The poster

By Viola Arduini

Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell, AZ

September 28, 2017

Lake Powell and Glem Dam are strange places. There is a beauty and a pain lingering over there, and definitely too many RVs. You find yourself stuck in between the perception of what has been done to the canyon, what has been lost, and an atmosphere of eternal summer, including screaming toddlers smelling of sun lotion, a sunny beach and a marina full of private boats.  

The people working at the dam seem pretty proud of it. They say nothing about the controversy with Lake Powell. I asked our tour guide how climate change and global warming are affecting the place. She replied that is a topic they are not allowed to discuss. Thank you, Mr. President?  

There are four total elevator rides in the tour. Two going down and two coming up. The first one opens on a sterile, white tiled hallway, something in between an old underground station and a hospital ward. The walls are covered with low quality prints of historical photographs showing the stages of the dam construction. They care to tell you that very few workers died in the process. 

There is a poster on your right, as soon as you get out the first elevator. It depicts Utah native fish. Strategically placed for tourists, it felt quite creepy to me. A monument to a loss nativeness, a celebration of human dominion. After all is a wall on a river.