Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 37, Number 2, 1969

MAJOR JOHN WESLEY POWELL-1869

BOARD OF STATE HISTORY ision of Department of Development Services :ity, 1971 President

JACK GOODMAN,Salt Lake City, 1969

ran, 1969

THERON LUKE, PrOVO, 1 9 7 1

MRS. A. c. J E N S E N , Sandy, 1971 CLYDE L. MILLER, Secretary of State

Ex officio HOWARD c. PRICE, J R . , Price, 1971 MRS. ELIZABETH SKANCHY, M i d v a l e , 1 9 6 9

MRS. NAOMI WOOLLEY, Salt Lake City, 1971 C\T?

EDITORS ILLER, Salt Lake City ;N Z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City -ERSON, Salt Lake City

H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

SPRING 1969/VOLUME 37/NUMBER 2

Contents J O H N WESLEY POWELL AND T H E COLORADO RIVER CENTENNIAL E D I T I O N

JOHN WESLEY POWELL AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF T H E WEST

BY WILLIAM C. DARRAH

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JOHN WESLEY POWELL, ANTHROPOLOGIST

BY DON D. FOWLER AND CATHERINE S. FOWLER

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THE LOST JOURNAL OF JOHN COLTON SUMNER

BY O. DOCK MARSTON

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JOHN WESLEY POWELL, T H E IRRIGATION SURVEY, AND T H E INAUGURATION OF T H E SECOND PHASE OF IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT IN UTAH

BY THOMAS G. ALEXANDER

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FRANCIS BISHOP'S 1871 RIVER MAPS EDITED BY W . L. R U S H O

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F. S. DELLENBAUGH OF T H E COLORADO: SOME LETTERS PERTAINING T O T H E POWELL VOYAGES AND T H E HISTORY OF T H E COLORADO RIVER EDITED BY C. GREGORY CRAMPTON

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HOW DEADLY IS BIG RED?

BY P . T. REILLY

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THE POWELL SURVEY KANAB BASE LINE

BY ROBERT W . OLSEN, JR

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RIVER RUNNING 1921: T H E DIARY OF E. L. KOLB EDITED BY W . L . R U S H O

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EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

CHARLES S. PETERSON-

Margery W. Ward

T H E C O V E R Steamboat Rock near the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers.

Hal Rumel photograph. The photograph of John Wesley Powell is a gift of William C. Darrah.

John Wesley Powell And An Understanding of the West

BY WILLIAM C. DARRAH

T

H E CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION of Major John Wesley Powell (18341902) pays tribute to a public servant who influenced the course of American government and the development of the West. Powell's influence, far-reaching indeed, was recognized only slowly by historians.

It is fitting that this celebration coincides with the anniversary of Powell's daring exploration of the Colorado River because this feat raised him to a position of prominence and marked the turning point in his career.

There was little in the youth and early manhood of John Wesley Powell that might presage the future. He was born in Mt. Morris, New York, of English parents, his father a tailor and Methodist circuit rider.

Powell's formal education was haphazard, in part because the family had moved frequently and took up farming in Wisconsin and Illinois.

He did have a propensity for natural history and turned to public school teaching as a vocation.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Powell enlisted in the infantry but organized an artillery battery while stationed at Cape Girardeau. At Shiloh he suffered a wound that necessitated amputation of his right forearm. Nevertheless he remained in combat service until 1865. Powell, forever after known as "the Major," returned to college teaching. He Mr. Darrah, professor of botany at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, is an authority on John Wesley Powell. He is the author of several books among which is Powell of the Colorado, which appeared in 1951, and he has contributed material on Powell that has appeared in Volumes XV, X V I - X V I I , and X X V I I I of the Utah Historical Quarterly.

1 :: :

: L' '

si \^M*hM:M.i:i ••?'.'.

Major John Wesley Powell in his Adams Building office in 1894.

Photograph gift of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection.

had earned no college degree but managed somehow to secure a professorship.

On May 24, 1869, Major Powell, an obscure professor of geology and natural history from Illinois State Normal University, with nine companions pushed four boats into the quiet waters of Green River at Green River Station, Wyoming. He had determined to explore the unknown canyons of the Colorado River. Two years of preliminary field work had convinced him that the descent was feasible even though it would be impossible to replenish supplies for more than five hundred miles of the river's length. The narrative of the expedition has been retold many, many times. Wild rapids, back-breaking portages, mishaps, short rations, near starvation, and defection of three men placed obstacles at almost

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every step of the way. Only courage and uncommon individual bravery kept the party together.

Three months later, on August 30, six men passed through the last of the canyons and, at the mouth of the Rio Virgin, met three men and a boy, Mormons, fishing. The last great exploration into unknown and unmapped country in the United States had been completed.

The expedition was a private venture financed through Powell's personal efforts, his own limited funds, sums solicited from several colleges and friends, free railroad passes for men and supplies, and the loan of scientific instruments by the Smithsonian Institution. The men who shared the dangers of the trip received no pay and little glory.

Major Powell found himself a national hero. Newspaper accounts had caught popular fancy but Powell considered the feat nothing more than a scientific endeavor cut short by misfortunes.

It is not necessary to describe the considerable scientific accomplishments of the expedition but the concept of land to be developed by Powell over the years had already taken form. He sensed, almost intuitively, that the Colorado plateau (which he later called the Great Basin) and the river with its tributary canyons represent an equilibrium, a warped uplifted land sculptured by water from melted snows, not a static landscape but a dynamic process of continuously rising land, and continuously eroding waters. Man's occupance and use of this land must fit this equilibrium.

Powell now sought federal support for a second expedition to cover two years work mapping a narrow strip paralleling both sides of the Colorado River. Congress appropriated $25,000 and placed the "Survey of the Colorado River of the West" under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. Three other surveys, two under the War Department, were already engaged in mapping the public domain.

Never one to limit himself to the letter of authority, Powell devoted much of his time to the study of the Indians who inhabited the canyon country. The second Colorado River Expedition of 1871-72 was accompanied by photographers of whom John Hillers is most noteworthy. His several thousand negatives of the region and especially the Indians are historically significant.

To some degree Powell had become an anthropologist and sociologist, interested in social institutions and social change. He had rejected Darwinian and Spencerian theories of human evolution, believing instead that man, by virtue of his intellect, is above animal evolution because he

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has the power to mold and adapt his institutions. In this manner man influences his own destiny.

Powell observed the degree to which the Ute and Paiute Indian bands were bound by habit and custom to their environment. Even their languages reflected the limited circumstances of their existence. He also recognized the gradual pressure of the white man, pressure which must inevitably displace the Indian but in doing so degrade him in misery.

More striking was the Mormon settlement of Utah which to Powell was the proof of adaptability of social institutions through intelligent management. Here were a people, without prior experience in arid country, who modified their customs, developed cooperative enterprises, devised methods of establishing new settlements, and practiced irrigation.

In two decades they had achieved a harmonious balance with the land.

These many observations had not as yet been reasoned into a cohesive concept but this totality of man and the environment became the basic foundation for all of Powell's later work.

The Colorado River Survey received continuing support until 1877.

Powell concentrated his efforts to a study of the geology of the Uinta Mountains. In the course of this work, however, he mapped the expanses of forest, the grasslands below them, and everywhere the natural economy of water, be it abundant or scanty. The capabilities —- and limitations — of the land were everywhere manifest.

The tide of western settlement had been accelerating since the Civil War. In 1867 when Powell for the first time had crossed the plains from Council Bluffs by wagon train, the region was nearly uninhabited. Each year Powell returned to the West and noted the striking changes. In a decade virtually all good land had been taken up.

Already in 1874, in seeking federal funds to continue his mapping, Powell had attempted to warn Congress: "About two-fifths of the entire area of the United States has a climate so arid that agriculture cannot be pursued wihout irrigation. When all the waters running in the streams found in this region are conducted on the land, there will be but a small portion of the country redeemed. . . .

It is of the most pressing importance that a general survey be made for the purpose of determining the several areas which can thus be redeemed by irrigation." This warning was published in House Report 612, 43d Congress, 1st Session, 1873-74, page 10.

Powell made many public appeals for prompt federal action during the ensuing five years, but to no avail.

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With deep concern Powell foresaw growing conflict between farmer and cattleman aggravated by inept laws born of ignorance. Although he had no authorization to do so, Major Powell prepared a Report on the Arid Lands of the United States (1st ed. 1877, 2nd, 1879). In it he proposed a classification of western public lands based upon capability: irrigable, pasturage, timber, mineral, or coal; that acreage be allotted to homesteaders or commercial users on the basis of capability. A grazing farm should include not less than 2,560 acres because smaller units are incapable of supporting a profitable herd. Such a figure drew scorn and ridicule from politicians in Washington.

The essence of the Arid Lands was that boundaries, laws, and institutions applied to the West must be adapted to the West, not to surveyors' geometry or common law customs based upon experience in the humid East. Despite the fact that several thousand copies of this trail-blazing work were distributed, its immediate influence was slight. The plea for scientific understanding and political enlightenment went unheeded.

Powell, the undaunted propagandist, soon found himself in the position of administrator with power to press for his causes. In 1878 the four western surveys were abolished, one of them, the Clarence King Survey, had previously completed its work. In their place Congress established the United States Geological Survey (1879) under the Department of the Interior. King was named the first director but held the post for less than two years.

Meanwhile the Major had been appointed director of the Bureau of Ethnology within the Smithsonian Institution. When King resigned Powell succeeded to the directorship of the Geological Survey.

The Geological Survey was reorganized to assume a broad program of research, both applied and so-called pure science. Greatly increased annual appropriations made it possible to include every subdivision of geology from water resources to paleontology. The scientific prestige of the Geological Survey and its director was impressive. The Survey became the acknowledged world leader in geological research.

Powell's ambitions were, however, diverted to other objectives: the establishment of an irrigation survey and the creation of a federal department of science, the latter to organize and supervise the scientific work of the government.

Not until October 1888 did Congress appropriate funds to the Geological Survey to implement an irrigation survey. The initial sum, $100,000, supported preliminary studies of water resources and areas capable of irrigation, actually little more than work already in progress.

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In March 1889 an additional appropriation of $250,000 put the work in full swing. The Director was expected to certify irrigable lands and sites for construction of dams. Proponents as well as opponents of irrigation joined in condemnation of the whole project. Although Powell certified nearly 150 reservoir sites, he wanted the federal government to control the water, to determine who would use the water and how much. This involved temporary closing of the public lands, a situation that was fraught with political consequences. By strange paradox, disastrous drought struck the West in 1890 and sufferers blamed the Survey for its failure to have constructed adequate irrigation works. Congress cut appropriations in August 1890, deliberately omitting mention of hydrographic work and thereby virtually eliminating the Irrigation Survey.

The irrigation movement took on new life but Powell was anguished that its enthusiastic leaders looked upon irrigation as a panacea. When at the Irrigation Congress in San Francisco the Major cautioned the delegates that there was insufficient water to irrigate the lands capable of reclamation, he was howled down. They would not listen to the truth.

Powell's personal power had been threatened, now it had diminished. Further cuts in the Survey's appropriations led the Major to resign in 1894. He took quiet refuge in his directorship of the Bureau of Ethnology, a position he had never relinquished since its creation in 1879.

As an elder scientist he devoted his efforts to philosophy. Geology, irrigation, and sociology had passed to younger able hands.

John Wesley Powell died quietly on September 23, 1902, at his summer home in Haven, Maine. He was buried in the officers section of Arlington National Cemetery.

For thirty years he had worked for the nation, for people, for knowledge. His legacy attests to the breadth of his vision and capacity: the United States Geological Survey, the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Bureau of Reclamation. Among his proposals implemented after his death, were withdrawal of public lands for the public good, harnessing of the waters of the Colorado River, a bureau of forestry, and a federal department or agency of the encouragement of science. His role in the development of environmental conservation is inestimable.

There is a more modest claim that merits our commemoration of this remarkable man. Whatever may have been the accomplishments and contributions of John Wesley Powell, he considered himself a public servant. With little regard for honors or awards, he labored with unyielding faith in the goodness and intelligence of man.

John Wesley Powell, A nthropologist

BY DON D. F O W L E R AND C A T H E R I N E S. F O W L E R

J

was one of the principal figures in the development of American anthropology in the nineteenth century. Between 1868 and 1902, the period of his active interest in the field, the subject became a professional discipline. It changed from an activity pursued as an avocation by men trained in other fields to a profession of full-time research workers and academicians. Most of the individuals engaged in continuous anthropological research in the United States during this period were salaried or otherwise supported by one of Powell's organizations. By the time of his death in 1902, anthropology had emerged as an academic discipline at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of California, 1 and there was a federally-sponsored program of anthropological research within the United States. Powell's own initiative in research and administration and his support of the men who developed the academic programs were crucial to their success.

Powell's career as an anthropologist may be regarded as a transitional one between the anthropology of the nineteenth century with its antiquarian eclecticism and strong orientation toward cultural evolutionism, and the more systematic approach and anti-evolutionary orientation that developed in the latter part of that era — the so-called "American Historical School" led by Franz Boas and his students. 2 In his own research and writing, Powell represents one culmination of nineteenth, and even eighteenth century thinking and research. In some cases he was able to complete studies proposed and begun as early as 1780; e.g., his linguistic classification of Indian tribes. Powell's theoretical orientation was patterned after that of his close friend, Lewis Henry Morgan, and included his conception of unilinear cultural evolution through a series of "stages," — savagery, barbarism, and civilization. In all this he was a man of his time; but, it was Powell's organizational and administrative OHN W E S L E Y POWELL

Dr. Fowler is director of the Western Studies C e n t e r a n d associate professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Mrs. Fowler is a research associate at the University of Nevada. T h e authors wish to acknowledge the support of a g r a n t from the National Endowm e n t for the Humanities and a National Academy of Sciences Visiting Postdoctoral Associateship at the Smithsonian Institution to the senior a u t h o r which m a d e the work on J o h n Wesley Powell possible.

1 See Frederica De L a g u n a , " T h e Development of Anthropology," in Frederica D e L a g u n a , ed., Selected Papers from the American Anthropologist, 1888—1920 (Evanston, 1960), 91—104.

2 See M a r v i n Harris, The Rise of Anthropological Theory ( N e w York, 1968), 2 5 0 - 3 1 8 .

John Wesley Powell and a Southern Paiute Indian near St. George, Utah, 1873. Photograph taken by John K. Hitlers and gift of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection.

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abilities and his support for those with new ideas that greatly facilitated the development of the "new" anthropology of the twentieth century.

Hence, his position as a "transitional" figure in American anthropology.

Powell's career as anthropologist is best discussed in three parts.

First, his own ethnographic and linguistic field work among the Indians of Utah, northern Arizona, and Nevada; second, his organizational and administrative work in the Bureau of (American) Ethnology and various scholarly societies; and third, his ethnological work, especially the linguistic classification, the Synonymy of Indian tribal names, and his theoretical writings. The latter two aspects of his work are interrelated and a discussion of one necessarily includes the other.

As a prelude we shall review briefly some of the ideas and concepts current in the developing discipline of anthropology in the United States at the time Powell began his field studies. Our aim here is not a history of American anthropology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 3 but rather to place some of the questions which Powell investigated and the procedures he employed in their historical context.

The principal subject matter of American anthropology, as well as much of European and American literature, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the American Indian. The confrontation of European and Indian cultures produced an enormous literature, both fictional and non-fictional. In fiction Indians were both heroes and anti-heroes, e.g., in Cooper's Leather stocking Tales and Longfellow's Hiawatha. The Indians were also the subject of more or less factual scholarly treatises in philosophy and history. In fiction and scholarship, as well as in the popular imagination, the Indians were often viewed with a sense of wonderment, curiosity, and fear. To the ethnocentric eyes of the settlers, schooled in European traditions and modes of thought, Indian customs were strange, hence feared and ridiculed. The Indians did not possess the art of writing, nor the blessings of Christianity, hence they were regarded as inferior — perhaps innately inferior. Their languages were strange to the ear, a meaningless babble of grunts, mumbles, and gestures, to those who took Latin as the epitome of human speech, and did not bother to learn the Indian languages.

This mixed concern with the Indians in both the fiction and nonfiction of the 1700's and 1800's resulted in a series of themes that recur over and over. These themes or stereotypes have been called the concept 3 For a n extended treatment of early American anthropology, see A. Irving Hallowell, " T h e Beginnings of Anthropology," in De L a g u n a , Selected Papers, 1-90.

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of "savagism" by Pearce. 4 The Indian as "savage" had many, often contradictory, attributes. These ranged from the "noble savage" exemplifying all that is good and true in human nature, to the "savage savage," who was brutish, uncivilized, degenerate, and possibly soulless, hence fit only for slavery or extermination. At best he would have to be thoroughly Christianized before he was in any way acceptable. 5 Finally, a question which vexed many observers was that of origins. How did the Indians come to be in the New World? What was their origin? How did they fit (or did they fit) into the scheme delineated by the Christian scriptures?

T h e question of Indian origins excited much comment and speculation from the sixteenth century onward. Proposed solutions to the problem were many and varied, so much so that we cannot deal with them here in any detail. 6 Suffice it to say, by the late eighteenth century, scholars had agreed that a possible solution to the origins problem was through the study of languages. If linguistic connections could be demonstrated between American Indian languages and those spoken in some part of the Old World, the question of origins might be settled, or at least placed on an objective footing. The current successes of European scholars in demonstrating the genetic connections of Indo-European languages and in working out the history of Indo-European-speaking peoples based on those connections, 7 gave added impetus to a linguistic approach in the New World. But the comparative linguistics approach (now more properly called "historical linguistics"), demanded factual data: vocabulary lists of words with the same "meanings," so that lists might be compared, cognates found, and genetic connections established. 8 By 1780 scholars had begun to collect Indian vocabularies as basic data for this enterprise. Thomas Jefferson, among others, was a collector of Indian vocabularies. 9 In fact in Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, written 4

Roy Harvey Pearce, Savagism and Civilization: A Study of the Indian and the American Mind (Baltimore, 1967). s For various facets of European and American conceptions of the Indians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries see H. N. Fairchild, The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Naturalism (New York, 1928) ; U.S., Smithsonian Institution, A. I. Hallowell, "The Backwash of the Frontier: The Impact of the Indian on American Culture," Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1958 (Washington, D . C , 1959), 447-72; P. Honigsheim, "The American Indian in the Philosophy of the English and French Enlightenment," Osiris, X (1954), 91-108; and U.S., Smithsonian Institution, H. F. C. ten Kate, "The Indian in Literature," Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1921 (Washington, D . C , 1922), 507—28.

6 See esp. L. E. Huddleston, Origins of the American Indians (Norman, Oklahoma, 1967), and Margaret Hodgen, Early Anthropology in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Philadelphia, 1964).

Robert Wauchope, Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents (Chicago, 1962) also contains discussions of "origins" theories, but certain overgeneralizations limit the utility of the work.

7 Holger Pederson, The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the 19th Century (Cambridge, 1931), 9-10.

8 Ibid.

9 Gilbert Chinard, "Jefferson and the American Philosophical Society," American Philosophical Society, Proceedings, Vol. 87 (1943), 263-76; see also H. C Montgomery, "Thomas

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before 1784, we find a program for scholarly research on the origins question; a program that was carried on intermittently throughout the nineteenth century and finally brought to fruition by Powell and his associates 110 years later. Jefferson wrote: A knowledge of their several languages would be most certain evidence of their derivation which could be provided. I n fact, it is the best proof of t h e affinity of nations which ever can be referred to . . . .

I t is to be lamented . . . very m u c h to be l a m e n t e d , t h a t w e have suffered so m a n y of the I n d i a n tribes already to extinguish, w i t h o u t h a v i n g previously collected a n d deposited in the records of t h e literature, t h e general r u d i m e n t s at least of the languages they spoke. W e r e vocabularies formed of all the languages spoken in north a n d south America, preserving their appellations of t h e most c o m m o n objects in n a t u r e , of those which m u s t be present in every nation, barbarous or civilized, with t h e inflections of their n o u n s a n d verbs, their principles of regimen a n d c o n c o r d , a n d these deposited in all public libraries, it would furnish opportunities to those skilled in t h e languages of the old world to c o m p a r e t h e m with these, n o w , or at least at a future time, a n d hence to construct t h e best evidence of t h e derivation of this p a r t of the h u m a n race. 1 0

But, factual data on Indians were also needed for administrative and political purposes. In Jefferson's extensive instructions to Lewis and Clark, 11 we find a program for gathering such data on the Indians of the Louisiana Territory. These instructions were based on a circular previously developed by a committee of the American Philosophical Society, under Jefferson's direction. 12 Following these instructions, Lewis and Clark gathered a considerable body of ethnographic data. 13 (All subsequent federally-sponsored expeditions were charged with gathering such data, and all did so, e.g., the Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819, the Wilkes Expedition to the Pacific in the 1840's, and the several wagon road and railroad surveys of the 1840's and 1850's.) 14 Throughout the nineteenth century there was increasing interest in the Indians on governmental, scholarly, and popular levels. There was recognition also Jefferson as a Philologist ( I I ) , " American Journal of Philology, Vol. 65 (1944, No. 260), 367-71.

10 Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia," in A. A. Lipscomb, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, 1903), Vol. II. 11 The instructions, dated June 1803, are quoted in a "Memoir of Meriwether Lewis,"

by Jefferson and dated 1813. The memoir is printed in Elliot Coues, ed., History of the Expedition Under the Command of Lewis and Clark (3 vols., New York, 1893), I, xv-xlii.

12 Chinard, "Jefferson," American Philosophical Society, Proceedings, Vol. 87, 265.

13 Coues, History of Expedition:, passim.

14 Thomas Say, "Vocabularies of Indian Languages," James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-20, in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, XVII (Cleveland, 1905), 289-308; Jacob W. Gruber, "Horatio Hale and the Development of American Anthropology," American Philosophical Society, Proceedings, Vol. 111 (1967), 9—11 ; William Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West (New York, 1966), passim.

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that the Indians, and their languages and cultures, were being rapidly overwhelmed, or in Jefferson's words, "extinguished," by the onrush of settlement. The recognition of this fact gave rise to what is now known as the concept of the "vanishing savage," 15 that the Indians were passing away and it was a scholarly, if not a moral, obligation to record as much of their culture as possible prior to their demise.

As previously pointed out it was recognized on the scholarly level that an adequate classification of the Indian tribes, on a linguistic basis, was a necessary first step to the proper study of the origins question, as well as to general anthropological studies of the Indians.

By 1836 Albert Gallatin had accumulated enough vocabularies to be able to present a provisional classification of the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, those along the Northwest Coast, and the Eskimo.16 Scholars and government officials continued the use of circulars and questionnaires as means of gathering ethnographic, demographic, and linguistic data on the Indians. Such circulars were sent to missionaries, military officers, traders, and others. In 1823 Lewis Cass, then governor of the Northwest Territory, had an extensive circular printed and sent out, 17 but he apparently received few replies. At about the same time, Gallatin had sent out a vocabulary list. He too received only a few answers which were printed in his "Synopsis," together with a large body of data he had personally collected.18 Gallatin's list contained 186 words, including terms for persons, body parts, kinship, implements and utensils, meteorology, the seasons, geography, plants and animals, colors, adjectives, abverbs, and verbs.19 In other words he chose Jefferson's "appellations of the most common objects in nature . . . ."

15 Harris, Rise of Anthropological Theory. The idea still has some currency in American anthropology in the emphasis on "salvage ethnography," i.e., attempts to record whatever stray bits and pieces of the "old ways" remain in the memories or practices of living Indians.

16 Albert Gallatin, "A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes within the United States East of the Rocky Mountains and in the British and Russian Possessions in North America," Archaeologica Americana: Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society (Cambridge, 1836), II, 1-422.

17 Lewis Cass, Inquiries Respecting the History, Traditions, Languages, Manners, Customs, Religion, etc. of the Indians Living in the United States (Detroit, 1823).

18 Gallatin, "Synopsis of Indian Tribes," Archaeologica Americana, II, vii.

18 Ibid., passim. Later, in presenting the vocabularies gathered by Horatio Hale on the Wilkes Expedition (see Gruber, "Horatio Hale," American Philosophical Society, Proceedings, Vol. I l l ) , Gallatin adopted a 180-word vocabulary modified from his 1836 list, but retaining all its categories. See Albert Gallatin, ed., "Hale's Indians of Northwest America and Vocabularies of North America," American Ethnological Society, Transactions (New York, 1848), xxv-clxxxviii, and 1-130.

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Gallatin's list was the basis for later vocabulary lists p r e p a r e d by George Gibbs for the Smithsonian Institution, 2 0 and widely circulated to missionaries, army officers, and others. Powell carried copies of the Smithsonian list on his second expedition in 1871.

H e n r y Rowe Schoolcraft apparently used the Cass circular (he was Cass' I n d i a n agent in the Northwest Territory) as a basis for his own extensive "Inquiries" through which he gathered the hodge-podge of d a t a contained in his massive six volume compendium on American Indians. 2 1 I n 1861 the Smithsonian Institution circulated a questionnaire by Lewis H e n r y M o r g a n 2 2 which brought h i m m u c h of the data on kinship terminological systems which he used in his classic "Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the H u m a n Family." 2 3 T h u s , w h e n J o h n Wesley Powell began his own anthropological investigations in 1868, he did so within an intellectual and methodological framework going back at least to Jefferson's time. This framework included the idea of the "vanishing savage," coupled with the a p p a r e n t urgent necessity to record I n d i a n languages and cultures while time r e m a i n e d ; a concern with the question of I n d i a n origins a n d the need for an adequate and accurate classification of linguistic/tribal units; and a method of using circulars and questionnaires as a means of gathering data.

Powell carried forward work on all these subjects, and brought some of t h e m (e.g., the linguistic classification) to completion. H e and his staff improved the circulars used for collecting vocabularies, including an a t t e m p t to standardize the orthography to be used in recording vocabularies. 24 P O W E L L ' S FIELD I N V E S T I G A T I O N S

I n the summer of 1867, Powell organized his first expedition to explore a n d m a k e n a t u r a l history observations of an area of the Rocky Mountains 20 George Gibbs, "Instructions for Research Relative to the Ethnology a n d Philology of America," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, V I I (1863, No. 1 6 0 ) .

21 H e n r y Rowe Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (6 vols., Philadelphia, 1851), et seq. T h e circular is printed in Volume I, pages 527—68.

22 Lewis H e n r y M o r g a n , "Circular in Reference to the Degrees of Relationship among Different Nations," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, I I ( 1 8 6 2 ) , Art. X , p p . 1-33.

23 Smithsonian Institution, Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. 17 (1871, No. 2 1 8 ) .

24 T h e problems of uniform orthography plagued American I n d i a n linguistic studies t h r o u g h o u t the nineteenth century, despite a t t e m p t s to achieve standardization such as those of James Pickering, " O n the Adoption of a Uniform Alphabet for the I n d i a n Languages of North America," Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 4 ( 1 8 2 0 ) , 319—60.

Powell's orthography was not entirely satisfactory but it did serve to achieve a degree of standardization.

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west of Denver, Colorado. T h e field party, consisting of several relatives and students, was sponsored by Illinois State Normal University, where Powell was teaching, and the Illinois Natural History Society.25 Powell planned to have the party gather new data on a dozen or more fields, from climatology to ethnology and ornithology, in keeping with his long standing interests in these subjects. 26 T h e party had originally intended to explore the Badlands of Dakota Territory, but reports of Indian troubles diverted them southward. 27 In the summer of 1868, Powell again led a party of volunteers to the Rockies under the same sponsorship. After a summer and fall of exploration, Powell, his wife Emma, and three other members of his party remained in the Rockies, wintering on the White River in an area now called Powell's Bottoms. He spent much of the winter exploring the Green River and also resolved to descend the river the following spring and explore the unknown lands beyond.

During the winter on the White River, Powell began his ethnographic studies of the Ute with Chief Douglass and his band who were camped nearby. Although his main purpose in the area was exploration, as time permitted, Powell took down vocabularies and participated in economic and ritual activities. 28 By the end of his stay, Powell had some familiarity with the Ute language, which he enhanced through the following years until he spoke Ute and its dialect, Southern Paiute, passably well. It was also during this time that he came to be known as Kapurats, " a r m off,"29 a name still associated with him today by the Southern Paiute.

Following his sensational Green and Colorado rivers trip in 1869, Powell received a congressional appropriation to continue his explora25 John W. Powell, Preliminary Report to the Illinois State Board of Education on the Scientific Expedition to the Rocky Mountains (Peoria, 1867) ; see also Elmo S. Watson, ed., The Professor Goes West: Illinois Wesleyan University — Reports of Major John Wesley Powell's Explorations: 1867-1874 (Bloomington, Illinois, 1954).

26 William C Darrah, Powell of the Colorado (Princeton, 1951), 82ff.; also Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West (Boston, 1962), 19ff. Pages 13—14 of Stegner's book note the influence of George Crookham, who tutored Powell for a time in Ohio, in bringing about Powell's interest in a wide range of natural history subjects. Powell also had some experience with Indians who camped on his father's farm in Wisconsin.

27 Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 19.

28 See Manuscripts Number 830, Section 9, "Treatment of the Sick," and Number 2264, "Grand River, Tabuats Ute, 1868," in Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler, eds., "The Anthropology of the Numa: The John Wesley Powell Manuscripts on Great Basin Indians, 1868-1880," Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, being published at the present time. The original manuscripts are in the Bureau of American Ethnology Collection of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology Archives (Washington, D . C ) .

29 John Wesley Powell, The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons (New York, 1961), 323.

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tions. In effect the appropriation created the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, better known as the Powell Survey or the Rocky Mountain Survey. The exigencies of the first trip had convinced Powell of the necessity of bringing supplies overland to the river at accessible points. H e also wanted to make peace with the Indians who had killed three members of his crew after they left the river party and attempted to make their way to the safety of the Mormon settlements. 30 Powell arrived with two men in Salt Lake City on August 19, 1870.

He intended to scout out supply points and, if possible, meet and make peace with the Shivwits Indians, a Southern Paiute band inhabiting the plateaus immediately north of the Grand Canyon. On the advice of Brigham Young, Powell hired Jacob Hamblin as a guide and interpreter. 31 Powell and Hamblin accompanied Brigham Young, John D. Lee, and others south toward St. George and Kanab in early September 1870.32 En route, Powell and Hamblin met Chuarumpeak, a leader of the Kaibab Southern Paiute band, on the headwaters of the Sevier River.

Powell's relationship with Chuarumpeak would be extended over much of the period of his canyon-country explorations.

Powell, Hamblin, and Chuarumpeak continued on to Pipe Spring, Arizona, from there onto the Kaibab Plateau, and thence westward to the Uinkarets Plateau. On September 17, 1870, they arrived at a Uinkarets Paiute settlement at the foot of Mount Trumbull. A council was held with the Uinkarets and some of the Shivwits bands from further west, including the men who had killed Dunn and the Howland brothers.

Powell recorded this meeting in his diary: This evening, the ShiVwits, for whom we have sent, come in5 and after supper we hold a long council. A blazing fire is built, and around this we sit — the Indians living here, the ShiVwits, Jacob Hamblin, and myself....

I tell the Indians that I wish to spend some months in their country during the coming year and that I would like them to treat me as a friend.

