Dave Rust: A Life in the Canyons

 

Winner of the 2007 Utah Book Award for Nonfiction, and other awards

 

As a pioneering backcountry outfitter and Glen Canyon river guide, David D. Rust (1874-1963) was one of the first to recognize the potential of the Colorado Plateau Province for grand adventure. His guided expeditions across southern Utah and northern Arizona, which he conducted from 1907 to 1941, were a feast for the mind and senses. "No one could follow a blind trail better," one admiring client said of Rust, and many of the Eastern elite came to appreciate this devotee of rugged adventure in one of America 's most remote and fascinating regions.

 

Born into a dirt-poor Mormon family, Rust's education took him as far as Stanford University. He wore many hats--schoolteacher and administrator, newspaper publisher, legislator--but always the canyons and plateaus called to him. He helped to carry out the vision of Kanab resident Edwin D. Woolley to build a tourist trail clear across the Grand Canyon, and operated a tent camp at Bright Angel Creek--the predecessor of today's Phantom Ranch. Beginning in 1922, he offer guided float trips on the Colorado River in Glen Canyon in his little canvas-covered canoes.

 

 An early practitioner of adventure travel at a time when few Americans knew what wonders this region held, his life story follows the development of southern Utah from a primitive frontier to a prized recreational destination.

​Come follow the trail with Dave Rust, and you'll be treated to a view of the Plateau Province that is scarcely possible today.

 

Order through University of Utah Press or your favorite bookstore.

$19.95 paperback / ebook $16.00

 

9780874809442 (paperback)
9781607812951 (ebook)

 

Reviews:

 

"A significant work. . . .with a real feel for the subject and for his life and times"

            --Roy Webb, author of If We Had a Boat: Green River Explorers and Adventurers

 

"Thoroughly researched and intelligently interpreted."

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

 

"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 the book, however, is its rich descriptions of southern Utah."

            --Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret News