Black Canyon

This picture was taken before the turn of the 20th century. It reveals the darkness of this canyon, rock that reaches to the sky, the river subdued.

It is Black Canyon not Boulder Canyon where the final dam project was set. It is the highest section of the El Dorado mountains, yet a narrow passageway for the river itself. It is unique for it's precambrian mineral composite. It was virtually unknown until the dam was to be built.

The men working on this dam were told the Colorado River was wild. They believing it to be a river needing to be tamed. Yet when the workers stood on the shores here in Black Canyon did they feel the wildness of this river? Were they immersed in the relationship of rock against water, water against rock? Did those 5,000 workers question what they were doing? Were they really only here for a wage of four dollars a day? Did anybody stop to wonder, here in Black Canyon, not only the magnitude of the place but the smallness of their very being?