I do not wish to trade; do not want their lands. Heretofore I have found it very difficult to make the natives understand my object, but the gravity of the Mormon missionary helps me much. I tell them that all the great and good white men are anxious to know very many things, . . . and the matter and manner make a deep impression.

Then their chief replies: "Your talk is good, and we believe what you say. We believe in Jacob, and look upon you as a father. When you 30

Ibid., 280.

James A. Little, Jacob Hamblin Among the Indians (Salt Lake City, 1966), 109-12.

32 Juanita Brooks, John Doyle Lee: Zealot-Pioneer Builder-Scapegoat (Glendale, California, 1962), 289.

31

John Wesley Powell, ,m„m:x:mm

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Anthropologist

.f::.m<mm.,m

>m

•. • " a , .a . : ; . ; • ; & ; m

;.

,..;,-.•.;.,

. .,,;•

;..;. : ; ; : , „ - f r : . • f.

Chuarumpeak (with hat on) and family at home on Kaibab Plateau south of Kanab, Utah, in 1873. Chuarumpeak was one of Powell's principal Southern Paiute informants. Photograph taken by J. K. Hillers and gift of Smithsonian Institution of Anthropology, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection. are hungry, you may have our game. You may gather our sweet fruits.

We will give you food when you come to our land. We will show you the springs and you may drink; the water is good. We will be friends and when you come we will be glad. We will tell the Indians who live on the other side of the great river that we have seen Ka'purats, and that he is the Indians' friend. We will tell them he is Jacob's friend . . . ."

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That night I slept in peace, although these murderers of my men, and their friends, the Uinkarets, were sleeping not 500 yards away. While we were gone to the canyon, the pack train and supplies, enough to make an Indian rich beyond his wildest dreams, were all left in their charge, and were all safe; not even a lump of sugar was pilfered by the children. 33

During this meeting Powell recorded a number of myths and tales, miscellaneous data, and vocabulary items by the light of the campfire. He would draw on this collection and his later ones for his writings on North American mythology.34 Powell also expressed his admiration for Jacob Hamblin, the "silent, reserved man," who spoke the native language in a "slow, quiet way that inspires great awe." "This man, Hamblin speaks their language well and has a great influence over all the Indians in the region round about." 35 Their friendship and association would continue over the years Powell and his men worked in the canyon country.

Later in the fall Powell and Hamblin went south through House Rock Valley, crossed the Colorado River, and journeyed to the Hopi mesas. They remained there a month, during which time Powell gathered vocabularies and other ethnographic data 3 6 most of which he later reported in a popular article. 37 Still later, Powell and Hamblin met with various Navajo groups at Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory, to negotiate a peace between the Navajo and the Mormons of southern Utah.

Powell then returned to the East via Santa Fe and Denver, arriving in Washington on January 10, 1871.

The second Colorado River exploring trip began in May 1871. On July 10, Powell left the river party at the mouth of the Duchesne River to go to the Uintah Indian Agency for supplies. Learning of his wife's illness, he traveled on to Salt Lake City. He then returned to Uintah and instructed A. H. Thompson to take charge of the river party and meet him at Gunnison's Crossing at the end of August. Hamblin and his men had been unable to find an overland route to the mouth of the Dirty Devil River, a key supply point for the river trip. Powell then accompanied :3

' Powell, Exploration of the Colorado River, 3 2 0 - 2 3 .

J o h n Wesley Powell, "Sketch of the Mythology of the North American I n d i a n s , " Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report 1879-80 (Washington, D . C , 1881), 19â&#x20AC;&#x201D;56.

35 Powell, Exploration of the Colorado River, 320.

34

36 Smithsonian Institution, Office of Anthropology Archives, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection, M S No. 1794-a, Vol. 6.

37 J o h n Wesley Powell, " T h e Ancient Province of Tusayan," Scribner's Monthly, XI ( 1 8 7 5 ) , 193-213.

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them during August, but again, they were unsuccessful.:<s Along the way, Powell seized an opportunity to continue his ethnographic research: I fell in with bands of Indians; stopped at their camps two or three nights and induced a small party to travel with me, and so had a fine opportunity to continue my study of the Indian races.39

Failing to find the mouth of the Dirty Devil, Powell rejoined the river party on August 29 at Gunnison's Crossing and remained with it until it reached the Crossing of the Fathers. He then returned to Salt Lake City via Kanab. The rest of the party continued to Lonely Dell (Lee's Ferry) at the mouth of the Paria River where they stored the boats for the winter.

With the river trip completed as far as Lonely Dell, Powell and his men established a winter camp at Kanab. The primary work for the crew was establishing a base line for topographic triangulation, but Powell intermittently gathered information from a band of Kaibab Paiute camped near Kanab. 40 Powell was in Washington from late February until late July 1872.

Then, with a party that included Indians, Powell made a brief trek across the Kaibab Plateau in early August, prior to starting on the last leg of the river trip through Marble and into Grand Canyon.

After completing the trip, Powell and S. V. Jones, accompanied by Chuarumpeak and another Kaibab Paiute, explored the upper Kanab Canyon area. Powell had intermittent contact with members of the Kaibab, Uinkarets, and Shivwits Paiute throughout the fall of 1872 until he left for Washington in late November.

In the spring of 1873, Powell was appointed as Special Commissioner of Indian Affairs to investigate the "conditions and wants" of the Great Basin Indians. He and George W. Ingalls devoted the summer and fall of 1873 to this task.41 The investigations brought Powell into contact 38 It remained for A. H . Thompson, Powell's topographer a n d brother-in-law, to find a n overland route to the m o u t h of the Dirty Devil the following summer. Herbert E. Gregory, ed., "Diary of Almon Harris Thompson, Geographer, Explorations of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. 1 8 7 1 - 1 8 7 5 , " Utah Historical Quarterly, V I I ( J a n u a r y , April, July, 1939), 79-90.

39 U.S., Congress, House, J o h n Wesley Powell, Survey of the Colorado River of the West, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., 1871-72, House Misc. Doc. 173, p. 8.

40 K a i b a b Southern Paiute informants remember stories about Powell as the m a n who tied markers on pine trees (probably for the triangulation w o r k ) . O n e lady recently recalled t h a t now those markers are "way up high in the trees" as the trees have since grown well beyond a m a n ' s height! C S. Fowler, unpublished field notes, 1967.

41 J o h n Wesley Powell a n d George W. Ingalls, On the Condition of the Ute Indians of Utah; the Paiutes of Utah, Northern Arizona, Southern Nevada, and Southwestern California; the Western Shoshones of Idaho and Utah; and the Western Shoshones of Nevada; and Report Concerning Claims of Settlers in the Mo-a-pa Valley, Southeastern Nevada (Washington, D . C , 1874).

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with many of the Great Basin I n d i a n groups, or at least delegates from these groups. I n addition to gathering the d a t a required by the commission, Powell used the oportunity to gather vocabularies, myths, a n d tales, a n d to have John K. Hillers m a k e a series of photographs of the Indians. 4 2 During this time Powell contacted Utes, Gosiutes, " N o r t h western Shoshones," Nevada Shoshoni, N o r t h e r n Paiute, the U t e bands in San Pete and Sevier valleys, those at Corn Creek near Fillmore, the several Southern Paiute bands n e a r K a n a b and St. George, a n d those at M o a p a and near Las Vegas. H e also m a d e a brief trip into southern California where he met with Chemehuevi and a few Mojave.

P O W E L L AND T H E B U R E A U OF E T H N O L O G Y

After 1873 Powell a t t e m p t e d very little ethnographic field work, excepting a six-week trip to northern California and N e v a d a in 1880.

At t h a t time he contacted the W i n t u n , the Paviotso ( N o r t h e r n P a i u t e ) , a n d Shoshoni, a n d obtained additional myths and tales a n d miscellaneous other data. During the mid-1870's, his personal field work was primarily geological, although his interest in American Indians increased. H e instructed his survey parties to buy or trade for I n d i a n artifacts whenever possible; these materials were then turned over to the U.S. National Museum. 4 3 As an additional step toward m o r e thorough a n d complete work in ethnology, he hired the Reverend J a m e s O w e n Dorsey as a linguist/ethnologist attached to the Rocky M o u n t a i n Survey. By 1876 Powell and his staff were systematically collecting I n d i a n vocabularies in the field and from published sources toward a general classification of N o r t h American I n d i a n languages. At his request the Smithsonian turned over to him some 670 I n d i a n vocabularies it h a d received from t h e distribution of the 1863 questionnaire. T h e following year he published an extended revision of the vocabulary form, the Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages** which was intended to be the first p a r t of a general ethnographic field m a n u a l . T h e Introduction also provided a suggested orthography for field workers as a further step toward standardization of vocabulary data.

42 See Julian H. Steward, "Notes on Hillers' Photographs of the Paiute and Ute Indians Taken on the Powell Expedition of 1873," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, XCVIII (1939, No. 18) ; Robert C. Euler, Southern Paiute Ethnohistory (Salt Lake City, 1966), Appendix I. 43 Fowler and Fowler, "Anthropology of the Numa," Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, being published. The collection by Powell and his men from the Great Basin is described in Don D. Fowler, John F. Matley, and Renee H. Royak, "The Material Culture of the Numa: The Powell Collection from the Great Basin," Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, being published at the present time.

44 John Wesley Powell, Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages (Washington, D . C , 1877).

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During this same period, in cooperation with the Smithsonian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Powell directed the acquisition of Indian materials for display at the 1876 Philadelphia International Exposition.45 He also established a monograph series, the Contributions to North American EthnologyiQ to bring before the scholarly community and the public the results of current field research. But despite these efforts and the general scholarly concern with the "vanishing savage," there was still no systematic, broad-scaled attempt being made to record in depth Indian cultures and languages.

By the late 1870's there was increasing agitation in Washington to consolidate the four major government surveys then operating in the West. The activities of the Wheeler, King, Hayden, and Powell surveys were overlapping, and, to a degree, conflicting. Powell was in the forefront of the fight to consolidate the surveys.47 Finally, in 1879, with the passage of the Civil Sundry Bill for 1880, the four surveys were merged and the United States Geological Survey created. Most Washington observers assumed that Powell would seek the directorship of the Survey, as he was, in fact, its principle architect. 48 But he did not compete for the position; rather, he pushed hard for the appointment of Clarence King. However, tucked away almost unnoticed in the same Civil Sundry Bill was a brief paragraph that read: For completing and preparing for publication the Contributions to North American Ethnology, under the Smithsonian Institution, $20,000: Provided: That all of the archives, records, and materials relating to the Indians of North America, collected by the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, shall be turned over to the Smithsonian Institution, that the work may be completed and prepared for publication under its direction; Provided: That it shall meet the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 49

The plan met with the approval of the two secretaries, and on July 9, 1879, Spencer F. Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian, placed Powell in charge of the work.50 All the accumulated ethnographic and linguistic 45 L e t t e r from J o h n Wesley Powell to Spencer F. Baird, July 13, 1875, Smithsonian Institution, Office of the Secretary, Archives, Letters Received 1875.

46 A bibliography of publications in this series is contained in Neil H . J u d d , The Bureau of-American Ethnology, A Partial History ( N o r m a n , 1 9 6 7 ) .

47 J. W. Powell, Report on the Method of Surveying the Public Domain to the Secretary of the Interior, at the Request of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, 1878).

48 Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 243â&#x20AC;&#x201D;93.

49 U . S . , United States Statutes, X X , 397.

80 L e t t e r from Spencer F. Baird to J o h n Wesley Powell, July 9, 1879, a n d Powell to Baird, July 9, 1879, Smithsonian Institution, Office of Anthropology Archives, Bureau of Ethnology Correspondence 1879 (hereafter referred to as BAE C o r r e s p o n d e n c e ) .

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data were transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Smithsonian/' 1 Thus, through this rather ambiguous clause attached to the general appropriations bill, Powell created the Bureau of Ethnology.

It is clear that from the outset, Powell had more in mind than "completing and preparing for publication" work already in progress. As he declared: "It is the business of the Bureau of Ethnology to organize anthropological research in America." 52 Toward this purpose, and despite an immediate assignment to the Public Land Commission 53 and a further assignment to direct the enumeration of Indians for the 1880 Census,54 Powell took certain steps to insure a firm base and a broader research focus for his Bureau. One of his first acts was to send James Stevenson, Frank Hamilton Cushing, and John K. Hillers 55 to "southwestern New Mexico and contiguous territory" to begin archeological reconnaissance of the "Pueblo ruins and caves of that district of the country" and to make collections of ethnographic and archeological specimens for the National Museum. 56 With a new party in the field to insure an immediate continuity to research, Powell turned his attentions to broader questions. These concerns, toward which he applied his varied organizational skills, became the Bureau's research program. They included: 1) background studies, including extensive bibliographic work, and such studies as were necessary to continue the basic linguistic and ethnological classifications of the Indian tribes; 2) new field studies, full-time and systematic, of as many Indian tribes as possible; 3) developing and circulating new questionnaires, to extend the limited resources of the Bureau by encouraging as many interested collaborators as possible; and 4) publication of all these results in the series of massive Annual Reports and Bulletins.

Powell and his staff recognized immediately the need for certain background studies. Among these were bibliographic compilations of all previous works on American Indians, especially those of linguistic value, 51

Carl Schurz to J. W. Powell, July 10, 1879, ibid.

U.S., Congress, House, J o h n Wesley Powell, Ethnology of the North American Indians, 4 6 t h Cong., 2d Sess., 1879-80, House Misc. Doc. 35.

53 Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 239-41 ; G. Converse to J. W. Powell, July 15, 1879, BAE Correspondence for 1879.

54 J. W. Powell to J. C Pilling, O c t o b e r 22, 1879, BAE Correspondence for 1879.

58 Stevenson had worked as a geologist for the H a y d e n Survey. W h e n the Bureau was formed he came to work for Powell as the ethnologist and remained in that capacity until his death in 1888. Cushing was a young ethnological assistant in the National M u s e u m . H e became fascinated with the Zuni Indians during this trip and remained with them for several years, studying the tribe a n d ultimately becoming an adopted member. Powell h a d met Hillers in Salt Lake City prior to the second river trip. Hillers became a photographer in 1872 and was photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey until 1900.

M Powell to James Stevenson, August 4, 1879, BAE Correspondence for 1879.

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Southern Paiute Indians meeting with the Powell-Ingalls Special Commission near St. George, Utah, September 1873. J. W. Powell is at the left of the picture. Photograph taken by J. K. Hillers and gift of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection.

to provide data for a linguistic classification. A second effort was to develop a Synonymy, a compilation anw systemization of the thousands of tribal names in the literature on the American Indians for a period of nearly four hundred years. With a standardized tribal nomenclature, growing out of the Synonymy, and an accurate linguistic classification

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based on genetic affinities, the study of other aspects of Indian life and culture could proceed apace. As Stegner has so neatly remarked: "Before starting to write the science of American ethnology, create its alphabet." 57 In addition to all this, Powell saw a need for bringing together the immense, but scattered, data on Indian land cessions to the United States.

Although logically these three tasks might have been initiated in sequence, characteristically, Powell began them all at once. James Constantine Pilling had already begun compiling his extensive and precise bibliographies while clerk of the Rocky Mountain Survey. For over twenty years, until his death in 1895, in addition to his duties as chief clerk of the Bureau and later the Geological Survey, Pilling labored over his bibliographies. 58 He collected in the process one of the best libraries on American Indians in the world, now a part of the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology library.

Pilling, and at various times all of the regular staff of the Bureau, worked on the Synonymy of tribal names which ultimately consisted of over one million file cards. The Synonymy, begun in 1876, was not finished until after Powell's death. It was finally brought to culmination between 1907 and 1910 in a somewhat altered format, under the editorship of Frederick Webb Hodge, and appeared as the massive two-volume Handbook of American Indian Tribes North of Mexico.

The linguistic classification of the North American tribes, one of the most important and pressing concerns of Powell and his staff, finally was completed in 1891. It listed some fifty-four language families, together with their primary source materials and relationships, and was the first to so organize the whole of native North America. Although somewhat conservative in relating languages, many aspects of it remain valid today. 59 Like the Synonymy, the linguistic classification was the work of all the regular Bureau staff members, guided by Powell and especially Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, who should have been a co-author. 60 The publication of the classification culminated a task laid out in Jefferson's time, more than one hundred years before.

57

Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 263.

Pilling's bibliographies were exhaustive; for a complete listing see Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin No. 49 (Washington, D . C , 1910).

59 Harry Hoijer, Introduction to "Linguistic Structures of Native America," Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology (1946, No. 6), 10, 19; A. L. Kroeber, An Outline of the History of American Indian Linguistics (New York, 1939), 116-17.

60 A. L. Kroeber, "The Determination of Linguistic Relationships," Anthropos, VIII (No. 3), 390.

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The compilation of data on Indian land cessions was began by Charles C. Royce in 1880, and finally was completed and guided through the press by Cyrus Thomas in 1899.61 Powell's second major concern was to encourage the support of the individual field research of his full-time staff members and other collaborators. He had initiated this program by sending Stevenson, Cushing, and Hillers to the Southwest in 1879. These men and others of Powell's staff over the years became, in effect, the first full-time professional anthropologists. The first members of the Bureau staff were all individuals who had started in other professional fields, but, as Bureau employees, became professional anthropologists. Others included James Owen Dorsey, an Episcopal minister and missionary to the Ponka Indians who became an expert on Siouan languages and sociology; Jeremiah Curtin, a polyglot world traveler who studied Old World linguistics and mythology both before and after his work on American Indians for the Bureau; and Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, originally an ornithologist, who worked for the Bureau for fifteen years and later became chief of the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture. Other notables were James Mooney, A. C. Gatschet, Matilda Coxe Stevenson (a Bureau staff member after the death of her husband James Stevenson), W. J. Hoffman, Garrick Mallery, W. H. Holmes, F. W. Hodge, and many more. Others, such as Franz Boas, were given field expenses or occasional honoraria by the Bureau to support their activities. Washington Matthews and John G. Bourke, author of On the Border with Crook, as army officers were detailed to Washington and semi-officially attached to the Bureau.

Powell also encouraged many other people already working among the Indians, such as missionaries, Indian agents, army personnel, and others to use their interests for scholarly purposes by completing vocabulary and other circulars that he and his staff disseminated widely. The data returned were incorporated into the various studies published by the Bureau.

Powell's primary anthropological interests were in linguistics and ethnology. But through circumstance, his Bureau was forced to conduct an extensive program of archeological research in the Mississippi Valley, and, in addition, to expend up to $5,000 per year of his appropriation on collections of artifacts for the National Museum. The latter expense was imposed on Powell by Spencer F. Baird, who saw an excellent opportunity 61 Charles C Royce, comp., "Indian Land Cessions in the United States," Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1896â&#x20AC;&#x201D;97 (Washington, D . C , 1899), 521-964.

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to increase the collections of the Museum. 62 This fund was ultimately responsible for large segments of the extensive collections of Indian materials from the Plains, California, and the Southwest now in the Museum.

The archeological program in the Mississippi Valley grew out of other pressures. The thousands of burial, platform and effigy, mounds found throughout the Mississippi drainage system and in other areas of the eastern United States, had been a source of speculation for many years.

The mounds figured prominently in many of the discussions of the origins of the American Indians, alluded to previously. Prevalent views were that the mounds were built by one or another people who preceded the historic Indian tribes and who had come from Europe, the Pacific, or some other region.63 The mounds had been pilfered for many years. One of the earliest scholarly excavations (and a model of scientific procedure and observation) was made by Thomas Jefferson in the 1780's.64 One of the first major publications of the Smithsonian Institution dealt with the mounds. 65 But by 1880 a factor other than scholarly interest was at work. European universities and museums were busily engaged in excavating mounds and other archeological sites in the United States and carrying the specimens back to Europe. The Smithsonian Institution report for 1879 stated that, "many tons of the choicest objects had already been removed to Paris from California and the Southwest." 66 This was a source of alarm to Americans and a chauvinistic cry was raised to save American antiquities for America. Besides, it was argued by the more cynical, congressmen who controlled appropriations were more likely to be impressed by museum specimens than by lists of words.

One result was that the Civil Sundry Act for 1882 appropriated $25,000 for the Bureau of Ethnology for fiscal 1881, "$5,000 of which shall be expended in continuing archeological investigations relating to mound-builders and prehistoric mounds . . . ," 67 The work on mounds was initially placed in the hands of Dr. Will De Hass and the botanist "Dr." Edward Palmer, 68 but later it was 62

Spencer F. Baird to Powell, November 10, 1879, BAE Correspondence for 1879.

Robert Silverberg, Moundbuilders of Ancient America, The Archeology of a Myth (New York, 1968).

64 Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 63ff.

05 E. G. Squier and E. H . Davis, "Ancient M o n u m e n t s of the Mississippi Valley," Smithsonian Institution, Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. 1 ( 1 8 4 8 ) .

66 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1879 (Washington, D . C , 1 8 8 0 ) , 38.

67 U.S., United States Statutes, X X I , 443.

68 Palmer, a self-styled physician, h a d earlier m a d e botanical a n d archeological collecting trips into U t a h in the 1870's. See Rogers M c V a u g h , Edward Palmer: Plant Explorer of the American West (Norman, 1 9 5 6 ) , 66â&#x20AC;&#x201D;72.

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assigned to Cyrus Thomas, an entomologist with interests in archeology and Maya epigraphy. He remained in charge throughout, the work culminating in his "Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1890â&#x20AC;&#x201D;91."69 Although much of the archeology completed

by Thomas and his assistants does not measure up to modern standards, the work did serve to lay to rest the myth that the mounds had been built by groups other than the ancestors of the historic Indians.

A fourth contribution to anthropology by the Bureau, and part of Powell's initial program, was to provide a publication outlet for data on American Indians. The Annual Reports, the Bulletins, and the Contributions to North American Ethnology contain most of the monographic studies on Indians for the nineteenth century. 70 Under Powell's guidance the Bureau continued to grow and sponsor new research throughout the 1880's and into the 1890's. In 1894 Powell resigned as director of the Geological Survey, a post he had filled after Clarence King's resignation in 1881. After 1894, although in failing health, Powell devoted himself increasingly to rather murky philosophical discussions and attempts to arrive at a five-fold classification of all human knowledge. 71 He probably will not be remembered for these.

Powell's place in the history of anthropology, and of science in general, rests in the main on his organizational abilities. He encouraged great loyalty and respect in his staff and spurred its members to meticulous, exhaustive investigations. His own field research was sporadic, although it is clear that his studies of the Indians of the West were of great importance to his professional career. His works of synthesis, e.g. the linguistic classification, were joint efforts, with his staff doing most of the work. His philosophical discussions are abstruse and cranky. But he used the full power of his positions as head of two government agencies and his positions in the interlocking social networks of scholarly societies to encourage, foster, and develop anthropological and geological research and in the initiation of conservation and reclamation practices, In anthropology he is clearly a transitional figure. In some of his work, he brought to culmination projects that had been underway for 69 Cyrus T h o m a s , " R e p o r t on the M o u n d Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1 8 9 0 - 9 1 , " Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1890-91 (Washington, D . C , 1894), 3 - 7 3 0 .

70 J u d d , Bureau of Ethnology, contains a complete list of Bureau publications from its inception to its demise in 1964 when it was merged with the Division of Ethnology of the National M u s e u m to form the Office of Anthropology of the Smithsonian.

71 For example J o h n Wesley Powell, Truth and Error, or the Science of Intellection (Chicago, 1898) ; a n d "Classification of the Sciences," American Anthropologist, I I I (1901, N o . 5 ) , 601-5.

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nearly one hundred years, e.g. the linguistic classification. In his adherence to cultural evolutionism he was a product of his time, and his theories, like those of Morgan, Ward, and Herbert Spencer, fell quickly before the rigorous, inductive demands of twentieth century anthropology.

But at the same time it was Powell's organization that helped to make twentieth century American anthropology possible. By the time of his death in 1902, professional anthropology was well established in the leading universities of the country as well as in the Bureau itself. It had passed from the avocation of interested men to a professional discipline.

The role played by Powell and his Bureau in this transition was a vital and critical one. In a very real sense, Powell had achieved his aim of "organizing anthropological research in America."

"If danger, difficulty, and disaster mean romance, then assuredly the Colorado of the West is entitled to first rank, for seldom has any human being touched its borderland even, without some bitter or fatal experience. Never is the Colorado twice alike, and each new experience is different from the last. Once acknowledge this and the dangers, however, and approach it in a humble and reverent spirit, albeit firmly, and death need seldom be the penalty of a voyage on its restless waters." (Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, The Romance of the Colorado River. . . [New York, 1904], vii.)

The Lost Journal

of John Colton Sumner

BY O. DOCK MARSTON

M .AY 24, 1869, TEN MEN embarked at Green River, Wyoming, projecting a cruise through the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers.

William H. Ashley, Denis Julien, William L. Manly, and H. M. Hook had boated sections of the Green River to total the course from the point of the 1869 embarkation to the confluence with the Colorado. Julien must be credited with thirty miles of the fast water of the Colorado Mr. Marston, an authority on the river-running of the Colorado and its tributaries, has spent years not only running the river but researching the history of river navigation.

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immediately below the mouth of the Green. Except for the careful reporting by Ashley, information helpful to later navigators was fragmentary. The 1869 crew was led by Professor John Wesley Powell who requested his head boatman, John Colton Sumner, to write a journal.

This document has had a confused history. A copy of that part applying to the cruise below the Uinta River is printed in Volume X V of the Utah Historical Quarterly. The editing is by William Culp Darrah who explained "When the three men deserted the party on August 28, 1869, they took with them one set of notes. The journals of Major Powell and Jack Sumner had been kept in duplicate, in case of loss or disaster, so that at least one record might be preserved for future use. In the haste and excitement of the hour the notes were not equally divided â&#x20AC;&#x201D; rather both sets of the notes taken prior to July 2 were carried out by the elder Howland, and when the men were killed the notes were irretrievably lost." Fortunately the Sumner journal had been communicated to the world prior to the Howland tragedy.

On June 28, 1869, the party arrived at the mouth of the Uinta River and Professor Powell, William Rhodes Hawkins, and Frank Valentine Goodman walked to the Uintah Indian Agency on July 2. Goodman had lost his outfit, including his outer clothing, in the wreck of the No Name and was unable to replace it so remained at the agency. July 5 the party reassembled at the river and embarked the next day. Letters were sent to the agency, carried by some Indians, including one from Powell.

Mouth of Uinta River, July 6, 1869.

Editors Missouri Democrat: I send manuscript journal of one of the trappers connected with the Colorado River Exploring Expedition. I think you will find them somewhat lively, and may be able to use them. Of course they will need "fixing" a little, may be toning somewhat. Jack Sumner, the writer, has seen much wild life and read extensively. He has prepared the manuscript at my request. Should you conclude to publish he will send more.

Yours, &c, J.W. POWELL In charge Colorado Ex Ex.

Prefaced by Powell's letter, the journal was published in the August 24 and 25, 1869, issues of the Missouri Democrat under the caption " F R O M COL. POWELL. Interesting memoranda. Daily Record of the Expedition. Latest Dates Published. Journal of Jack Summers [sic], a Free Trapper in the Expedition, up to June 28th Inclusive." The fol-

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lowing is the portion of the Sumner journal published in the Missouri Democrat.

A DAILY J O U R N A L OF T H E C O L O R A D O E X P L O R I N G E X P E D I T I O N (Jack Sumner's Diary of the First Powell Expedition from Green River, Wyoming, to the Uinta Basin) May 24, 1869. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; After many weeks of weary waiting, today sees us all ready for the adventures of an unknown country. Heretofore all attempts in exploring the Colorado of the West, throughout its entire course, have been miserable failures. Whether our attempt will turn out the same time alone can show. If we fail it will not be for the want of a complete outfit of material and men used to hardships. After much blowing off of gas and the fumes of bad whiskey, we were all ready by two o'clock and pulled out into the swift stream. The Emma Dean, a light four-oared shell, lightly loaded, carrying as crew Professor J.W. Powell, W.H. Dunn, and a trapper, 1 designed as a scouting party, taking the lead. The "Maid of the Canon" followed close in her wake, manned by Walter H. Powell and George Y. Bradley, carrying two thousand pounds of freight. Next on the way was "Kitty Clyde's Sister," manned by as jolly a brace of boys as ever swung a whip over a lazy ox, W.H. Rhodes, of Missouri, and Andrew Hall, of Fort Laramie, carrying the same amount of freight. The last to leave the miserable adobe village was the "No Name" (piratic craft) manned by O.G. Howland, Seneca Howland, and Frank Goodman. We make a pretty show as we float down the swift, glossy river. As Kitty's crew have been using the whip more of late years than the oars, she ran on a sand-bar in the middle of the river, got off of that, and ran ashore on the east side, near the mouth of Bitter creek, but finally got off and came down to the rest of the fleet in gallant style, her crew swearing she would not "gee" or "haw" a "cuss." We moved down about seven miles and camped for the night on the eastern shore where there is a large quantity of cord wood. As it was a cold, raw night, we stole a lot of it to cook with. Proff., Walter, and Bradley spent a couple of hours geologising on the east side. Howland and Dunn went hunting down the river; returned at dark with a small sized rabbit. Rather slim rations for ten hungry men. The balance of the party stopped in camp, and exchanged tough stories at a fearful rate. We turned in early, as most of the men had been up for several preceding nights, taking leave of their many friends, "a la Muscovite." The natural consequence were fog[g]y ideas and snarly hair.

How strange it is that adopting foreign ways will so change us in many respects.

If there is any meanness in a man, get him drunk and you soon see the Devil's claws, if not the whole of the traditional "Auld Cootie." If he is a goodhearted man when sober, he will be willing to sell his only shirt to help his friend. When I see how drink shows the true colors so plainly, I sometimes wish the whole world could be drunk for a short time, that the scoundrels might be all killed off through their own meanness.

May 25th. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Pulled out early, and dropped down to an old cabin, where I stole two bread-pans for the cook's use. Moved about eight miles and camped in the willows, 1 The title of trapper was of high standing from 1824 to 1840 when the mountain men were stripping the fur-bearing animals from the Upper Colorado River Basin, and Sumner was accepting this status in the third person.

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as it was raining hard; stopped two hours; made some coffee, and cooked some villainous bacon to warm us up a little. Then pulled out again, as it showed some signs of clearing off. Went another five or six mile stretch when we saw five mountain sheep on a cliff; stopped to give chase, but they proved to be too nimble for us. Rhodes, however, found a lamb asleep on the cliff caught it by the heels and threw it off toward camp. The Professor and Bradley climbed a black looking cliff on the west side to see how it was made. All into camp by 3 o'clock, when we had our young sheep for dinner. Packed up the cooking utensils and pulled out again, and moved down through a rather monotonous country for six or eight miles further. Saw several wild geese and four beavers, but failed to get any. While rounding to on the west side, all the boats except Kitty's Sister got fast on a sand bar — the Maid so fast she had to be pried off with oars. 2 Camped on the west side, in the willow brush.

While we were gathering drift-wood for camp fires, two mountain sheep ran out of the willows and up the side of the bluff. Two of the boys followed, but failed to get either of them. Rained all day and most of the night.

May 26th. — All afloat early; went about three miles, when we came to our first rapid.

