A TRIP DOWN THE COLORADO RIVER By Martin Link
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As a result of our war with Mexico in 184648, we gained some big chunks of territories including what is now our states of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and the southern portions of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. Texas and California became states very quickly, but the vast, mostly unexplored country that lay in between took a while to become recognized. An effort to establish a cross-country route along the 35th meridian between Albuquerque, NM, and Los Angeles, CA, even brought out a group of surveyors mounted on camels, but not too much interest was shown in the landscapes to the north. In 1857-58, a military expedition following the course of the Colorado River north between California and the Territory of Arizona, and led by Lt. Joseph C. Ives, reached the area of the future town of Henderson, NV, and the site of Hoover Dam before turning east, and ultimately reaching Ft. Defiance. The trip was a struggle, and to quote Lt. Ives in his final report, “Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed. The handful of Indians that inhabit the sequestered retreats where we discovered them have probably remained in the same condition, and in the same number, for centuries. The country could not support a large population, and by some provision of nature they have ceased to multiply. The deer, antelope, the birds, even the smaller reptiles, all of which frequent the adjacent territory, have deserted this uninhabitable district. Excepting when the melting snows send their annual torrents through the avenues to the Colorado, conveying with them sound and motion, these dismal abysses, and the arid table-lands that enclose them, are left, as they have been for ages, in unbroken solitude and silence.” However, following the Civil War, the son of Welsh/English missionary immigrants and a veteran of the Civil War, was determined to present a different side to Ives’ story. His name was John Wesley Powell, and he was born in New York state on March 24, 1834. He was the oldest of eight children, and because the parents were itinerant missionaries they moved around a lot—1830s in Ohio, 1840s in Wisconsin, 1850s in Illinois, then Iowa. At an early age, he developed a curious desire to learn why plants and animals changed over the millennia, and began to collect fossils. To further study geology and to collect fossils, in 1855 he walked across Wisconsin. In 1856 he rowed the entire length of the Mississippi River, and the following year, he rowed down May 2019
the Ohio River, all the way from Pittsburgh to St. Louis, again studying the geological record and collecting fossils. Although he acquired very little college learning in geology, environment, and natural evolution, he gained considerable knowledge in those fields through hands-on experiences. In 1859 he became Secretary of the Illinois Natural History Society. When the Civil War broke out in early 1861, John Wesley became a Sgt. in the 20th Illinois Infantry. He later became a 2nd Lt. in an Artillery Company from Missouri, and at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, lost part of his right arm when his wrist was shattered by a bullet. After his convalescence, during which time his right forearm was amputated, he returned as a Major and served with distinction throughout the rest of the war. Following his discharge in 1865, he accepted the position of professor of Natural Sciences at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. The following year he became a lecturer at Illinois State University. In 1867 he was appointed the administrative head of the Illinois Natural History Museum. In that capacity, and with funds generated by museum activities, Powell made several trips out west, with students, to collect fossils and geological samples. In 1869, augmented by a $10,000 appropriation from Congress, Powell began to seriously plan an expedition down the Green River (in Wyoming) to the junction with the Grand River, at which point the combined flow became known as the Colorado River. He also planned to continue down the Colorado to the junction with the Little Colorado and then explore that segment of a complex series of tributaries and water systems never before successfully traversed by man. With his congressional grant, he ordered four specially fabricated boats from a naval yard in Chicago. Three of the boats were made from oak, 21’ long, 4’ wide ,and 2’ deep with three watertight compartments fore, aft, and center. The fourth boat was made from pine, 16’ long with three watertight compartments. It needed to be fast and maneuverable to serve as the pilot boat in areas of treacherous rapids. (A bit of collateral history—on May 10, 1869, the golden spike joined the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory, Utah.) On May 11th, the first western-bound freight-train stopped at the bridge spanning the Green River in Wyoming and unloaded Powell’s boats. The crew named the pilot boat the “Emma Dean” after Powell’s wife. The three larger boats were named, “Kitty Clyde’s Sister,” “Maid of the Canyon,” and “No Name.” Enough provisions for ten men for ten months, blankets, extra clothing, medical supplies, ammunition, writing paper, and most important, scientific equipment (including compasses, sextants, chronometers, barometers, and thermometers) were loaded into the watertight compartments in the four boats, along with the crew’s personal items. The 9-man crew included
