Experience the thrilling true story of two botanists in the Grand Canyon
In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off down the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. No one had surveyed the Grand Canyon’s plants, and they were determined to be the first.
What readers say
★★★★★
“[A] cascade of a story, colored by sun and water and driven by courage and determination.” – New York Times Book Review
★★★★★
“A page-turner . . . marvelous and informative.” – Science
★★★★★
“A vivid history . . . [G]ripping.” – People
About the author
Melissa L. Sevigny
A award-winning journalist, author, poet, and public speaker, Melissa L. Sevigny’s work explores the intersections of science, nature, and history. She is the author of three books of nonfiction, and her writing appears in Orion, High Country News, Arizona Highways, and The New York Times.
She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, with her husband, where she has too many houseplants and a very demanding cat.
Latest writing
Sep
Birds who help humans, and other tales of inter-species cooperation – The New York Times
Aug
Standing perfectly still – Arizona Highways
Jul
NASA tests scientific instruments in Arizona crater ahead of moon landing attempt – NPR’s Morning Edition
Upcoming events
Mar 4
Perrot Memorial Library – virtual
Mar 26
Vermont River Conservancy – virtual
Oct 16
Women Writing the West – Phoenix, Arizona
Hire me
I’m an experienced science journalist, essayist, editor, and podcast producer. I also offer keynote talks, science & nature writing workshops, and communication training for scientists in group settings or one-on-one-consultations. Let’s get started.
read an excerpt in high country news
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Brave the Wild River
They entered, at last, the Grand Canyon. The date was July 13, 1938. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, two botanists at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, had started down the river 23 days earlier with three boats and four amateur boatmen, none of whom had run the Grand Canyon before. Pale, water-pocked ledges of Kaibab limestone rose out of the Colorado, laid down 270 million years ago when the desert was a sea.
Had they been geologists, they would have marveled at their plunge into the past, each river mile eating away another chunk of history, 10,000 years with every splash of the oars. There were secrets to be told here: about past climates, warm shallow seas, the inexorable work of uplift and erosion, and the catastrophic clawing of landslides and floods.
But Clover and Jotter had come to find plants…
Melissa L. Sevigny 