It cannot be navigated by any boat with safety, in the main channel, but the river being pretty high, it made a narrow channel, under the overhanging willows on the west shore, so that we were not delayed more than twenty minutes, all the boats but Kitty's Sister getting through easily. She getting on a rock, compelled Rhodes to get overboard and pry her off. About 4 o'clock, came to a meadow of about a thousand acres, lying between Green River and Henry's Fork. Camped for the night on the east shore, about a mile above the mouth of Henry's Fork. Passed the mouth of Black's Fork of the Green River today; it is but little wider at the mouth than at Fort Bridger, but deep. Henry's Fork is a stream about thirty feet wide, and is fed by the snows of the Uinta Mountains, about seventy-five miles northwest of this camp; it has some good pasturage on it, but no farming land, as it is at too great an altitude.

At the mouth is a good place for one or two ranches. There are about three hundred acres of good land, but is inundated nearly every spring by freshets. There is a large stack of hay standing in the meadow, that has been left over from last year's crop.

May 27th. — Raised a cache that we made two months since, and found everything safe; moved down to the head of a canyon and camped on the east side, under a grove of cottonwood trees. Proff., Walter, and Bradley went geologising. Tramped around most of the day in the mud and rain to get a few fossils. Distance from Green River City to mouth of Henry's Fork sixty miles,3 general course, 30 degrees E. of S; estimated land distance forty miles. Country worthless. Grease wood and alkali on the river bottom; on the hills sparse bunch grass, Artemissia, and a few stunted cedars. At intervals of four or five miles on the river there are a few scrubby cottonwoods, but none large enough for anything but fuel. Rained most of the day.

May 28th. — Still in camp. Proff. and the "Trapper" repaired a broken barometer.

Walter and Bradley went geologizing on the west side. Bradley did not get into camp 2

The frequent groundings, the extensive linings, and the laborious portages attest to the poorly designed hulls and the inexperience of the crew.

3 The distances traveled were estimated, and Sumner's guess of sixty miles was close to the sixty-eight miles shown by the 1922 survey.

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until night, having lost his way, and had a long, weary tramp through the mud and rain.

May 29th. —• Proff climbed the hill on the east side of the canyon and measured it with a barometer; h[e]ight above the river 1140 feet, not perpendicular. There is a cliff on the west side that is fifty feet higher, and perpendicular. The rock is hard, fieryred sandstone. It has been named Flaming Gorge.

May 30. — Professor, Bradley, Senica, and Hall went up the river five miles, measuring a geological section. All in camp by three o'clock, when we loaded up and pulled on again into a channel as crooked as a street in Boston. Passed out of Flaming Gorge into Horseshoe Canon, out of Horseshoe Canon into Kingfisher Canon. While rounding a bend, we came on a herd of mountain sheep, that scampered up a steep, rocky side of the canon at an astonishing rate. The crews of the freight boats opened a volley on them that made the wilderness ring, reminding us all of other scenes and times, when we were the scampering party. Passed the mouth of a small stream coming in from the west, which we named King Fisher Creek, as there was a bird of that species perched on the branch of a dead willow, watching the finny tribe with the determination of purpose that we often see exhibited by politicians while watching for the spoils of office.4 Killed two geese, and saw a great number of beavers today, but failed to get any of them. No sooner would we get within gun-shot, than down they would go with a plumping noise like dropping a heavy stone into the water.

Made seven miles today, and camped for the night on the west bank opposite a huge grayish white sandstone that loomed up a thousand feet from the water's edge, very much the shape of an old-fashioned straw beehive, and we named it "Beehive Point."

Saw the tracks of elk, deer and sheep on the sand. Near our camp, Goodman saw one elk, but missed it.

May 31st. — This morning Professor, Bradley, and Dunn went up the river two miles to examine some rocks and look for a lost blank book. Howland and Goodman climbed a high mountain on the west side to get a good view of the country at large, and so draw a good map. All ready by ten o'clock when we pull out and are off like the wind; ran about two miles through a rapid and into still water for half an hour, then to a bad rapid through which no boat can run; full of sunken rocks, and having a fall of about ten feet in two hundred yards. We were compelled to let our boats down along the west side with ropes from men holding the line, two men with oars keeping them off the rocks; made the passage in about two hours, and ran a large number of them in ten miles travel.

About 5 o'clock, we came to the worst place we had seen yet; a narrow gorge full of sunken rock, for 300 yards, through which the water run with a speed that threatened to smash everything to pieces that would get into it. All the boats were landed as quick as possible on the east side of the river, when we got out to examine the best point to get through, found ourselves on the wrong side of the river, and how to cross was the next question. We all plainly saw that it would be no child's play. Dunn and the trapper finally decided to take the small boat across or smash her to pieces; made the passage safe, unloaded and returned to relieve the freight 4

The stream later acquired the name Sheep Creek. Beehive Point is opposite.

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boats, they taking out half their loads by making two trips with the freight boats and five with the small; we got everything safely across where we wanted it by sunset.

Had supper; turned in, and in two minutes all were in dreamland.

June 1 st. — After an early breakfast, all hands went to work letting the boats down with ropes, made the passage in three hours, when we jumped aboard again, and off we go like a shot; ran through about a dozen rapids in the course of ten miles, when we came to some signs of the country opening out. The walls were getting lower, and not so rough, and the current gradually slackens till it almost ceases. As the roaring of the rapids dies away above us, a new cause of alarm breaks in upon us from below. We ran along on the still water, with^a vague feeling of trouble ahead, for about two miles, when, turning an abrupt corner, we came in sight of the first fall, about three hundred yards below us. Signaled the freight boats to' land, when the Emma was run down within a rod of the fall, and landed on the east side. Her crew then got out to reconnoitre; found a fall of about ten feet in twenty-five. There is a nearly square rock in the middle of the stream about twenty-five by thirty feet, the top fifteen above the water. There are many smaller ones all the way across, placed in such a manner that the fall is broken into steps, two on the east side, three on the west.

We all saw that a portage would have to be made here. Without any loss of time the Emma Dean was unloaded and pushed into the stream, four men holding the line, the remainder of the party stationed on the rocks, each with oar, to keep her from being driven on some sharp corners and smashed to pieces. Got her under the fall in fifteen minutes, when we returned, unloaded Kitty's Sister, had supper and went to sleep on the sand. There is not much of a canyon at the falls. Three hundred yards from the east side there is a cliff about 450 feet high, from whence the rocks have fallen to make the dam.

June 2d. — All out early to breakfast; dispatched it, and let Kitty's Sister over the falls as we did the small boat. Then came the real hard work, carrying the freight a hundred yards or more over a mass of loose rocks, tumbled together like the ruins of some old fortress. Not a very good road to pack seven thousand pounds of freight.

Got the loads of the two boats over, loaded them, and moved down three hundred yards to still water; tied up and returned to the other boats,/to serve them the same; got everything around in still water by 11 o'clock; had dinner and smoked all round; distance from Bee-hive Point unknown; course east of south; continuous canyon of red sand-stone; estimated height of one thousand feet; three highest perpendicular walls estimated at two thousand two hundred feet; named Red Canyon; on a rock the east side there is the name and date—"Ashley, 1825" — scratched on evidently by some trapper's knife; all aboard, and off we go down the river; beautiful river, that increases its speed as we leave the fall, till it gets a perfect rapid all the way, but clear of sunken rocks; so we run through the waves at express speed; made seventeen miles through Red Stone canyon in less than an hour running time, the boats bounding through the waves like a school of porpoise. The Emma being very light is tossed about in a way that threatens to shake her to pieces, and is nearly as hard to> ride as a Mexican pony. We plunge along singing, yelling, like drunken sailors, all feeling that such rides do not come every day. It was like sparking a black-eyed girl — just dangerous enough to be exciting. About three o'clock we came suddenly out to a beau-

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tiful valley about two by five miles in extent. Camped about the middle of it, on the west side, under two large pine trees; spread our bedding out to dry, while we rested in the shade. Two of the party came in at sunset, empty handed except the Professor, he being fortunate enough to get a brace of grouse. Spread our blankets on the clean, green grass, with no roof but the old pines above us, through which we could see the sentinel stars shining from the deep blue pure sky, like happy spirits looking out through the blue eyes of a pure hearted woman.

As we are guided on this voyage by the star in the blue; so may it be on the next, by the spirit in the blue.

June 3d. — Laid over to-day to dry out, and take observations. Several of the party hunting, but killed nothing. In the evening, some of the boys got out the fishing tackle and soon had the bank covered with queer mongrel of mackerel, sucker and whitefish; the other an afflicted cross of white fish and lake trout. Take a piece of raw pork and paper of pins, and make a sandwich, and you have the mongrels. Take out the pork and you have a fair sample of the edible qualities of the other kinds.

From this camp to Bee-Hive Point is called by the Professor, Red Canyon, not very appropriately, as there are two distinct and separate canyons. This park is the best land we have seen, so far; good land; season long enough to> raise rye, barley and potatoes, and all kinds of vegetables that would mature in four months. Irrigation not necessary, but if it should be, there is a beautiful clear trout stream running through the middle of it that can be thrown on almost any part of it at comparatively little cost.5 Counting agriculture out, there is money for whoever goes in there and settles and raises stock. It is known by the frontiersmen as "Little Brown's Hole."

Altitude is 6,000 feet. Game in abundance in the mountains south of the park; good trail to Green River City, and there could be a good wagon road made without a great outlay of money. All turn in early, as we want an early start in the morning.

June 4th. — All afloat early, feeling ready for anything after our rest. Had another splendid ride, of six or eight miles and came to the mouth of Red Fork, a most disgusting looking stream, coming in from the east, off of the "Bitter Creek Desert." It is about ten feet wide, red as blood, smells horrible and tastes worse. Passed on through five miles more of canyon and came to "Brown's Hole," a large valley, about twenty miles long and five wide — splendid grass on it.6 Passed on about the middle of the valley and camped at the mouth of a small trout stream, coming in from the east, named on Fremont's map, "Tom Big Creek." Had dinner and moved down about two miles, and camped on the west side of Green river, under a great cottonwood tree that would furnish shade and shelter for a camp of two hundred men.

Hall killed several ducks in a lake near camp, and in the evening Bradley, Howland and Hall caught a large number of fish.

June 5th. — This morning we were all awakened by the wild birds singing in the old tree above our heads. The sweet songs of birds, the fragrant odor of wild roses, the 5

T h e c a m p was in Little Hole which is cut by Little Davenport Creek.

Brown's Hole, whose inhabitants prefer the n a m e Brown's Park, is named for its first resident, Baptiste Brown, who arrived there in 1827. O t h e r sources give his arrival in 1835, and he m a d e his headquarters there until 1843. LeRoy Hafen believes he is probably the same person known as J e a n Baptiste Charli f ou. B. Chalifou is inscribed with the date 1835 in the Willow Creek drainage below Ouray.

6

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low, sweet rippling of the ever murmuring river at sunrise in the wilderness, made everything as lovely as a poet's dream. I was just wandering into paradise; could see the dim shadow of the dark-eyed houris, when I was startled by the cry, "Roll out; bulls in the corral; chain up the g a p s " — o u r usual call to breakfast. T h e hour is vanished, and I rolled out to fried fish and hot coffee. The Professor and Dunn climbed the hill south of camp, two miles from the river — h[e]ight, 2200 feet; Howland spent the day dressing up his maps; Bradley, Seneca and Hall crossed to eastside and measured off a geological section. The remainder of the party spent the day as best suited them. Measured the old tree; circumference, 5 feet from the ground, 2 3 / 2 feet.

June 6. — Took our time in getting off, as we had but a short journey before us for the day; but it proved a pretty hard one before we got done with it. No sooner had we started than a strong head-wind sprung up directly in our faces. Rowed about twenty-five miles against it — no easy task, as the river is a hundred and fifty yards wide, with hardly any current. Saw thousands of ducks of various kinds; killed a few, and one goose. Camped at the head of a canyon, at the southern end of the valley, on the east side of the river under a grove of box elder trees. The Professor and Hall caught another mess of fish.

June 7th. — Still in camp. Professor and Dunn measured the wall of the canyon on the east side; Bradley geologising; Howland and Goodman sketching; Rhodes brushing up Kitty's Sister, swearing all the time that she can stand more thumps than Kitty ever could. Professor and Dunn came in at noon and reported the wall 2086 feet.

All the party in camp the rest of the day; wind and rain in the evening. Distance from the mouth of Henry's Fork 90 miles; general course of the river 25 degrees south Brown's Hole looking toward the opening of Lodore Canyon. Diamond Mountain is to the right and Douglas Mountain to the left. Utah State Historical Society photograph, Charles Kelly Collection.

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of east. 7 The valley called Brown's Hole is a pretty good piece of land; would make a splendid place to raise stock; it has been used for several years as a winter herding ground for the cattle trains. Last winter there were about 4000 head of oxen pastured in it without an ounce of hay. I saw them in March and am willing to swear that half of them were in good enough order for beef.

June 8th. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;˘ Pulled out early and entered into as hard a day's work as I ever wish to see. Went about a half a mile when we came to a terrible rapid, and had to let our boats down with ropes. Passed about a dozen bad rapids in the forenoon. Camped for dinner on the east side at the foot of a perpendicular rose-colored wall, about fifteen hundred feet; pulled out again at one o'clock; had proceeded about half a mile when the scouting boat came to a place where we could see nothing but spray and foam. She was pulled ashore on the east side and the freight boats instantly signaled to land with us. T h e Maid and Kitty's Sister did so but the No Name being too far out in the current and having shipped a quantity of water in the rapid above, could not be landed, though her crew did their best in trying to pull ashore at the head of the rapid, she struck a rock and swung into the waves sideways and instantly swamped.

Her crew held to her while she drifted down with the speed of the wind; went perhaps 200 yards, when she struck another rock that stove her bow in; swung around again and drifted toward a small island in the middle of the river; here was a chance for her crew, though a very slim one. Goodman made a spring and disappeared ; Howland followed next, and made the best leap I ever saw made by a twolegged animal, and landed in water where he could touch the rocks on the bottom; a few vigorous strokes carried him safe to the island. Seneca was the last rat to leave the sinking ship, and made the leap for life barely in time; had he stayed aboard another second we would have lost as good and true a man as can be found in any place. O u r attention was now turned to Goodman, whose head we could see bobbing up and down in a way that might have provoked a hearty laugh had he been in a safe place. Howland got a pole that happened to be handy, reached one end to him and hauled him on the isle. Had they drifted thirty feet further down nothing could have saved them, as the river was turned into a perfect hell of waters that nothing could enter and live. T h e boat drifted into it and was instantly smashed to pieces. In half a second there was nothing but a dense foam, with a cloud of spray above it, to mark the spot. T h e small boat was then unloaded and let down with ropes opposite the wrecked men on the island. T h e trapper crossed over and brought them safely to shore to the east side. She was then let down about a half a mile further, where we could see part of the stern cuddy of the wrecked boat on a rocky shoal in the middle of the river. Two of the boys proposed to take the small boat over and see how much of the lost notes could be recovered. T h e Professor looked ruefully across the foaming river, but forbade the attempt. All hands returned to the head of the rapids, feeling glad enough that there were no lives lost, a little sore at the loss of the boat and cargo of 2,000 pounds of provisions and ammunition, all the personal outfit of the crew, three rifles, one revolver, all the maps and most of the notes and many of the instru7 Sumner's guess of ninety miles from the mouth of Henrys Fork to the Gate of Lodore was sixteen miles too much.

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ments, that cannot be replaced in time to carry on the work this year, and do it right, ate supper of bread and bacon, and went to sleep under the scrubby cedars.

June 9th. — All up by sunrise and at work unloading the boats, ready for letting down with ropes. Got the boats and remaining cooking utensils over and opposite the wreck on the shore. Had dinner, when Hall bantered one of the men to go over to the wreck and see what there was left. Away they went and got to it safely, after a few thumps on the rocks, and fished out three barometers, two thermometers, some spare barometer tubes, a pair of old boots, some sole leather, and a ten gallon cask of whisky that had never been tapped. Not a sign of anything else. How to get back was the next question, it being impossible to go back over the route they came. A narrow, rocky race offered a chance to get through the island into the main channel.

After an hour's floundering in the water among the rocks, they got through to the main channel, and dashing through some pretty rough passes, they reached the shore, where the rest of the party stood ready to catch the lines, their arms extended, like children reaching for their mother's apron strings. The Professor was so much pleased about the recovery of the barometers, that he looked as happy as a young girl with her first beau; tried to say something to raise a laugh, but couldn't. After taking a good drink of whisky all around, we concluded to spend the rest of the day as best suited. Some packed freight for future use; the rest slept under the shade of the scrubby cedars. 8 June 10th. — Out early again, and at work carrying the rest of our freight over the land. Had all done by noon; eat dinner, loaded up, and let down another two hundred yards with ropes, when we got aboard and rowed about half a mile. Crossed over to west side and let down another rapid through a narrow race. Emma and the Maid passed through safe but poor Kitty's Sister got a hole stove in her side. Camped for the night on the west side, on the sand.

June 11th. — Rapids and portages all day. By hard work we made three miles.

Passed the mouth of a small trout stream coming in from the west. Hall shot an osprey on her nest in the top of a dead pine, near the mouth of the creek. Camped for the night on the west side, under an overhanging cliff.

June 12th. — More rapids that are impossible to run. Excessively hard work. Made three miles. Camped on the east side of the river in a grove of elder trees, at the head of a long rapid. Will have to make another half mile cartage.

June 13th. — Rested today, as we all need it very much. Three of the boys went hunting, but there is nothing in this part of the country but a few mountain sheep, and they stay where a squirrel could hardly climb. We are looking for better traveling pretty soon, as we have got to the point where the white sandstone caps the hard red, 2000 feet above our heads.

8 In addition to the soaking in the river, there is m u c h wallowing in fiction in this description of the No Name wreck but n o word pictures equal in exaggeration the M o r a n drawing appearing as Figure 10 in J. W. Powell's Exploration of the Colorado River of the West . . .

(Washington, D . C , 1875). T h e incompetent planning, improper equipment design, and the lack of necessary skills had produced the inevitable adventure.

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June 14th. — Still in camp; repaired a broken barometer and started our plunder over the Portage; Professor and Howland have been busy for two days restoring the lost maps.

June 15th. — Made the Portage and ran a bad rapid at the lower end of the Portage and through half a mile of smooth water, when we came to another impassable rapid; unloaded boats and camped on the east side, under some scrubby cedars. Rain at dark. Made a trail and turned in for the night.

June 16th. — Pulled out early and went to work with a will. While letting the Maid down with ropes she got crossways with the waves and broke loose from the five men holding the line, and was off like a frightened horse. In drifting down she struck a rock that knocked her stern part to pieces. Rhodes and the trapper jumped in the small boat and gave chase; caught her half a mile below. Got everything over by sunset and camped on the east side on a sand bar. Pulled out at seven o'clock, and ran a bad rapid the first half mile. The freight boats went through in good style, but the Emma, in running too near the east shore, got into a bad place and had a close collision, filling half full, but finally got out, all safe, baled out, and ran two miles through smooth water, when we came to another bad rapid and had to let down with ropes; tied up while we repaired the Maid; passed the rapid and on through two miles of smooth water, when we came to another rapid that has a fall of about twelve feet in a hundred anf fifty, but clear of rock; the Emma ran through without shipping a drop, followed close by the Maid, she making the passage without shipping much, but poor Kitty's Sister ran on a rock near the east side and loosened her head block and came down to the other boats leaking badly. She was run ashore when Rhodes caulked her with some oakum that would serve to keep her afloat for a while; when we pulled out again, run half a mile with the Emma and got into a complete nest Lily Park at the head of Yam pa River Canyon. Utah State Historical Society photograph, Charles Kelly Collection.

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of whirlpools, and got out of them by extreme hard work; decided that it was unsafe for the freight boats to attempt it; so we were compelled to let them down with ropes on the east side through a narrow channel. Jumped aboard again and pulled down two miles further through smooth water, and camped for the night on the east side at the head of a rapid. While we were cooking supper a whirlwind came up the canyon, and in an instant the fire was running everywhere; threw what happened to be out on board again as quickly as possible, and pulled out and ran the rapid and on down two miles further and camped again on the east side, and commenced anew our preparations for supper; had supper, and laughed for an hour over the ludicrous scene at the fire. Went to bed and were lulled to sleep by the rain pattering on the tent.

June 18th. — Repaired Kitty's Sister and pulled out again, and had a splendid ride of six miles, and came to the mouth of Bear River, 9 a stream one hundred and twenty yards wide and ten feet deep; camped on a point of land between the two rivers, under some box elder trees. All hands went to work fishing, and soon had a good number of them. Bradley was much provoked by one large one that carried off three of his best hooks, but finally got him with a strong line got up for his especial benefit. He proved to be about thirty inches long and fifteen pounds weight. Opposite the mouth of Bear River there is the prettiest wall I have ever seen. It is about three miles long and five hundred feet high, composed of white sandstone, perpendicular and smooth, as if built by man. It has been christened Echo Rock, as it sends back the slightest and most varying sounds that we can produce. 10 June 19th. — Still in camp. Professor, Bradley and Hall climbed the northern end of Echo Wall. The remainder of the men in camp, fishing, washing, etc.

June 20th. — All hands in today, taking a general rest. Wrote our names on Echo rocks opposite the camp. The entire distance from the southern end of the valley called Brown's Hole to the mouth of the Bear river is a canyon, except at two creeks on the west side, where there is a gorge cut through by the water of each. It has been named Ladore canyon by the Professor, but the idea of diving into musty trash to find names for new discoveries on a new continent is un-American, to say the least.

Distance through it, 25 miles; general course, 25 degrees west of south; average h[e]ight on both sides about 1700 feet; highest cliff measured (Black Tail Cliff) 2307 feet.

There are many still higher but having enough other work on our hands to keep us busy, we did not attempt to measure them. 11 June 21 st. — Off at seven o'clock and row down for one mile and a half along the base of Echo Wall, a nearly south course; passed the point of it, turned and ran due north for about five miles; back into the hard, red sandstone again, through a narrow, dangerous canyon full of whirlpools, through which it is very hard to keep a boat from being driven on the rock; if a boat should be wrecked in it her crew would have a rather slim chance to get out, as the walls are perpendicular on both sides and from 50 to 500 feet high. Made a portage at the lower end of it; had dinner and pulled out again, and went five miles further, making one short portage on the way; camped 9

The Bear River is now the Yampa.

Echo Rock is also known as The Blade and Steamboat Rock.

11 The Canyon of Lodore was measured as eighteen and one-half miles by the 1922 survey.

10

Steamboat Rock in Echo Park, Dinosaur National Monument, at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. The photograph is a gift of the National Park Service. for the night on the west side, at the mouth of a clear, beautiful trout stream. Mr. Howland dropped his maps and pencils, rigged a line, and soon had a score of large trout, the first we have been able to catch so far. Made fifteen miles to-day; continuous canyon, named "White Pool Canyon"; trout stream named Brush Creek. 12 June 22nd. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; After a good breakfast of fried trout, we pulled out and made a splendid run of six miles through a continuous rapid and stopped to have a hunt, as we saw many tracks of deer and sheep on the sand. All ready by one o'clock, when the Emma started down a long rapid, which has a fall of about thirty feet per mile. Went along in splendid style till she got to the lower end, where there is a place about a hundred yards long that had a dozen waves in it fully ten feet high. As she could not be pulled out of there her crew kept her straight on her course and let her ride it out.

Went through them safe, but shipped nearly full, and pulled ashore looking like drowned rats. Decided it unsafe for the freight boats to try it, so we were compelled to make a short portage and let down with ropes. Jumped aboard again and pulled out into more rapids, every one of which would thoroughly drench us and leave an 12

Obviously the journal read Whirlpool Canyon. Brush Creek is now Jones Hole Creek.

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extra barrel or two in the boats; but we kept bailing out without any unnecessary stoppages. Dancing over the waves that had never before been disturbed by any keel, the walls getting gradually lower, till about four o'clock, when we came suddenly out into a splendid park; the river widened out into a stream as large as the Missouri, with a number of islands in it covered with cottonwood trees. Camped on the first one we came to, and rolled out on the grass in the shade to rest. Distance from mouth of Bear river 26 miles.13 General course 20 degrees south of west from Brown's Hole to this point. The whole country is utterly worthless to anybody for any purpose whatever, unless it should be the artist in search of wildly grand scenery, or the geologist, as there is a great open book for him all the way.

June 23d. — Unloaded the boats and spread our plunder out to dry. Rhodes, Dunn, Harding [?], Goodman, and Howland sketching; the others, in common, repairing boats and washing. Hunter came in about noon with a fine buck that Rhodes had killed, when we loaded up and moved down about five miles, and camped on the east side, at the lower end of a splendid island covered with a heavy growth of cottonwood. Our camp is within half a mile of the last one above, the river making an almost complete circle.

June 24th. — The Professor and Howland climbed the mountain on the east side, with barometer and drawing materials; spent the greater part of the day sketching the park, which they have named "Island Park"; rain in the evening.

June 25th. — Pulled out at seven and moved down four miles, to the head of another canyon — cragged canyon — and into more rapids; made two portages and camped on the west side, at the head of another impassable rapid to loaded boats; one of the men sick.14 June 26th. — Made the portage and went a short distance when we came to another one, and had to make it in the rain; while the men were at work the Professor climbed up the side-hills looking for fossils; spent two hours to find one, and came back to find a peck that the men had picked up on the bank of the river; all ready by three o'clock, when we pulled out again; ran four miles at a rapid rate through the canyon, when all at once the Great Uinta Valley spread out before us as far as the eye could reach. It was a welcome sight to us after two weeks of the hardest kind of work, in a canyon where we could not see half a mile, very often, in any direction except straight up. All hands pulled with a will, except the Professor and Mr. Howland. The Professor~heing a one-armed man, he was set to watching the geese, while Howland was perched on a sack of flour in the middle of one of the large boats, mapping the river as we rowed along. Our sentinel soon signaled a flock of geese ahead, when we gave chase, and soon had ten of them in the boats. Summed up the log, found we had run 23 miles since leaving the canyon, and camped for the night on the east side, under three large cottonwoods. Rested, eat supper, and turned in to be serenaded by the wolves, which kept up their howling until we dropped asleep, and I don't know how much longer, as I heard them next morning at daybreak.

13 14

Bear River to Island Park is eleven miles.

Sumner was the sick man.

The Gates of Lodore in Lodore Canyon, Dinosaur National The photograph is a gift of the National Park Service.

Monument.

June 27th. — Off again at seven, down a river that cannot be surpassed for wild beauty of scenery, sweeping in great curves through magnificent groves of cottonwood.

It has an average width of two hundred yards and depth enough to float a New Orleans packet. Our easy stroke of eight miles an hour conveys us just fast enough to enjoy the scenery, as the view changes with kaleidescopic rapidity. Made sixty three miles today, and camped on the west side, at the mouth of a small, dirty creek. Killed eight wild geese on the way.

June 28th. — Same character of country as yesterday. Saw four antelope, but failed to get any. Forty-eight miles brought us to the mouth of Uinta river, which place we reached about three o'clock, and camped on the west side of Green river, under a large cottonwood, at the crossing of the Denver City and Salt Lake wagon road, as it was located in 1865. There is not much of a road now, if any, as it has never been traveled since unless by wolves, antelope, and perhaps a straggling Indian at long intervals. Distance from the head of the valley by river, one hundred and thirty miles; by land about fifty miles.15 General course of the river 10° west of south. This 15 T h e river miles from the foot of Craggy Canyon, now known as Split M o u n t a i n , to the m o u t h of the U i n t a are 71 Vi.

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part of the country has been written up so often by abler pens, that I hesitate in adding anything more. As an agricultural valley it does not amount to much, as it is too dry on the uplands, and there are but few meadows on the river bottom, and they as a general rule are small â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from fifty to two hundred acres in extent: The only exception that I know of is one opposite our present camp, lying between Green and White rivers. It is about two thousand five hundred acres in size, and overflows, though very seldom. At present it is clothed with a thick growth of grass, waist high.

On the uplands there is the common bunch grass of the west â&#x20AC;&#x201D; short but very rich.

No part of the country that we have seen can be irrigated, except the river bottoms, as the uplands are rolling and cut up by ditches in almost every direction. But for a stock country it would be hard to excel, as almost all kinds would do well on the bunch grass throughout the entire year. There is plenty of timber for building purposes and fuel, and enough farming land to produce all that a large settlement would require for home consumption. But there is one thing in the way. According to the treaty of 1868 between Gov. Hunt, of Colorado, and the Ute Indians, most, if not the whole of this valley belongs to the reservation, selected by the Indians themselves.

Whether they will be permitted to keep it or not remains to be seen. Most likely they will, as one band of them have a permanently settled thing of it, and have a winter agency twenty-five miles from this point on Uinta river. What the country is below I know not. As far as the eye can reach there is a rolling prairie with a dark line through it that marks the course of the Green river. It is reasonable to suppose it to be the same character of country as that we have passed through in our last two days' travel. So far we have accomplished what we set out for. We were told by the frontiersmen while at Green River that we could not get to the mouth of White river.

One man that filled the important office of policeman in Pgitmont had the assurance to tell me that no boat could get as far down as Brown's Hole. We expect to remain here for a week to meet Col. Mead, and send off some specimens and all the notes and maps, to make sure of that much. Total distance run 356 miles; estimated distance to junction and Grand rivers 300 miles by river. 16 L I S T OF ANIMALS L I V I N G IN T H E C O U N T R Y T H R O U G H W H I C H WE HAVE PASSED Grizzly bear, cinamon bear, black bear, elk, mule deer, mountain sheep or bighorn, prong-horned antelope, gray wolf, prairie wolf, cougar, red fox, marten, mink, lynx, wild cat, prairie dog, beaver, otter, muskrat, badger, ground hog, mountain rat, gray prairie squirrel, large striped ground squirrel, small do. do., small shrews and mice.

L I S T O F BIRDS SEEN O N T H E WAY Wild geese, ducks of almost every kind, loon, stork, bittern, cormorant, rails, woodcock, snipes of many kinds, curlew, osphey, pelican, sand hill crane, bald eagle, golden eagle, colored raven, common crow, Clark's crow, sage grouse, black grouse, short-tailed grouse, magpie, long-crested jay, Canada jay, light blue jay, red-shafted flicker, small blackbirds, red-winged starling, Southern mocking bird, robin, brown thrush, cross16 They had traveled 258 ^ miles and had 245 miles more cruising to the mouth of the Green River.

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beak, wren, sparrows, sparrow-hawk, sharped-shinned hawk, roose hawk, pigeon hawk, mourning dove, meadow lark, woodpeckers of all kinds, and buzzards.

I write this at the request of Professor Powell, he urging me from the beginning to do so, while I, knowing there were many able pens in the party, as persistently declined, till I could no longer do so with any show of reason. I have written this with many misgivings, being more used to the rifle, lariat and trap, than the pen.

Receiving no hints from any one, I have been compelled to write as I could. Were I to study grammar a little and sacrifice truth to flights of fancy, I might make a more interesting report, but I shall let it stand as it is. If it meets the approval of the public, well and good; if it does not, I will leave the report of the rest of the trip to other and abler hands, and return to my rifle and trap.

