47 East 200 North St. George, UT 84770 (435) 627-4525 museum@sgcity.org Mon - Sat: 10am - 5pm 3rd Thursday 10am - 9pm Return to Current Exhibits Return to Past Exhibits Return to Future Exhibits Bear River: Last Chance to Change Course Show available: January 12, 2008 through March 08, 2008 In the Main Gallery, from the Utah Museum of Natural History comes Bear River: Last Chance to Change Course. It is one of the longest rivers in America never to reach the ocean. Its 500-mile journey begins in northern Utah’s Uinta Mountains, hugs the border with southwestern Wyoming, loops through southeastern Idaho, and heads back to Utah where it empties into the Great Salt Lake west of Brigham City The Bear River is a truly unique waterway. With increasing demands placed upon it, or being considered, by various stakeholders, the Bear River flows through the ecology it helps sustain amid the gathering clouds of global warming, drought, and population growth. University of Utah communications professor, documentarian, photographer, and author Craig Denton has followed the sometimes rugged, sometimes lazy course of the Bear River. The result is a recently published book and accompanying photographic exhibit of the same name, Bear River: Last Chance to Change Course. Denton will be available to sign his book (exhibit catalog), talk about his discoveries along the Bear River, and what he sees in its future on Saturday, January 12, 2008, at 1 p.m., at the St. George Art Museum. This informative exhibit will shed a light of greater understanding on the Bear River. “While once rivers were the poet’s muse, they’ve become the tools of municipal plumbers. Now we use them unreflectively as ditches to whisk away our offal (rubbish) or as conduits to move water from a source to a downstream rights holder,” Denton laments. With camera in hand, Denton recorded the dynamic hydrology and unique morphology that still ties the river to ancient Lake Bonneville. “I’ve tried to capture a glimpse of the complex, diverse ecology that the river nurtures—in less developed places. I’ve situated my camera at points along the Bear’s course where important historical moments in the development of the West took place. I’ve also chronicled the stories of the stakeholders who rely on the river and who increasingly place more demands upon it.” Through his photography and words, Denton effectively manages to hear what the Bear is saying, if it could speak our language. If we listen carefully to his translation of this “river-speak,” we will hear the Bear clinging to its history while nervously eyeing the competing desires for its water and wondering how long it will remain in its mostly natural state. Come see and learn about this intriguing river through the eyes and words of Craig Denton.