Journeys in the Canyon Lands of Utah and Arizona, 1914-1916
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The Southwestern travel journals of George Corning Fraser, a Wall Street attorney with an unusual thirst for adventure, offer a detailed snapshot of a region known for its magnificent geology and sparse human settlements. In this book I present three of the extensive journals Fraser kept on his forays into the remote outback of the Colorado Plateau Province. These were ambitious journeys, undertaken on horseback and by wagon, that reached into the far corners of what we today call "canyon country."
Traveling with his equally adventurous eldest son, and led by the noted Utah guide Dave Rust, Fraser saw Zion Canyon, the Kaibab Plateau, Monument Valley, and other stunning sights years before these became popular travel destinations. Along the way he spoke with sheepherders and forest rangers, townspeople and ranchers, community leaders and eccentric prospectors, gleaning insights into the conditions of life in this isolated region. His firsthand accounts will transport you to a time when explorers relied on their horses and their wits to take them into a fascinating and little-known backcountry.
Reviews
“Fraser enlightens on multiple levels, with the first being his effort to document and inform . . . . The quality of Fraser’s accounts transforms him from average citizen trekking through the sandstone backcountry, into a larger than life icon of Progressive intellectualism.”
Sondra Cosgrove, Journal of the West, October 2005
“Mr. Fraser’s observations are brutally honest, often tender and compassionate, and frequently hilarious.”
Hank Hassell, Utah Historical Quarterly, Fall 2005
View a talk I gave in Fall 2025 to the Entrada Institute on George C. Fraser's 1915 journey through the High Plateaus of Utah