JACK SUMNER Free Trapper

". . . Major Powell was a man of prompt decision with a cool, comprehensive, far reaching mind. H e was genial, kind, never despondent, always resolute, resourceful, masterful, determined to overcome every obstacle. To him alone belongs the credit for solving the problem of the great canyons, and to Professor Thompson that for conducting most successfully the geographic work under difficulties that can hardly be appreciated in these days when survey work is an accepted item of government expenditure and Congress treats it with an open hand . . . . Professor Thompson possessed invaluable qualities for this expedition: rare balance of mind, great cheerfulness, and a sunny way of looking on difficulties and obstacles as if they were mere problems in chess. His foresight and resourcefulness were phenomenal and no threatening situation found him without some good remedy." (Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Voyage . . . [New Haven, 1926], xxv-xxvi.)

John Wesley Powell, the Irrigation Survey, and the Inauguration

of the Second Phase of Irrigation Development in Utah

BY T H O M A S G. ALEXANDER

J L / U R I N G T H E SUMMER

of 1888, the people of Utah experienced what many observers thought was the worst water shortage up to that time.

Pioneer irrigation flume at Capitol Reef National Monument, Utah.

State Historical Society photograph, Charles Kelly Collection.

Unfortunately, the summer of 1889 brought even more difficulty and greater adversity. By early May the small snowfall and lack of rain forecast the driest season within memory. By mid-September the people of the territory had suffered greatly. Crops of hay and lucern had fallen off an average of forty per cent, grain yields were very poor, and owners of primary water rights on Cottonwood Creek had to haul water to keep trees alive. None of the Jordan River canals had sufficient water to run the whole length. 1 During the summer, the Salt Lake City Council was unable to deliver water to those who had appropriated it. The city was constructing a new reservoir at the head of First South Street, but this gave the citizens little hope for that year or for the future, if the city could not find another source of water to place in storage. Groups of people in various hard-hit districts held meetings, passed resolutions, and took their grievances to the council. 2 C. H. Wilcken, the city water master, thought Utah Lake provided the best potential source of water and that flowing wells promised some hope. The city commission appointed a committee to study the water problem, and its recommendation closely paralleled those of Wilcken.

Still, in spite of the abundance of 1890, the northeastern part of Salt Lake City had insufficient water. 3 In February 1890, after the two years of extreme water shortage, elections for the city council brought George M. Scott and a majority of members of the anti-Mormon Liberal party to power. It has been generally assumed that the election of the Liberals was wholly related to the disfranchisement of Mormon voters and voting frauds committed by Liberal party registrars. It seems probable, however, that more was involved. In February 1888, when the People's party won the last election, the total vote for mayor was 2,691. The People's party received 1,778 votes and the Liberal party, 913. In 1890 the total vote was 6,312, and the Liberals received 3,560 to the People's party's 2,752. This was an increase of 134 per cent in the total vote, which was far beyond the two year increase in Salt Lake City's population and reflects increased public interest. In addition to the Mormon issue, the problem of the Dr. Alexander, past contributor to the Utah Historical Quarterly and member of the Utah State Historical Society's Editorial Advisory Board, is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University. This paper was originally presented at the Utah State Historical Society's Sixteenth Annual Meeting, September 21, 1968.

1 Deseret Weekly (Salt Lake City), September 12, 1888, May 4 and September 14, 1889.

Hereafter cited D.W. with the date.

2 Ibid., June 29, July 15 and 20, and August 3, 1889.

3 Ibid., August 31 and September 21, 1889, February 1, March 22, and July 19, 1890.

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water supply for Salt Lake City and the inability of the People's party to meet that difficulty seem likely reasons for Liberal success.4 By early February 1892, shortly before new elections were held, the Liberal city council had succeeded in supplying water from Parley's Canyon, sufficient to meet the needs of a city population of 100,000. In February 1892, after the Mormons and conservative Gentiles had already divided into national political parties, the Liberals were again successful in securing for their candidate Mayor Robert N. Baskin a vote greater than the combined total of the two national parties. 5 It seems likely that the success of the Liberal party in securing needed water for Salt Lake City contributed to its success at the polls.

The problems which the people of Utah endured in 1888 and 1889 grew from the type of irrigation systems they had developed since the first settlers turned City Creek onto land in Salt Lake Valley in July 1847.

The Mormon irrigators seldom built reservoirs to store water, but rather constructed canals from existing streams and allowed the fluctuations of the streams to run their natural course during the year. In many cases this failure to regulate the water caused ditches and fields to be ruined during the flood stage of the rivers and forced the expenditure of extra labor and capital in an effort to meet the problem/ This happened in the settlement of St. George and Deseret, and in San Pete County it was a perennial problem even in times of drought. 6 Many people in Utah recognized, long before 1888, the need for the construction of storage reservoirs, but the lack of capital retarded their development. Between 1869 and 1872 Delegate William H. Hooper tried with no success to secure land grants for those who would help in the reclamation of arid lands. In 1877 Delegate George Q. Cannon tried unsuccessfully to secure assistance for some citizens of Anabella in the construction of irrigation works. Some towns such as Gunnison, Deseret, and Newton had built reservoirs, but they were exceptions.7 4 Ibid., February 22, 1888, February 22 and March 22, 1890. B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930), VI, 207-8.

S D.W., February 6 and 20, 1892.

6 U.S., Geological Survey, Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior, 1889-90 (2 parts, Washington, D . C , 1891), II, 66-67 and 12-11. (Hereafter these reports will be cited as USGS, Annual Report with the terminal date, part, and pages.) U.S., Congress, Senate, Report of the Special Committee of the United States Senate on the Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands, Report No. 928, Vol. II, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., 1890, p. 34. (Hereafter cited as Stewart Committee Report with the volume and pages.) D.W., August 16, 1890.

7 D.W., July 6 and 8, and August 31, 1889; George A. Smith and A. Milton Musser to Erastus Snow, November 11, 1869, "Journal History" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake City), December 31, 1869; Deseret Evening News, June 2, 1870, in "Journal History"; U.S., Congressional Globe, 40th Cong., 3d Sess., 1869, p. 687; Ibid.,

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While the people of Utah were suffering difficulties caused by an inadequate irrigation system, events were transpiring in Washington which were to lead to a change in the situation. Senators William M. Stewart of Nevada and Henry M. Teller of Colorado secured the passage in February 1888, of a resolution asking the Secretary of the Interior to report on the need for a survey to segregate irrigable lands and reservoir and canal sites in the arid region. The story of the resolution and its results have been told elsewhere, and it is enough to say that in response to the resolution, Director John Wesley Powell of the Geological Survey submitted a plan for an irrigation survey which would determine the water resources of the Far West, select sites for reservoirs, and assess the potential use of water. Congress appropriated money to undertake the work, though never as much as was needed, and the survey was carried on under the auspices of the Geological Survey.8 In addition the act of October 2, 1888, which appropriated the first money for the survey, closed all land in the arid region to entry until it should be opened by the President of the United States "to settlement under the homestead laws." This latter provision was not generally known at first; in fact, the people of Utah apparently were unaware of it until August 1890 — ten months later — when reports of settlers who had tried unsuccessfully to secure title to lands appeared in the newspaper. 9 The man who was to direct the irrigation survey was already well known to the people of Utah. John Wesley Powell had first come to Utah in 1869 during his famed exploration of the Colorado River. During the early 1870's Powell spent considerable time in Utah, especially southern Utah, and in working with the Indian tribes of the territory. 10 He published some of the results of his observations in Utah in his Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, with a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah, which was largely based upon conditions in Utah Territory and upon which subsequent work on 42d Cong., 3d Sess., 1872, p. 2 2 1 ; U.S., Congressional Record, 45th Cong., 1st Sess., 1877, p.

2 4 3 ; U.S., Congress, House, House Report 224, 4 5 t h Cong., 2d Sess., 1 8 7 7 - 7 8 ; D.W., April 19, 1890.

8 William Culp D a r r a h , Powell of the Colorado (Princeton, 1951), 2 9 9 ; Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West (Boston, 1954), 300—1; Stanley Roland Davison, " T h e Leadership of the Reclamation Movem e n t , 1 8 7 5 - 1 9 0 2 " (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, 1951), 7 9 - 8 0 ; Everett W. Sterling, " T h e Powell Irrigation Survey, 1888—1893," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, X X V I I (December, 1940), 421—22; T h o m a s G. Alexander, " T h e Federal F r o n t i e r : Interior D e p a r t m e n t Financial Policy in I d a h o , U t a h , a n d Arizona, 1 8 6 3 - 1 8 9 6 " ( P h . D . Dissertation, University of California, 1965), 3 3 0 - 3 8 ; T h o m a s G. Alexander, " T h e Powell Irrigation Survey a n d the People of the M o u n t a i n West," Journal of the West, V I I ( J a n u a r y , 1 9 6 8 ) , 48—53.

9 U.S., Statutes at Large, X X V , 5 2 7 ; D.W., August 16, 1890.

10 O n Powell's work previous to this time, see Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, a n d D a r r a h , Powell of the Colorado.

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the reclamation of arid lands had been founded. As a scientific work, Powell's study was cursory and incomplete. The research of his subordinates — Grove Karl Gilbert, Clarence E. Dutton, and Almon Harris Thompson — upon which the book was based was so hasty that the statistical generalizations given in the study are inaccurate. Powell estimated, for instance, that only 2.8 per cent of Utah Territory could be cultivated with available water supplies. He failed to note that this figure was based upon an assumption in the work of his three subordinates that only the existing water supply systems would remain. They failed to take into consideration the possible storage of water during seasons of abundance for times of shortage. By 1920, as a result, existing water storage facilities were capable of watering 3.5 per cent of Utah land, an increase of 21 per cent over Powell's estimate. Since 1920, owing to depressed agricultural conditions, the amount of irrigated land under cultivation in Utah has declined, though the amount of available water has been increased through Federal Reclamation Projects throughout the state which store water and which have made previously unusable Colorado River water available to the Great Basin.11 Powell's principal contribution in the study was, however, intellectual. This maimed genius saw that the haphazard individualism which had characterized previous settlement outside Utah would bring only failure in the arid region and pointed out that: To a great extent, the redemption of these lands will require extensive and comprehensive plans, for the execution of which aggregated capital or cooperative labor will be necessary. Here, individual farmers, being poor men, cannot undertake the task.

Powell was a careful and intelligent observer, and he had noted the cooperative methods which had brought success to the Mormon settlers of the Great Basin. He projected his thoughts beyond their efforts, however, and called for land classification to provide the most efficient utilization of irrigable forest and pasture land. 12 Powell's earlier experience and reflections made him admirably suited to direct the technical work of the irrigation survey. He divided the survey into three parts — topographic which was to determine the drainage area of various streams, locate lands which could best be utilized 11 J o h n Wesley Powell, Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, with a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah (2nd ed., Washington, D . C , 1 8 7 9 ) , 9, 115, 138, a n d 164; U.S., Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in 1920 (Washington, D . C , 1922), V I I , 3 0 3 ; U.S., Bureau of the Census, 1964 United States Census of Agriculture (Washington, D . C , 1 9 6 7 ) , I, pt. 44, pp. 7 a n d 206.

12 Powell, Lands of the Arid Region, viii a n d 6.

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for irrigated agriculture, and locate and m a p reservoir sites; hydrographic which was to determine the available water supplies principally through stream gauging; and the engineering division which was to plan irrigation works. Hydrographic activities were new in the United States and Frederick Haynes Newell (later to become director of the Reclamation Service), who had charge of the hydrographic division, found it necessary to train a crew of fourteen men on the Rio Grande about fifty miles north of Santa Fe during the winter of 1888-89. 13 In April 1889 Newell himself and T. M. Bannon came to Utah to John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) begin operations in the Mormon territory. The Interior Department opened the Salt Lake Land Office to them so they could determine which land around possible reservoir sites was unclaimed. 14 The work of fiscal year 1889 in Utah consisted of two phases, segregation of reservoir sites and stream gauging. Ten reservoir sites were selected, all of which were in the Great Basin drainage area. The sites included Utah Lake and Bear Lake, a site on Cottonwood Creek in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and seven sites on the Sevier River and its tributaries. As Newell selected the sites, the Interior Department officially closed the land to private occupation and informed the Salt Lake Land Office of the fact. Shortly thereafter, in some cases, the land office published information that the site had been closed to private occupation. 15 Newell carried on his work entirely within the Great Basin. As a matter of fact, it appears that no work was done in the Colorado River 13

USGS, Annual Report 1889, II, 33-38, 79ff.

Ibid., 88; John Noble to Powell, March 1, 1889, U.S., Interior Department, Letters Sent, Lands Miscellaneous Letter Book No. 77 (National Archives, RG 48, Washington, D . C ) .

15 USGS, Annual Report 1889, II, 63. Hereafter, in the text the term fiscal year will not be used. It is to be understood that the reference to activities of the Irrigation Survey refer to fiscal years of July 1 to June 30. The fiscal year is dated as the year in which the terminal date falls. There are a great many letters in the correspondence of the Interior Department relating to the closing of the sites. See for example Noble to Powell, April 13, 1889, USID, Lands Miscellaneous Letter Book No. 79 (NA, RG 48) on the Utah Lake site. D.W. April 27, 1889.

14

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drainage area in Utah until after Powell had completed his tenure as director of the Geological Survey. Newell and Bannon established gauging stations on the Bear River near Collinston; in Idaho at Battle Creek near the Utah-Idaho border; on the Provo, the American Fork, and the Spanish Fork rivers in Utah Valley; and on the Sevier River at Joseph City and Leamington. They also set up an evaporation station at Fort Douglas. In addition Newell worked on the collection of statistical information concerning the water supply, canals, and other irrigation problems and on the segregation of irrigable lands in the Bear River Valley.16 The work of the year 1890 was basically a continuation of the hydrographic activities begun the previous year, and through the work, Newell was able to comment on the use of the streams of the Great Basin drainage. Until 1889 there had been no attempt to utilize Bear River itself, except on a few acres near the stream, anywhere below Bear Lake.

Owing to the depth of the channel and the problems of dealing with such a large river, the irrigators had relied upon the more easily diverted tributaries. 17 Utah Lake presented a particularly difficult problem. Even with the use of storage reservoirs, Newell concluded that present projections made it appear that because of the water shortage, Goshen Valley south of the lake could not be irrigated to any great extent. The haphazardly constructed canal system of Provo was, in addition, typical of that at every large settlement where old and small ditches have been enlarged and new ones built at higher and higher grades, finally resulting in long lines of parallel canals each covering a narrow strip of country and perhaps crossing each other and conducting the water with little economy and great expense to the others. The lower canals, being in general built first, have the better rights, while the higher canals, last built, have rights only to surplus waters; but from their position up the stream, they have the best facilities for getting what they wish.18

Similar problems of unplanned use existed in the Jordan River Valley where irrigable land was in excess of water supply. Water developers had generally used two systems â&#x20AC;&#x201D; first, the Jordan itself, and second, water from streams flowing from canyons to the east. As in Utah Valley the system had been constructed with no general plan and the two systems cross and reeross and are intermingled apparently in the greatest confusion; and, as in other systems which have grown up without any 16 USGS, Annual Report 1889, II, 88; for later work on the Colorado River in Utah see U.S., Geological Survey, Surface Water Supply of the Colorado River Drainage Above Yuma, 1906 (Washington, D . C , 1908).

17 USGS, Annual Report 1890, II, 66-67. w Ibid., 72.

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comprehensive plan, the waters of the one are used on lands which could be covered to better advantage by the waters of others, and there is a very general lack of economy both in canal construction and in the use of the water.

The greatest need, Newell said, was a comprehensive general study of the water supply of the whole region, both to protect vested rights and to obtain the most economical use of the proposed storage facilities.19 In the valley of the Sevier River, the problems varied somewhat owing principally to its more recent occupation. The best water rights were held by settlers lower on the stream, but as settlers had pushed into the higher valleys, they had taken water and in many cases used this, to them, abundant resource quite profligately.

T h e matter left to itself is thus becoming a striking instance of the survival of the man highest up the stream, irrespective of his rights or of the best use of the water.

During the summer the water was completely removed from the river in three different points, but below each point the fluid returned in a sufficient quantity to allow some irrigation further down the stream. 20 The work of the years 1891 through 1894 involved the completion of segregation of reservoir sites already selected and the continuation of the hydrographic work. In 1891 and 1892 thirteen sites were mapped and segregated as reservoir sites by A. H. Thompson, who was in charge of topographical surveys. They included basically the sites which had been designated in a general way in 1889. In 1893 and 1894 the work of the survey consisted of a continuation of hydrographic studies. Powell retired in 1894 and relinquished control of the Geological Survey to Charles D. Walcott under whose direction investigations continued. 21 One important function which the irrigation survey performed was to define some of the possible and impossible in irrigation development.

It had been assumed that the salvation of the people of Salt Lake County "Ibid., 73-74.

Ibid., 75; testimony before the Stewart Committee varied with this in that Newell testified the water was taken out at four points.

21 USGS, Annual Report 1892, III, 451, and 1891, II, 340-43. The sites were Bear Lake, Silver Lake at the head of Big Cottonwood Creek, Twin Lakes at the same place, Mary's Lake at the same place, the Sevier River near Oasis in Millard County, the Sanpitch River near Gunnison, the Sevier River below Marysvale, the East Fork of the Sevier eight miles above Junction City, Otter Creek near its junction with the Sevier, the East Fork of the Sevier at the lower end of Johns Valley in Garfield County, the East Fork of the Sevier at Flake Meadow in Garfield County, Panguitch Lake, and Blue Spring near Panguitch Lake. Ibid., 1892, III, 451â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 577. U.S., Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1895, I, xx. USGS, Annual Report 1893, II, 118-25 and 1894, 196. U.S., Geological Survey, Operations at River Stations, 1897, A Report of the Division of Hydrography of the United States Geological Survey (Washington, D . C , 1898).

20

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lay in the development of Utah Lake as a reservoir. After careful investigation, however, Newell determined that the rate of evaporation from the lake was too great for economical use in its present state. The level of the lake might have been raised as many in Salt Lake County suggested, but this appeared impracticable because "around Utah Lake, are enormous tracts of land whose value depends upon keeping the level of the lake to a minimum." 22 The work of the survey did not continue without controversy over its activities. The problems have been chronicled elsewhere, but they dealt at first essentially with securing sufficient funds for the survey's work. A number of easterners, midwesterners, and southerners opposed the appropriation of sufficient funds on a number of grounds. Some believed the work to be unimportant, others opposed the use of federal funds for such projects, and many feared competition from rejuvenated western agriculture. These opponents succeeded in constricting the funds for the survey.23 With insufficient funds a controversy arose among supporters of the survey, among Powell's functionaries, and between Powell and congressional supporters like Stewart over the way in which the funds were being used. The argument centered on the comprehensiveness of Powell's plans, especially the use of funds for topographical surveys, and the closing of all lands in the arid region to occupation during the survey. The latter feature would have closed all land to legal occupation for a period of about thirty years at the current rate of appropriation. As a result on August 30, 1890, Congress repealed the provision, and thenceforth only land actually needed for reservoir sites could be closed. At the same time opponents of the survey succeeded in further crippling its work by severely reducing the amount available for surveys.24 The advent of the Powell Irrigation Survey marks the transfer of interest in the reclamation of arid lands from the local level to the national level. Though the Desert Land Act of 1877 was touted as a reclamation measure, it was really a way of giving responsibility for reclamation to individual settlers. Part of the awakened national interest is demonstrated by the activities of the Senate Special Committee on the Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands, or the Stewart Committee as it was generally called, after its chairman William M. Stewart of Nevada.

22

USGS, Annual Report 1890, III, 183, and 1891, II, 366.

Alexander, "Federal Frontier," 331â&#x20AC;&#x201D;38.

2i Ibid., 334^38 and 341-48.

23

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During 1889, while the Irrigation Survey performed its work, the committee toured the arid region and took testimony and collected information both in the West and in Washington on existing irrigation and reclamation practices. For Utah the activities associated with the Stewart Committee and the Powell Irrigation Survey produced the first comprehensive report on irrigation in the territory's history.

Close cooperation was in evidence between the committee, the survey personnel, and local officials. In May 1889 both Newell and Richard Hinton, irrigating engineer of the Geological Survey, wrote Governor Arthur L. Thomas of Utah asking him to collect, for the committee and the Geological Survey, all of the information he could on irrigation in the territory. They asked for maps showing the location of the principal canals with information about them including the date of their construction, the streams from which they flowed, the land they irrigated, and the land which might be irrigated from them if the supply of water should be increased through storage. In response to this request, territorial Secretary Elijah Sells sent a circular letter to county officials who might supply the information. After the information had been used by the committee, Governor Thomas forwarded it to Newell for use by the Irrigation Survey. Interest in the coming of the committee was so high in the summer of 1889 that the Deseret News published some of the correspondence of those connected with the gathering of information. 25 The committee arrived in Salt Lake City on August 18 and on August 19 and 20, 1889, took testimony from Utah citizens. Powell came as a guest of the committee and to his, the Deseret News said, "familiarity with the topography of the country the party will doubtless be indebted for much of their information." The party also included Senators J. R. Reagan of Texas, P. B. Plumb of Kansas, and James K. Jones of Arkansas; Hinton; Newell; Clarence E. Dutton, chief engineer of the Irrigation Survey, and A. D. Foote, civil engineer in charge of the Snake River Basin work of the survey.26 The Deseret Weekly published five and one-half pages reporting the committee's activities. The newspaper account included the report of Professor Marcus E. Jones of Utah on water conditions prepared at the ^Newell to Thomas, May 30, 1889, Utah Territory, Executive Papers, Governor's Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1889 (Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City) ; Hinton to Thomas, May 20, 1889, D.W., June 1, 1889; Sells, circular letter, July 8, 1889, Utah Territory, Secretary, Record of letters sent by the Secretary of Utah (Utah State Archives) ; Newell to Thomas, October 19, 1889, Utah Territory, Executive Papers, Governor's Correspondence concerning Irrigation, 1889 (Utah State Archives) ; W. P. Nebeker and Wesley K. Walton to Thomas, June 22, 1889, D.W., July 8, 1889. ^D.W., August 31, 1889.

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request of Governor Thomas and a synopsis of the testimony of the various witnesses. At the end of the hearings, the News reported that T h e committee paid the witnesses brought before them a compliment by saying they were not only more intelligent than those heard elsewhere, but the testimony given by them was vastly more valuable.

The paper also gave credit to Governor Thomas for making the arrangements and securing the testimony and written exhibits. 27 The main theme which emerged from the hearings, beyond the information on irrigation practices, was the need for greater efforts to deal with Utah water problems. Newell said that the

Almon Harris Thompson (1839-1906), geographer for Major John Wesley Powell's expeditions of the Colorado River and chief geographer of the USGS from 1879 to 1906.

only hope of those lower down [on the streams to secure water] is in a reservoir system high in the mountains, and [owing to a lack of capital] they cannot make these reservoirs without some help from the Territory or from the General Government.

Other testimony such as that of F. A. Hammond of San Juan County, later to be a member of the Utah Constitutional Convention; Jesse W. Fox, former surveyor general of Utah; and Joseph D. Jones, probate judge of Utah County, indicated the need of government assistance in the building of storage facilities.28 Given Governor Thomas's involvement in the collection of data for the Stewart Committee in Utah, it is not at all surprising that he became the leading light in the calling of an interstate irrigation congress in Salt Lake City in 1891. The idea for the Congress apparently originated in the State Irrigation Convention at Lincoln, Nebraska, in February 1891, at which William E. Smythe was the main figure. Later, on May 21 and Ibid.

Stewart Committee Report, II, 25, 39, 51-52, 57.

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22, 1891, at the Trans-Mississippi Congress at Denver a similar suggestion was also made. 29 On June 4, 1891, the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution calling upon Governor Thomas to organize a congress. The governor issued a call for the convention to be held at Salt Lake City on September 15, 16, and 17, to which he invited the states and territories of the arid region to send thirty delegates each. He said that the time was ripe for the Congress, that Salt Lake City was the proper place to hold it owing to the pioneering efforts of Utah citizens in irrigation, and that the principal question to be discussed was how to save water in the off season in order to increase the flow during the irrigating period. The latter problem was, of course, the main question to which the Irrigation Survey had addressed itself.

Contrary to the impression which William E. Smythe gives in his Conquest of Arid America, the principal work of organizing the convention fell to Fred Simon, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. Simon induced the railroads to allow delegates to travel to Salt Lake City at half fare and corresponded with many in other states to see that they sent representatives. The Utahns elected Governor Thomas as chairman of their delegation; Elias A. Smith, former probate judge of Salt Lake County, as secretary; C. C. Goodwin, editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, as a member of the committee on resolutions; W. S. McCornick, a prominent Utah banker and mining magnate, was selected as a vice president of the Congress; and William H. King, prominent Utah lawyer and later senator and congressman, was made a member of the committee on the presentation of the memorial to the U.S. Congress. In addition such knowledgeable western irrigation supporters as Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and Elwood Meade of Wyoming were members of the resolutions committee and A. D. Foote of the Irrigation Survey was secretary of the memorial committee. 30 The tone for the whole convention was set by Governor Thomas's opening speech in which he effectively and realistically argued the case for reclamation. He pointed out that easterners were generally quite poorly informed on the needs of the West and he saw educating the nation as one important function of the convention. He pointed to the need for reservoirs to hold the water, and said that large canals could not be 29 Martin E. Carlson, "William E. Smythe: Irrigation Crusader," Journal of the West, VII (January, 1968), 44-45. D.W., May 30 and September 19, 1891.

30 Simon to Norman B. Wiley, September 3, 1891, in D.W., September 3, 1891; ibid., September 19 and 26, 1891.

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used unless water was available, and he argued that, at present, development of agriculture had reached a point at which it could not grow very rapidly. Quite realistically, he pointed out that the total amount of land which could be brought under cultivation in Utah was only about four per cent of the land area. 31 The convention adopted a resolution calling upon Congress to grant lands which needed irrigation to the states in trust for their reclamation.

The grant was to be contingent upon the use of the money from the sale of public lands for irrigation and education. 32 A memorial committee was chosen to submit the resolution to Congress through Senator Sanders of Montana. The arguments of the memorial, given the conditions in 1891, seem quite sound. The delegates said that the question of whether Congress should construct the irrigation works had been considered. It pointed out, however, that though Congress had appropriated some money for the Powell Irrigation Survey, the funds had been insufficient to present "the hope of any substantial results within a reasonable period." The federal government seemed, at that point, unwilling to do enough in a sufficiently short time. For this reason the memorial argued, the lands should be granted to the states for use as capital for the construction of irrigation works and to support education. Large areas of the West, it was pointed out, could never be used for anything but grazing or timber land. The memorial repeated the suggestion which Powell had made thirteen years before that grazing tracts be attached to land capable of irrigation. The memorial also echoed Powell's argument for the need to protect the forest lands. 33 Indeed, the whole memorial repeated, in a well-reasoned manner, many suggestions which Powell's Report on the Lands of the Arid Region had made.

After the convention ended the Deseret News raised the issue which was to plague the irrigation movement until the eventual passage of the Newlands Act in 1902. The newspaper wondered what Utah would do if the arid lands were ceded to her. Then it editorially raised the question: W o u l d it n o t be better for the G o v e r n m e n t t o r e t a i n possession of the lands, devise m e a n s a n d provide funds for the p r o d u c t i o n of t h e w a t e r a n d then sell t h e land to settlers?

W e d o not p r e t e n d to answer these questions in t h e affirmative or to say t h a t the scheme advised by the Congress is n o t a good o n e . W e simply p u t these querries forward for the general public to p o n d e r u p o n .

31

Ibid., September 19, 1891.

Ibid., September 26, 1891.

33 U.S., Congress, Senate, Miscellaneous Document Serial 2904. See also D.W., February 13, 1892.

32

61, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., 1891-92,

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The News wondered whether Utah would have sufficient capital to reclaim the lands. 34 Opposition to the suggestions of the Congress came from the East.

The Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican of September 18, 1891, commented editorially on the Irrigation Congress's work by arguing that an increase in acreage which the plan proposed would increase available agricultural commodities and further depress prices. It opposed both the possibility of federal finance for the program and the cession of lands to the states because it said that the land belonged to all the people. The Deseret News commented that if this theory were followed to its logical conclusion, farming as a whole should be restricted by government action and it considered the arguments "puerile and senseless,"35 Irrigation leaders expected that the Congress would meet again, perhaps annually, and, in addition to the committee on the memorial, an executive committee was chosen to continue the work of the Congress.

Governor Thomas was made chairman and William E. Smythe, who had recently moved to Utah from Nebraska, was made secretary. Members of the committee were William A. Clark of Montana, Elwood Meade of Wyoming, and Francis G. Newlands of Nevada. Newlands was particularly interested in seeing that the Congress do more than simply pass resolutions and suggested that the West secure support for presidential candidates in both political parties who would support the needs of the West. He believed the silver question and the issue of irrigation were paramount. 36 In addition to occurring at the time of the beginnings of interstate action on reclamation, the Irrigation Survey also coincided with the inauguration of large capitalistic irrigation enterprises in Utah. Heretofore, development had been on a community scale, but in 1889 the Bear Lake and River Water Works and Irrigation Company or the Bothwell Irrigation Company, as it was generally called, began to develop the waters of the Bear River for the diversion of water into 200,000 acres of land stretching into Box Elder County west of Corinne and running as far south as Ogden. The project was named after John R. Bothwell, a New York financier who was the chief promoter and president of the company. The board of directors consisted of a number of prominent "D.W., September 26, 1891.

Ibid., October 3, 1891.

36 Ibid., September 26 and October 10, 1891. Newlands to Thomas, September 20, 1891, in ibid., October 10, 1891.

35

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Utah figures, including territorial Delegate John T. Caine; Louis B. Adams of the Utah National Bank of Ogden; Francis E. Roache, a land owner in Weber and Box Elder counties; James C. Armstrong, president of the Commercial National Bank of Ogden; Charles C. Richards, prominent Utah politician and president of the Utah Trust and Loan Company of Ogden; and James H. Bacon, president of the Salt Lake Bank of Salt Lake City, who also served as treasurer of the company. 37 When Bothwell began to file water appropriation claims on the Bear River, Bear Lake, and their tributaries, his action caused such consternation in Idaho that both Governor George L. Shoup and the members of the Idaho Constitutional Convention telegraphed John Noble, the Secretary of the Interior, calling upon the federal government to do something about the scheme. Noble assured Governor Shoup that action would be taken to prevent monopolization of the land and he ordered Powell to investigate the matter through the Irrigation Survey.38 In spite of the benefit which was to come to Utah through the irrigation scheme, both the Deseret News and the people of the Bear River Valley were concerned about the possible effect of such a large operation.

The News praised the exclusion provision of the act of October 2, 1888, with the comment that that statute is intended to protect the people from the designs of land and water sharks, who have created as much class trouble in the country as any other 31

Ibid., October 5, 1889; USGS, Annual Report 1892, I I I , 195.

Shoup to Secretary of the Interior, July 28, 1889, Record of Letters sent by Governor Shoup (Idaho State Historical Society, Boise) ; Noble to Shoup, August 3, 1889, USID, Letters Sent, Lands Miscellaneous Letter Book No. 79 (NA, RG 48) ; Noble to Powell, August 5, 1889, in ibid.; Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 317â&#x20AC;&#x201D;18.

