Historian's DVD shows the Glen Canyon of old

W.L. "Bud" Rusho liked Glen Canyon Dam. But while he worked to document the dam construction in the 1950s and early '60s, in his words, "I fell in love" with the amazing southern Utah canyon that the dam eventually drowned.

Last week Rusho released "Glen Canyon Remembered," a DVD that provides a haunting glimpse of the canyons that have been lost beneath the waters of Lake Powell. Running one hour, 10 minutes, with extras such as a historic film, the DVD is available at Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East.

Besides the lore of the river and the beauty of the vanished canyons, the DVD provides stories about the massive archaeological salvage project that attempted to save some of the region's prehistoric treasures.

It describes the history of the region, including John Wesley Powell's two explorations; surveys for railroads and dam sites; the "discovery" of Rainbow Bridge, which had been known to Indians in the area; ill-fated gold dredging; river-running; early filmmaking in the canyon; and the mysterious disappearance of the young artist Everett Ruess.

A historian who lives in Holladay, Rusho has authored books about Ruess, who vanished in 1934 after leaving Escalante and heading toward Davis Gulch.

As a public affairs chief, Rusho headed a team of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation photographers recording the construction of Glen Canyon Dam near Page, Ariz. The dam was built between 1956 and 1964, with the first three years dedicated to excavating and shaping the site. This was followed by placing the concrete and building the power plant.

Rusho started his part of the project in 1958, and Lake Powell began filling in 1963.

"I followed the dam all the way through," he said. "It was very exciting. . . . It was a fascinating place to work."

He traveled up Glen Canyon and studied the history, and realized a strange disconnect: He admired both the dam and the natural habitat it was destined to destroy.

When Lake Powell was still quite low, a friend invited Rusho to visit the Crossing of the Fathers, where the Dominguez-Escalante expedition had cut steps in the slickrock in the 1770s. He was horrified by the thought that the lake would inundate the historic site.

"All of a sudden things came together," he recalled. He thought, "What have I done? What have I participated in? . . . It's terrible."

Rusho has preserved some of that history and natural beauty in "Glen Canyon Remembered."

Especially interesting from a scientific standpoint is his section on the Glen Canyon Salvage Project, which carried out archaeological excavations before the reservoir covered an estimated 2,000 ancient sites.