Joseph Williard “Will” Julian died September 25, 2022, at the age of 83, but his written words will be heard echoing off the walls of the Black Canyon for years to come.
Will was a 1956 Boulder City (Nevada) High School graduate who went on, as a member of the Class of 1960 and of Kirkland House, to earn an A.B. majoring in Geology from Harvard College.
His geology degree served him well when, in 1982, he was asked by a local Colorado River rafting company to create a comprehensive written narration which would receive National Park Service (NPS) approval. Will embraced the task and went on a months-long journey of old-fashioned research to write a narration about the canyon and the river it contained. Using scientific data, local lore and river history, Will crafted a comprehensive, memorable and enduring narrative that also included information about the local flora and fauna. Some of the source materials included a vast array of documents: The Lippincott Report on Colorado River dam sites (1902), Reconnaissance Geology Between Lake Mead and Davis Dam (1963) and Desert Varnish (Science, 1977). Will’s widow, Mimi, helped organize the data and type over 30 pages of the guidebook that was submitted to the NPS. The narration became the point of pride and historic reference of the official Colorado River trip concession first issued by the NPS in 1982. The narration continues to flow through the many hands of concession raft guides navigating the river since the trips inception 40 years ago. More recently, a growing number of paddle raft companies plying the river also use the narration for their guide training. Though Will Julian's voice is now silent, his legacy of words will for many years continue to be heard traveling along the riverbanks of the magnificent Colorado River in the Black Canyon.
Published in substantially the same form by the Boulder City (Nevada) Review on October 13, 2022.
