If We Had a Boat: Green River Explorers, Adventurers, and Runners

From headwaters in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains, the Green River flows south into Utah, east through Colorado, then back into Utah to join the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park.
If We Had a Boat tells the story of the Green from 1825 to the present. The events that have shaped the river's history are interwoven with the colorful personalities of the people who have shared the dangerous and thrilling explorations of the river, the excitement of the rapids, the beauty of peaceful parks, and the mystery of dark canyons.
Author Roy Webb introduces the mountain men and trappers who ran the river in search of fur; William Manley and his fellow forty-niners, hoping for an easy way to California; one-armed John Wesley Powell who came to build dams and was seduced by the river instead; and early river runners such as Pat Lynch and Nathaniel Galloway for whom running the Green was an end in itself. We also meet dam builders and surveyors pursuing their own vision, the men and women who now make their living on the river, and the recreational enthusiasts who continue to celebrate running the Green.

Roy Webb is an archivist at the University of Utah's Marriott Library.