Martha Ham first tried to meet Ken Sleight in 1977.
By then, Sleight was already a well-known environmentalist and river runner. He served as the inspiration for the anarchist character Seldom Seen Smith in “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” a 1975 novel about environmentalist outlaws written by author Edward Abbey.
But at the time, all Ham knew about Sleight was that he had experience guiding river trips. She would later learn just how apt the name “Seldom Seen Smith” was to describe a person like Sleight.
“The first time I attempted to meet Ken Sleight, I could not find him,” said Ham. “He was seldom seen, and yes, I mean there are many characteristics [Sleight shared with the character]. He loves to drive. He enjoyed women, and he was steady. He was a steady person and a good team member.”
Ham, then 23, was looking for Sleight to ask for his help in developing what would become some of the first commercial river trips that were available to people with disabilities.
“He really didn't have time to do that because he was so involved with rescuing Glen Canyon, but that's how Ken operated,” Ham said. “If he thought something was important or the right thing to do, he just engaged. He made history in the state [by] providing those first trips which were long before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990.”
Born on Aug. 16, 1929, Sleight spent a lifetime defending environmental causes. He helped found the Western River Guides Association, a group of river runners who opposed the creation of Glen Canyon Dam, as well as Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a Utah environmental nonprofit.
Sleight unsuccessfully resisted Glen Canyon Dam, but successfully opposed a nuclear waste site proposed near Canyonlands National Park. He routinely protested the establishment of the White Mesa uranium mill near the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa.
Sleight helped Ham with her nonprofit, SPLORE, originally named Special Populations Learning Outdoor Recreation and Education. The group made whitewater rafting trips on the Colorado and Green rivers accessible to people with disabilities.
“I really wasn't sure exactly what to make of him,” Ham said. “I was unaware of his history with Ed Abbey. … I really didn't know what to make of him, other than he just kindly agreed to do what I wanted to do. My first impression of Ken was that he was a kind-hearted man.”
Susette DeCoster-Weisheit was another friend of Sleight’s. She said he was ahead of the curve in prioritizing environmental activism.
“He just got it, and what I mean by that is environmental activism and understanding that we were in charge of the future of our special resources, the river, the land,” said DeCoster-Weisheit. “He [understood] that there was going to have to be a fight in order to keep those things as best we could, and he started that fight early on before it was popular, and in a state where it was absolutely not popular, and he still fought for it.”
That fight led Sleight to join a lawsuit to protect Rainbow Bridge National Monument in San Juan County from being flooded by the rising water levels of Lake Powell.
“His fight for Rainbow Bridge, you know, that was just unheard of in this Utah environment in the early [1970s],” DeCoster-Weisheit said. “People were like, ‘Why are you trying to protect this thing way out in the middle of nowhere?’”
John Weisheit, who leads the conservation nonprofit Living Rivers, said he met Sleight at a bookstore in Green River, near Moab, and was caught off guard by how friendly the conservationist was.
After Weisheit moved to Moab, he said Sleight’s nearby ranch served as a gathering place for river guides, environmentalists and politicians.
“Then he found out how much I hate Glen Canyon Dam, and that's what really bonded us,” said Weisheit. “And so we became friends centered around the removal of Glen Canyon Dam.”
Sleight died in Moab on Oct. 2 at the age of 97, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
