The Emerald Mile

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s 1983. Lake Powell is full to the brim. The Glen Canyon dam is funneling unprecedented amounts of water through its spillways into the Colorado River creating some of the roughest river conditions seen since before Glen Canyon and Hoover dams were built. Three boatmen decide to use this perfect storm of conditions to race through the Grand Canyon from Lee’s Ferry to the Grand Wash Cliffs in an epic speed run using their years of experience, a little bit of luck, and a wooden dory called the Emerald Mile.

At first glance, even after the first chapter, I thought I was reading a book about an illicit speed run through the Grand Canyon. I imagined three hippies in a wooden rowboat dodging National Park Service helicopters and park rangers in rubber dinghies. What I got was so much better (although the former does sound like an amazing adventure)--a thorough and beautifully written history of the Colorado River with an epic boat race tossed in as an added bonus.

Emerald Mile covers a lot of territory, from John Wesley Powell’s first attempts to navigate the Colorado to the dam building boom in the early twentieth century to the history of river tourism in the Grand Canyon. And yes, a boat race with a larger than life cast of characters. Despite the, at times, overwhelming amount of information packed in, the book flows smoothly from one piece of history to the next. The story never feels bogged down or lost in facts and figures. Fedarko really brings the principal characters to life with compelling backstory.

Fedarko, who is a part time river guide himself, knows his subject and knows his river. His detailed descriptions of the rapids and river within the canyon really give you a sense of what the three boatmen were up against. He even makes the engineering nightmare at Glen Canyon compelling without going over the top with doom and gloom disaster predictions.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Excellent backstory building and a larger than life cast of characters. It is an engaging read that kept me turning the pages to find out what or who I was going to learn about next. I give it 4.5 stars.


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