A Doubtful River documents our River’s history

For some people who live within its reaches, the Truckee River may be an unremarkable piece of the landscape. They might fish in its currents, ride a bike, or stroll along its banks. Communities survive thanks to its water. Until floods or drought draw attention to its influence over our lives, most who live in the Truckee Meadows or along the river’s upper or lower reaches pay it little mind.

Several years ago, two photographers and a Reno writer set out to tell its story, the culture and politics surrounding its water distribution and how those factors affect the lives of those who live in the high desert it feeds.

“The issue is important to study at this particular moment in time, but also over time,” said Robert Dawson, a Bay Area photographer, who along with Reno photographer Peter Goin and University of Nevada, Reno English lecturer Mary Webb produced A Doubtful River.

First published in 2000, the book now is available in paperback from the University of Nevada Press ($29.95). The year it was released the book received the Wilbur S. Shepperson award from the Governor’s Awards in the Arts and Humanities.

Dawson and Goin began working on a documentary project involving water in the west several years ago, Webb said. When they decided to focus on the Truckee, particularly its most recent years — because of its historical interest — they recruited Webb to connect their photos with essays fleshing out the river’s life from its source at Lake Tahoe to its terminus at Pyramid Lake.

“The Truckee was the first river to be diverted for its water use in the west,” Webb said. “The first to be altered by the U.S. government for irrigation purposes. The idea was to keep that Jeffersonian promise of individual farms alive in the Great Basin.” Webb’s essays begin at the birth of its waters through snowfall. She tells stories of ranching and community and finally examines what the future holds for this small western river.

“The Truckee has interesting issues,” Dawson said.

Some are unique to the Truckee, he said, such as its importance as the spiritual heart of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. Others, such as ranching and economic development, are issues that face the entire western United States in its efforts to confront and implement water use in an arid climate.

Dawson’s and Goin’s photographs document the river’s uses and landscape from homeless camps hidden along its urban banks to the industrial and agricultural elements that feed on its resources.

The 151 photos contrast the river’s loveliness with the devastation of its floods and the affects on land, humans, and animals of its dry years.

Throughout, the people who depend on the river weave a history that is descriptive and a future that is uncertain.

“We wanted parallel stories woven together to give readers and viewers multi-layered positions on what had been happening (with the river),” Webb said.

Susan Skorupa is a feature writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal covering local arts and literature.