On Meeting Ellen by Leanne Benton
Meet definition: To come by chance into the presence of, to become acquainted with, to come face-to-face, to come together to exchange ideas, to go where a person or thing is or will be.
“Leanne, can you come into my office for a moment?” My boss’s boss popped his head of out of the doorway as I headed down the hall. This was rather unusual, because meeting with the Chief was reserved for something serious or important. I was a new-ish ranger-naturalist, still proving myself, after landing my dream job in a national park in the Colorado mountains a couple of years prior.
I entered the office with some trepidation. The Chief smiled and pointed to a large box on his floor. “These are books that were submitted to the park over the past year as possible sales items for our Visitor Center bookstores. You are welcome to pick one out.”
The box was filled with a couple of dozen books. All potential sales items crossed the Chief of Interpretation’s desk for final approval. Certain criteria must be met: Is the topic relevant to the park? Does the book have an educational component? Does it promote the NPS (National Park Service) mission of resource protection and visitor enjoyment? The books in the box were those that hadn’t met all the criteria.
I could barely contain my excitement. I love books, especially those about nature. How to choose quickly, knowing my presence was keeping the Chief from his work? I picked up the first book, glanced at the cover, read a couple sentences inside the jacket, opened it and read a random sentence in the middle, looked at the back and set it on the floor. Over the next several minutes I did this with each book and two stacks grew – one of “maybes”, and one of “no’s”. Ten minutes later I emerged from the office with my prize – Raven’s Exile by Ellen Meloy. Why this book? The title was captivating – I happen to love ravens, the geography of Utah’s red rock canyons sounded enticing, the writing style was lively, and it was written by a gutsy woman who deeply loved her landscape. Why was the book in the box in the first place? Simply, because the book was about desert ecology rather than mountain ecology. That was fine with me – I was intrigued, sensed a kinship with the author, and was looking forward to an exciting adventure in red rock country through her eyes. My first meeting with Ellen was the literary version of a successful speed date.
An honest confession – I didn’t read Raven’s Exile right away. The Park’s busy summer season was approaching, and I was immersed in studying, and reading all things “mountain.” Raven’s Exile lived quietly in the spare bedroom on a bookshelf full of nature guides and favorite nature books.
Soon after, our daughter arrived home from college with her new boyfriend to work summer jobs. A couple days after their arrival, her boyfriend came into the kitchen carrying Raven’s Exile. “This is my aunt,” he quietly declared.
“What?” I was confused.
He pointed to the author’s name. “Ellen Meloy is my aunt.” He went on to explain his family connection and described a little about her. She and her husband lived in a small remote town in southeast Utah. Occasionally they would drive more than a hundred miles for essentials - to visit the dentist and stock up on groceries. They fiercely loved their desert home and knew its secret places. A trip to see them often included a hike to one of these places. Aunt Ellen was cool, she was the real thing. His voice held a tone of pride. Through his descriptions, I serendipitously met Ellen for the second time.
In early Autumn I finally dove into Raven’s Exile, ready to meet Ellen through her own words. From the first page I was engaged. She was surprisingly funny and honest and had a deep knowledge of her homeland ecology without hitting you over the head with it. Like the desert landscape, her writing was beautiful, at times edgy and sometimes prickly, the physicality of her words giving image to muscular rocks, voluptuous flowers, the movement of water and decaying animal flesh, while underneath thrummed a flow of reverential love for all of it. Her descriptions were so vivid – all senses engaged - of the beauty and grandeur of canyon walls, the roaring power of a silty river, to the intimacy of a beaver gliding by or the dusk song of a canyon wren – that soon I left my world and entered her world, carried along on a spellbinding journey through Desolation Canyon. By experiencing her landscape so intimately I sensed I was peering into her soul.
A year later our daughter and her boyfriend became engaged. The wedding was held in southwest Colorado, and I met Ellen in person for the first time. It was brief, just a “hi,” and “nice to meet you” exchange, enough to form a quick impression: shoulder length wavy reddish hair, not a loud person, but not quiet either, Ellen seemed to have a confident sense of who she was. I would have loved to have sat down and talked desert, books, and Place with her, but this wasn’t the time. Now that we were related through marriage, I hoped our paths would cross again soon.
Sadly, that day never came. Instead, through the years I met Ellen again and again through her writing. Next came Anthropology of Turquoise, followed by The Last Cheater’s Waltz, Eating Stone, and Seasons. In each, she revealed more about herself and her relationship to her homeplace, her voice a constant in expressing reverence for the natural world. The feeling of kinship grew stronger. Her connection to Place echoed a sentiment within my own soul. Ellen became my favorite southwest writer.
It is time to meet Ellen again. Tomorrow, I am heading into the Utah desert and Raven’s Exile is coming along. I am looking forward to hearing her voice again in its pages, surrounded by her beloved geography, and hoping if I am quiet and listen closely I will hear it echoed in the red rock walls, delicate wildflowers, and silty river around me.
Leanne Benton in Bluff, Utah, “Ellen Country,” April 2025