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“The
biggest problem in the world today is that everything is so
complicated. You have to go through so many things. There’s just too
many damn people and as a result, you have to be so organized, it takes
the fun out of living. Abbey and I used to talk about where we’d go
once this place is totally ruined. We’d just close our eyes to the
changes and fgured we’d go where we want. We talked about going to the
Yukon once. Just keep moving. Keep moving.
“But
really I don’t know that that’s the answer. I have Jane and my family
and I couldn’t just drag everybody along. But just me talking? I
wouldn’t be here.
“But
I am here and I like it. I’ll stick it out to the end, whether there
are parts of it I don’t like or not. We can still...maybe...protect
some of it...eliminate some of the stuff we’ve screwed up. Maybe
restore some of it. I always felt we could restore Glen Canyon. The
older I get, the less I feel we have much impact. It bothers me to no
end to know you can fght like hell, we can organize little groups of
activists, you put all your heart and soul into that, then here comes
other mainstream groups who can overrule you.”
In
the late 1990s Ken Sleight and others tried to organize a “Glen Canyon
Group” of the Sierra Club. Its sole purpose was to advocate the
decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam, a subject dear to Ken’s heart. But
Sierra Clubbers from the Utah Chapter hierarchy took issue with the
group’s goal, even though the national organization had passed a
resolution in support of decommissioning. Ultimately Sleight was
drummed out of the group. It was the last time he would actively
involve himself in a “mainstream” environmental organization. Here’s
Ken:
always
freezing up and I have to turn the whole damn thing off. You either
have to be a computer whiz or have somebody around who is...and the
money to pay them. And then you’re broke so what’s the point?”
Ken
isn’t too pleased with the state of the world these days. Ken spent
most of his life running rivers and leading pack trips. He never
hesitates to note that he was a small businessman. It’s BIG business
that gives him heartburn that leads to heartache. He liked being
‘small.’
AN AFTERNOON WITH KEN SLEIGHT
It
almost looks like Spring at Pack Creek Ranch. The lawns are greening
up. The horses are feeling their oats after a long hard winter.
Splashes of color—fowers(!) dot the landscape. But where’s Sleight? I
check the house but he’s not where he said he would be. Sleight is on the move. I wander the grounds for a few minutes, hoping to catch a glimpse of him wrestling with an irrigation sprinkler. No sign of him.
Finally
I get back in the car and drive up the road to the incongruous sight of
a steel Quonset hut set back in the trees. I see his truck, then I hear
“Seldom Seen,” even with my windows rolled up:
“Goddamn computer!”
I know how he feels.
There’s
my old friend of almost 35 years. He had been hunched over his desktop,
frozen in frustration. But now he unwinds his legs, props them across
the desk and leans back in his ragged chair. Ken cups his hands behind
his head and grins:
“That
Sierra Club deal really taught me a lot. One of the basic goals was to
restore Glen Canyon. Our little group fought like hell to get
established. But here come the pow-ers-that-be from Salt Lake that
opposed our group. Then the national people say, ‘Let’s do it another
way.’ The group pulled away from serious Glen Canyon restoration...they
thought going after restoration looked silly.
“I
used to think I could do it all myself. Even when I was running the
river, I wanted to do it all myself. I never liked to spend a lot of
money and if it all got too big, then I wasn’t really in a business
that I wanted to be in. I didn’t like to send out pack trips or river
trips when I couldn’t go myself. What’s the point if I can’t go? So I
kept it real low level...I’d hire an assistant or two but that’s about
it. If you’re a small outft, you get to be the creator. It’s like The
Zephyr. If there was anybody to blame it was you!”
“I’ve
been sitting at this damn computer. I don’t like all this computer shit
but I have to learn how to do it. I don’t really want to learn how to
do ‘new stuff’ anymore.”
“The biggest problem in the world today
is that everything is so complicated.
You have to go through so many things.
There’s just too many damn people
and as a result, you have
to be so organized,
it takes the fun out of living.”
Ken
did it all back then. He was the marketing man. He put together
handmade brochures that he printed on an old mimeograph machine. He did
the folding and stuffing; he licked the stamps. On trips, he drove the
truck, led the horses, cooked the meals. Ken didn’t really want any
assistance when he cooked. The more his customers tried to “help,” the
less likely they were to eat. Ken used to take a stick and draw a
circle around him as he prepared the meals.
“Stiles! How the hell are you?”
I
met Ken Sleight at the Arches National Park visitor center almost 35
years ago. In the intervening years, I don’t think he has ever failed
to greet me in just that way. And incredibly, always with the same
enthusiasm.
“How you doing Ken?”
“I’ve
been sitting at this damn computer. I don’t like all this computer shit
but I have to learn how to do it. I don’t really want to learn how to
do ‘new stuff’ anymore. They tell you there’s all this new stuff that a
computer or whatever will do. But then you get it and you have to
learn HOW to use it! I’m sick of updates! And the damn computer is
“Nowadays,
there’s no major project. They do clean ups and things. They did a fne
job on moving the tailings at Atlas, but I don’t see the green fghters
in it that there used to be. It’s a feel-good deal, the Sierra Club.
“What
the large environmental groups don’t want to get into is that they load
their boards of directors with people with lots of money and those
people with lots of money seem different than we are. Some of them are
doing good jobs...not letting their interests get in the way. But
others...
“This is my kitchen!” he hollered, pointing out the crude circle to his customers. “Don’t dare step inside it!”
Pack trips were no more complicated than that—stay outside Ken’s circle!
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.
Edward Abbey
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