38

Irrigation procedures in Utah. The left photograph is illustrative of early methods employed and the right photograph depicts a modern approach.

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section of the population, having contributed largely, by the grasping and exclusive character of their schemes, to the manufacture of anarchists.

T h e people are willing to trust to the laws and the government combined, in the distribution of the natural resources of the country, but they cannot safely confide in greedy monopolists who have but one end in view — their own enrichment.

Newell and the engineers of the Irrigation Survey found the citizens of Cache and Box Elder counties apprehensive because they feared that a large combine such as Bothwell's would be able to take their water from them. 39 Still, not all citizens of Utah and Idaho took the view represented by the Deseret News, northern Utah citizens, and the members of the Idaho State Constitutional Convention. Ovando J. Hollister, secretary of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, in testimony before the Stewart Committee, praised the operation and said that he believed that Bothwell's enterprise had been thwarted by the land reservation feature of the act of October 2, 1888. He said that he was sorry because of the advantages which would come to Utah from the activities of the financier. 40 The controversy over the Bothwell water scheme was, in large part, a battle between an older Utah which had been built upon cooperation and a newer Utah which was to emerge in the twentieth century built upon a capitalistic base. As Elias A. Smith testified to the Stewart Committee, both land and wrater holdings among Utah citizens had been limited to relatively small amounts. The average size farm in Salt Lake County was fifteen acres. Clarence Dutton pointed out in his contribu' D.W., September 21, 1889; USGS, Annual Report 1890, II, 66-70, and 1891, II, 333.

Stewart Committee Report, II, 45.

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tion to Powell's Report that the L.D.S. church had handled the water development and settled disputes.

Whatever the church deems best for the general welfare of its dependencies none have yet been found to resist. This communal arrangement has been attended with great success so far as the development of the water resources are concerned, and the system of management has ordinarily been so conducted that the general welfare has been immensely benefited; . . .

Under these conditions it was possible even for a primary appropriator, in times of distress, to have his water supply curtailed for the general welfare. Now with such schemes as the Bothwell Company, the people of Utah faced the prospect of extended litigation with a powerful combination which was interested in its own, not the general welfare; and the majority seems to have disliked the prospect. 41 In summary it must be concluded that the period from 1888 to 1894 was a time of consequence for the people of Utah, and the issues raised then were to affect Utah's development to the present time. The Irrigation Survey inaugurated the long-standing activities of the federal government in the field of reclamation which have been so important to Utah. The Survey was symptomatic of the transferral of irrigation questions from the local to the national level where they were, thenceforth, to remain. The issue of federal versus state control of reclamation was raised and it was not settled until after the turn of the twentieth century. At the same time the question of reclamation took its place with silver as one of the most important issues for the people of the Mountain West.

In addition to this the events of those six years brought to the fore the problem of the community versus the individual. Should problems such as reclamation be settled in such a way as to promote the general welfare or should primary consideration be given to the welfare of individual promoters such as Bothwell. The Powell Irrigation Survey was the initial phase of a shift in irrigation development which would eventually answer this question for the people of the United States in the way in which the majority of Utah citizens had already answered it.

Following the Irrigation Survey the people of the United States considered this question until it was answered in part through the Newlands Act of 1902 and the Water Power Act of 1920. Thereafter, the federal government would play the primary role in water development for the arid region which the L.D.S. church had previously played for the Mormon settlers of Utah â&#x20AC;&#x201D; protector of the general welfare. For the citizens of Utah, however, it was a change of leadership and the inauguration of the second phase of irrigation development.

41

Ibid., 13; D.W., August 31, 1889; Powell, Lands of the Arid Region, 128-29.

Francis Bishop's 1871 River Maps EDITED BY W . L. R U S H O

M

A P - M A K I N G W A S CONSIDERED

important to Powell on both river expeditions, although the means employed in map preparation necessarily fell short of the optimum in engineering precision.

On the 1869 expedition Major Powell possessed practically a one hundred per cent monopoly on scientific or technical capability. Of the other men, who were apparently chosen for their ruggedness and ability to survive in the wilderness, probably not one had ever before read a barometer-altimeter or had prepared a highly detailed map. But since Powell could not do everything, he instructed O. G. Howland, a newspaperman from Denver, in the rudiments of map-making. As is well Mr. Rusho is public information officer in the Salt Lake City office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Francis Marion Bishop (1843-1933)

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known, O. G. Howland was one of the three men who failed to survive the journey. He was killed by Indians when the three struck out overland from the canyon toward the Mormon settlements. Powell, in his diary, stated that the records of the expedition were kept in duplicate and that one set was sent out with the ill-fated Howland brothers and Bill Dunn.

When Captain Francis M. Bishop took over as map-maker for the 1871 expedition, he obviously had with him the surviving copy of Howland's 1869 map. This fact is apparent from Bishop's frequent diary references to the campsites of the first trip â&#x20AC;&#x201D; campsites that he could have pinpointed only by reference to Howland's map. Just what Bishop or Powell did with Howland's map after the 1871-72 trip was over will probably never be known, since the map has not been located and there are no written references to its disposition.

Even the official copy of Bishop's map has been either lost or thrown away. 1 Possibly the map had little usefulness to either the Smithsonian Institution or to Powell, since Professor Almon H. Thompson and his men soon made maps of the Colorado Plateau that were far superior to Bishop's. Fortunately, Bishop may have had some inkling of the insecure nature of government files, for when he was at Kanab he wrote in his diary entry for Monday, April 8, 1872: "Am through with my map; have only to trace out a copy for myself and then I shall pack it off for Washington." 2 When his son, Dr. W. DeLance Bishop, donated Bishop's private papers, journals, and miscellany to the Utah State Historical Society in 1951, among the items were six map sheets covering parts of the Green and Colorado rivers. Since Bishop sent his official maps to Washington, these six sheets at the Society are undoubtedly his personal copies.

Of the ten participants in Powell's 1871 river expedition, three specialized in topographic mapping. They were Almon H. Thompson, Stephen V. Jones, and Francis M. Bishop. A fourth, Frederick Dellenbaugh, began the voyage as an artist, but later was considered an aide to the topographers. Undoubtedly, Thompson was in charge of the mapmaking phase, not only because he was second-in-command of the whole expedition, but also because he was a competent scientific leader.

Stephen V. Jones is variously described as topographer and as assistant topographer. Throughout his diary, Jones wrote about preparing 1 At the editor's request searches for Bishop's "official" m a p s were m a d e at the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, a n d a t offices of the U.S. Geological Survey. N o m a p s from the Powell river trips were located.

2 Charles Kelly, ed., " C a p t a i n Francis M a r i o n Bishop's J o u r n a l , August 15, 1870â&#x20AC;&#x201D;June 3, 1872," The Exploration of the Colorado River in 1869, Utah Historical Quarterly, X V ( 1 9 4 7 ) , 229.

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209

maps of the river, but his graphic products seem to have been lost, or possibly thrown away, some time after the voyage. 3 Thompson himself probably did not prepare any maps while on the voyage, but rather confined his efforts to directing the work of Jones and Bishop. In the years immediately after the trip, however, when Thompson prepared detailed topographic maps of the entire area, he probably referred to the river topography as set down by Jones and Bishop.

Dellenbaugh described the method of taking the topography.

It was the duty of Prof. [Thompson] and Jones to make a traverse (or meander) of the river as we descended. They were to sight ahead at each bend with prismatic compasses and make estimates of the length of each sight, height of walls, width of stream, etc., and Cap [Bishop] was to put the results on paper. 4

As a result of this teamwork, Bishop's was probably the main map, whereas Jones's m a p may have served as a backup.

Although Bishop's maps are the first reasonably accurate maps ever drawn of the Green and Colorado rivers, and although they are now available to peruse, two drawbacks limit their usefulness. First, only six sheets are extant, whereas a complete set would probably include ten or eleven sheets. W h i r l p o o l , Split M o u n t a i n , Desolation, Gray, and Labyrinth canyons, and the upper part of Glen Canyon are missing.

(Grand Canyon is not shown because Bishop left the group at Lee's Ferry.)

T h e second drawback is the small and cramped writing on the map.

Because of this small writing, only sample sections of the maps have been printed full size to show the appearance of the m a p and to suggest the type of information contained thereon.

One must not conclude that because the maps are sketchy and somewhat inaccurate, Bishop and Thompson lacked skill. A thorough triangulation mapping survey is a painstakingly slow operation and was out of the question for either of the Powell expeditions. What Bishop came up with as features on his m a p â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a snake-like double line indicating the river, a few tributaries, plus some indication of prominent formations and major rapids â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is about all that could be expected. T h a t Bishop also entered campsites and noon stops, with dates, can be considered a bonus to historians.

3 Herbert E. Gregory, ed., "Journal of Stephen Vandiver Jones, April 21, 1871-December 14 1872," The Exploration of the Colorado Rii'er and the High Plateaus of Utah in 1871-72, U.H.Q., X V I - X V I I (1948-1949).

4 Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Voyage: The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition . . . (New Haven, 1961).

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F. S. Dellenbaugh of the Colorado: Some Letters Pertaining to the Powell Voyages and the History of the Colorado River EDITED BY C. GREGORY C R A M P T O N

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always thought of his voyages down the Colorado and of his subsequent explorations of the adjacent country as investigations made not in the name of adventure but in the spirit of science.

As a consequence his publications are mainly scientific in character â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he did not write for large audiences. It was almost with reluctance that he produced a few popular works, the most important of which was his Canyons of the Colorado (largely a gathering of earlier pieces) published in 1895 and reissued by the Dover Press in 1961 under the title The Exploration of the Colorado River audits Canyons.

And thus it was with most of those who came under Powell's direction. Unhappily one may look in vain for autobiographical and popular O H N W E S L E Y POWELL

Dr. Crampton is professor of history at the University of Utah and director of the Duke American Indian Oral History Project. He is something of a specialist himself in Colorado River history having supervised the historical salvage program for the National Park Service in Glen Canyon, 1957-63, and is the author of Standing Up Country: The Canyon Lands of Utah and Arizona (New York, 1964). A grant from the University of Utah Research Fund facilitated research in connection with this article. Assistance from Charles Kelly, Salt Lake City, is gratefully acknowledged.

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh as he appeared in 1872 while with the Second Powell Expedition, and in his later years (1929) while on a trip through Zion Canyon. The photograph on the left is from the New York Public Library, and the other was a gift of the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

accounts written by Dutton, Gilbert, Thompson, Holmes, or Moran.

Alone of all those who rode the Colorado with Powell and who later worked for him in the field is F. S. Dellenbaugh who turned to popular and historical writing.

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh (1853-1935) was born in McConnelsville, Ohio, and died of pneumonia in New York City. In a statement written (and preserved in the New York Public Library) when he was eighty-one, Dellenbaugh found a certain continuity in the major events of his life. He learned as a youth how to handle a rowboat in the rapid waters of the Niagara River; he devoured Lieutenant Ives' Report Upon the Colorado River of the West Explored in 1857 and 1858 (Washington, D . C , 1861) and when the opportunity came at age seventeen to join John Wesley Powell in an exploration of the Colorado River he fell back on his boating experience and his knowledge to make the most of the chance.

"Fred" was the youngest member along on Powell's second voyage of exploration of the canyons of the Colorado River carried out in 1871â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 72, and he stayed on in 1873 with the Powell Survey of country adjacent to the Grand Canyon region. These experiences were among the most

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important in his life, and they are of the most interest to those who have studied Powell and his explorations in the West.

Thereafter Dellenbaugh traveled in the West, took up the formal study of art in Europe, and spent much of his life in painting, lecturing, writing, and further travel. Much of this later activity consisted in the development of his experiences with Powell and this is most notable in his writings. With his book The Romance of the Colorado River (New York, 1902), he staked out a field as historian of the river. The book, a review of the centuries of history from the coming of the Spaniards to the Stanton Railroad Survey, has not been replaced. In it the author gave a large space to the second Powell voyage which Powell in his own account of the explorations had, oddly enough, not mentioned. Other titles, The North Americans of Yesterday (New York, 1900) and Breaking the Wilderness (New York, 1905), reflected Dellenbaugh's strong interest in the Indians and the general exploration of the American West.

In 1908 Dellenbaugh published A Canyon Voyage (later reissued

by Yale and more recently in paperback) which surely established his reputation as historian of the river. The book is an elaboration of his diary of the 1871-73 explorations with Powell. It was the first full and detailed and human account of the second voyage. Now that virtually all of the diaries and contemporary documents of value pertaining to the expedition of 1871-73 have been published (largely by the Utah State Historical Society in its Quarterly in 1947-1949), A Canyon Voyage remains as one of the best.

Dellenbaugh's continuing interest and writing about the West, the Colorado River, and Powell (whom he stoutly defended against all critics) elevated him to a position of authority on these subjects, and he was sought out by two generations of historians and other interested persons for information. Up to his death in 1902, John Wesley Powell remained somewhat reluctant to supply detailed information to those who wanted to navigate the canyons but Dellenbaugh complied with requests.

His A Canyon Voyage has served more than one party (the Kolbs for example) as its guide to canyons of the Colorado. Like Dellenbaugh, after completing his fantastic railroad survey in 1889-90, Robert B. Stanton turned to an interest in Colorado River history and he, too, came to Dellenbaugh for much help. Only a portion of his work edited by Dwight L. Smith, Down the Colorado (which is a summary of the railroad survey) , has been published (Norman, Oklahoma, 1965). Along with many others Dellenbaugh was brought in 1929 to testify in the "River Bed

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Case" (U.S. vs. Utah, a suit before the Supreme Court to determine the navigability of the Colorado River within the State of Utah as a means of determining title to the bed of the river). His testimony was long and detailed and constitutes an important mass of information about the second Powell voyage.

The "River Bed Case" did much to awaken historical interest in the Colorado and a new generation represented nicely by Russell G. Frazier, Raymond T. Stites, and Charles Kelley came to Dellenbaugh for information about the river. Dr. Russell Frazier's interest in river navigation began when he had a boat on a river near his home in West Virginia.

After locating in Utah he planned a boat trip down the Colorado River, which he accomplished in a three-year period beginning in 1933. In preparation for this expedition, he contacted Julius F. Stone, who had navigated the Colorado River in 1909. When Frederick Dellenbaugh came to Utah to testify at the Colorado River trial in 1921, Frazier entertained him and they kept up a correspondence on river matters from that time on. On one of his expeditions Frazier carried a copy of the Utah Historical Quarterly containing an article on "The Mysterious 'D. Julien,' ' by Charles Kelly, hoping to find some of the inscriptions described. A boat was wrecked on this trip and the copy of the Quarterly remained under water until rescued the next year at low water.

Raymond T. Stites was a book collector with a particular interest in any published material on the Colorado River. He collected all of Mr. Dellenbaugh's writings and corresponded with him on river matters until Dellenbaugh's death. He never made a river voyage but was acquainted with most of the river runners who were still living. His collection of river material was very comprehensive and was sold to an eastern book dealer after his death.

Charles Kelly became interested in western history soon after arriving in Utah in 1919. After finding an inscription of Denis Julien, dated 1831, in Uinta Valley he did research on the French-Canadian trapper and wrote his findings in the Utah Historical Quarterly. He also collected much material on the river for his library. When Dr. Julian Steward, of the University of Utah, invited him to go along on an archeological expedition through Glen Canyon he accepted and became much interested in river navigation. Later Dr. Frazier invited him to accompany his various expeditions on western rivers. When Frazier conducted Julius F. Stone on another trip through Glen Canyon in 1938, Kelly was an invited guest. In the meantime he had questioned the accuracy of the U.S. Geo-

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Russell G. Frazier

logical Survey maps on Glen Canyon in regard to the location of the Crossing of the Fathers, and wrote Dellenbaugh to find out the authority for the location at Cane Creek. This started a considerable correspondence with Dellenbaugh on a variety of historical subjects.

The letters that follow have been chosen from many in the files of the Utah State Historical Society written by F. S. Dellenbaugh to these individuals. It is a "one-way" conversation; the Society has only a few of the letters which prompted the replies. In these letters Dellenbaugh straightforwardly supplies the historian with much information. He touches on the Powell voyages and the subsequent Powell Survey; the killing of the Howlands and Dunn by the Shivwits Indians; river navigation; the naming of Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert; the Dominguez-Escalante expedition; Brigham Young and the Mormons; Mountain Meadows Massacre; Jacob Hamblin and John D. Lee; and Robert B. Stanton.

Although he lived most of his life in New York, F. S. Dellenbaugh retained to the end a lively interest in the Colorado River and the West.

In addition to the titles already noted, Dellenbaugh wrote two more important books: Fremont and '49 (New York, 1914) and George Armstrong Custer (New York, 1917).

He left behind a wealth of personal papers which reflect his life interests, much of which indeed pertains to the continuity of experience

F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters

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he wrote about in his eighty-first year. His papers are largely located in three places: The Utah State Historical Society; New York Public Library; and the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society, Tucson.

Aug. 29th 1926 Dear Mr.

Stites:

The volume "Facts and Figures Pertaining to Utah" "1915" has arrived and I have placed it on my shelves as it contains a vast amount of information on Utah — i n which state I may claim a considerable interest since I helped explore a large area of it and have had it "on my mind" for half a century.

The beautiful photographs also came in good order, and the clippings—for all of which please accept my sincere thanks.

Whoever took the photographs knows how. They are exceedingly well done.

I have not read McClintocks "Mormons in Arizona" though I have had it on my notes to do so ever since it appeared. The N. Y. Public Library seems not to have it but perhaps our Explorers Club has as we have a very fine collection of books of that sort. If not, and I can't get either of these to get it, I will buy a copy.

I have the second edition of Jacob Hamblin but not the original. I have used the original—borrowed it from a Salt Lake friend, but had to send it back and I have been unable to persuade him to sell it to me and I can't find another.

There are one or two errors in it as to dates. I can't lay my hands on my copy or I could tell you what they are. One, I remember, is with reference to the time when Jacob went with Major Powell across to the Hopi Towns. I think he gives the year as 1871 when it was 1870. If your duplicate is the original edition I decline to rob you, but thank you all the same for your great generosity in either case in offering to send it to me.

I have before me yours of the 23d but I have mislaid for the moment—it is somewhere on my desk—your other letter of recent date in which you mention Prof. Bolton's following out the Escalante Trail. He is good at that sort of thing and he will produce a valuable book. He may get his out before I do mine as I want to go over a portion, or portions, of the trail also-—especially in Colorado and up the Strawberry.

I know it from Utah Lake around to the Crossing of the Fathers and I could hit it pretty close elsewhere but I like to do "my level best" on it and so will not be in a hurry.

The Crossing of the Wasatch has bothered many but it is perfectly clear to me. I have had a translation made from photostat reproductions of the written copy. I don't know the one Prof. Bolton has used—it may be better. I find only minor descrepancies in comparing with Harris's—not much left out—but as I said Prof. B. may have had access to a copy I do not know about but I will investigate.

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I think my volume on Escalante will perhaps be more elaborate than Prof. Bolton's —that is as to maps and illustrations—but I don't know his plans. I wish him all good luck possible.

With my regards, Sincerely Yours Frederick S. Dellenbaugh.

Oct. 5th 1926 Dear Mr. Stites: It is most kind of you to send me the Escalante clippings; and just now the Jacob Hamblin reached me in good order. May I venture to say that I think you ought to let me pay for the Hamblin?

I think I told you that I knew Jacob very well, also his brothers Fred and Lyman; and his son Joe. The latter was wonderfully expert as a youngster in throwing the lasso. He could catch any animal by any portion of it he chose. The Hamblins were all sterling, reliable men. They were with our outfit a great deal in the 70's and gave us good work.

I have for several years been trying to have a monument of some sort put up in Kanab to commemorate the fact that that village was headquarters for the Powell survey parties for a number of years from 1871 on. It need not be a fine monument.

I wrote to Randall Jones about it the other day and sent him a copy of the inscription the Reclamation Service got up in conjunction with me. At that time Arthur Powell Davis, a nephew of Major Powell's, was director and he was interested. I do not know if the present director is.

I believe at that time the Commercial Club of Salt Lake was also interested.

A good concrete monument four or five feet high on a solid foundation would be sufficient for historical record.

Escalante and his partner Dominguez are coming into their own. The boulder at Spanish Fork is very effective. I hope the name of Dominguez is on it as well as that of Escalante for he was a co-leader evidently.

Thanks for all the things you have so kindly sent me—but I think I ought to pay for the Hamblin.

Sincerely Yours Frederick S.

Dellenbaugh.

You are, I believe, in the D & R. G. Ry offices. I wonder what became of a picture in oils about 30" x 40" of a train rounding Veta Point which I painted in 1877 and gave to Col. Dodge?

July 23d 1929 Dear Mr. Stites: I have just received the copy of Parry's Monthly Magazine, Vol V—No 6— March 1889, and thank you very much for your kind thoughtfulness.

F. S. Dellenbaugh

Letters

221

The article "The Grand Canyon of the Colorado" as you doubtless noted has nothing in it about the Grand Canyon, but probably the earlier part had.

The picture entitled "Running a Rapid, Grand Canyon,["~\ is from Major Powell's Report but nevertheless is entirely false. The boat just coming over the drop would not have survived a minute in the position given and the one in the foreground is a joke.

The steersman is pulling on a tiller as the boat has a rudder. Our boats had no rudders. No boat on the Colorado had a rudder — that is the ones that ran rapids — for a rudder is useless.

Nobody ever stood up in the bow for they would have been tossed overboard.

And the oarsmen never sat so nonchalantly looking aimlessly about.

Running rapids on the Colorado is a business that requires all the attention a boatman has.

I don't know why the Major let this crazy picture go through. Perhaps he did not even look at it. It conveys an absolutely wrong impression of the way rapids are run.

I thought you would like to know how bad it is.

I shall have the pleasure of seeing you when I come to Salt Lake next month.

Sincerely

Yours

Frederick S.

Dellenbaugh.

July 23rd, 1931 My dear Stites; It was most kind of you to send me that vastly interesting book, SALT DESERT TRAILS, and I thank you heartily for it, BUT, I think you ought to let me pay.

A friend of mine who is a writer was visiting me when it came. He picked it up at random and was deeply interested, reading it steadily till finished.

Recently I found, in an old scrap book lent me, John Moss's own story of his descent through the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1861 from Lee Ferry. He built a raft at Lee Ferry. So he says!

I have heard of this alleged exploit before but never have been able to get the details. He wrote after the publication of Powell's report so he probably gleaned from that and Powell's Scribner articles of 1875. The Moss story came out in the San Francisco Bulletin April 12th, 1877. I wonder if Shepard could find a copy? I have to return the scrap book. I hope to get the owner to give it to the N. Y. Public Library. It contains a lot of newspaper clippings on the two Powell expeditions, letters by Powell, and by his nephew, Clement Powell—NO not nephew—Clement Powell was a cousin or something. I said nephew in one of my books thoughtlessly.

The Major had two brothers. Walter was with him on the 1869 trip. He never married. Bramwell was married but his children were very young in 1871—a boy Billy, and Maud who later became famous as a violinist. Bram's wife never knew who her parents were. They arrived with her, a very small child, died of small pox forthwith, and were hastily buried. The only

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thing Mrs. B. Powell had to trace them by was a small locket and of course never could find out anything. Other persons gathered in the effects of her parents.

I have just had a visit from my grand daughter—aged four and one half—a real little beauty—very sweet tempered, and you can imagine how I miss her voice and antics.

Sincerely

yours,

Frederick S.

May 24th, My dear

Dellenbaugh.

1933

Stites:

Glad to get the Mountain Meadows "poem." It tells the story interestingly.

Thanks.

The only drawback to the Hamblin part is this: Jacob told me that if he had been at home that day the crime would not have happened. He was absent he said and returned after the event.

There was no necessity for him to tell me that, unless it were true.

I have no doubt that he would have prevented the slaughter.

I met Lee, as you know, saw much of him for a time at the mouth of the Paria. He declared he tried to prevent the massacre but of course that was a lie, as was shown at the trial.

I have a photograph of him sitting on the "rough box" just before he was shot.

I was sorry to read in the Times here that Capt. Bishop died on the 22d.

I sent you a copy of a book published by the Authors Club—an essay by Woodbury on Virgil.

Sincerely

Yours

Frederick S.

May 29th, My dear Mrs

Dellenbaugh.

1933

Stites;

Let me thank you for your kind thoughtfulness in sending me immediately the obituary on Captain Bishop.

There was a brief mention in the New York Times so I was not unaware of what had happened.

Captain Bishop was so closely associated with my first entrance into the mountains that I could never forget the kindly spirit he always bestowed on me.

He was a fine frontiersman and I learned a great deal that was of vast benefit in later years.

In fact that was a wonderful school for me. Between Major Powell, Thompson, Bishop, Hillers, and all the others I had teachers who knew the ropes if any one did. Powell was a marvel in his original way of taking things; and Thompson was about the same. Bishop too never flagged and was always ready with a

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remedy. So I kept my end up for anyone would have been ashamed not to with such a bunch.

Bishop had to leave us at the end of the first season on account of his health which was a regret all round. I had a hope that I might see him again this year but the fates willed otherwise. I am the last one now of that river party.

With kindest

regards,

Sincerely

yours

Frederick S.

Dellenbaugh

October 11th 1934 My dear Stites (and

"Jane"):

It seems a long time since I have had communication with you, so I am "taking my pen in hand" and ignoring the "typer" at my elbow, because writing seems less formalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;more intimate â&#x20AC;&#x201D; less like a commercial transaction. And I want to send you a letter I wrote one of our local papers on the subject of naming the Grand Canyon. There is still a mistaken idea in some quarters that somebody other than Major Powell, named it.

Positively Major Powell named it and no one else and I put the name on the map I drew as stated in the letter herewith. If I don't know then nobody living does. You will recall that I had to correct the mistaken notion that "the Early Spaniards" named the Painted Desert. It was Lieut. Ives, in 1858, who named that. . . .

With

regards Faithfully

Yours

Frederick S.

Dellenbaugh

Jan. 23d 1933 My dear Dr. Frazier: Your most delightfull and complimentary letter has just arrived and I hasten to assure you that I greatly appreciate it and will preserve it in my "archives."

The voyage through those upper canyons of the Green is a beautiful oneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; not so tremendous as Cataract and the Marble-Grand, but quite as beautiful and interesting.

Your proposed voyage this year as far as Lee Ferry you will find fascinating.

When I was in Los Angeles in 1929 testifying in the U. S vs - Utah river-bed case, I heard much about "sand-waves" in Glen Canyon. Although I went through Glen twice I saw no sandwaves but they are there at times and you must be prepared for them. The whole bottom seems to rise up suddenly and I am told the

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proper method is to take them sidewise, strange to say. They are likely to turn a boat end over if taken bow on.

If you should care to get points on these I am sure Mr. Dave Rust, Provo, Utah, would give you some. He has gone through Glen many times and is a "corking" fine fellow.

I hope you kept a detailed record of your trip- -and will of the forthcoming ones, and if you would be so good, I would be pleased to have copies to file with the other Colorado River manuscript material in the New York Public Library.

What you do will be history also in a few years. The N.Y.P.L. has the original Spanish MS. of Castaneda (1596) which first mentions the great chasm of the Colorado, and also has many diaries of men who have descended.

Of course I would be more than glad to see your movies but it seems almost too much for you to send them. I would return speedily. I know Bray of Bray Pictures Corporation who would run them through for me.

Please keep me posted on what you do. I congratulate you on having the nerve and the vigor to make these trips.

With regards, Faithfully Yours Frederick

S.

Dellenbaugh.

Feb. 21st, 1933 Dear Dr. Frazier;— Your letter of Feb. 11th is received, also the copy of A CANYON VOYAGE. It will be a pleasure to autograph the book. I will return it in due course.

I have three other volumes on hand to autograph for a friend—not all one kind, however. This friend is a young man named Bonney who is so enthusiastic about the West and Southwest that he spends all his spare money on books about those regions. If he goes to Salt Lake I want to give him a letter to you, so that he will visit Bingham and see what a marvellous place it is, as well as having the pleasure of meeting you.

You are very kind to say such nice things about my letters. I wish they were more interesting—but perhaps time with its magic power will endow them.

To go through Cataract Canyon you positively must have your boats made with watertight cabins.

Perhaps these decks and bulkheads could be made adjustable and removed after you come out of Cataract. Even with them on you would have about the same storage room; by way of the hatches. And if the decks are strong, you can stand on them. One advantage of compartments is that in the event of a capsize you do not lose your supplies.

Don't minimize the power of the rapids in Cataract. Take every precaution.

I shall be greatly interested to see how a motor will work in the rapids which run at the rate of 20 to 25 miles an hour. I think the motor will have to be turned off and the boat manipulated without.

Yes, there is one place I would be glad to have a description of from your point of view and a photograph if possible. This is the place described on p. 130

. '' .. B I • :•""• . : • 'ii MM. ~ MM& MMMMMixm. mmm, y m ': •

MmMMMMMMMMMMMMS Mm..., MMM l a L i i MmmMMMMMMM

sBPJfe

W§MMM

lli

M

llli&i:?:.,.

MmMMMMMM. it:.

The first camp of the second Powell Expedition, May 4, 1871.

Left to right: Almon Harris Thompson, Andrew Hattan, S. V. Jones, John Steward, W. C. Powell, Frank C. A. Richardson, Frederick Dellenbaugh, and Francis M. Bishop. John Wesley Powell, John Hillers, and E. O. Beaman are not shown. Photograph gift of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation.

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A Canyon Voyage. You may hit a stage of water that will make it far easier than found it in 1871, by our outfit.

Then I would be grateful if you could stop at Music Temple, about two miles below the mouth of the San Juan, on the left, and tell me if the names carved there are still visible. Dr. Oastler was there several years ago and then found them almost illegible.

I will later send you a description of the cliffs opposite the landing place, or a photograph which Oastler took.

And one more place—the Crossing of the Fathers; El Vado de los Padres— where Escalante crossed in 1776 on his way back to Santa Fe. This is about 35 miles before you reach Lee Ferry. If you will take a look at the U.S.G.S. detailed river maps which they must have at the University in Salt Lake, you could locate the place; The Old Ute Ford, and Crossing of the Fathers, exactly.

The crossing trail entered the river from the right through a very small canyon on the map called Kane Creek. The name should be Cane Creek as it was named, I believe, from the canes which grew there in early days—and when we were there in 1871 and 1872. The error doubtless arose from the place being in Kane County.

In the autumn of 1871 there were little piles of stones marking the course of the trail down the middle sand bar.

And still another place, if you should have the time, This is about three miles UP the Paria on the right hand; there is a long steep slope of sand with a precipice at the top.

It was here that Escalante in 1776 climbed out on his way to the Crossing.

The trail at the top works its way through a sort of crevice as I remember it. I would be glad to have a photograph and description.

The reason I mentioned a full sized movie camera was that Mr. Bray remarked several times that it was a pity your film was not standard size.

With kindest

regards,

Sincerely

Yours

Frederick S.

May 29th,

Dellenbaugh

1933

Dear Dr. Frazier; Thanks very much for your kind thoughtfulness in sending me the obituary of my old friend and companion of the canyon days, Captain Bishop.

His crossing the Range was not a surprise to me for besides being on the verge of 90 he had not been quite himself for several years.

