Alice Eastwood and the High Desert
I went to immerse in the desert, to be in that environment and learn its ways. In the beginning, the land did not embrace me: it challenged. It challenged physically, for to walk away from the trodden path was to be poked, stung, scratched, until one learned to move with the place. Yet more, it challenged my thoughts…
I went to immerse in the desert to find myself immersed in the past generations who wrote themselves indelibly into the land.
Rodalquilar, Spain 2019.
Sometime in the fall of 2023, I decided it was time to delve into the botanist Alice Eastwood, for reasons related to what I had found in the desert around Rodalquilar years ago. How to understand the high desert that now surrounds me in Bluff, UT? Following the path of this intrepid botanist seemed to be a way. So began my book project, Looking for Alice: Time and Truth in the High Desert of Hope
The Botanist
Alice Eastwood (1859-1953) was a self-taught botanist, recognized in her field at a time when women scientists were not often acknowledged. In 1894, Eastwood was hired by the California Academy of Sciences, where she worked as herbarium curator for over 50 years.
Though Eastwood collected and catalogued plants from Colorado to California and many places beyond, it was her 1892 and 1895 expeditions in southern Utah and southwest Colorado that sparked my interest in this inspiring woman. Guided by Al Wetherill, Eastwood traveled horseback across the high desert terrain of southern Utah. She was the first botanist to venture into some of this country, and it may be that these trips cemented her name in the field of botany.
The National Park Service provides a nice summary biography:
https://www.nps.gov/people/alice-eastwood.htm
The Project
Looking for Alice: Time and Truth in the High Desert of Hope, is more than a book project about a remarkable woman: it is an exploration of the arid Four Corners/Cedar Mesa region, a project done in hopes of better understanding this high desert. This is a place that challenges, embraces, and weaves into a person in ways that cannot be articulated, only experienced. I know a bit about the region’s ecology, geology, and history. I know the desert’s harsh side as well as its richness, abundance, and generosity. I know how the quiet of the desert feels different than the quiet anywhere else. But there is much to learn, including how and why this landscape has changed over the centuries.
For the project, I will retrace Alice Eastwood’s path through southern Utah and into Colorado, following both her 1892 and 1895 trips on foot as much as possible. The 1892 route started in Thompson Springs, UT just north of Moab, headed down through Monticello and Montezuma Canyon to the San Juan River, then over to Mancos, Co via McElmo Canyon. The 1895 route started in Mancos, swung through McElmo Canyon and then went west through Bluff out to John’s Canyon.
Eastwood traveled through southern Utah during the transformation of the American West, a time when railroads provided increased access and trade, and immigration and economic development were changing the character of the area. Her publications, biography, and memoir provide both general information on the landscape as well as species specific data along her routes. Because plants are indicators of landscape condition, climate, and human land use, Eastwood’s data provides a baseline for landscape comparison from that transformative time in the West to today. While following her routes I will carry additional surveys, reports, historic photographs, and articles for further historic information of the region around the routes.
The project is evolving and will be written as a creative nonfiction narrative. It is a deep dive into the interwoven aspects of ecology, history, geology, and the spirit of the desert, told through my personal journey following the path of this remarkable woman. Alice Eastwood's life was extraordinary, and these Utah trips took her into an extraordinary landscape.