A Voice Crying in the Desert

E.C. LaRue measuring the discharge of Nankoweap Creek. Courtesy USGS

Originally broadcast on RadioWest

When state and federal negotiators met in 1922 to divide up the water in the Colorado River, they did so with a mistaken understanding of how much water there actually was in the river. But at the time there was one man who knew, with a surprising degree of accuracy, how much water the river held. The only problem: Nobody wanted to listen to him.