{"id":531,"date":"2024-12-05T11:01:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T12:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macroron.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2024-12-11T17:21:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T17:21:32","slug":"opinion-this-colorado-river-made-famous-by-michener-has-been-forgotten-in-our-era-of-drought-and-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/macroron.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/05\/opinion-this-colorado-river-made-famous-by-michener-has-been-forgotten-in-our-era-of-drought-and-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: This Colorado river, made famous by Michener, has been forgotten in our era of drought and decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine a best-selling, 900-page novel using \u201ca sad, bewildered nothing of a river\u201d as its centerpiece, connecting the earth\u2019s geologic origin and dinosaur age to 1970s rural Colorado.<\/p>\n

Now imagine that novel becoming a touchstone for its times, yet still relevant today, as our nation approaches its 250th anniversary. The book is James A. Michener\u2019s Centennial, an unlikely novel published a half-century ago. By creating a microcosm of the country, he explained America to itself in anticipation of the 1976 bicentennial.<\/p>\n

That the Pulitzer-prize winning Michener chose as his landscape the West — and the little-known South Platte River<\/a> on Colorado\u2019s northeastern plains \u2014 is surprising only in that this was his first epic novel related to the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n

But ever since he briefly lived in Greeley, in the late 1930s before his writing career began, the winding South Platte River stuck with him. As a young college professor, Michener recognized the wealth of stories resulting from the hardships of people surviving in an arid area.<\/p>\n

After Michener\u2019s service on a national bicentennial committee left him frustrated, he decided to return to the Centennial State, which gained statehood in 1876. He hoped to tell a tale of the American experience, and in the opening chapter a character states, “If we can make the Platte comprehensible to Americans, we can inspire them with the meaning of this continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forgoing stereotypical Western stories of railroad builders and farmers\u2019 daughters, Michener fictionalized selected histories of settlement and created relatable characters.<\/p>\n