The Real Reason Glen Canyon Dam Was Built

The Glen Canyon Dam, much like Hetch Hetchy, is an extremely contentious and controversial project. There’s a growing movement in support of the Glen Canyon Dam Removal altogether. With the specter of climate change looming, those calls may grow louder. But whether or not you agree with that decision, there’s a lot to be learned from the history of the dam’s construction.

Glen Canyon before Lake Powell was a veritable sandstone cathedral. As it wound its way through Southern Utah, Glen Canyon’s numerous side canyons, nooks, and crannies were home to countless plants and animals, as well as the priceless artifacts of Ancestral Puebloans.

But after the Glen Canyon dam construction, this area was flooded under Lake Powell, becoming part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

These two states, Glen Canyon with the dam and Glen Canyon without it, lie at the heart of the controversy surrounding it. A controversy that asks difficult questions about the role we expect natural places to play in our lives. This video helps you understand these issues and the circumstances which led to them.

You can check out my video on Hetch Hetchy here:    • How San Francisco Stole Hetch Hetchy  

Also, Special thanks to @Our Weird America for some of the footage used in this episode!

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