THE GREAT RECONNAISSANCE

The period just before and during the Civil War was known as the Great Reconnaissance in western exploration. Scientists who viewed the West as a great outdoor laboratory began to mount expeditions sponsored by such institutions as the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, the Albany Academy, and the National Museum [later called the Smithsonian]. The U.S. Army Topographical Engineers were also involved, in their last gasp of activity before the Civil War. These explorers took a Humboldtian, cosmic approach to geography. They produced James Hall's geological map of the West. Simpson's explorations revealed the existence of many unknown ancient Indian sites. Generally, people who lived in the West wished to exploit its resources, while explorers led the way toward conservation.

THE GREAT SURVEYS

Independents:

The Big Four Government-Sponsored Surveys

1) Clarence King: King explored the 40th parallel from the 120th meridian to the 105th, over a 100 mile wide swath, along the route of the transcontinental railroad. The U.S. Army sponsored the expeditions, although the only military connection was the use of military posts and supplies, as well as escorts. King, a Yale-trained scientist, made his own choice as to civilian scientists for his staff. This was a systematic exploration of the West.
1867 - When King was 25 years old, he began to head this survey. The men along included the photographer Timothy O'Sullivan. Rock specimens were collected, and potential mines investigated. Malaria struck and swept through the camp; King was struck by lightning but survived.
1868 - Mapping the Great Basin. The first report from the survey was the practical The Mining Industry (1870); followed by Botany (1871). King's book Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevadas (1872) was a readable account of high adventure. The survey lasted until 1873. Studies of descriptive geology, ornithology, paleontology, and an atlas were also published. The most important report was also written by King, on Systemic Geology. The King survey brought western exploration into the realm of academic science. In 1879, King was named first director of the U.S. Geological Survey.

2) Lt. George M. Wheeler surveyed west of the 100th meridian. Wheeler was married to the daughter of Missouri politician Frank Blair. Wheeler was a soldier who was "born too late" to participate in the Civil War. In 1871, the 30-year-old Wheeler, along with photographer Timothy O'Sullivan, newspaper reporter Frederick Loring, and geologist Grove Karl Gilbert, a party of 30 men altogether, explored eastern Nevada and Arizona, including Death Valley. In 1873, they went up the Grand Canyon as far as Diamond Creek, where Ives had explored earlier. Prof. Cope later joined the survey as a paleontologist, and Elliott Coues served as a zoologist. In 1874, the Wheeler and King surveys found themselves working in the same location; each tried to outdo the other in production, and tried to sabotage their competition. This resulted in a Congressional investigation, with the civilian, Department of the Interior-sponsored expeditions vs. the U.S. Army-sponsored ones. Neither side won the argument, and all continued in the field. The last year of the Wheeler survey was 1878; the work of the survey was declared to be too broad. In 1879, all western surveys were consolidated under Clarence King and the U.S. Geological Survey.

3) Ferdinand V. Hayden: Hayden was born in 1829, and attended Oberlin College in Ohio, receiving an M.D. at the Albany, N.Y. Medical College. In 1854, sponsored by the Chouteau family, Hayden explored the Dakotas, identifying cretaceous strata. In 1856-57, he accompanied Gouverneur Warren. Hayden served in the Civil War as a surgeon of volunteers. In 1867, the State of Nebraska offered Hayden funds to conduct a geological survey there.

In 1868, the survey was extended, with U.S. Government money, west to the Rockies. The survey followed the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. The government was pleased with the results, and doubled the amount given to Hayden in 1869 to $10,000 so that he could continue his work. Hayden reported directly to the Secretary of the Interior. The United States Geological Survey of the Territories became the official name of the survey. In 1869, the group worked along the Rockies from Denver to Santa Fe. Hayden's published reports emphasized the uses of the territory and future exploitation of resources, including tourism. In 1870, the group received a $25,000 appropriation. A 20-man expedition followed the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, then went up to South Pass, Fort Bridger, Henry's Fork, and Cheyenne. The photographer William Henry Jackson joined the expedition for the first time in 1870. Hayden was careful to publish his reports as soon as possible at the end of each year, thus keeping the public and Congress aware of his activities. Books of photographs, such as Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery (1870), were given free to Congressmen and were best-sellers with the public.

In 1871, $40,000 was appropriated for an official expedition into the Yellowstone country. In addition to photographer and artist William Henry Jackson, the artist Thomas Moran joined the party. Hayden championed the National Park idea which Langford had been pushing. The idea was also helped by lobbying in Congress from members of the Washburn-Doane expedition and the Northern Pacific Railroad. On March 1, 1872, Yellowstone was declared the world's first National Park, modeled after Yosemite. In 1872, further explorations were made of Yellowstone, the Fort Hall area, and Pierre's Hole. In 1873, the survey moved to Colorado, with an appropriation of $75,000. They stumbled upon the Mount of the Holy Cross, and on ancient Indian ruins at Mesa Verde in 1874. [But not cliff palace - that was discovered down a side canyon by cowboys Bob Wetherill and Charles Mason in 1888]. In 1877, William H. Holmes and William Henry Jackson made a tour of most of the known "Anasazi" sites, including San Juan, Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Pintado and the existing Moqui [Hopi] Villages near the Colorado River. Their explorations revealed for the first time the sweep of an entire lost civilization. Also in 1877, the studies of ethnology and geology were divided between Hayden and John Wesley Powell [Hayden chose geology]. 1877-78, Hayden's survey was in Idaho, Wyoming and Yellowstone. The survey ended there, although Hayden plugged on, on his own, until 1883, when he retired due to ill health; he died in 1886.

