The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

In the spring of 1983, massive flooding along the length of the Colorado River confronted a team of engineers on the Glen Canyon Dam with an unprecedented emergency that can have resulted in the most catastrophic dam failure in history. In the course of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named “The Emerald Mile” on the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, appeared not just abnormal, but downright suicidal.

The Emerald Mile, at one time slated to be destroyed, used to be rescued and brought back to life by Kenton Grua, the man on the oars, who intended to use this flood as a type of hydraulic sling-shot. The goal used to be to nail the all-time record for the fastest boat ever propelled—by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God himself—down all the length of the Colorado River from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead. Did he continue to exist? Just barely. Now, this remarkable, epic feat unfolds here, in The Emerald Mile.