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Grand Canyon Pioneers Society - The Bulletin |
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| Vol 6, No 5 | May 2002 |
Katie Lee's Glen Canyon
A native Arizonan, Katie Lee began her professional career in 1948 as a stage and screen actress. She performed in motion pictures in Hollywood, had running parts on 4 major NBC radio shows in the early 1950s, and was a pioneer actress on national television. In the mid-1950s she left Hollywood to spend 10 years "on the road" as a performer in coffeehouses and bistros throughout the US, Canada and Mexico, singing folksongs to her own guitar.
The Sierras were John Muir's refuge; Glen Canyon was Katie's. For more than a decade she regularly ran, guided, photographed and explored it; knew the river guides and characters that roamed there; and named many of its side canyons. In 1953 she was the 175th person to run the Grand Canyon after John Wesley Powell's first run in 1869, and the third woman to run all rapids in Grand Canyon. Ten years later, despite Lee's and other's protests against the Glen's destruction, Glen Canyon Dam was completed-190 miles of Glen Canyon and Colorado River drowned beneath Powell reservoir; leaving a truncated Grand Canyon to shift for itself with intermittent flows of ice water. A river no more!
Katie says of her early involvement: "Our efforts, with meager numbers and unschooled politics, were like trying to put out a wildfire with a teacup." Her anger over the "political damning of an Eden unequaled," became the diving force that turned her into an environmental activist and agitator. Using her skills as a writer-photographer-actress-singer-musician she began the fight for the preservation of wild and remote place throughout the Southwest.
Katie Lee's recent book "All My Rivers Are Gone" (Johnson Books, Boulder Colorado) is indeed a "Journey of Discovery" of both the self and the canyon she loved. Two new CD/cassettes have been released in conjunction with the book-"Colorado River Songs," Katie singing songs she wrote about the river; and "Glen Canyon River Journeys," featuring readings from the book and singing some songs. (All available at: Katydid Books & Music, Box 395, Jerome AZ 86331. Phone: 928-634-8075.) Katie serves on the Advisory Board of the Glen Canyon Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates the draining of Lake Powell and restoring the natural ecosystem, health and beauty of the Colorado River. In the past few years she has been featured often in the media.
On Saturday, April 27, the 20 or so Grand Canyon Pioneers and their guests sat spellbound as Katie wove her literary and musical magic around us. Her writing evokes the very sense of place - the feel of the river lapping against skin, the rich smell of banks of mud, the sound of the down-scale tones of the canyon wren, the sight of canyon walls towering overhead, the taste of food around a campfire. The raw emotion in which Katie sings her songs of the river - and its destruction - is powerful and real.
We owe a great debt to her as the recorder of a place many of us never had the opportunity to know - Glen Canyon before the dam or (damn, as Katie would say). When people moan that they have been cheated - Katie's response is - you certainly have. To all of you who love the Grand Canyon and its surrounding environs, let this be a costly lesson to be vigilant and protect the places you love.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, no one believed the dam would actually be built until it was too late. To those of you who couldn't attend, read Katie's book, "All My Rivers Are Gone", and buy her tapes and CDs about the Colorado River.
What a privilege and an honor to spend an afternoon with Katie Lee in her hometown of Jerome. She is a national treasure.
Article submitted by Nancy Green
GCPS Outings for 2002
| May 18: |
"Route 66 Across Arizona. A Comprehensive Two-Way Guide for Touring
Route 66" by Richard and Sherry Mangum at Northern Arizona University Cline
Library, Flagstaff.
Award-winning authors Richard and Sherry Mangum grew up in Flagstaff in the glory days of the Mother Road, and have Route 66 motor oil in their blood. Being avid readers themselves, they reviewed all the literature available about Route 66 and realized that most of the states through which America's Main Street passed had their own state guidebooks and that Arizona-one of the premier Route 66 states-had none. With their usual thoroughness, they set out to fill the gap. Convinced that in order to be most useful, the guidebook should contain directions for both east-west and west-east travelers, the Mangums began doing their homework and hitting the road. After months of research, photographing, test-driving, map-making, and firing down roadhouse cheeseburgers, the Mangums made their final decision about the book: that it should be big enough to contain useful maps, that it should be all in color and that it should be beautiful. The result is Route 66 Across Arizona, which appeared in July 2001.
