Go as a River: A Novel

Water policy is a crucial issue in the development of the Midwestern United States, shaping its landscape, its politics, and its people. The cornerstone of the “Law of the River,” a collection of legal frameworks that govern water policy in the Colorado River Basin, is the 1922 Colorado River Compact. This compact defines the relationship between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states in order to ensure that water levels remain high enough for hydroelectric power and equitable water usage. In 1956, to help the Upper Basin fulfill its requirement, the Colorado River Storage Project authorized projects such as the construction of the Blue Mesa Reservoir, which feeds the major reservoirs of the Colorado River System. To create this reservoir, the government constructed dams to control water flow from the Gunnison River to the Colorado River. Construction of the Blue Mesa Dam began in 1962, and the project was completed within a decade. By 1966, the town of Iola, which was situated in a valley on the banks of the Gunnison River, was inundated by the rising waters.

Before being “floated,” the mountain town of Iola had a population of 200-300 residents, many of whom were farmers from families of settlers who had lived in the valley for multiple generations. The area was renowned for its fly-fishing resorts and supported by a large population of willow flies, a popular bait for trout, drawing crowds of angler tourists during each fly hatch season. The local population was forced to sell their homesteads to the government and evacuate Iola during the dam’s construction. Many lost their livelihoods and family history, as there was no collective effort to preserve the local history. The townspeople’s vocal protest of the project was not enough to counter the region’s desire for cheaper electricity and increased recreational tourism on the newly formed lake (Lofholm, Nancy. “Drought Has Revealed for the First Time a Colorado Town Flooded to Build a Reservoir. And Scientists Expect to See It Again.” The Colorado Sun, 10 Dec. 2018 ).

The Blue Mesa Reservoir project also had ramifications for the Basin’s Indigenous tribes, whose lives continue to be affected by water rights disputes to this day. Many ancient tribal landmarks, sacred spaces, and Indigenous artifacts were lost in the flooding, making the event yet another example of the widespread history of erasure of Indigenous culture in the area. The 1922 Compact was signed by European representatives of the seven Colorado Basin States without consulting or gaining the consent of Indigenous stakeholders. Today, Indigenous tribes remain largely on the outside of river management decisions, and “more than a third of the Basin’s Tribes have yet to settle their Colorado River water rights” (Pitt, Jennifer. “The Colorado River Compact at 100.” Audubon, 22 Nov. 2022). Furthermore, many reservations lack the necessary infrastructure to access the water despite having secured their rights to it.

As a historical fiction, the novel takes care to reflect many of these issues, and its setting, plot, and characters are all impacted by the events of the flooding of Iola and the changing landscape of Colorado. The novel’s depiction of Grief as a Journey, which is crystallized through Victoria’s experience of loss and the symbolic transplantation of her family’s peach farm, contains aspects that are at once personal and intergenerational. Using Victoria as a representative, Read explores the historical displacement of many families and the destruction of the town itself during this time frame, and this past issue also echoes through time to color modern-day assessments of the river’s current aridification due to climate change, as well as the ongoing effects of water policy decisions on families and the environment as a whole.