Floyd Dominy, one of the most important of all dam builders, died on April 20 at the age of 100. He headed the Bureau of Reclamation from 1959-1969, during one of its most influential periods, and spearheaded the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. Like most Westerners, Floyd Dominy thought that rivers flowing unimpeded to oceans represented waste and a lost opportunity. Unlike most Westerners, Dominy had the talent and timing to rise to a position where he could do something about it, and we will all be living with the consequences for many years. The image on the right is a schematic of the present-day Colorado River as a sequence of reservoirs (tanks), tributaries (funnels), and diversions (faucets). It's from the indispensable High Country News; Dominy's photo is from the official
As this obituary in the High Country News suggests, you can read a very good account of Dominy and the controversy over Glen Canyon in John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid. A much more complete picture of Dominy's intelligence, energy, determination, and legacy emerges in Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water, which has an entire chapter simply titled, "Dominy."
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