Page, Arizona

PAGE, ARIZONA The Town a Dam Built By JEAN DUFFY Photographs by the Author

In the beginning there was only emp-tiness and loneliness. The brown, turbulent waters of the Colorado River poured through the deep gorge. The sheer sandstone cliffs towered silently on either side. In the season of wind, great clouds of sand whirled over the plateaus. Fall rains deepened the channels of the summer-dried washes.

On the west rim a few cattle grazed. To the east an occasional Navajo wandered through the barren reserva-tion, seeking a water hole for his thirsty sheep.

When the decision was made to erect Glen Canyon Dam here, the shining, gracefully curved structure was quickly stroked into place by the U. S. Bureau of Recla-mation's draftsmen and artists. Drawn to scale, the workers appeared insignificant, smaller than ants. Yet it was these same men who would construct the mammoth dam, raising it foot by laborious foot until it reached its com-pleted height of 710 feet, to become the second highest dam in the United States.

With the nearest town seventy-five miles distant, a new community was needed to house workmen and their families.

For many months the location of the town was in dispute. The dam was to rise only thirteen and one-half miles from the Arizona-Utah border. Both states desired the "economic shot in the arm" which the new town would bring. Finally Manson Mesa on the southeast side of Glen Canyon was chosen. Geographically this was the most feasible site. The nearest railhead to the project was in Flagstaff, and a road connecting the town with high-way U. S. 89 could be cut with least difficulty through Echo Cliffs.

The town was named for the late John C. Page, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation from 1937 to 1943. Commissioner Page pioneered the investiga-tions of the Colorado River development.

From the outset Page was truly a planned community. The first mobile home was parked in the area designated as Page Trailer Court.

Today, nearly seven years later, Page is "sitting pretty" on its mesa. Its broad streets lead the traveler past neat homes, desert-hued and surrounded by green lawns and bright flowers and shrubs. The curve of Navajo Drive runs by the large, modern school on one side, the medical clinic, city park and community pool on the other.

To the right on Seventh Avenue are the churches with many denominations, and as many types of archi-tecture, represented. To the left is the business center, geared to care for the needs of the townspeople and visitors. Beyond are the white office buildings of the Bureau of Reclamation.

Beside the Page Trailer Court is Glen Canyon Air-port from which commercial lines run scheduled daily flights north and south. Charter flights are also available.

But a community is much more than the sum of its physical aspects. With Glen Canyon Dam, manpower was essential to bring the project from the drawing board to reality. With the planned city of Page, manpower was required for the design and construction of its facilities. Yet it was the coming of the people, the men, women and children with their courage and faith in the future, that initiated the long, painful process of its growth.

Page pioneers had no easy time of it.There was no ribbon cutting ceremony to formally open the new town. In August of 1957 a handful of house trailers huddled together on one corner of Manson Mesa.

On all sides bulldozers leveled and releveled, making a path here today, moving it over there tomorrow. Merritt-Chapman & Scott, prime contractor at the dam, laid out spaces for the court. All through the winter, trailers were pulled in as workmen moved their families to the job site. Single men were housed in barracks and fed in a huge mess hall.

There were no shops in Page in these early days; food and supplies had to be brought in. Before the highway was completed to the south one might reach U. S. 89 by way of Coppermine Road over fifty miles of little more than a wagon trail. Torrential desert rains often closed this route.

True, Kanab, Utah, was only seventy-five miles from the damsite to the northwest. But Page was on the east side of the 700-foot canyon. A courageous workman might cross on the high line, certainly not a housewife enroute to the grocery store!

Kanab could be reached by car by first driving south, then west past Jacob's Lake, then north, a distance of more than 200 miles one way.

Water and electricity were also problems. A 75,000 gallon water tank was erected in the trailer court and water was hauled by two trucks running steadily 24 hours a day. It was ten miles to the well on Coppermine Road. Sometimes one or both trucks would break down or stick in the sand. As the water level in the tank dropped lower, residents learned to quickly shut off dripping faucets and curtail water use.

Generators supplied electricity. There were frequent power failures and candles were a staple in every household.

Always there was the drifting sand. Sagebrush had been uprooted by the 'dozers and no grass had yet taken root to hold the earth. Families ate sand in their food, drank sand in the water, crunched it underfoot indoors and waded ankle-deep outdoors.

Just like the seashore, they said, except no water to go with it!

During the first year children went to school by cor respondence. In the second year three government Quonset Huts served as classrooms and one student formally graduated from high school.

In 1957 things could scarcely have been worse and so they improved!

In 1958 the southern highway through Echo Cliffs was completed, ending the isolation of Page. A footbridge was suspended between the east and west canyon rims. Now one could drive to the east end, walk the footbridge, borrow another car on the west side and drive to Kanab. A grocery store and a post office were opened.

