A DOUBTFUL RIVER: THE PYRAMID LAKE PROJECT
The idea of this book began in 1989 as a collaboration between Robert Dawson and Peter Goin at the start of their Pyramid Lake Project. The book A Doubtful Riverwas published by the University of Nevada Press in 2000 and included the work of writer Mary Webb. The project looked at the Truckee River system and the battle for its use between the city of Reno, Nevada; the farmers of western Nevada; and the Paiute Indians of Pyramid Lake, Nevada. This effort was a photographic exploration of the entire Truckee River and Pyramid Lake watershed. The water system is a good example of the critical water issues facing all arid regions of the American West. By focusing on specific regional issues, the project hoped to illustrate broader concerns felt throughout the West. These include issues such as expanding cities verses preserving agricultural land; unchecked development verses vanishing wetlands and open space; and the history of water development in this region. The conflict over the use of the Truckee River between the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, the ranchers in the Stillwater area, and the Paiute Tribe at Pyramid Lake was of central concern to the project.
The design of the book A Doubtful River traces the length of the Truckee River, from the alpine waters of Lake Tahoe east into Nevada through the rapidly growing city of Reno and then to Derby Dam where the desert waters are divided. A sizeable portion of the river is sent off to the Newlands agricultural area near Fallon and what is left flows on to Pyramid Lake. Because of these diversions, a lake close to Pyramid called Winnemucca has dried up and its important bird sanctuary has been destroyed. The birds that used to nest there must now depend on the endangered wetlands created by agricultural runoff near Stillwater. Our photographs, along with Mary Webb's writing, were made to bear witness to what we encountered along the length of the Truckee River. We met a wide range of people, environments and landscapes that are dependent on its waters. We hoped that our book could be useful in the debate over this watershed's environmental, social and political future.
The project evolved out of a larger collaborative project called Water in the West. It began in 1983 when Robert Dawson and Ellen Manchester began to look at water as a critical element of living in the arid American West. They were later joined by Peter Goin and Mark Klett and eventually 15 photographers and advisors. The group periodically exhibited their work, conducted public symposia, publisheed books and articles, and met to share work. The Water in the West Archive is now permanently housed at the Center For Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. This book was part of an intermittent series of books published by the members of the Water in the West Project on important water issues facing the West.
In 1994, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC collected an entire set of 530 images from the Truckee River-Pyramid Lake Project for their permanent collection. The Library of Congress included work from our project in their book entitled Eyes of the Nation as well as a CD-ROM from that book. In 1995, work from the project was exhibited at the Washington Center For Photography and the Troyer, Fitzpatrick, Lassman Gallery in Washington, DC. Peter Goin and Robert Dawson particpated at that time in a lecture and panel discussion about their project at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
