damnati- ss. oc little-know- silt-lade- dy work-in-progre- mid-1960- s, coffee-brow- n n reputation as an earthy, wilderness advocate for wild places with a gift for profanity. Today, Katie is working on her second book. All My Rivers Are Gone. (Her first. Ten Thousand Goddamn Cattle, the story of the American cowboy in song, verse and story, was published by Northland Press in 1976 and has twice been reprinted). Rivers began life as a novel more than 20 years ago, took a sharp left turn in the early '90s and has now been recast as a nonfiction account of Glen Canyon and its effect on her life. It will be who has ever heard Katie sing or speak could doubt that-a- s well as authoritative. Along with her fellow Arizona resident Richard Sprang and Moab's own Ken Sleight, Katie knew the 170 miles of Glen Canyon better than anyone alive today. She is typically in her "I description of the to tell want what missed just people they the best way I know how." But when pressed, she eventually concedes, "I know that no one ever learns anything by someone elsc's mistake. But I have a faint hope the book will prevent this from ever happening again." In the early 1940s, Katie Lee, then a music-lovin- g drama major at the University of Arizona, formed a trio with two guitar-playin-g friends. The ad-hensemble entertained tourists at the Pioneer Hotel and other local nightspots by performing popular songs of the era, but as Katie recalls, "singing 15 times a night began to get old." So they turned toward the music Katie had heard growing up around her father's ranch in Tucson-cowbo- y songs. "At first I thought they were unbelievably corny," she says. "But then they began to grow on me." Those she liked best told stories about some aspect of life in the frontier West, and Katie had always loved a good narrative. Besides, the songs she was really drawn to were the wide gravel bars, marveled at the hanging fern and monkeyflower gardens at each sandstone seep, watched the sky change moods between canyon walls, and played her guitar. During this period, she also began to earn a THE INCOMPARABLE KATIE LEE IAAAAAAN On my way to haunt Escape to picturesque Boulder Mountain Lodge, located at the junction of scenic Highway 12 and the renowned Burr Trail in BOULDER I and 2 beautifully designed suites, spaciously located in 3 guest houses which surround 5choolhouse Bouider, Utah. We offer IB luxurious rooms Lake, our own private bird the daylights out of those BuRec people at the dam, always spend the night at the Boulder Mtn. Lodge sanctuary. Spend your days hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, touring by jeep or simply relaxing with old or new friends in our Great Room. Evenings offer world-clanew Hell's Backbone Grill. Plan dining in ss MOUNTAIN a that will really take you away from it all. LrjOuDjGjE our "get-awa- y" QUALITY REALTY . . JOHN WESLEY POWELL Boulder Mountain Lodge, Inc.. Box 1397, Boulder, UT B4716 505 N. Main Street (801)259-502- 1 FAX: (801) Reservations & Information: 1 -- (000) i riarhi 259-83- 259-649- 3 87 Each office is independently owned and operated. 556-344- 6 iOTIESE'T'cTiTCtISC xce,ac;A mm or tknir Nassau flMBaWMMMg SB J