4) John Wesley Powell was born in New York State in 1834, the son of a Methodist preacher. He moved to Illinois with his family when he was a boy, and was tutored by a curious old man named George Crookham. After attending Oberlin College in Ohio, the Civil War broke out. An ardent abolitionist, Powell commanded the 2nd Illinois Artillery. His right arm was amputated after being shattered by a minie ball at Shiloh. Powell also served at Vicksburg and in the Nashville and Atlanta campaigns.

After the war Powell accepted a post as professor of natural history at Illinois Wesleyan College, where he taught botany, zoology, comparative anatomy, and other scientific subjects. He later taught at Illinois Normal University near Bloomington. Illinois Normal financed Powell's first scientific trip to the Rockies in 1867. Several other financial institutions also contributed money [Illinois Industrial University, Chicago Academy of Sciences], as well as railroad companies [Union Pacific; Chicago, Alton and St. Louis; Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago; Chicago and Rock Island]. General Grant, a friend from their military days together, gave his support, granting Powell a military escort. The remainder of the expenses were paid out of Powell's own pocket. His personnel included college students, amateur naturalists, professors and relatives, including his wife Emma Dean. On the 1867 trip, they explored the Rocky Mountains, climbing Pike's Peak along with Mrs. Powell. On his return, Powell traveled the country, giving dramatic lectures. In 1868, the same group explored Middle Park, Colorado and the Long's Peak area.

In 1869, Powell set out on his greatest adventure; the descent of the Colorado River. Some government money, but mostly private funds bankrolled the expedition [John Wesley Powell, Illinois Normal, Illinois Industrial, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Union Pacific Railroad; the Burlington Railroad]. Four special boats were built [three 21 feet long, of oak; and a fourth of light pine, 16 feet long. All had watertight compartments fore and aft]. A total of nine men ran the rapids of Green River Canyon, Red Canyon, Lodore Canyon, Desolation Canyon, Cool Canyon, Labyrinth Canyon, and Stillwater Canyon. By the time of the junction with the Grand [Colorado] River, the boats had traveled 538 miles. Below Grand Junction they went through Cataract Canyon, past the Dirty Devil River through Glen Canyon to Lee's Ferry [this is the point where Escalante crossed in 1776], and into Marble Canyon. Crossing the Little Colorado they entered the Grand Canyon for some of the roughest rapids yet. As the walls closed in about them and the sound of the river became a continuous, never-ending roar, the nerves of the men began to fray. Finally, a particularly nasty-looking rapid convinced three of the group [Oramel Howland, Bill and Seneca Dunn] to leave and try to climb out of the Canyon to walk overland to the Mormon settlements. They did not know that Powell was within three days of reaching the end of the Grand Canyon and contact with Mormon settlers himself. The three men were killed by Indians on the plateau country west of the canyon.

With Powell's emergence from the epic journey down the Colorado, he became an internationally-known figure. He lectured widely on his experiences, and wrote a book. His surveys continued. In 1870, the plateaus north of the Grand Canyon and Zion; 1871-72, another Colorado River trip, with three new boats and a photographer along [Beaman; Fennemore; Hillers]. It was during this trip that Powell observed the river tied to a chair on one of the boats. Powell did not accompany the men for the entire journey; in fact, part of his time was spent in Washington, D.C., gaining government money to continue his surveys. The Powell Survey identified the last unknown river [Escalante] and mountain range [Henry] in the continental United States. The survey lasted until 1879.

John Wesley Powell centered on a single problem, that presented by the environment on the people who wished to settle the West and make use of it. Adaptation was the key, according to Powell, and Eastern institutions and techniques could not be transplanted successfully to the West. Powell felt that his mission was to describe the new Western environment and point up its lessons for the onrushing tide of civilization. Powells' books Exploration of the Colorado River of the West (1875) and Report on the Geology of the Eastern Portion of the Uinta Mountains (1876) presented important, far-ranging geological concepts.

Powell made friends among the Indians, gained their trust, learned their languages and customs. He favored "civilizing" Indians on reservations. His book Report on the Arid Regions of the United States (1879) was the first modern treatise on political reform in the West. Much of the West was unsuitable for settlement and farming along the patterns used in the East. A scientific and environmental approach to using the West and its resources wisely was needed, argued Powell. Powell advocated mapping and classifying lands; and new land laws which would allocate irrigation districts and pasturage districts, similar to what Powell had seen in the Mormon colonies along Utah rivers. Land should be sold in 80 acre units, not 160. Irrigation cooperatives were encouraged. Powell wanted to prevent monopolies of water rights. Powell's report was heartily disliked by westerners, who said that it favored the big money men and corporations.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The Grant era was an age in which the great surveys flourished. But the Hayes administration, beginning in 1877, ushered in an era of reforms. In 1879, Clarence King was appointed to head the U.S. Geological Survey; Powell was appointed to the Bureau of Ethnology. This change in the surveys brought the era begun by Lewis and Clark to an end. The Geological Survey began to amass information on the resources of the United States; the age of true exploration was over. King was no conservationist; he favored mining and mineral rights during his tenure on the Survey, until 1880. No work on irrigation was done during these two years. King resigned in 1880, and died in Arizona amid his mining interests in 1901.

Powell was brought in to head the U.S. Geological Survey, and enlarged its responsibilities and budget. His irrigation survey of the entire West angered westerners, who said it took too long. Powell's work was never finished, as he resigned from the survey in 1894. He remained as head of the Bureau of Ethnology until his death in 1902.

The great age of exploration began with Columbus in 1492, and has never really ended. The great age of American continental exploration falls between 1804-1880.