“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. —KENNETH GRAHAME, The Wind in the Willows” — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“And Petschek had asked—because he was genuinely puzzled by this—why so many people, Americans especially, seemed to feel that happiness was an entitlement. By… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!” “By it and with it and on it and in it,” said the… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“The river’s isolation and secrecy, however, were only part of what made it superlative. There was also its vertical drop. The Colorado’s watershed encompasses… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“A river so clear and transparent that the bright stones suspended within its currents could be seen with the naked eye, glittering with the… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Three generations later, viewed from the standpoint of the digital age, a structure such as Hoover can appear to suffer from a kind of… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Beyond the rapids themselves, the river also concealed a host of other obstacles, wicked spots whose names offered a sufficiently graphic warning of what… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Among many other things, those dirtbag river runners uphold the virtue of disobedience: the principle that in a free society, defiance for its own… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“But what made Litton’s ideas even stranger—and so at odds with prevailing sentiment—was the depth of his rage. Without quite realizing it, he was… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Historians often minimize or discount the impact that any one individual can have on human destiny-and for good reason. Given the broad tides in… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“if there is a point to being in the canyon, it is not to rush but to linger, suspended in a blue-and-amber haze of… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“The English novelist J. B. Priestley once said that if he were an American, he would make the final test of whatever men chose… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
