Geological Survey Information 74-24 John Wesley Powell: Soldier, Explorer, Scientist

Relief map of Powell's pioneer river voyage—1869.

The party traveled more than 1,000 miles of river through winding canyons and over foaming rapids. One of the crew left the expedition after a month, having had enough adventure; three others, hoping to find a safer route overland, departed only 2 days before the voyage ended. Powell and five men in two boats emerged months later on August 30 at the mouth of the Virgin River, Arizona, long after hope for their survival had been abandoned. Their emotional ordeal was well expressed in Powell's words—"What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not."

A plaque marking the place where the Howland brothers and William H. Dunn separated from the 1869 Powell expedition. The plaque is located near the northeast bank of the Colorado River on the eastern side of Separation Canyon.

Powell immediately set about making plans for a second expedition. he had planned and supplied the first trip for what he thought would be a leisurely 6- to 9-month scientific expedition. Because of the loss of food and equipment and the scarcity of game, the trip had been hurried. Powell's observations and notes on topography and geology were incomplete or unreliable because of badly damaged instruments. The few specimens collected had been cached along the river.

Having succeeded so dramatically in conquering the Green and Colorado Rivers, Powell had little difficulty in obtaining funds from Congress to continue his exploratory work. He decided that supplies should be cached along the river and spent most of the year 1870 in determining potential supply routes and in establishing friendly relationships with the Indians.

By the spring of 1871, preparations had been completed for the second survey of the canyon country. This time the party included a surveyor, Professor Almon H. Thompson, Powell's brother-in-law, and an experienced photographer, E. O. Beaman, who together with his successors James Fennemore and J. K. Hillers, dramatically documented the river voyage.

On May 22, the party pushed three boats of improved design into the stream. Major Powell rode in the lead, perched in a chair lashed amidships where he commanded an unrestricted view of the way ahead and could signal to the other boats. The expedition was planned to last about a year and a half. During the first 4-1/2 months the expedition traveled from Green River Station to the mouth of the Paria River at the foot of Glen Canyon. Thompson was largely responsible for conducting the exploration of the river. Powell spent most of July and August traveling on horseback between the river and Salt Lake City, exploring the canyon lands, and studying the Indian tribes. During the winter and spring (1871-72) while Powell was in the East seeking new appropriations, Thompson set about mapping the area. In the spring, while seeking another route by which supplies could be brought to the river, the party discovered the last unknown river in the United States and named it the Escalante.

The Powell expedition ready to start from a location just below the Union Pacific Railway bridge at Green River Station Wyoming.

On the Colorado at the mouth of the Little Colorado River.	The Kanab Canyon, near its mouth. The cliffs in the distance are on the far side of the Colorado River.

In August 1872, the expedition once more started downriver from Lee's Ferry. Because of torrential rains and heavy snowmelt in the mountains, the river was high, swift, and dangerous. Finding that controlling the boats was nearly impossible in the rushing current, Powell called a halt to the expedition when the party reached Kanab Canyon.