The Grand Canyon is as well known for its intrepid adventurers as it is for its overwhelming beauty. While the most well-known adventurers are men, many of the Canyon's heroes are heroines. In Grand Canyon Women, Betty Leavengood corrects this omission from history and tells the stories of these daring, remarkable individuals. River runners, scientists, wranglers, architects, rangers, and housewives, these women braved the remote and rugged terrain of the Grand Canyon. Some were there as a result of circumstance, while others sought the landscape with passion and purpose. Most met the challenges of the Canyon; others suffered a darker fate. All of them, however, were changed forever by their experiences. For each of the fifteen women profiled, Betty Leavengood shows how, in the midst of nature's indiscriminate universe, each woman discovers her identity. October 20, 1928 was a crisp autumn day in Green River, Utah....Bessie and Glen Hyde launched their scow onto the Green River and began the journey of their lives. From here, the two would join the Colorado and 'float' 660 miles through the Grand Canyon for some forty-nine days with plans to reach Needles, California....But in the late '20s the section of the Colorado that ran through Cataract Canyon was one of its fiercest and wildest. It harbored treacherous whirlpools, deep holes, obtrusive rocks that could wrap a boat like a sheet of paper.... Once you began the run, there was no turning back From tales of bold exploration to moments of crushing defeat, from places of life-defining discovery to the tidy homes of rural routine, this collection takes the reader on both humorous and heart wrenching journeys. These women willinspire the reader, and their stories will enrich anyone's stay at the Grand Canyon.