Powell Expedition Photos

 

Grand Canyon was largely unknown until after the Civil War. In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran with a thirst for science and adventure, made a pioneering journey through the canyon on the Colorado River. He accomplished this with nine men in four small wooden boats. Though only six men completed the journey. His party was, as far as we know, the first ever to make such a trip.

 

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  THE POWELL EXPEDITION

  20 Photos

  Many of The photographs in this album are from John Wesley Powell's second expedition (1871) down the Colorado River through what would later be known as the Grand Canyon. There were no photographs made during the first (1869) trip.