Lois Jotter: Mary Lois Jotter Cutter (1914-2013) Was An American Botanist. She and Elzada Clover Were The First Two

Lois Jotter
Mary Lois Jotter Cutter (1914–2013) was an American botanist. She and Elzada Clover were the first two
non-Native women to raft the entire length of the Grand Canyon in 1938.[1][2]
Contents
Early life and education
Grand Canyon Expedition
Career and later life
Personal life
References
Early life and education

Born Mary Lois Jotter on March 11, 1914 in Weaverville, California, she was interested in science and botany
from a young age. Her father, E.V. Jotter, a German Mennonite who taught forestry at the University of
Michigan, and her mother, Artie May Lomb, encouraged her to study science while growing up in Michigan.
She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in botany and biology and continued
her studies in botany, obtaining a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1943. Her graduate studies
focused on the cytogenetics of the evening primrose.[3][4]
Grand Canyon Expedition

Jotter's mentor at the University of Michigan, Elzada Clover, invited her to join a boating expedition along the
Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1938, during her graduate studies. The women
planned to document and gather native plant species during the trip. At the time, only a few men had
successfully boated down the Colorado and the only woman to do so, Bessie Hyde, disappeared and was
presumed dead. Many of the women's colleagues and family members discouraged their participation in the
trip due to the associated danger. The novelty of the women's involvement generated significant press
coverage at the time, but articles tended to focus on the botanists' gender, appearance, and age rather than their
scientific goals.[1][3]
The expedition departed Green River, Utah on June 20 with a plan to travel the Colorado River through the
Cataract and Grand Canyons all the way to Lake Mead, Arizona - 666 miles. The group set out in three boats
built by the trip organizer Norman Nevills - the Wen, the Botany, and the Mexican Hat - June 20, 1938. Other
members of the group included: Eugene Atkinson, a zoology graduate student at the University of Michigan,
Don Harris, an engineer with the U.S. Geological Survey, and Bill Gibson, an artist from San Francisco. The
first half of the trip was plagued by conflict and Nevills sent Atkinson home during a stop at Lee's Ferry.[3][5]
It took the group 43 days total (36 of those were spent on the river) to travel from Green River to Lake Mead,
a few days more than expected, partially due to frequent stops so Jotter and Clover could gather specimens. At
one point, the Coast Guard sent out a plane to search for the group. They were found and signaled all was
well. The expedition ended on August 1, 1938 to much fanfare and press coverage. The Associated Press
headline stated "Women Make Perilous Trip Through Colorado Gorges".[3][5]
During the expedition, Jotter and Clover recorded and gathered the diverse plant species along the river. They
traveled with handmade plant presses - layers of newspaper, blotting paper, and newspaper, cinched tight with
leather straps. In her trip logbook, Jotter wrote, "we collected furiously." In 1941, Jotter and Clover published
a paper on the cactus they found, as well as a comprehensive plant list.[6] In their publications, they identified
four new species of cactus: Grand Canyon claret cup (Echinocereus canyonensis); small flower fishhook
cactus (Sclerocactus parviflorus); strawberry hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus decumbens); and an elongated
variety of beavertail prickly pear (Opuntia longiareolata). Their research was the only botanical survey of the
Colorado River documenting the diverse plant life before the Glen Canyon Dam significantly altered it
beginning in 1966.[3][5]
Career and later life

Jotter was an Assistant Professor of Biology at UNC-Greensboro from 1963 until she retired in 1984.[4]
In 1980, she returned to the Grand Canyon for a second time as part of a scientific expedition to study
environmental change in the area. The group used Jotter and Clover's plant list from 1938 as the basis of their
work to restore native species destroyed by the Glen Canyon Dam.[3]
Jotter died of congestive heart failure on April 30, 2013 in Greensboro, NC. At the time of her death at age 99,
Jotter was the last surviving female member of the 1938 Grand Canyon expedition, as Clover had passed
away in 1980.[4]
Personal life
She married Guatemalan botanist Dr. Victor Cutter, Jr. in 1942, and they had two children, Ann and Vic
Cutter. Her husband died in 1962.[3][4]
References
1. Leavengood, Betty, 1939-. Grand Canyon women : lives shaped by landscape.
ISBN 9781934656549. OCLC 869919609 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/869919609).
2. Marston, Otis R. From Powell to power : a recounting of the first one hundred river runners
through the Grand Canyon. Martin, Tom, 1957- (First ed.). Flagstaff, Arizona.
ISBN 9780990527039. OCLC 900492261 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/900492261).
3. "The Wild Ones" (https://magazine.atavist.com/the-wild-ones-grand-canyon-colorado-river-first-
women). The Atavist Magazine (in Norwegian). 2019-10-27. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
4. "Lois Jotter Cutter". Greensboro News & Record. May 1, 2013.
5. "River Rat | University of Michigan Heritage" (https://heritage.umich.edu/stories/river-rat/).
heritage.umich.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
6. Clover, Elzada U.; Jotter, Lois (1941). "Cacti of the Canyon of the Colorado River and
Tributaries" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2481651). Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 68 (6):
409–419. doi:10.2307/2481651 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2481651). Retrieved 11 February
2021.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Jotter&oldid=1006146958"

This page was last edited on 11 February 2021, at 09:19 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Lois Jotter: Mary Lois Jotter Cutter (1914-2013) Was An American Botanist. She and Elzada Clover Were The First Two

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lois Jotter: Mary Lois Jotter Cutter (1914-2013) Was An American Botanist. She and Elzada Clover Were The First Two

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lois Jotter: Mary Lois Jotter Cutter (1914-2013) Was An American Botanist. She and Elzada Clover Were The First Two

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lois Jotter

Early life and education

Grand Canyon Expedition

Career and later life

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Jotter&oldid=1006146958"

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.