He was a fine character—always dependable in every circumstance.

I was very fond of him.

When he became a Mormon I was not surprised either for he had a highly

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religious and emotional nature and was sure to affiliate with the religion nearest him.

The statement that he made the first map of the Colorado river is not quite accurate because his topographic work was in our first year on Green river.

The first map we made was a year laterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;after the Captain had resigned and it did not take in the Green river work of the Captain, not going above the San Juan.

The map we made in a tent in Dec. 1872 and Jan. 1873 in Kanab was based on our triangulation from a nine mile measured base line at Kanab and the Captain was not in on this at all. His work was incorporated in the upper map later.

Prof. Thompson laid down the triangulation points and I drew in the topography assisted by John Renshawe a new comer then. This map was soldered in a tin tube which I carried on my back to Salt Lake in Feb. 1873 and sent to Washington. It was there divided into two parts which are reproduced in my CANYON VOYAGE. Bishop's name is on as a topographer because he was chief topographer the year before and had done the river down to the mouth of the Green but this part was not used in the map we made in Kanab which was absolutely the first map of the Colorado river above the Grand Wash.

I mention this because in future years someone might get mixed up on it.

How about your proposed trip down from Green River Utah this year. Look out for Cataract Canyon. Be careful in there and you'll come through all right.

And keep me posted for I am greatly interested.

With best wishes, Faithfully yours, Frederick S. Dellenbaugh Don't over.

neglect life jackets for Cataract and have your boats coveredâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or

July 12th,

decked

1933

My dear Dr. Frazier; Your letter of July 5th, is just here, and I am deeply interested in the proposed trip down the Colorado which you tell me is to begin at Ouray on July 26th.

I will be with you in spirit all the time. You were lucky to leave behind the ones you might have had to "wet nurse" for every man must be able to look after himself.

You will enjoy the descent I am sure. Your equipment seems to be all right as to boats. They should float when full of water with the crew and cargo on board and from, your description I should say your boats will.

Desolation Canyon in its 97 miles has many rapids but with due care you can run or portage without much difficulty. Your five men being husky will be able to easily pull the boats out and run them on drift-wood skids over the rocks where necessary.

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Be careful in "lining" not to let a boat get very far out and have it caught the way Eddy's was in a "hole." It stood almost straight up in the air and they had to leave it. I think this was in Cataract. Keep inshore when lining, as much as possible.

When you turn from the mouth of the Green into the Colorado and Cataract Canyon, be on the watch for the first big one, three or four miles down.

That's where the Brown party lost their zinc boxes holding almost all their grub.

But that was bad management.

The middle part of Cataract is the worst, and there take it easy. Don't hurry.

Land often. Note the drift of the main current by throwing sticks in above.

If the water should happen to be at the same stage we had when you get to the rapids just below Dark Canyon, a very narrow deep side canyon coming in on the left opposite a 3000 foot cliff on the right with a long rapid at its base, look sharp, as you run through a narrow place, and then land on the head of the island, keeping in the line of dividing waters. Then drag your boats about half way down on the right hand side and pull out into that channel pulling rapidly across it to avoid the dash against the left hand cliff at the point where the two channels unite.

But probably the water will be higher when you get there in August and you can shoot down the middle easily. I only mention it to put you on your guard for at our stage of water it was a difficult place. That was September.

In August you will wonder why I even mention it.

I think it would be a fine thing and absolutely appropriate to put up a monument at Separation Rapid to honor the Powell party there, and especially the Howland boys and Dunn. Powell often spoke of them affectionately.

I have opposed putting the names of the deserters on the Powell Memorial at Grand Canyon because it seemed inappropriate to me, but in any other place it would be all right. The whole outfit were on the ragged edge at Separation from the strenuous work, long exposure and lack of food, and when the granite ran up again it was too much for them. But most nerved up and stuck to the Major who said he would go on if only one stood by him. Otherwise with his one arm he could not have managed a boat.

Powell named a cliff in Lodore after Dunn and was bent on naming Navajo Mountain after Seneca Howland.

Thompson and I did not think that wise or appropriate so it was not done.

The Howland brothers and Bill Dunn were not ordinarily quitters.

They were fine fellows. The conditions were peculiar. One of the Howlands did not want to leave but stuck to his brother.

As to the Julien inscriptions. Charles Kelly of Salt Lake (whom you ought to know (473 First Ave.) has just sent me the UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY for July 1933 (Room 131 State Capitol) containing an article by him on D. Julien which embodies all I know about Julien and much more that Kelly has dug up. You can easily get that and if it does not give you what you want to know write me and I will reply at once with such information as I have. My Julien file is in New York.

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229

We checked the miles travelled by estimating—two men always sighted down a stretch of river with prismatic compasses & put down each his estimate.

These were compared and then checked from time to time by sextant observations.

Col. Birdseye said our work was remarkably true all things considered. There are no inscriptions made by the Powell parties except the ones in Music Temple.

They are almost gone. Inscriptions by travellers and explorers are valuable and are not in the class of those which are stuck around through vanity. So I should say it would be advisable for you to chisel in your names and date in say, Cataract, in a place accessible and protected from rain and sand.

Kelly has sent me a photograph of one made by Antoine Robidoux in 1837 which is highly interesting. This is in Westwater Canyon, Book Cliffs.

Yes, the rapid with the island was not far above Mille Crag Bend.

The name of one of your party interests me—Mr. Fahrni. My grandfather and grandmother were Swiss and my grandmother's maiden name was Farney as we spelled it. It may be the same name. My grandfather came from Switzerland and settled in N. E. Ohio in 1825. His home before that was a few miles east of Bienne.

There was, a few years ago, a Grand Marshall of France a General Farny.

That family I believe came originally from Italy.

Then farewell for the present.

I am confident you will make Cataract all right because you are willing to be cautious.

GOOD LUCK AND MY HEARTFELT BEST WISHES FOR YOUR COMPLETE SUCCESS. Faithfully yours, Frederick

S.

August

Dellenbaugh.

23rd,

1933

Dear Dr. Frazier; It was most kind of you to write me so fully about your canyon voyage of this year. I read your letter with an interest that only one who had been over the route could understand.

I congratulate you on your efficient management.

As Stefansson maintains, "Adventure is an indication of poor preparation and management," and I agree to that. On that basis you see you take a medal!

I shall file your letter with my valued Colorado material along with what you wrote me last year on the first leg of your expedition.

Your successful journey is a proof of what I have always contended; that success may always be the result on the Colorado when there is proper preparation and due reverence for the "Dragon."

In other words no funny business—the Dragon does not like to be treated humorously.

It was a pleasure to find you agree with Major Powell and his crew in thinking Dellenbaugh Butte an artistic work of the gods of erosion. I believe it is now

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called "The Anvil" locally. The local people do not know about the first names applied as a rule. For a long time Mount Dellenbaugh on the Shewits Plateau was locally known as "The Butte," although for more than fifty years it was on all good maps as Mt. D. I met Tom Wimmer in Los Angeles at the time of the trial of the "River Bed Case." There were a lot of old "River Rats" on hand then and it was pleasant to meet them.

Evidently the water in Cataract was just right for you which was fortunate.

Sometimes it is very bad and running through in some places is not advisable.

Of course we had to be doubly cautious for we were on very short rations, and no one knew how to get to a settlement at that time, overland.

Thanks for the fern you enclosed. It arrived in fine shape and I prize it and shall always take good care of it. It is the kind called Maiden Hair.

Your rapid No. 60, as I wrote you, I have always specially remembered because our approach to it was dramatic in the late afternoon light; and we came near hitting the projecting rock at the foot.

Evidently your boats take the waves well. Ours being very sharp in the bow —and we went bow first—sometimes cut through a big wave instead of climbing over it.

The Julien inscription in lower Cataract I judge is difficult to find as it is above the water on a cliff with no landing place near. Stanton said it must have been made from a boat.

Charles Kelley of Salt Lake City has carried on some investigations as to the identity of Julien and has succeeded in digging up some valuable data. You ought to know him. He wrote SALT DESERT TRAILS, an excellent book. He lives at 473 First Avenue, Salt Lake—Charles Kelly.

It is interesting to get your impressions of Music Temple. On my second visit in 1872 I had some of the same feeling concerning that first memorable expedition. I put my name and that of Jack Hillers on the face of rock; I don't remember doing any other. I wanted to carve those of Johnson and Fennemore but they opposed it. The fact that the men of the first party, who carved their names there and were killed later, made the similar record rather shaky for a superstitious person. These two were also somewhat disturbed I fancy, later when I announced that I had just been a witness to Major Powell's will which he wanted to send out to his wife by the teamsters. But they were sick, anyhow, so could not have gone into the Grand Canyon with us. We had to leave one boat, the Nellie Powell, behind and Powell gave it to John D. Lee who had been helpful to us. With this he started the ferry known by his name.

I see in re-reading your description of the names carved in Music Temple, that I carved more than I remembered.

Clem Powell, Bishop, and Steward.

But I don't remember if I carved the names on the first or second time I was there, probably on the second, for on the first we were about out of grub and did not linger anywhere. Even on the second visit we were very short for it had taken us longer than we had planned to get to the mouth of the Dirty Devil.

Thompson took only enough rations for himself to get back to Potato Valley where he was to be met with a pack train from Kanab.

F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters

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Your suggestion that the Music Temple ought to be preserved as an historical monument is excellent. Then all the names could be put on a bronze tablet sheltered from the sand storms. It would also be a monument to Dunn and the two Howlands whose names were omitted (with my approval) from the Powell Memorial at Grand Canyon. As they were deserters I did not think they ought to be honored by a place on that particular monument but I am desirous of seeing them recorded at Separation Rapid. I would also like to see their names on a tablet in Music Temple. There ought also to be a tablet at Green River, Wyoming, whence both parties started. Such records are valuable for posterity.

Will you kindly give me a detailed description of the ledge below Cane Creek on which you campedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;its width, length and so on. Perhaps I told you that a doubt arises now as to Escalante's crossing at the Ute Ford (Crossing of the Fathers) The way out on the west side was INTO Cane canyon and out that way.

The entrance also to go east.

Yours was an ideal trip, and again I congratulate Faithfully Frederick

you. yours, S.

Dellenbaugh.

June 17th,

1934

My Dear Dr. Frazier; It has been my intention to write you for some time but I seem to be a terrible procrastinator this year. However I do get around to it from time to time and I certainly want to find out now just when you are to start on your Grand Canyon venture.

I suppose not till September as you said, I believe, that you meant to take it on low water. The only difficulty with September is that the water is apt to be pretty coldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it was very cold with us in Cataract Canyon in September, but that perhaps was unusual.

I note that you have four boats and that is well, for with more boats and more men you have an easier time. The great drawback we had in the Grand Canyon was our small party and our big, waterlogged, boats. As they had dried out for eight or nine months we had to soak them a long time to bring the planks together and that made them lack bouyancy in the water and made them terribly heavy on land in portages.

By the way, I notice it is a practice now to attach lines to both ends of a boat in lining down. This seems to me to be bad practice for it has a tendency unless great care is used in handling the stern line to throw the bow out into the current, a thing absolutely to be avoided at all hazards. Therefore I say only one line should be used and this a bow line. The boat must either drift or be guided by men in the water. When drifting, if in the current where the bow might be caught

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Looking downstream toward Havasu. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society, Russell G. Frazier Collection.

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F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters

233

on the inside by the current a man should be on board with an oar to prevent the boat from taking the diagonal of forces and shooting out into the main river. He plys his oar like a paddle on the outside of the bow.

But you now have had the experience of the upper canyons, and know as much about it as I do. Only, I was very familiar with row boats in swift water as I was always on the Niagara as a youngster, crossing from the Canadian side to Black Rock through a full volume nine mile current.

I am pleased to know that Clyde Eddy is to be with you as he has had a lot of experience in the rapids. Emery Kolb is perhaps the most experienced of all the "River Rats" and he has good judgment.

I was proud to have a boat named for me in your last year's trip, so that makes two on the river so far as Clyde Eddy named one of his after me.

I have enjoyed your films greatly and am sending them back now.with many thanks as soon as I get them properly packed.

When you wrote that you were coming East I hoped that you might get as far as New York but I see your eastern limit is Columbus. I expect to go up to my shack in the mountains of Ulster County in a short time and I wish you could extend your journey that far and spend a few days with me on top of my mountain. It may be that even now you are somewhere in the East as you were to leave your home in Utah May 12th. I hope so and that I shall have the pleasure of hearing from you.

Glad you met Fennemore. He is a nice chap and a fine photographer.

We were sorry he and Johnson could not go into the Grand Canyon with us. If they had been, we would have had a much easier time. We just needed two more men and they were not to be had.

I am very uncertain as to my plans at present. There is a prospect that I may have to go to Utah, but I hope it will be in September or Octoberâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;after you finish the Grand Canyon, for I should enjoy seeing your pictures as well as your party and you.

Fennemore, as he probably mentioned, was in Music Temple with Hillers, Johnson and me in 1872, when we were bringing the Canonita down from the Dirty Devil. The food question was always so troublesome in those days in that region where there was no game or even where there was game for we did not have time to hunt and were always on the ragged edge for something to eat.

I suppose Eddy will let me know all about the broadcasting for I should be heartbroken to miss it.

I have not seen him for some time but I'll try to have a talk with him before I go to my mountain fastness.

With best

regards,

Faithfully

yours,

Frederick S. I will send the Walpi photographs

in a day or two.

Dellenbaugh.

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August 23d 1934 Dear Dr.

Frazier:

Congratulations

again on your wonderful

descent through

the Grand

Can-

yon.

Low water is certainly worse than high if one does not want to work like a slave. On very high water in one stretch of about 8 miles we did not stop at all for every rock was buried under the giant billows which were smooth on the surface.

You will recall my mentioning that circumstance in my Canyon Voyage.

Well, I'm glad you have had the experience of running the whole line of canyons. There is much that is interesting in the upper ones and Cataract is not an easy job.

The Sockdologer at low water is no doubt more dangerous to run than at high, but, of course, a portage or line-down can be made, if desired, at low water.

Stanton got part way down and smashed the side of the "Marie" and halted right there to rebuild her by cutting out the middle part. Then two or three days later she was smashed to "smithereens" Separation is probably the most difficult rapid on the river on account of the twist in the channel, as I understand it. The three deserters balked at itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or rather two did. The younger Howland simply followed his brother's lead, and according to Jack Sumner, the rapids had become a "holy terror" to the elder Howland.

I am glad you put up the placque where it will remain for many years as a memorial to three fine men, two of whom simply lost their nerve. And the nerve of the others wasn't any too vigorous.

Sorry Mr. Farnhi had the bad luck to break two fingers but they will mend and be more or less his "souvenir" of the voyageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a voyage you will all remember just as I do our work on the river so long ago.

I like your decision that "one does not feel like a conqueror when one finishes its canyons, but rather a favored child of the Gods." If my contemplated final edition of A Canyon Voyage comes to being, I think I will quote that somewhere in it.

I shall probably see Eddy when I go back to the city and get some of his impressions. I wonder why he did not tell me he was going with you.

The affair which I thought might bring me to Utah this year, "hangs fire," like most things today, but I hope to get to Utah nevertheless one of these days even if I am almost "one more" than an octogenarian.

I have just been over at Litchfield, Conn, to visit my son's family. He has a summer place there. I enjoyed being with my three grandchildren and my fine daughter-in-law even though my son could not leave his Boston (Waltham) business to come there just now. They live in Boston, winters. My elder grandson is as tall as I, and he is only 13. He rides well, swims well and sails a boat well.

So does the second one, and my granddaughter 7 rides as well as any of them.

Kindest

regards,

Faithfully Frederick S.

Yours, Dellenbaugh.

F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters Dear Mr.

235

Kelly;

Your letter of Feb. 4th was very welcome and I have had it for reply at my elbow ever since but my procrastination now a days is shameful.

I don't know that the Julien Inscription will appear in the Stanton book but I discovered that there were two photographs, of the one I sent you, in the Stanton collection. I will try to secure one for you from the Stanton heirs.

As to the Connelley—Jed. Smith matter. I had some correspondence over Smith with Connelley and I sent him what I had on the subject, as well as a lot of letters from a nephew of Smith with whom I corresponded.

Connelley died and these were returned to me O.K. Perhaps I can take the subject up with the Connelley heirs. I will try later on.

I have definitely routed Jed. Smith, as perhaps I have mentioned before, not down the Virgin as has generally been the case heretofore, but down Meadow Valley Wash and the Muddy to the Virgin. I am certain this is correct.

Furthermore C. Hart Merriam arrived independently at the same conclusion. The Muddy and streams of Meadow Valley Wash were Adams River.

Yes, perhaps I have a "soft spot" in my heart for "Old Jacob" as I only think of him as I knew him. He was all right so far as anything occurred while I was in that region. So it is not exactly tolerance on my part in having a somewhat tender regard for him but experience with him and his family over a considerable period.

But if you feel confident that you have other views that ought to see the light, go to it and send them forth. If it drives you to this part of the country it will be our gain. I did not know Porter Rockwell. Probably I saw him, perhaps met him, but at that time his alleged exploits were not known to me.

Remy was a bit unfair in some respects. For instance he berates the people of Parowan for their treatment of him. This must have been partly his fault for those same people gave the distressed Fremont party a fine welcome and shelter and food. Also Carvalho and others relate pleasant relations.

Yes Lee was ploughing when I went across the Paria that morning to interview him. There was plenty of level land for farming.

We landed from our boat after coming down Glen Canyon one morning (this was the second time I came down—the first was the autumn before when Lee had not arrived. We had cached one boat at the mouth of the Dirty Devil.

This we now brought down.) ?

I went across the Paria alone with my Winchester on my shoulder. Why I had the gun I don't know—not for Lee of course. But the gun was sighted by his wife Rachel and she went into the cabin immediately while I continued on to the left leaving the cabin about three hundred yards on the right—perhaps two hundred. Lee stopped the horses and resting his hands on the plough handles turned his head to look at the new comer. I see on referring to A CANYON VOYAGE I say that Hillers was with me and that must be so but my present recollection is that I was alone. At any rate as soon as Lee understood who I was he was very pleasant and always was while we were there. Yet he sometimes thought we might be trying to capture him.

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He had started a dam on the Paria to take out a ditch for his farm and as we had nothing else to do while waiting for orders from Powell we turned in and helped him finish the dam. Several times we had dinner with him and his wife Emma. The latter was a quite young and buxom woman very cordial and a good cook. She had a baby about a year and a half old playing around on the ground in front of the cabin.

Lee may have had a small garden patch nearer the house which he worked with a spade and hoe but there is no question about his ploughing on the farm patch further away. On the U.S.G.S. map the comparatively level land is nearly a quarter of a mile wide by three quarters long. This was not all absolutely level but a considerable part of it was tillable as I recollect the place.

I suppose Hillers was with me that morning when I met Lee. One's memory is not always accurate after 60 years. I remember the incident perfectly all but Hillers' being with me.

Lee was a pleasant enough man and I feel sure that, ordinarily he would have had no murderous intentions. This does not excuse his deed of course. Lee, at one time, hid himself in Havasu (Cataract) canyon with the Havasupai.

I heard that Klingensmith and I think one other of the Mt. Meadows ringleadersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps Isaac Haight, hid for a time among the Shewits, and Jack Sumner of Powell's first party, asserted that they instigated the murder of the three Powell deserters. I feel sure there is nothing in this but imagination as it is pretty well established that the deed was the work of only three or four of the Indiansâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;"some no sense" Shewits as Thompson's Shewits guide put it in 1872.

The usual amount of snow in the mountains will put the Colorado on the rampage in June, so look out how you venture!

Sincerely

yours

Frederick S. Fanaticism

Dellenbaugh

makes demons of us all!

Nov. 6th 1932 Dear Mr.

Kelly:

My correspondence has been shamefully neglected this last six months. I should have acknowledged your most interesting letter of Aug 11, with the enclosure of the Crossing of the Fathers photographs, long ago. I notice that if I think of writing on the machine I am apt to put off writing letters. Somehow the typing does not seem intimate. The pen suits me better for letters and I try to make my "pen tracks" legible.

The photographs of the Crossing interested me greatly. I have long wanted such photographs and I have blamed myself many times for not making sketches when I was there in 1871 and also getting our photographer, Beaman, to make some photographs for me looking down the river. At that time the stage of water was such that the line of little stone monuments could be seen above the surface marking the exact route down the bar for a considerable distance. When one of Lieut. Wheeler's parties was there the same year, I think it was, the stones were

F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters

237

also visible and someone made a drawing reproduced in the Wheeler report showing them, but the sketch is poor.

I have pasted together your three photographs and have studied the view a good deal. I did not get up on top so I cannot visualize the scene as I saw it— besides 61 years is a long look back.

May I trouble you to tell me just where you stood with reference to the mouth of the little canyon through which the trail entered the water? It was full of canes when we were there and I believe the name on the maps should be "Cane" not Kane Canyon. Kane county of course is named after the "Gentile" Kane who was a good friend of the Mormons, but this little canyon hardly would have been given his name.

At the time we were there getting in and odt with horses was difficult. As it has been said—you say so also in your letter—access in now easy, someone must have done some work on the rocks back aways in the pass leading down.

Rereading your letter I note that you could find no trace of blasting to make the way impassable but I am sure the Mormons told me long ago that they had put in blasts somewhere to prevent the Navajos from coming across.

Major Powell went out in 1871 from the Crossing and his party had trouble getting up not far back on the trail. I remember that point very well. Of course as time went on easier ways were found. I will investigate farther. Possibly in the Church records of Kanab stake we might find a description of the attempt to prevent Navajo raids by way of the Crossing.

In the matter of the name of Tickaboo Creek. Tickaboo is Ute. While Hoskaninny was a Navajo perhaps he belonged to Patrish's renegades.

Patrish, I believe was a Ute, so the Ute and Pai Ute words were familiar in that region as well as the Navajo. As a rule there were few Navajo terms north of the Colorado the Utes and Pai Utes dominating that region. The Crossing of the Fathers was also known as the "Ute" Crossing. I never heard it called Navajo Crossing.

The Navajos seem not to have gone north of the river much till the whites began to settle there and they could steal cattle and especially horses. In 1871 they were crazy to get horses for they had lost almost all they had in the "Navajo War." I traded an old plug we had no further use for to a Navajo for several fine blankets.

Ten years later I doubt if he would have accepted the beast as a gift—but he was on foot as many were in those years.

Music Temple is on the left bank not very far below the mouth of the San Juan. Dr. Oastler several years ago coming down with Dave Rust (Oastler—a member of the Explorers Club) located it and made photographs.

The names were almost obliterated by the forces of erosion. That rock is soft and the wind hurls the sand with great force.

I was not able, when I was in Kanab in 1929, to find the stone monument that we built as a base for the large transit set up to determine the meridian but it may still be there nevertheless. I did not have much time. We located the site of the old fort built in 1870. Part of the site was washed away in that flood that retrograded from the "Gap" to far up the canyon. I believe they put a marker there afterward-—at the site of the fort.

When I was in Kanab in 1903 I don't believe I even looked for the transit base. I was not then interested in our old landmarks.

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Noâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;/ don't remember anything in Stanton's diary about the old dredge he put in. I will look it up. His Colo. Riv. diaries are now the property of the New York Public Library and can be consulted any time. You have to ring a bell to enter the MS room. There is a strong wire grating door which enables the attendant to see who is there before he opens as there are many valuable manuscripts within. I would like a photograph of the dredge wreck to put with the Stanton material in the library. I had all of Stanton's data here for several years.

Julius Stone has sponsored a book just out Colorado River Controversies in which, under James Chalfont's editorship Stanton's criticisms of Powell are given as well as Sumner's & Hawkins's narratives of the 1869 trip. Much of Hawkins's stuff is trivial and even ridiculous and I think Stanton was hypercritical. He makes too much of the life preserver incident. Powell having only one arm had a life preserver in the 1869 trip which he does not mention in his report and Stanton censures him in unmeasured terms for keeping it a secret, as he claims, and not imploring Brown to take life preservers. Brown had Powell's report to show him what the river was and he could have consulted me and other men of the 1871-72 crowd but he was too confident that the river had no terrors for him.

Brown's expedition was so poorly equipped and so poorly directed that it was in for trouble life preservers or not. It was the worst managed expedition that has ever attempted the descent. Disaster was its fate from the start. The Colorado always punishes contempt.

Powell, according to the Stanton-Sumner-Hawkins accusations changed his character for the 1869 trip entirely, before and after being a different man. Powell had his faults but he was not what they try to make out. Well, this is about enough for this time. I hope you can read it. I write rapidly and therefore the letters are not always clear.

Thank

you for your interesting

and valuable letter and for the Faithfully

Yours

Frederick S. Nov. 15th My dear Mr.

photographs.

Dellenbaugh 1932

Kelly:

Ledyard has sent me several of his latest, very interesting "Ax-I-Dent-Ax" magazines and in one I am pleased to find a portrait of you.

I am glad to see what you look like. It is an exceedingly pleasant prospect!

I have read your article "River Gold" with deep interest of course.

There are one or two points not quite accurate and as you will undoubtedly write and write about that country I must callyour attention to them.

The first is about "Emory" Kolb. The name, by the way, is spelled Emery.

It was Ellsworth, Emery's brother who navigated from Wyoming to the sea, but not continuously.

And he was not the first. The first was Jack Sumner in 1869 with Andrew Hall. In 1890 R. B. Stanton did it too from Green River, Utahâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and there are now one or two others I don't remember. Flavell in 1896 went from

F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters

239

Green River, Wyoming, to Yuma. Nat Galloway went from Green River, Wyo.— to the Needles in 1896-97 winter.

Hite's gold was not the first taken out of the Colorado. The winter before we were to enter the Grand Canyon 1871-72 Major Powell was trying to find a place to take rations in, in the Kaibab section. At last he discovered that it could be done down Kanab Canyon. He went to the river that way with two or three men one of whom was George Riley, an Idaho prospector, who had taken a job with our party for the winter. He panned some gravel at the mouth of the Kanab and got a quantity of fine gold. This news got to Salt Lake and for several weeks there was a line of prospectors going to the Colorado via Kanab Canyon and out again.

There was gold, but very fine "flour" gold which can be obtained anywhere along the Colorado. It is so fine it is hard to save it and working conditions are so difficult and space so limited that getting it out will never be profitable. There is always a chance of finding a pocket that is rich enough to pay but it is doubtful.

The gold evidently comes mainly from the shales and rocks of Colorado and is so pulverized by erosion that it is like flour. This you state in your article.

I have some shirt studs, the tops made from gold Riley panned out on the Colorado—the result of amalgamating the fine gold gathered in a pan.

Your article is extremely interesting and valuable. I shall extract it from Ax-I-Dent-Ax—and file it with my Colorado River materials.

Thanks for the kind references to me.

Sincerely

Yours

Frederick

S.

Dellenbaugh

May 26th, Dear Mr.

1933

Kelly;

Yours of the 22nd May is just here with the clipping about Capt. Bishop for which I thank you.

Bishop died on the 62nd anniversary of our start down Green River which was an interesting coincidence.

He was the last one of our party except me. He was not with us the second year as a nervous trouble developed because of the constant wetting and he was obliged to leave us in the winter of 1871—72.

We were warm friends all those 62 years. He was a fine character.

Certainly you can have a copy of the whole or any part of the translation of the Escalante Diary I had Mrs Bandelier make for me.

I will ask our manager here who is an expert typist how much he would charge and let you know.

It will be a fine thing for you and Birney to go over the trail, for that is the only way to get it right as to details. I will be glad to aid you all I can.

The reason Escalante went so far north was that he missed the trail at the La Sal Mts., so you will have to do the same.

Sincerely

yours,

Frederick S.

Dellenbaugh

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July 23d 1934 Dear Mr.

Kelly:

I suppose you wish I would write this on the machine but I must beg to use a pen which sometimes seems more intimate, easier and makes no noise.

You probably know by the papers if not otherwise that Dr. Frazier and his party are now bucking the rapids of the Grand Canyon. Clyde Eddy has joined them and as he has been as far as Bright Angell twice and once all the way through he ought to be a great help. I see by re-reading your letter you know it.

The river is lowest in many years and I think they will have a lot of hard work for more portages have to be made at low water. Eddy went through on high water and generally maintains that he is the only one who has done so, but we had extremely high water in 1872 and made as far as Kanab Canyon where, because of a combination of circumstances we were compelled to come out.

Mr. Winning is a young man from New York who is working this summer with a scientific group which is studying the Glen Canyon region, as far as possible, in detail. He thought he might have a chance to ride over the trail from Lee Ferry to the Ute Ford so I gave him all the data I had. As I did not hear from him in reply, I fear he left New York before receiving my letter.

I am positive that Escalante's crossing was not below the Ute Ford. It either was at the Ford or some distance above. His trail up to that point is perfectly clear. I surmise that if he missed the Ford it was by about a mile and a half and due to a severe storm that hit them just about where they should have turned to the right. They proceeded and passed down the small canyon 13 miles as the river runs, above the Ute Ford, but in a straight line much less than that. I used a league of 3 miles, based on our own three from the Paria mouth to the foot of the sand slope where the old trail went up, because they said it was one league over the same distance. If their league was shorter it would make some difference but not enough I think to change matters very much.

Perhaps, after all, you will be the one to determine the real crossing.

Minion Batch & Co. will send you a copy of your Holy Murder to autograph for me, and when you have done it please return to Cragsmoor, New York, as I shall be here, mainly, till about October 15th.

Yes Brown's Park (Hole) is a beautiful and interesting valley and the way the Green cuts into the mountains by the Gate of Lodore is superb. LODORE not LADORE as some maps have it. I corrected the U.S.G.S. on that and future maps will be O.K. So also the post office. The canyon was named after Southey's poem, "How the waters come down at Lodore."

I don't understand how the U.S.G.S. made the mistake with the correct spelling in Powell's report and in my books. There was, at one time, a trading "fort" down near the Lodore entrance.

Yes Dr. Frazier has sent me a photograph of the tablet they are to place at Separation Rapid. It is a fine thing to do. While those menâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in my opinionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;are not entitled to a place on the "honor roll" of the Powell Monument at Grand Canyon, because anyway you look at it they were deserters, they ought to be commemorated in bronze too, and Separation Rapid is the place for it. Jack

F. S. Dellenbaugh

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241

Sumner tried to dissuade them from leaving but, as he said, he was not so sure of h:s own side of the argument so he feared his plea was not very strong, furthermore, "the rapids had become a holy terror" to the elder Howland so there was no changing his mind.

"Shebit" is not correct. The Mormons pronounced it that way because unless one is very careful the "vw" sound in Pai Ute sounds like B. The correct spelling is SHEVWITS or SHIVWITS or Z. The reason Powell spelled it with an "i" instead of an "e" is that the Bureau of Ethnology devised an alphabet for spelling Indian words and in that an "i" is usually "e." I was among the Shevwits as you know and my spelling is as near their own pronunciation as can be. The Bureau spells teepee "tipi" and as a consequence many pronounce it "tippy."

I still use "teepee" in ordinary writing. The "Hopi" should be Hopee. Many pronounce it Hoppy.

Anyhow Hopee is one of the people and Hopeetuh all the people. They should be called Hopituh or Hopeetuh.

