At 87, eco-legend Ken Sleight of Ed Abbey fame is still fighting Lake Powell — but knows it's a losing battle - The Salt Lake Tribune
June 21, 2017
Moab • Ensconced at the base of the La Sal Mountains, 15 miles south of Utah’s redrock capital, storied environmentalist Ken Sleight looks out over the landscape of a rich life.
Immortalized as Seldom Seen Smith by Edward Abbey in his 1975 anarchist primer “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” Sleight, now 87, ponders the past and future of his beloved Colorado Plateau.
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In “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” Abbey draws Seldom Seen Smith as a “Jack Mormon” river guide who talks a lot like Sleight. He is one of four main characters, along with Doc Sarvis, Bonnie Abbzug and George Hayduke. Together, they work to thwart interests that would pollute or despoil the Colorado Plateau and its waterways — but most of their revenge is focused on Glen Canyon Dam.
In real life, Ken and the Western River Guides Association, which he had founded, were too small and unorganized to stop the dam. David Brower and his Sierra Club, on the other hand, turned their backs on the effort to save Glen Canyon — a decision Brower lived to regret.
In summer 2000, Ken joined forces with Jim Stiles, the feisty editor-publisher of the Canyon Country Zephyr, to establish a southeast Utah chapter of the Sierra Club. Their little-disguised mission: to drain Lake Powell. But the statewide chapter, based in Salt Lake City, opposed the notion, fearing the Sierra Club would be cast as environmental crazies.
Now, Jane and Ken are searching for artifacts, such as old river boats, that may be in the hands of various collectors, along with historic photos and other keepsakes, in an effort to ensure the canyon’s treasures are not forgotten.
“I’ve given up hope that Glen Canyon will be restored in my lifetime,” Ken says. “But this [museum] is the next best thing.”
Moab • Ensconced at the base of the La Sal Mountains, 15 miles south of Utah's redro
