Reviews of

Dave Rust: A Life in the Canyons

“This is a very significant work, for the reason that Rust was a very significant figure in Colorado River and Plateau history . . . . When the Kolbs came down Glen Canyon in 1911, he was there. When Galloway was bear hunting in the Henry Mountains, Rust was there. When Charles Butler Hunt was making his geologic surveys of the Colorado Plateau in the 1930s, he ran into Dave Rust. Rust was a commercial outfitter in Glen Canyon at least ten years before Norm Nevills, generally thought to be the pioneer in that field. . . .well researched and well written, with a real feel for the subject of the biography and for his life and times.”

Roy Webb
Colorado River historian and author of
High, Wide, and Handsome: The River Journals of Norman D. Nevills and
If We Had a Boat: Green River Explorers, Adventurers and Runners

* * *

"Not only does Swanson effectively trace Rust's life as a naturalist and thinker, but his political interests as well. He also pulls out genuine nuggets that tell the reader how Rust's personal values measured up. . . .Perhaps the greatest contribution of this book, however, it its rich desccriptions of southern Utah."

Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret News

* * *

"Although a college drop-out, Rust was a footloose intellectual who preferred to guide small parties, rather than squads of tourists, and on obscure trails of, say, the Escalante Wilderness, than on the paved paths of national parks. His textbooks were the mountains and canyons. Over his long career, he never strayed far from the Colorado Plateau. That was world enough for him."

Richard H. Dillon, True West

* * *

". . .thoroughly researched and intelligently interpreted. . . ."

Gary Topping, author of Glen Canyon and the San Juan Country, in Utah Historical Quarterly