Sincerely F. S.

yours

Dellenbaugh.

August 16th, 1934 Dear Mr.

Kelly:

The book came through promptly and I must thank you most heartily for the delightful autographic compliment.

I have read here and there, being so deeply interested to get a sort of "bird's eye" view before taking it page by page as I shall now do.

You certainly "lambast" the Mormons "to beat the band" and there is much on your side, but there is also much on the other side. I have known the Mormons now for 63 years and many of them have been and are, close friends, so I look at them and their religion more sympathetically than you do. For my part I have never in my travels met a more kindly, helpful people. So there you are, Porter Rockwell notwithstanding.

The murder of Joseph Smith and his brother was a dastardly murder. I think you should have been more condemnatory of that. Of course, like the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, it provided a martyr, without which, no religion can flourish; but from the judicial standpoint it was a mean, cowardly, assassination as bad, or worse, than anything Porter Rockwell did. I have despised the crowd that did it ever since I first read about it.

Much that Brigham Young shouted from his pulpit was mere balderdash, couched in the language of God in that terrible book, the Old Testament, for the Bible was basic with the Mormons and unless one refused to believe it a divinely inspired book, he was immediately lost in any discussion of polygamy, murder or any other diabolical thing that those primitive Jews delighted to set down in their records.

Brigham Young's tirades were infantile compared with those of the Jews Divine leader. God says, Leviticus, XXVI-16"I also will do this unto you: I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall

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consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it." "17. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you: and ye shall flee when none pursueth you" "22. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children" and so on without limit of the fearful things, "I am the Lord, your God" (gentle creature) will do to anyone who opposes Him. This kind of tirade was the same fanatical frenzy that Brigham invoked to keep his people in line, only he directea it more against his opponents. I am not trying to excuse the language of Brigham Young, only trying to show that it was more or less Biblical, and was not always real—only an effort to frighten people one way or the other, just as Jehovah's was—for of course it was the leaders of the Jews who spoke the words I have quoted not God at all. God is not like that.

So I feel more tolerance for the rantings of the Mormon leader than you do.

Besides I doubt if Brigham Young sanctioned Porter Rockwell for I think he was too shrewd to do that. However I will probably know more about the subject than I do now when I have carefully read your interesting and valuable work— very important too in the literature concerning the religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have read Linn's book—long ago. I have a copy and will read it again. But the fact remains that I like the Mormons.

I have always found them kindly, friendly and helpful and I do not know a single instance where they were not helpful to Gentiles in distress barring Mt. Meadows of course as in the case of Fremont when he and his men straggled into Parowan used up, cold, hungry and on their last legs. The people of Parowan took them into their houses, fed them and sent them on their way rejoicing—rejoicing that there were in the world such kind and sympathetic people.

Jacob Hamblin told me that if he had been at home the Mountain Meadows Massacre would not have occurred and I believed him, for it was easy to see what a false move it was, leaving out the humanitarian side. Brigham Young would not have entertained such an act for a moment on purely political grounds if on no other.

Probably they were not particularly anxious to apprehend Lee because he had done good work for the Church over many years. Lee was a fanatic and so were Haight and Klingensmith, but Lee was not the worst of the trio—although his fanaticism ran higher on that terrible occasion. The murder of the people of that caravan was a frightful thing, but Haight, Lee & K had the murder of Joseph Smith and his brother as an example. That affair was still fresh in mind.

Many of the people who went out from Cedar on the occasion of the Mt. Meadows had no idea that murder was in the air. George Adair, whom I knew well, a young fellow at the time, said he joined the crowd without knowing what it was all about. Lee and the other two were the real perpetrators and I am sure they had no sanction from those higher up.

Lee protested to me that he really did not injure anyone and tried to prevent the slaughter but of course that was not true. He said he went home and cried like a baby—or that he cried and went home, and the Indians everafter called him Yahgats—cry baby.

F. S. Dellenbaugh Letters

243

There were bad men among the Mormons, of course, but the proportion was smaller than among the Gentiles.

There was one named Liston who lived in St. George in 1874-5 who was regarded by all the Mormons as a shifty character. Jacob told me that once, on the old trail down the Virgin when the Church had set up a post for the protection of the emigrants, a young man arrived travelling alone. Jacob came shortly after.

Liston said "This man has got to go up"—meaning die. Jacob said, "No—I'll die first." Liston did not molest the man.

Well, I have written a lot. Now I'll read about Porter Rockwell. I have always thought he was a fine liar.

Sincerely

yours

Frederick S.

Dellenbaugh

P.S. Off the Rockwell-Mormon subject on to Grand Canyon—beautiful Grand Canyon—dangerous Grand Canyon.

I hear that Frazier & party got through with only the loss of one boat. IJe is going to write me about it.

I have watched the papers here for news but there has been nothing in detail.

F.S.D. It seems now that the tide may turn I'd give a lot mon friends whom

I shall not be able to get to Salt Lake or the West this year—yet yet. to see you in your own home—and some of my "Danite" MorI like and admire.

F.S.D.

[ M u c h of the content of this letter is p r o m p t e d by the book Holy Murder, the Story of Porter Rockwell (New York, 1934) written by Charles Kelly a n d Hoffman Birney. O n the m a t t e r of the M o u n t a i n Meadows Massacre, one should consult the scholarly book by J u a n i t a Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Stanford, 1950, and N o r m a n , O k l a h o m a , 1962).]

T,

the river the Rio Colorado, the Red River.

Colorado, a Spanish adjective meaning "reddish," was apt since this stream has transported thousands of cubic acres of red soil from the highlands to the Sea of Cortez. The tributary named the Little Colorado is HE SPANIARDS CALLED

Mr. Reilly was taken to southern California when he was three months old and, with the exception of a year in Idaho, received his education in the Los Angeles area. He has been running the Colorado and its tributaries in hard-hulled boats since 1947.

associated closely with the Mormon settlement of Arizona, and for many years had a greater population along its banks than the main river. In many parts of the Southwest, the major stream is spoken of as "Big Red" to distinguish it from the tributary.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, western topography not only was misunderstood in the Eastern States but had been distorted to a legendary degree. The official reports of government explorers were ignored or used as bases for more sensational stories by a willing press.

Scattered descriptions of the unusual world of Yellowstone conditioned an eager public to believe almost anything about our vast terra incognita, and the spirit of Manifest Destiny was in the air. "Colter's Hell" and Beckwourth's "Green River Suck" were representations that many people wanted to believe, and believe them they did.

Initial exploitation thrived on the unknown, and a hundred years ago very little of the topography had been detailed on any map. Significantly, no western feature has suffered more from unrealistic appraisal than the drainage of the Colorado River.

The separation of fact from fancy began in 1867 when the first of the great surveys took to the field, and refinement still was underway a century later. Even now a few remote areas are sketched only broadly, with accurate cartographic detailing scheduled for the future. Most of the legends have been discarded but still the past record of the Colorado is shadowy and confused.

If 1867 marked the beginning of an acquisition of factual knowledge regarding the unknown lands, it also showed an increase in the legendary phases. In March of that year a self-styled Captain Samuel Adams made the first of several fantastic claims attesting to his exploration of the Colorado River. His descriptions of vast wild grain fields would have astonished the Mormon pioneers at that time struggling to sustain themselves in the unfriendly desert of the Muddy River Valley. Adams took his claims to the halls of Congress but there they died as he apparently lacked the ability to generate either credence or support. 1 In mid-April the Mormon brethren, desiring to know whether Callville had been established at the actual head of navigation, sent Henry W. Miller, Jesse W. Crosby, and Jacob Hamblin down the river from 1 U.S., Congress, Senate, "Petition of Samuel A d a m s praying compensation," Miscellaneous Document No. 17, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., 1869-70. U.S., Congress, House, " T h e Colorado River Expeditions of Samuel A d a m s , " Miscellaneous Document No. 37, 42nd Cong., 1st Sess., 1871.

T h e journals of Samuel Adams are located in the H e n r y E. H u n t i n g t o n Library, San M a r i n o , California. For brief mention of A d a m s see William C. D a r r a h , Powell of the Colorado (Princeton, 1 9 5 1 ) , a n d Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West (Boston, 1 9 5 4 ) .

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the mouth of Grand Wash to the recently established river terminal. 2 Elder Miller wrote a fine description of the fifty mile voyage except for his portrayal of the nine miles of Boulder Canyon. Here his observations became subjective, ignoring the low vee of the river canyon to speak in terms of Beckwourthian prose. Miller saw Boulder Canyon as Baron von Egloffstein had seen Black Canyon a decade earlier : A deep gorge seemingly cut in the solid rock, from 1200 to 1500 feet deep, with the whole mass of waters compressed in a channel about ten rods wide, formed the bed of the river, and the great black walls rose up perpendicular, as it were into the heavens, shutting us in almost from light and hope, and filling us with a sensation akin to awe, as our frail skiff was carried down the silent stream, for the water moved slowly and silently along in its gloomy channel. Away up above us a thin streak of light could be seen, looking like a rift in a mountain top, while it appeared as if we were passing through a tunnel at its base . . . 3

Six months after Adams had aired his pretensions, another mystery of the river was established when James White was pulled from his raft at Anson Call's landing. Admittedly White did not know the name of the place where he had entered the river but he thought it was many miles upstream since this was his fourteenth day of travel. 4 With the purple prose of Henry Miller possibly in mind, the men of Callville had little hesitancy in telling White that he undoubtedly had ridden his raft through the Big Canon.

At this time promotion in several fields was underway in the Southwest. Anti-Mormon Colonel Patrick E. Connor was encouraging mining in both Utah and Nevada, the Union Pacific Railway Company was surveying for a southern route to California, Captain Thomas Trueworthy with his Esmeralda and the Philadelphia Mining Company with the Nina Tilden were offering competition to the established Colorado Steam Navigation Company for the lucrative river trade, while Callville itself had been founded to bolster the morale of the hard-pressed people who had been called on the Cotton Mission.5 These activities created an 2 Callville was established December 2, 1864, and the first river steamer to arrive, the Esmeralda, reached this point in October 1866. See "Moapa Stake Records" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake City), and Daily Alta California (San Francisco), November 16, 1866. ; /Deseret News (Salt Lake City), July 3, 1867. It is interesting to compare Miller's description with plate LXVIB, following page 98, in E. C LaRue, Water Power and Flood Control of Colorado River Below Green River, Utah (Washington, D . C , 1925).

4 Opposing views of the White claim are to be found in Robert B. Stanton, Colorado River Controversies, ed., J. M. Chalfant (New York, 1932), and Richard E. Lingenfelter First Through the Grand Canyon (Los Angeles, 1958). s See Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latterday Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, 1958), 220, and Andrew Karl Larson, "I Was Called to Dixie," the Virgin River Basin: Unique Experiences in Mormon Pioneering (Salt Lake City

Deaths on the Colorado River

247

environment that distorted perspective, making it easy to believe the unusual, even the fabulous. And in the East King, Wheeler, Hayden, and Powell planned and knocked on doors to promote backing for their ideas pertaining to the exploration of the unknown territory in the West.

It is ironic that the man who dispelled the horror stories of the trappers and proved that the Colorado drainage did not go into underground tunnels or over tremendous waterfalls should himself be aided by the sensational aspects attached to his feat, and that he should catalyze a hero-image which he promoted actively for the rest of his life.

When John Wesley Powell and his crew departed from Green River Station on May 24, 1869, it was generally believed that the men were rowing to their deaths. A few days after the Major nosed his boats into the current of the Green, a man named Hook and a small party also departed downstream. 6 Hook managed to get drowned in Red Canyon but the news was slow to emerge from the river gorge. In the meantime an imposter by the name of John A. Risdon showed up at Cheyenne claiming to be the sole survivor of the Powell party. Risdon gained notoriety and funds (for a short time) ; but more important, he created publicity for Powell, even focusing national attention on the one-armed explorer who was thought to be battling such tremendous odds. Risdon gained front-page publicity in most of the frontier newspapers and also evoked comment in the Rocky Mountain News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Detroit Free Press. Before exposure had granted Risdon obscurity, other pretenders named Riley and a fraudulent Jack Sumner appeared with similar stories.7 To compound matters, news of Hook's death reached Fort Bridger and was confused with the Powell party.

It was June 28 before the Powell men reached the mouth of the Uinta River. Here mail went out from the Indian agency and the country received first-hand information regarding the initial leg of the eventful trip. Among the Major's letters were several to the Chicago Tribune which whetted national interest in the venture.

Two months later the world again heard from the little band that had been brash enough to descend a river containing "sucks," whirlpools, and rapids. Many had given them up as dead when Joseph Asay and his 6 S t a n t o n said Hook was investigating a mining claim a n d not a t t e m p t i n g to follow Powell.

See Stanton, Colorado River Controversies, 115. See also Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Voyage: The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition Down the Green-Colorado River . . .

(New H a v e n , 1 9 2 6 ) , 2 5 ; D a r r a h , Powell of the Colorado, 1 2 9 ; Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 57.

7 Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 54â&#x20AC;&#x201D;57, a n d D a r r a h , Powell of the Colorado, 129.

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two sons greeted the depleted band of explorers at the mouth of the Virgin on August 30.

Possibly Dunn and the Howland brothers were dead when the Maid of the Canyon and Kitty Clyde's Sister were beached at this point. 8 If not, they undoubtedly had ceased to exist a few hours later, and news of the tragedy added luster to the judgment of the leader who had challenged the Colorado River and survived.

Major Powell returned to the Eastern States to find himself a national hero. Newspapers coast to coast reported his exploit, and Powell was called repeatedly to the lecture platform. Already an engaging speaker, the Major intuitively knew how to interest an audience.

The 1869 exploration opened doors for Powell in Washington and projected him into the field of mapping the West with the official government surveys of King, Wheeler, and Hayden. A man with Powell's political acumen could do nothing but improve his quasi-official position, and this he did.

As Powell was superior in grasping the principles of erosion and adroit in solving his political problems, he was obtuse when confronted with the proposition of boating on the Colorado River. Ignoring the ability of the flat-bottomed dory, proven during decades of rough-water work on the New England fishing banks, together with the principles of lightness and maneuverability, he had his second fleet built much like the first. An exception was that the 1871 boats had another compartment amidships. Powell then demonstrated his lack of engineering comprehension by having an armchair fastened to the deck of the Emma Dean's middle compartment. The Major sat in this chair through most of the trip, never realizing that it raised the center of gravity and rendered his craft less stable. Even the youthful Dellenbaugh commented that it made the Dean slightly top-heavy. 9 It is significant that Powell became subjective about his river experience and developed a proprietary attitude about the river itself. Not only did he resist improvement in equipment and technique but he resisted anything that was different from his utility in 1869. He compiled his 1875 Report from events that occurred on both trips. However, he never gave official recognition to the men of his second party, an act which caused some resentment.

T h e first record of this killing was a telegram sent from Washington, U t a h , to St e on September 7, 1869. I t said the m e n were killed five days ago. See J a m e s G. Bleak lis of the Southern U t a h Mission" (typescript, U t a h State Historical Society), Book B ' 9

Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, The Romance

of the Colorado

River

(New York, 1 9 0 9 ) , 240.

Deaths on the Colorado River

249

Finally Dellenbaugh resolved to put the second party on record and after informing Powell of his intention, received the following reply: W a s h i n g t o n , J a n u a r y 6, 1902 Dear Dellenbaugh: I a m pleased to h e a r t h a t you are e n g a g e d in writing a book on the C o l o r a d o Canyon. I h o p e you will p u t on record the second trip, a n d the gentlemen w h o were m e m b e r s of t h a t expedition. No other trip has been made since that time, though many have tried to follow us. O n e party, t h a t h e a d e d by M r . Stanton, w e n t t h r o u g h t h e G r a n d C a n y o n o n its second a t t e m p t , but many persons have lost their lives in attempting to follow us through the whole length of the canyons. I shall be very glad to w r i t e a short introduction to your book.

Y o u r s cordially, J. W . Powell 1 0

The Major died the following September and he maintained to the end the subjective views expressed in this letter to Dellenbaugh. It is difficult to reconcile his grudging admission that Stanton finally had traversed the Grand Canyon on the second attempt, and his statement that "many persons have attempted to follow us," with the facts. Powell must have known of the traverses of Flavell in 1896 and Galloway in 1896-97 because these trips were widely publicized. Both trappers solved the problems peculiar to navigation on the Colorado better than Powell, Brown, and Stanton, and each traveled many miles farther on its surface.

It is doubtful that the Major had complied a record of those who were drowned or that anyone had attempted to follow him.

The Colorado has corraded over a score of distinct canyons on its course to the sea. Only three of these have that peculiar combination of natural features that result in big-water rapids and challenges to transportation in ordinary open boats: Cataract, Marble, and Grand. There are fair-sized rapids and many scattered riffles in the other river canyons but nothing that offers a serious obstacle to experienced men using good equipment. 11 The record of fatalities attributed to the river between the confluence of the Green and the Colorado and the foot of the Grand Canyon is not complete, yet enough information exists to enable us to draw some reasonable conclusions and to obtain a more objective picture of the most dangerous canyons of the river system.

10

Ibid., vi-vii. Author's italics. See also Stanton, Colorado River Controversies, 111.

The author has seen swimmers successfully take on Red Canyon Rapid, where Hook died, and Ashley Falls, the scene of the General's wreck, just for fun.

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Deaths on the Colorado River

253

Some students of Colorado River history might question that the river did not get Denis Julien. At this time, the evidence indicates that Julien survived his experiences on the river but succumbed, possibly to treachery, on dry land. 12 Supporters of the James White legend will argue the omission of George Strole from the list of river fatalities. Other students of this controversy will counter that the quick-tempered White probably killed his companions Baker and Strole during a camp quarrel and offered the stories of the Indian ambush and drowning to cover his crime. If Strole was washed off the raft, it most probably occurred downstream from Grapevine Wash and thus outside the scope of this study. 13 It is true that Dunn and the Howland brothers did not die in the Colorado River, yet the stream was indirectly responsible for their deaths.

Had the river been less violent the three men would not have chosen to ascend Separation Canyon in preference to running the impressiveappearing rapid.

Only one of the five Navajos who are known to have drowned in the Colorado received an official death notice, and Lewis Nez probably made the vital statistics because two Caucasians were drowned in the same accident. 14 Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson Colvin witnessed the first known river tragedy involving Indians. Navajos returning from a hunting trip attempted to cross their outfit in an old skiff. The craft was upset when past mid-river and the two men failed to reach the shore.

James Emett, operator of Lee's Ferry from 1897 to 1909, frequently employed Navajos to assist in the multiple operations of the ferry. Two Navajo brothers were working in this capacity in 1899 and, during Emett's absence, took the cable-boat instead of using the skiff as instructed. They failed to let the aft block out and the ferry was beam-on to the current, causing it to dip from the force of the water and tear out the anchorage. Both men drowned. As in the previous instance, the bodies were not recovered and their names have not been preserved. 15 13 For the story of Denis Julien see Charles Kelly, "The Mysterious 'D. Julien,' " Utah Historical Quarterly, VI (July, 1933), 83-88. u When James White was taken from his raft at Callville on September 8, 1867, he told how he and a companion, George Strole, embarked on a raft at some undesignated point on the Colorado River in an effort to escape from Indians who had killed the leader of the party, Captain Baker. White said Strole was washed from the raft on the fourth day and drowned.

See Stanton, Colorado River Controversies, and Lingenfelter, First Through the Grand Canyon.

14 Vital Statistics, Vital Information Office, Coconino County Courthouse, Flagstaff, Arizona.

15 Oral statements from Solena Emett Bennett, of Holden, Utah, and the late Clara Emett Davis, of Richfield, Utah. These are the daughters of James S. Emett.

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The deaths of Henry Roseley and his twelve-year-old son have not been substantiated officially; in fact, Roseley has not been found on any list of Mormons called to Arizona, and even the spelling of his name is uncertain. James B. Christianson and his family were members of an emigrant company and the tragedy has become a legend among his descendants. 10 Robert Stanton was very critical of the boats chosen by the leader of the 1889 trip, Frank Mason Brown, president of the Denver, Colorado Canyon and Pacific Railway Company. However, his criticism was wholly against the building material used — "thin, red cedar" — and the clinker type of construction. 17 Nowhere does he indicate recognition of the true defects of the boats — round bottoms and narrow beams. Since the three deaths which ensued from the use of this equipment did not result from that which Stanton called defective, it is interesting to see 16 O r a l statements from Mrs. Joseph R. Wilkins, of N o r t h Hollywood, California, d a u g h t e r of J a m e s Christianson. Roseley was t h o u g h t to have come from the Provo area.

17 Robert B. Stanton, Down the Colorado, ed., Dwight L. Smith ( N o r m a n , O k l a h o m a 1965), 36-37. '

Peter M. Hansbrough cut this inscription on a rock facing the cove where Frank Mason Brown lost his life. Ironically, Hansbrough was the next to drown in the river. Photograph furnished by the author.

Deaths on the Colorado River

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him grope for explanations and advance such things as "up-shoots" and "boiling fountains." 18 President Brown's boat capsized when it was steered out of the main current which was moving downstream at possibly ten to fifteen miles per hour into an eddy whose current was moving upstream at a somewhat slower speed. When the round-bottomed boat was caught in the opposing forces, the torque resulting from the stronger downstream current simply rolled the clinker-built canoe.

Wrhy Brown failed to make shore is not known. The capsize occurred just below the mouth of Salt Water Wash, at Mile 11.95, and the eddy here is not abnormal. 19 Perhaps Brown was a poor swimmer and badly frightened. He was clothed and most likely wore a vest under his coat. 20 Probably he was wearing boots. Stanton asserted, no doubt correctly, that Brown would have been saved had he been wearing a life preserver. 21 Crew member Peter Hansbrough chiseled an inscription to commemorate the tragedy, as Stanton assumed the leadership of the party and prepared to complete the survey. From the river the route up the tributary appears very encouraging. If Stanton had grasped the inadequacies of both their equipment and experience he would have chosen the two-hour walk up Salt Water Wash to the Mormon Road at Red Point. 22 From here it was an easy day's walk to Lee's Ferry, with good water at Navajo Spring. But Stanton did not make the correct deductions and the next day he pushed his little party deeper into the Marble Gorge. On July 15 tragedy struck again.

That morning the men had made a portage of the rapid 24.5 miles below Lee's Ferry, then had lined around the fan at 25 Mile Rapid to the eddy on the left of the tongue. They intended to run down the seemingly quiet water along the left bank to the rocky beach at Cave Springs Rapid, 0.6 miles below. 23 The first boat was sucked into the right-hand eddy but achieved the objective on the next attempt. The second boat made a better start but in about 200 feet it was swept against an overhanging ledge on the left. The men shipped the oars and attempted to push the boat away from the wall. Apparently the unstable craft became 18

Ibid., 84.

See United States Geological Survey maps Plan and Profile of the Colorado River, Lee's Ferry to Black Canyon (Washington, D . C , 1924), Sheet A, and Tanner Wash Topographic Map (Washington, D . C , 1954).

20 Stanton, Down the Colorado, 89. *Ibid., 81.

22 The author has covered this route and followed a duck-marked Indian trail much of the distance.

23 Stanton, Down the Colorado, 86.

19

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Photograph taken April 29, 1964, of the location where Peter Hansbrough and Henry C. Richards were drowned in 1889. A close comparison on the shore line shows many rocks still in place that appear in an 1889 picture.

The flow shown in 1964 was approximately two feet higher than that of the 1889 view. Stanton called this medium-high water, but modern rivermen would consider this uncontrolled volume low. Photograph furnished by the author.

overbalanced during this maneuver and was capsized. Henry C. Richards swam a few strokes before sinking, but Peter Hansbrough was never seen to rise.

As Powell had misinterpreted the drowning of Hook, the general public viewed the deaths of Brown, Hansbrough, and Richards as further evidence that the river was a beast, always hungry for another victim. 24 No objective voice was raised to point out that inadequate experience, equipment, and leadership were the real causes of these tragedies.

Many prospectors have come to the banks of the Colorado and some have attempted unwise crossings with unsafe boats. Four deaths resulting from such circumstances are on record. Charley Drake is said to have been drowned in a rapid above Ticaboo on June 28, 1889, but the brief entry in the journal of Franklin Nims is the only reference to this 24

Edwin Corle, Listen,

Bright Angel

(New York, 1 9 4 6 ) , extends this personification.

Deaths on the Colorado River

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tragedy. 25 William F. Russell was lost on July 16, 1899, when the canvascovered boat which he and T. A. Fleming were using capsized near Bright Angel. 26 Charles McLean and P. M. McGonigle met death near the head of the Granite Gorge in July 1903.27 They appear to have been interested in the asbestos deposits below the mouth of Red Canyon.

McLean had been with Godfrey Sykes in the delta country a few years previously.28 Improper operation of the cable-boat cost Preston Apperson his life at Lee's Ferry on March 9, 1911. A crewman of Charles Spencer's mining promotion, Preston attempted a crossing when the custodian, Jerry Johnson, was at work on the ranch in Paria Canyon. Unfortunately, Apperson had not assimilated the technique of handling the ferry.

Another, and last, accident at Lee's Ferry took the lives of Royce Dean, Lewis Nez, and substitute ferryman Adolpha Johnson on June 7, 1928. The river was flowing at the rate of 85,600 cubic feet per second, probably an all-time high for boating accidents at Lee's Ferry, unless the exact date of the Roseley tragedy can be ascertained. 29 Six months later Glen and Bessie Hyde piloted their Salmon River scow nearly through Grand Canyon when they met with some kind of accident. The Kolb brothers and Chief Ranger James Brooks went down Diamond Creek and ran an old boat 11.4 miles downstream to where the Hyde scow had been caught by its dragging line becoming snared between underwater boulders. The last entry in Bessie Hyde's diary was December 1, 1928. Experienced rivermen know that at flows of 8,000 cfs, and less, the main current of the rapid at Mile 232.4 sweeps directly into a nest of columnar rocks along the right bank. Several modern boatmen have had accidents at this place and it is reasonable to think that a crash against these rocks could have thrown the Hydes overboard without capsizing the scow. The couple did not have life jackets, and another rather heavy rapid is located a short distance downstream. 30 25 Franklin A. Nims, The Photographer and the River, 1889-1890: The Colorado Canon Diary of Franklin A. Nims with the Brown-Stanton Railroad Survey Expedition, ed., Dwight L. Smith (Santa Fe, 1967), 35.

26 Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, Arizona), July 22, 1899, reprinted from the Williams News (Williams, Arizona).

21 Ibid., August 8 and 15, 1903.

28 William T. Hornaday, Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava (New York, 1909), 291-301.

29 The author has ample evidence that Lorenzo W. Roundy's death occurred at a substantially lower volume. The 1884 peak established the historic high flow of the Colorado River.

30 In an oral statement to the author, Price W. Johnson, of Leeds, Utah, stated that he and his brother Roy had watched the Hydes experience difficulty in the minor Paria Rapid. A wave caught the sweep and nearly knocked Hyde overboard. Hyde told the brothers that large waves in Cataract Canyon had nearly torn the sweep from his grasp.

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Glen E. Sturdevant, chief naturalist of Grand Canyon National Park, believed in knowing the remote areas of the park and had crossed the river as well as traveling its calmer stretches to reach them. In company with Chief Ranger James P. Brooks and Ranger Fred Johnson, he had intended to visit a long tributary a few miles west of Bright Angel in February 1929. The men lost an oar and were swept into Horn Creek Rapid. Brooks made the shore but Sturdevant and Johnson were drowned. Overloading and inexperience were the probable causes.

The first four miles of Cataract Canyon are deceptively smooth, being similar to the river above the junction. However, the observant person soon notices the power of the increased flow, and below Spanish Bottom the velocity quickens as the pitch becomes steeper. The first rapid is mild and the second only slightly rougher. When the neophyte reaches Mile 205 it is too late to turn back and the Colorado plunges down a steep incline of muddy foam, losing eighty feet in the next three miles.

More than one would-be boatman was lulled by the quiet waters of Labyrinth and Stillwater canyons and drifted unsuspectingly into the violence of Cataract Canyon. One who knew what to expect but who still succumbed was Charles "One Eye" Smith. 31 Boaters of sixty years ago suddenly found themselves trapped in an environment that neither they nor their equipment could handle, which is precisely the problem faced by the modern sportsman who drives his outboard into Cataract Canyon instead of turning up the Colorado at the junction. Two such cases resulting in three deaths have occurred during the last decade.

Swimming, playing, and unorthodox use of sporting equipment have accounted for seven lives in the last forty years. The fact that these causes did not appear during the early years indicates that man's judgment has not improved with his increase of leisure time.

Did Bert Loper die of a heart attack or from drowning? Possibly he suffered a heart attack as he slid down the tongue of the rapid 24.5 miles below Lee's Ferry. Possibly he would have lived if the same heart attack had occurred at home. We shall never know since his body was not recovered. Loper's death is a singular monument to the feuds and intrigues that have occurred on the river because this man, within twentythree days of being eighty years old, should not have been running ahead of his party; in fact, he should not have been on the river at all.

31 E. L. Kolb, Through the Grand Canyon From Wyoming to Mexico (New York, 1952), 132-37, 342.

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Bert Loper's battered boat was found ait Mile 40.9, pulled up the sandy talus and tied to a juniper. In the photograph Norman Nevills examines the craft which carried the seventy-nine-year-old man to his doom. Loper used many shingle nails in his construction, some showing in this picture.

Photograph furnished by the author.

In breaking down the figures we find that the Colorado River in nearly five hundred miles, containing the most violent water in its system, has claimed fifty lives since 1869. Sixteen of these tragedies have occurred in Grand Canyon, four in the Marble Gorge, three in Glen Canyon, twelve in Cataract Canyon, and twelve at Lee's Ferry. Twenty-eight of the victims were descending the river, fifteen were crossing, and seven were swimming or indulging in unusual sporting activity. Lee's Ferry appears to be the most dangerous single place on the river, and it is worthy of note that such rapids as Soap, Hance, Sockdologer, Grapevine, Granite, Dubendorff, Lava Falls, and Lava Cliff have yet to claim a life.

During the decade from 1948 to 1957 inclusive, there were thirty-six fatalities due to boat use on Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. 32 Causes ranged from capsizing to horseplay and intoxication. There have been 32 Lake Mead National Recreation Area, "Emergencies Due to Boating Use on Lake Mead and Lake Mohave" (mimeographed, May 1, 1958).

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twelve deaths due to boat use on Lake Powell from 1965 to August 1968.33 The exceptionally low fatality/use ratios at Lakes Mohave, Mead, and Powell can be credited to the intense safety programs initiated by the National Park Service and the Coast Guard, together with improved knowledge, equipment, and safety devices.

This improvement also is reflected in the river-running phase of modern boating. From 1961 through 1968 inclusive, over seven-thousand people have traversed from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead. The single fatality from river descents during this period was Jesse Burton, a commercial boatman who, ironically enough, was drowned when his life jacket apparently caught on his motor mount after he capsized in Upset Rapid.

It would appear that the inability of some individuals to recognize the inherent hazards of the river and to compensate properly for them has provided a distorted picture of the Colorado, and it is hoped that these comments will bring a measure of objectivity to a misunderstood subject.

33

Letter dated August 8, 1968, John M. Morehead, acting superintendent, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, to author.