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| June 22: | Annual Picnic at Shoshone Point, Grand Canyon. Note: We will post a notice at the entrance station and the Shoshone gate on the day of the picnic announcing the location if it is changed. | ||||
| July 20: | Museum of Northern Arizona Special Collections Tour. | ||||
| August 17: | "The Grand Canyon Orphan Mine" by Maurice Castagne at Grand Canyon Maricopa Observation Point. | ||||
| September 21: | Grand Canyon Aviation History by Ron Warren at Grand Canyon Airport. | ||||
| October 19: | "Below the Rim & Beyond the Lake" (Two Commanding Canyons-Grand Canyon & Glen Canyon's Lake Powell) slide show by Gary Ladd and GCPS Board meeting. | ||||
| November 16: | To be announced. | ||||
| December: | No Meeting. |
New Members
Brian L. Miller - San Francisco, CA
Kent Hendrick - Flagstaff, AZ
In Loving Memory of Roma Butchart
by her daughter, Anne Madariaga
The second of eight sisters, Roma Wilson Butchart was born to Bert and Edith Burchell Wilson in Minden Nebraska on March 10, 1906. She grew up in various Midwestern states, eventually graduating with a major in French and a minor in Latin from Illinois's Eureka College, of which her father was president.
She became engaged to Harvey Butchart on April 4, 1928, and the couple were married on July 28, 1929. They had two children, Anne Butchart Madariaga, who was born in Indianapolis and Jim Butchart, born in Enid Oklahoma, where Harvey taught mathematics.
Following subsequent three-year stays in Fulton Missouri, and Grinnell Iowa, the family moved to Flagstaff where the children grew up.
After raising both, Roma held various professional positions. She taught at Northern Arizona University, was secretary for the company that built Glen Canyon Dam near Page, and served for several years as executive secretary to the superintendent of Coconino County Schools in Flagstaff.
After their retirement, the Butcharts moved to Sun City, where they resided for 25 years. Last May, they transferred to Tucson and moved in with their grand-daughter, Rene Carrizosa and her family who had volunteered to care for them during their reclining years.
Hence, the last ten month's of Roma's life were spent in a particularly loving and compassionate environment. Chocolate was one of her particular likes, and last month on her 96th birthday, Roma enjoyed, not only one, but two chocolate cakes along with an assortment of candy and flowers.
Blue was her favorite color and she fell in love with her Sun City home because the place was decorated in its various shades.
Bridge and Scrabble were her chosen games, and while she excelled in both, almost all of her Scrabble opponents slunk off to lick their wounds. She loved to read, especially when it came to murder mysteries, and she also religiously followed two soap operas.
Roma loved the ocean and spent many journeys hunting shells along seaside shores in the United States, Mexico, Hawaii and other locations. Over the years, she acquired an admirable collection of shells, many of which she found herself.
A gentle and caring woman who demonstrated superb skills with the English language, Roma loved to write poems and limericks. As a result, her parody of Kubla Khan, which was aimed at the Sun City lifestyle, made a special slot in the local newspaper.
Roma was always eager to include both her children and grandchildren on trips and various outings that involved camping, hiking, and shelling on the beaches. She and Harvey also took them boating on Lake Powell and other inland waters.
Roma passed away on April 3, 2002, at Life Care Center in Tucson. A memorial service was held April 6 in Tucson's Evergreen Mortuary Chapel, with Chaplain John Hoelter officiating.
After a 72-year marriage, Roma is survived by husband Harvey, daughter Anne Madariaga and son Jim Butchart, along with two sisters: Violet Linder of Sandwich, Illinois and Elaine Miller of Deltaville Virginia.
Also surviving are six grandchildren: Kirk Madariaga, Rene Carrizosa, Michelle Schwartz; Brint, Kelly and Kate Butchart, along with step-grandchild JoBeth Souza.
Her eight great-grandchildren are Sean Thomas, Valerie and Melody Madariaga, Bryan Carrizosa; Ethan, Brianna and Sierra Schwartz, and step-great-grandchild Evan Souza.
Editor's note:
Harvey can be reached at:
Dr. J. H. Butchart
5241 West Peridot Street
Tucson Arizona 85742
Outings Contacts Information
Outings Coordinator is
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Carol Castleman 18909 North 87th Drive Peoria, AZ 85382 623-825-9971 |
e-mail AZlady3@aol.com
The Bulletin welcomes comments, stories, or Reflections and Remembrances.
Please send them to
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Diane Cassidy 2112 Demerse Avenue Prescott, AZ 86301 |
or e-mail them to GCPioneers@yahoo.com
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