Breaking Into the Current: Boatwomen of the Grand Canyon

The companies that run chartered boat trips along the majestic but treacherous 226-mile stretch of the Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek were bastions of sexism from the early part of the 20th century to the 1970s. They assumed that women were neither strong nor capable enough to pilot a boat full of people through the Grand Canyon. In this volume, Teal, a journalist and boatwoman herself, disproves that theory by cataloging the stories of 11 women who became commercial boat pilots in the 1970s. Many of their stories overlap in the details of how the women learned to row or motor the boats; their perseverance in trying to get hired; and in the passion they voice for the river. ``The water has so much power over the boat and me . . . I feel like the river takes me in its hands,'' says Martha Clark. Yet each boatwoman shares a unique part of her experience. Marilyn Sayre tells how a boyfriend helped her to become a boatwoman; Suzanne Jordan recalls flipping a boat and nearly drowning; and Lorna Corson explains why she returns to the river every year. This is an engaging chronicle of a little-known group of pioneers. (Mar.)