During 1958, 200 government homes were built. Streets were paved and business areas laid out. Glen Canyon Bridge, spanning the canyon, was opened to travel in February, 1959.

Since Page was orginally designed to house workers on Glen Canyon Dam, its history closely follows the dam's construction. There was the town's beginning; then its period of organization when churches and clubs were formed, business located and established; its period of prosperity when the dam hit the peak of employment and Page bulged at the seams; and finally, today, the leveling off. When the dam goes into operation in 1966, a new era will be ushered in.

The darkest period in Page history has not been mentioned. This was The Strike. It is still remembered in capital letters; in truth it nearly destroyed the town.

Early one sunny morning, July 6, 1959, all the vast, noisy machinery at Glen Canyon Dam ground to a halt. For six interminable months pickets paced before the entrances to the project as the economy of Page sickened and slowed.

Most of the government workers remained in their homes but the Page Trailer Court was gradually emptied. One by one trailers were reluctantly pulled away as men went in search of jobs elsewhere. Businessmen spent much of their time sitting in front of their shops talking with their friends. Some were forced to close their doors for good.

There will probably never again be as joyous a Christmas here as Page celebrated in 1959. An agreement was reached between management and labor onChristmas Eve and work was scheduled to resume after the holidays.

Page today has a population of approximately 4,500. At the peak of employment on the dam, it was more than 6,000. During the next three years the figure is expected to drop to 3,500 as the Glen Canyon Dam project reaches completion.

At this point, sometime in 1966, Page will start growing again. The town has already begun its change from a construction facility to a tourist mecca, a recreation and retirement center.

Page has much to offer in interest and pleasure now that its work is almost done. Built at an elevation of 4,300 feet above sea level, it has a moderate climate year around, averaging sixty-two degrees, with low humidity. Temperature extremes are ten degrees in winter, 105 degrees in summer. The average annual precipitation is about six inches.

It is true that wind is a periodic problem. It comes up over the mesa and blows itself out within thirty minutes, or continues seemingly unabated - for a week at a time. Many months may go by with no wind at all. In long periods of calm, superstitious residents cross their fingers and the very word, “wind,” is taboo!

The wind's most unpleasant aspect in the past, the blowing clouds of sand, becomes less important each year as more grass is planted and bare areas are leveled and surfaced.

Many travelers have come to watch the construction of the dam and powerplant. Last June the one-millionth person visited Page and Glen Canyon.

The bridge from which the dam is viewed is an engineering marvel in itself. It is the highest steel arch bridge in the world. It stands 700 feet from the canyon floor and is one-quarter of a mile in length.

Within the next few years tourists will be permitted to take a much closer look at the dam.

A permanent visitors' center will be built, overhang-ing the west rim of the canyon just above the dam. Tentative plans include a theater where motion pictures made during construction will be shown and a conces-sion area in the building. Photographs featuring the Colo-rado River storage project will be displayed in an exhibit room, while another exhibit will give information about Lake Powell and National Park Service activities. An area will be provided where groups may assemble for tours.

A parking space is planned beside the Beehive, at the present location of the cableway tail towers.

An elevator shaft in the visitors' center will carry sightseers 120 feet down through the canyon wall to the level of the dam. From here the group will walk out through a gallery to the top of the dam, then on to the large elevator located in block 17. This elevator will drop down to the powerplant level permitting its riders to leave the dam from the downstream side and visit the generator and control rooms.

A visitors' deck at the top of the powerplant will afford an unobstructed view of the dam and the canyon.

The aggregate haul road will be paved by the National Park Service and opened to the public. Several view points will be constructed on this route, which will overlook Lake Powell. The haul road will also be a shortcut to National Park Service headquarters and Wahweap.

Beyond Glen Canyon Dam are the blue waters of the new lake. Last March the impoundment of water in the reservoir began. Eventually the lake will extend 186 miles all the way to Hite, Utah. It will be the second largest man-made lake in the world with 1,800 miles of shoreline. To those who have spent even an hour on Lake Powell, it is the most exciting lake in the world.

At the present time there is boating on the lake, with launching site provided by the National Park Service. Guided charter trips and boat rentals are available. The water is warm and clear, inviting swimming and water skiing. Picnic spots are everywhere for the choosing and exploration is unlimited. The waters of the lake are now penetrating into formerly inaccessible canyons.

By summer, many of the fish planted last year will be catchable size. Meanwhile, catfish abound. The scenery in the vicinity of Page is spectacular. The sage-dotted, wind-blown desert stretches in mounds and hollows to fantastic sandstone spires and buttes, castles and fortifications, hundreds of feet high. Each hour of the day lends its color, brilliant orange and red at noon, soft pastels, early and late. At night the time-