Concrete Security

By Harriet Fawcett

Glen Canyon Dam

August 30, 2015

When told that we were to visit Glen Canyon Dam, I couldn’t possibly imagine the scale of both the size of the dam, complexity and the controversy behind it. One arrival I quickly realized how concrete the security was. ‘No knives or any weapons will be permitted in the building and bags and purses are prohibited on the tour’ we were also told armed guards are in place throughout the facility. Throughout the tour I contemplated humans impact on nature and whether we had taken our control too far. I felt as though the 40-minute tour, even though very informative still didn’t settle my thinking. I then questioned was the dam beautiful? I couldn’t come to a solid conclusion about this. I suppose in a contemporary Architectural way with its clean lines and emphasis on function and purpose it is, but looking further than the dam walls you see what it is obstructing, which set my mind questioning our role as shepherds of the land some more.