The Hatch-Eggert expedition arose from one simple question: “How would you like to go down it all the way . . . from Green River, Wyoming, to Lake Mead . . . the way Powell did[?]” (32). The Last Canyon Voyage relates the dramatic tale of Charles Eggert and Don Hatch's expedition in 1955 and 1956. Their goal was to retrace the 1869 “wilderness trail” of Major John Wesley Powell; a feat that had been repeated only a handful of times. Completing Powell's course was an accomplishment that, due to the Colorado River Storage Project, would never be possible again.
The Colorado River Storage Project, undertaken by the Bureau of Reclamation, planned to dam the rivers in 1956. As Eggert explains, “the construction of two huge dams . . . would forever block the passage of travelers on the wilderness river trail of Major John Wesley Powell. Our expedition was...
