More than any other style of music, American folk has the power to impact the political social views of a community.  In the history of the Colorado Plateau, no other folk singer has done more to impact the Colorado River than Katie Lee.  A staunch and outspoken advocate for wilderness, Lee has committed a lifetime of work to preserving the wild landscapes and storied cultures that make the Colorado Plateau so special.

A native of Arizona, Lee’s long and eclectic career found its stride in the form of folk music, poetry, and writing and the rivers, cowboys, people, and canyons on the Colorado Plateau.  She took her first trip down the Grand Canyon in 1953 with Jim Rigg and Mexican Hat Expeditions.  In exchange for a free ride, Lee sang songs each night for the other passengers.  On the trip, she became one of the first two hundred people, and one of only a handful of women, to run the entire length of the Grand Canyon, plowing through every rapid along the way.

Lee became a strong and loud presence on the plateau, ingraining herself into river running culture.  She grew especially fond of Glen Canyon, having explored it thoroughly, and became an outspoken opponent of the Glen Canyon dam during its construction in the 1950s and ‘60s.  In 1964 Lee released Folk Songs of the Colorado River, the first of many poetic and environmentally themed projects in opposition to the dam.  The album was her first work of protest, and in true folk tradition, incorporated songs that she had collected from Colorado River boatmen who had come before her.