S T A T E M E N T O F O W N E R S H I P , MANAGEMENT AND C I R C U L A T I O N The Utah Historical Quarterly is published quarterly by the Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84102. T h e editor is Charles S. Peterson and Margery W. Ward is associate editor with offices at the same address as the publisher. The magazine is owned by the Utah State Historical Society and no individual or company owns or holds any bonds, mortgages, or other securities of the Society or its magazine.

The purposes, function, and non-profit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes have not changed during the preceding twelve months.

The following figures are the average number of copies of each issue during the preceding twelve months: 2,500 copies printed; no paid circulation; 1,812 mail subscriptions; 1,703 total paid circulation; 130 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 1,833 total distribution; 660 inventory and 7 for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total 2,500. T h e following figures are the actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 2,500 copies printed; no paid circulation; 1,934 mail subscriptions; 1,825 total paid circulation; 134 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 1,959 total distribution; 531 inventory and 10 for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total 2,500.

The Powell Survey Kanab Base Line

BY ROBERT W . O L S E N , J R .

Capstone placed in a monument

by G. K. Gilbert in 1878, the year the base line was remeasured.

The capstone reads "76 FT. E. OF. B.L.," which indicates the monument was erected seventy-six feet east of the base line and astronomic pier constructed

by A. H. Thompson.

Placed on the corner of the tithing lot in Kanab, the original monument was torn down and this capstone placed in an historical marker near the site of the pier. Photograph furnished by the author.

A

s T H E PIONEERS ADVANCED into the American West and towns began to replace I n d i a n villages, there grew a need for accurate knowledge of w h a t the country was like a n d w h a t it contained. This need led the federal government to sponsor several organizations which systematically Mr. Olsen, past contributor to the Utah Historical Quarterly, was historian at Pipe Spring National Monument and is now historian at the Whitman Mission National Historic Site, Walla Walla, Washington.

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explored the West. The U.S. Geological Survey developed from and replaced these organizations.

The organization that explored the southern half of Utah was the Powell Survey, led by Major John Wesley Powell. One usually associates Powell with the first navigation of the Colorado River, but he was a man of wide interests and activities and accomplished much more than the river trips for which he is chiefly noted. Powell was a man of science, a great oganizer as well as a pioneer in the field of geology. He ultimately became head of both the Geological Survey and Bureau of Ethnology.

This article is concerned with part of the work done by the Powell Survey before the creation of the Geological Survey. It will discuss the first base line measured in the area bounded by Colorado on the east and the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the west. From it Powell's section of the United States, southern Utah and northern Arizona, was systematically explored. 1 But first a word of explanation. A base line is a line of known length across a stretch of country. From this line the countryside can be measured. The principle is one encountered in geometry. If you know the length of one side of a triangle and two of its angles, you can calculate the length of the other two sides. In this context the base line is the known side, and from it the members of the Powell Survey could project triangles to prominent land features. Then the sides of the triangles projected from the base line could be used as known lengths to project new and larger triangles to more distant land features. These triangles were not small. The base line was nine miles long. Extending from it the sides of the triangles reached out as much as twenty or thirty miles.

Under right conditions they could be as long as sixty miles.

The systematic exploration by Major Powell began in the spring of 1869. Starting from the bridge of the Union Pacific Railroad, he and his men boated down the Green River to the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers. He then continued down the Colorado, through Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon to the mouth of the Virgin River. Early in the trip, however, the group lost one of their four boats loaded with equipment and food, and the trip turned into a race with starvation.

They had to reach the mouth of the Virgin before their food ran out.

Thus, the 1869 trip was too hurried to yield the results Major Powell desired. b e t t e r from Frederick S. Dellenbaugh to Rose Hick Hamblin August 25, 1934, in Elsie Chamberlain Carroll, ed., History of Kane County (Salt Lake City, 1960), 42.

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Powell Survey

Powell led a second expedition down the Green and Colorado rivers beginning April 22, 1871. He and his men followed the same route as the 1869 group except they broke off the river trip at the mouth of the Paria River (later called Lee's Ferry). Here they began to explore Powell's section of the country on horseback.

Kanab, Utah Territory, was the supply base for the second expedition. The first part of December of 1871 found all the regular members at or near Kanab. These men were Powell himself, A. H. Thompson, W. C. Powell, F. S. Dellenbaugh, F. M. Bishop, E. O. Beaman, J. K. Hillers, S. V. Jones, and A. H. Hattan. Thompson was astronomer and leader when Powell was not in the field. Beaman, Hillers, and W. C. Powell (Major Powell's cousin) were involved in photographing for the expedition. Bishop and Dellenbaugh were topographers and drew maps. Jones was a topographer and Hattan was the cook. All were involved in triangulation at one time or another, and all worked on the base line.

During the first week in December 1871, Thompson and Powell made a preliminary reconnaissance to find a site for the base line. Eventually they decided the land directly below Kanab would do. The approximate location was determined, and Thompson set up an astronomic transit at the midpoint. By sighting on Polaris, Thompson could determine true north-south and adjust for the exact location of the base line. 2 2

U.S., Congress, House, House Miscellaneous Documents, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., 1871-72, House Doc. 173.

••":

L

Supply base in Kanab, Utah, of the Powell Expedition of 1871—72. The individuals in the photograph have been identified as Renshawe, Riley, Dellenbaugh, Thompson, and Mrs. Thompson.

Photograph gift of the Smithsonian Institution, Department of Science and Technology.

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Near the midpoint of the line, Thompson and some of the men put up tents and set up other equipage that made life in the field tolerable.

This tent camp was six miles due south of Kanab across the border in Arizona. It was west of Highway 89A today.

It was on December 14, 1871, that Thompson began using his transit. His entry for that day reads: "Took transit to the Gap to locate meridian line. Sent Mac to some 'buttes' down the Creek to put up a flag. Captain, Bishop, and Jones at Kanab getting things ready." 3 The "Gap" is Kanab Gap, the break in the Shinerump Cliffs (Chocolate Cliffs) that begins three miles south of Kanab. The "buttes" are the red hills just west of where Fredonia, Arizona, is today. The transit was placed somewhere near where Highway 89A goes through Kanab Gap. From this place both the north segment of the meridian line, toward Kanab, and the south segment, toward Fredonia, could be seen. For the next while there was stormy weather and no work could be done. Finally, on December 23 Thompson got a quick look at the stars. He said of this observation that "before I could use it, it commenced snowing and raining. Drove two stakes, however." 4 There was another aspect to the preparation for measuring the base line. Bishop had the job of making the wooden rods that would be used for measuring. He worked at Fort Kanab where Beaman and W. C. Powell had established themselves and were working on the pictures John Powell would take to Washington, D . C , in a few months. A couple of days later Bishop was making plumb bobs. He first had to make molds in which he poured the molten lead.

Christmas Day the whole party celebrated. The women, Mrs. John Powell and Mrs. Thompson, made plum pudding and other holiday foods. W. C. "Clem" Powell went to the camp, six miles below Kanab, from Fort Kanab to eat dinner. He was "about an hour going down; found camp on the bank of the creek about a couple of miles through the Gap. Found the boys all well and enjoying a big tent with a stove in it." 5 The John Powell family and the Thompson family each had a tent also.

Finally, the day after Christmas the actual measuring began. They put up a flag at the north end, about a mile from the center of Kanab as 3 Herbert E. Gregory, ed., "Diary of Almon Harris Thompson," Utah Historical Quarterly, VII (January, April, July, 1939), 63. "Captain" was Pardyn Dodds who had been an Indian agent and had been working for Powell for a year at this time.

4 Ibid., 64.

"Charles Kelley, ed., "Journal of W. C. Powell, April 21, 1871-December 7, 1872," The Exploration of the Colorado River and the High Plateaus of Utah in 1871-72 UHO XVI-XVII (1948-1949), 382. "

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265

it is today, and started measuring south.6 For the first few days progress was slow. They only measured a few hundred yards a day.

The measuring equipment consisted of three wooden rods held by frames or trestles. These rods were fourteen feet long with pins at each end. The rods and trestles were set up in line, and adjusted by sighting along both ends, using the steel pins. Two rods were always kept in place in case of an accidental movement. They were leveled by use of a plummet.

Every hundred feet a wooden stake was placed in the ground, and a wire was put in the top of it. The place for the wire was determined by a plummet at the end of the measuring rods. The wire in the stakes was the line. The trestles had legs that we â&#x20AC;˘ adjustable, which would make it easy to allow for elevations or depressions in the land. 7 While his crew worked with the three rods and trestles between the north end of the base line flag and Kanab Gap in the north segment, Thompson went south on the second day of the new year, 1872. At the Gap camp near the transit, he placed a rock and roughly plotted the line toward the red hills and the flag that had been put on one of them December 14. The rock would be the north end of the south segment of the base line.

On January 7 Thompson decided to secure Kanab men to measure the base line. Charles Riggs and Thomas Stewart were hired, and Captain Pardyn Dodds was to be in charge. This heralded a new phase in the operations of the expedition. It released the regular members for triangulation and other jobs. They would move from the base line area to prominent land features and triangulate back to the base line. In this way these features would be related to the base line, and larger triangles would be projected.

The south segment was completely roughed out on the twelfth of January. Thompson placed a rock at the south end that day. A couple of days after this, while Dodds and his Kanab men continued working on the base line, Thompson and some of the other men were on a trip that took them to the Kaibab Plateau and beyond to House Rock Valley and the Paria Plateau. They went fifty miles to the southeast, setting up triangulation stations and thereby extending the system of triangles.

They were back the night of January 27.

6

"Diary of Frederick S. D e l l e n b a u g h " ( M S , New York Public L i b r a r y ) .

Powell's own description of the equipment a n d method of measuring can be found in U.S., Congress, House, House Miscellaneous Documents, 43d Cong., 1st Sess., 1 8 7 3 - 7 4 , House Doc. 265.

7

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A week after he returned from the trip, Stephen V. Jones in his diary: "To Kanab this afternoon. Rode with Mrs. Thompson. Then [illegible] and McEntire triangulated around red mounds below camp.

Dodds is measuring from 1500 to 3000 ft. [of base line] per day." 8 The red mounds are the "buttes" near Fredonia today.

February 6 Jones and Dellenbaugh began observing the sun at the north end of the base line to find the latitude there. They found the north end to be 14,863 feet north of the Thirty-Seventh Parallel, the UtahArizona border. Kanab was in Utah by just a hair. They went down the line on the eighth and put up a flag where the Utah-Arizona border crossed the base line. 9 After more measuring, remeasuring, and a short side trip Thompson could say in his usual laconic way: "Finished 'Base Line.' " 1 0 This was on February 21.

At this point the expedition broke up the Kanab Gap camp, went to the west end of the Kaibab Plateau, then via Pipe Spring to the Mt. Trumbull area, and then to Berry Spring — ten miles above Washington, Utah, on the Virgin River. Using this as a base camp, they moved out in small parties to triangulate. The expedition was back in Kanab the first part of May. Toward the end of May they started in a northeast direction from Kanab toward the Dirty Devil River country and the Henry Mountains. The group reached the mouth of the Dirty Devil and were back at Kanab the first part of July 1872. On still another extended trip — down the Colorado from Lee's Ferry to the mouth of Kanab Creek Gulch and back to Kanab — the men of the Powell Survey were extending the system of triangles from the base line at Kanab.

The last bit of measuring on the Kanab base line by the 1871-72 Powell Survey was done in September 1872, just after they trudged out of the deep chasm of Kanab Creek Gulch. They ran the line from what had been the north end into Kanab. Thompson had an astronomic pier built. This was the new north end, and was a structure of rock, "two

8 Herbert E. Gregory, ed., "Journal of Stephen Vandiver Jones, April 21, 1871—December 14, 1872," Exploration of the Colorado River, U.H.Q., X V I - X V I I , 107. According to Robert W. Hill, of the New York Public Library, it was Thompson who was triangulating with McEntire.

The New York Public Library owns the original of Jones's journal.

8 Ibid., 109. The Mormon colonists had only the vaguest idea of where the Utah-Arizona boundary was. This was one reason why the flag was put up, as Jones tells us. The first message sent from the new Deseret Telegraph office at Pipe Spring, December 15, 1871, is dated in Utah. Pipe Spring is ten miles over the border in Arizona.

10 Gregory, "Diary of A. H. Thompson," U.H.Q., VII, 69.

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feet wide and four feet long and two feet high." 1 1 Thompson set up an astronomic transit on the pier, and a tent was erected around the whole thing. From here, time signals were exchanged with the observatory at Salt Lake City by way of the Deseret Telegraph. The purpose of the pier, the transit, and the exchange of signals was to relate Kanab and the base line to the rest of the United States.

On November 30 the 1871-72 Powell Expedition was disbanded.

Most of the regular members journeyed to their homes in the East. Dellenbaugh remained with Thompson at Kanab to help finish the original draft of the map that was later published. Dellenbaugh says The map we made in a tent in Dec. 1872 and Jan. 1873 in Kanab. was based on our triangulation from the nine mile measured base line at Kanab. . . . Prof. Thompson laid down the triangulation points and I drew in the topography assisted by John Renshaw a new comer then. This map was soldered in a tin tube which I carried on my back to Salt Lake in Feb. of 1873 and sent to Washington. It was there divided into two parts which are reproduced in my Canyon Voyage}2

No base line structure built in 1871-72 has survived. The process of cutting and filling by the forces of erosion in Kanab Creek have wiped out some, and the hand of man destroyed the rest. The land forms remain â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the flat area south of Kanab over which the base line was measured and the Gap and red mounds or "buttes" near Fredonia, Arizona.

11 Carroll, History of Kane County, 43.

12 Letter from Frederick S. Dellenbaugh to Dr. Russell Frazier, May 29, 1933 (MS, Utah State Historical Society).

South end of the Kanab base line, some distance from the original end. G.K. Gilbert constructed the monument in 1878, and it can be found, somewhat altered in appearance, three miles south of Fredonia, Arizona.

Photograph furnished by the author.

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The pier Thompson constructed survived for a time. But when the Kanab public square, which contained the pier, was changed the pier was found to be in the middle of a proposed street. It was destroyed to make room for the street. 13 Two structures exist today that date from 1878, the date when the base line was remeasured by G. K. Gilbert and his crew. They found the site of Thompson's pier, measured seventy-six feet east to the corner of a tithing lot, and put up a rock monument. In the top of the monument they placed a stone with the information seventy-six feet east of the base line incised in the top of it. This, of course, means the monument was seventy-six feet east of the base line and the pier. Although this monument was torn down, the engraved stone was saved. It is now in an historical marker near the site of the pier. The other structure is at the south end of ;h Âť, ^c line, some distance from the original end, where Gilbert a tic! hi crew built a monument of stone in 1878. It can be found, somewhat altered from its original appearance, three miles south of Fredonia, Arizona.

The accomplishments of the Powell Survey are impressive. By hard work and scientific insight these men explored southern Utah and northern Arizona. They were pioneers in the true sense of the word. They recorded their findings, and eventually the blank areas of Powell's section of the United States were filled in with exact information. The systematic and scientific exploration, carried out in some measure by the 1869 Green and Colorado rivers voyages, was confirmed, elaborated, and detailed in 1871-72. Accuracy was achieved when the 1871-72 group measured the base line and began triangulating from it; exact distances and relationships could be calculated and plotted. With the exchange of signals in September of 1872, Powell's area was integrated with the rest of the United States.

U.S., Geological Survey, Bulletin 118-122

(Washington, D . C , 1895), 395.

The survey crew attempting to release one of their boats caught on rocks.

See the diary entries for September 27 and 28.

Photograph gift of Kolb Studio, Grand Canyon.

River Running 1921: The Diary of E. L. Kolb EDITED BY W . L. R U S H O

A

.MONG T H E COLORADO RIVER'S many canyons, Cataract Canyon, Utah's deepest, is one of the least known and appreciated. Since Cataract is so difficult to reach by any means, however, its obscurity is understand-

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able. Many will hear of this gorge in the future, for it bisects the new Canyonlands National Park.

Lying between the mouth of the Green River and the head of Glen Canyon, Cataract's forty-one miles cut across the multi-colored rock desert in a flourish of incised twists and turns. Essentially V-shaped, the canyon walls consist of jagged terraces, broken boulders, and rough, vertical cliffs. Sunlight creates weird patterns among the high rocks, bringing out delicate hues of red, yellow, brown, and gray, which change continually as shadows swing slowly about the crags.

In many places ragged rocks have rolled from the cliffs into the Colorado River, forming dangerous rapids. Early river runners often underestimated the force and violence of Cataract's rapids, which led to a series of tragic accidents. Men began to call it the "Graveyard of the Colorado." The Frank Brown-Robert Stanton Railroad Survey party of 1889 suffered greatly in Cataract, losing most of their boats and supplies to the violent waters. Other mishaps, many of them fatal, occurred in following years — even into the 1960's. No one can say with authority exactly how many have died in the canyon's churning, brown waters.* Some men, better prepared both physically and mentally, made it through the canyon without major mishap. Two of these were the Kolb brothers, Ellsworth and Emery, who ran a photograph studio on the south rim of Grand Canyon. In 1911 they boated from Green River, Wyoming, to Needles, California. Their objective was to obtain photographs and motion pictures, but they could not help becoming rather expert boatmen in the process. Whether in boats or ashore, they studied the river in all its nuances — in storm and sun, in summer and winter — not as a hobby, but as an all-consuming life interest and passion.

Dam builders too, were turning their thoughts to the deep, narrow canyons of the Colorado. Devastating floods into Imperial Valley and near Yuma during the years from 1905 to 1920 had demonstrated beyond argument the need for a large dam somewhere upstream. Flood control, however, was only one reason for building dams. Engineers, politicians, farmers, and industrialists saw in the river great potential for improving the economy of the Southwest, in terms of both water and power. Major John Wesley Powell's brainchild, the U.S. Geological Survey, was at that time responsible for locating dam and reservoir sites throughout the * Ed. Note: See P. T. Reilly, "How Deadly is Big Red," in this issue. This article is concerned with the deaths attributed to the Colorado River.

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country. Careful topographic mapping of the canyons was a necessary adjunct to such investigations.

Eugene Clyde LaRue, a USGS hydrologist, examined some of the canyons of the Colorado in 1914 and 1915, though he did not visit Cataract. To complete his investigation, he urged that a mapping expedition through Cataract Canyon be undertaken in 1921. He would accompany the surveyors to look for dam sites. His proposal was accepted and the USGS began planning for the trip.

Also interested in dam sites were officials of the Southern California Edison Company of Los Angeles, who sought profit from bringing cheap hydro power to their fast-growing metropolis. Exactly how the USGS and the Edison Company joined hands for the 1921 expedition is not recorded, but such an eventuality would not seem unlikely, in view of their overlapping interests.

For boatmen, the choice was the Kolb brothers. Emery Kolb, however, was asked to double on the camera, which left most of the boating chores to Ellsworth. Ellsworth Kolb, whose diary of the trip follows, was a highly talented individual. His writing ability had already been demonstrated by his account of the 1911 trip entitled Through the Grand Canyon From Wyoming to Mexico. He was a good boatman who prepared thoroughly and could act quickly in an emergency.

Ellsworth's diary was discovered in the files of the Edison Company in Los Angeles, written in an ordinary five- by seven-inch field book.

Officials of the company have graciously released the volume for publication in this Quarterly.

The 1921 expedition produced the well-known "profile" maps of the canyons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; maps that have been used by boatmen and engineers with confidence ever since. The party chief was an engineer named William R. Chenoweth. Ellsworth refers to himself as "E.L." and to his brother as "E.C."

NOTES BY ELLSWORTH L. KOLB LOG OF CATARACT CANYON SURVEY. Members of the party Wm. R. Chenoweth.

Sidney Paige E.C. LaRue Leigh Lint Harrv Tasker

Topo. Eng. U.S.G.S. Geologist.

Hydraulic Eng. " Rodman

272 Frank Stoudt John Clogston E.L. Kolb

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Recorder Chef Boatman.

Boats named respectively Edison LA. Static Photographic section Emery C. Kolb Henry Rauch in boat Edith used by Kolb Bros, in 1911-12 for same trip Green River Wyo. to Needles, Calif.

Sept 3d. 1921. Saturday. E.C. LaRue and writer left L.A. on limited 10.55 A.M. Sept. 4, 2 1 . Sunday. Arrived at Green River, Utah 11. [illegible] p.m. Registered at Midland Hotel.

Sept 5 21 to Sept 9. 21 LaRue and writer put in time adjusting conveniences to boats; special ring type oarlocks, supplementary oarlocks on each boat to be used in case of a break; holders for extra oars on each boat etc. [drawing of oarlock made in diary] Mr. Chenoweth and party arrived at Green River the night of the 7th. Two of party quit, leaving Mr. Chenoweth, Lint and Clogston of origonal [sic] party. These three were together on the Snake River survey.

Sept 10. Sat. Messrs. LaRue, Paige and Tasker, a Green River man embarked at the water tank above to Co. bridge about 11 A.M. A movie was made of the start.

Another staged landing was m[a]de with Indians, ladies from the hotel, Reclamation Eng. the U.S.G.S. and others for local color. E.C. Kolb and H. Rauch embarked in the "Edith" about 3.30 P.M. Sun. Sept 11. Mr. T.G. Gardine left; Mr. F. Stoudt of the Edison Co. arrived. Boats are loaded.

Mon. Sept 12. Last of party, 5 in number left in the two remaining boats with Mr. Chenoweth, Stoudt and the writer on the rowboat. Lint and John the chef on the power boat. A half mile below town we tried to work the two tandem but neither boat would steer. Mr. C. then suggested that they be roped together side by side. This worked entirely satisfactorily. T h e current was good and we made about five miles per hr. Two prospectors camps were passed by noon. John was ill from the high living in G.R. The sky was clear; there were a few cumulus clouds the day was quite warm, the thermometor [sic] registering 80° in sun. Two miles below Dellenbaugh's Butte we passed Whimmers Ranch 26 miles below G.R. Time 2.20 P.M. Reached mouth of San Raphael River about 2.45 Camped at 5.45 about 40 miles below G.R. on the right shore. Scrub oak and poison oak near.

Tues. Sept. 13. Morning brisk, cool. Left camp at 8.A.M. 8.30 passed a side canyon with walls about 300 ft. high. Reached the center of the Double Bowknot at 10.55.

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Party of the United States Geological Survey and Edison Survey of 1921.

From left to right: Lee Lint, William R. Chenoweth, E. C. LaRue, Harry Tasker, Ellsworth Kolb, John Clogstan, Emery Kolb, Sidney Paige, and Henry Rauch. Photograph gift of Kolb Studio, Grand Canyon.

Time around the center loop 1 hr 20 minutes, distance 7 miles, distance across neck 800 ft. fall in river 6 ft. [drawing of loop in the river in the diary] Temperature at 4 P.M. in sun 8 4 ° ; water 59° Broke thermometor getting boat off sandbar. Overtook Emery at 3.20 P.M., sick since leaving G.R., about 11 miles below the D.B. Emery has killed and dressed a heron; Henry bags a duck in 10 shots with his 22 short.

Camp above a sand bar near a finger formation projecting from wall We have a hearty meal with bread pudding for des[s]ert. The boats are heavily loaded, even the cockpits being so full there is little room for rowing if it was necessary.

Wed. Sept 14. Got away at 8.A.M. T h e motor bucked this A.M. and continued to do so most of the day still we made better time than when rowing. Near noon we pass the cliff dwellers fort on top of a formation standing in a big flat in a turn of the river. No one stops. Stop for noon at the big valley that separates Labyrinth from Stillwater Canyon. The valley is covered with sun flowers on stalks about 7 feet high. deer tracks are plentiful. The walls are now over 600 feet high. The formations are

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picturesque and continue to grow in size and granduer [sic] as we progress. Many movies are made from the deck of the moving boats. We stuck on several sand bars today. Our camp was not an ideal one on account of the mud at the shores, thick willows and a steep climb for 30 feet to the dry ledge at the foot of the cliffs but we are all happy. We have mosquitos at each camp on the Green River.

Thurs. Sept 15. Start about the usual time. Reach LaRues camp one mile from the Junction before noon. 1 They have been out on top in the Land of Standing Rocks.

It is new to LaRue and Paige and they are properly enthused. Paige is wild over the colors and rocks Emery Kolb and H. Rauch remain at this camp for a climb out keeping the Edith; the three Edison boats continue. The Junction of the Green and Grand Rivers is reached at 12.45. A recent act of Congress has officially changed the name of the Grand River to the Colorado. Both streams are about equal in size above this point. I believe the Green is the longer stream. This change will give the Colorado state people a better chance to make the traveling public think they are seeing the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The daddy of them all â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Grand Canyon of Arizona is 500 miles away however. Mr. Chenowith began his survey at the Junction with a rodman on the left or S.E. side, he and another rodman taking the N.W. side. H e told me to continue with the boats down about 2 or 2/2 miles.

My judgement of distance was poor and I stopped at the head of rapid No. 1 three and a half miles air line from the Junction. No harm was done for the line was carried to camp. There are no mosquitos at this camp; the willows begin to dissapear [sic] and there is more sand and less mud after the rapids begin and the walls close in.

Camp 1.

Friday. Sept 16, 1921. The end of a perfect day. The motor was unshipped and stored and my work began. An early camp was made at the end of rapid No. 4 seven miles from the June. I get the same kick out of the rapid running that I formerly did, and these are pretty small. Being with a party of engineers has its compensations; one gets definite information on heights, falls, and distances. For instance rapid # 1 only falls 4 ft; # 2 has 5 ft. fall but a number of rocks made it a respectable one; # 3 falls 3/2 ft., easy. # 4 is longer, shaped like a capital S and falls 8 ft. Nothing is carried around these except the overload in the open cockpits. I have less trouble running the second and third boats than I have the first. Emery was seen by the engineers, on a high point yesterday, but has not showed up yet.

The day was warm and pleasant for shooting rapids, one does not mind the big waves in such weather. Tasker, Leigh and Paige all helped rowing the boats in quiet water and saved me many steps upstream.

There is a side canyon coming in above rapid No. 1. that permits a trail from the rim to the river over which sheep have been brought down to the water. Mr. C. ran his line up here for 11/2 miles. Tasker says sheep have been crossed on ice to the South side. Loper and Russel used this trail, after they lost two boats somewhere 1 There are no rapids on the lower Green River, where it flows through canyons of massive red sandstone. Cataract Canyon begins at the confluence cf the Green and Colorado, but the first rapid is about four miles further downstream.

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in the vicinity of r. # 5 . We note possibilities of climbing out on the south side as well below this point. C a m p 2.2 Sat. Sept. 17, 1921 Mr. C. took Stoudt with him leaving the rodmen and others to help me in the rapids. Our loads are diminishing and we find that nearly everything can be packed under the hatches. Only the surplus is portaged. This makes a great hit with the boys for it gives them a chance to set up a battery of kodaks and picture the boats as they are run thru # 5 . It falls 8 ft but the action is condensed and should make some good pictures. Boat No. 1 had open type oarlocks and one oar unshipped so that the boat was carried into the biggest breakers. It rode it out beautifully. No. 2 and No. 3. boats went thru as planned. Rapid # 6 was small, run on South. # 7 had a swift water approach and a big ending. The two combined fall 11 ft. Emery and Henry came along here. The boys helped me with the boats in quiet water. LaRue operates my kodak while I am in the boats. Six rapids for the day gives me 18 runs as I have run all three boats thru. The total fall is now 78 feet below the junc. distance 9l/2 miles, width of bottom about 100 feet above the stream is 1500 ft We have had no mishaps in the 10 rapids run. The one eyed trapper Smith was discovered on our last trip a half mile below this camp. C a m p 3. 3 Sunday. Sept 18, 1921 Only two small rapids are run today # 1 1 with l / 2 ft and #12 with 2 ft. hardly more than a riffle. LaRue and Henry took the extra boats thru.

The afternoon was spent by Emery and self charting our channel thru rapids # 1 3 to # 1 6 . [drawing of rapids Numbers 14 through 18 appears in the diary] Nos. 14 and 16 being the worst the first with a fall of 13 feet and second one having 9 feet but it is the great rocks, both projecting and submerged, that we fear, not the descent. At rapid # 1 4 we find records chisled [sic] on the rocks by some of the Best party as follows "Col. Grand Canyon M. & Imp. Co. July 22, 1891 [figure of a boat labeled] No. 1 [underneath the figure appears the words] Wrecked. G.M. Wright Sep. 16, 1892.

O n another rock "Camp No. 7. Hell to Pay. Sunk & Down" 4 O n north side of river.

At rapid No. 16, Mr. Stone [in 1909] found a rude scow just wrecked, held against rocks by the torrent, fresh tracks of two men and a boy a coat and other articles on shore. Tracks led up to the cliffs. Mr. S. tried to get some trace of them but had no success. He thought it improbable that they could climb out. We saw several places on either side that we felt certain were climbable without great danger. Mr. C. ran his line to Island Rapid; 4 miles for the day. The weather is ideal, our camps leave 2 The trail referred to is through a normally dry east bank canyon known as Red Lake Canyon. The connecting west bank trail (Kolb refers to it as "south" bank), ascends to the Land of Standing Rocks from a flat area along the river known as Spanish Bottoms. These trails were undoubtedly used by Robber's Roost outlaws during the 1890's. Bert Loper and Charles Russell, in 1914, lost a boat in Cataract, climbed out the Spanish Bottoms side, and made their way overland to Hite.

3 This refers to Charles Smith, a trapper discovered boating through Cataract by the Kolbs in 1911. Though Smith's equipment was woefully inadequate, he somehow made it. On a subsequent trip in 1913, however, Smith was lost in Cataract.

4 The 1891 inscriptions were left by members of the Best Expedition, sponsored by the Colorado, Grand Canyon Mining & Improvement Company, a prospecting company. After their wreck at this point, the eight-man party walked the river bank to Hite, using their one remaining boat to ferry across the river whenever necessary. Very little is known of the G. M. Wright trip in 1892.

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little to be desired and are usually in dry sand well above the river. T h e stream is about the same stage as we had ten years ago. We feel more confident of ourselves than we did then. T h e season is 5 weeks earlier than the former trip the weather then was inclement and chilling. C a m p 4.

Mon. Sept 19. 1921. Mr. Chenowith and Stoudt went alone today, all others remaining to help us. They are all good boys and rather overworked so we did our best to give them a little treat. Everything but the extra oars and two life preservers went under the decks. Besides the movies an 8 x 10 was made of each of us as we took the boats thru. In no. 14. I broke an oar just at the head of # 1 4 and had to do some rapid work getting an extra oar into place. Also lost my hat. Leigh loaned me one.

E.C. took one of my boats as well as his own. Both ran # 1 6 without trouble and we continued our paice [sic] all day. E.C. ran one of my boats thru all but one of 9 rapids that were surmounted this day. This brought us to the lower end of no 21 which we formerly called "A little Niagara. It has 11 feet fall much less than either Dellenbaugh or ourselves thought. Rapid # 2 0 divides on island. Camp 5.

Tues. Sept. 20. 1891 All boats went thru # 2 2 so easily that some of the boys did not waste a film on them. They all got busy on # 2 3 . I ran three boats and had some trouble with each one. Boat 1 hit a rock, whirled bow first, submarined and an extra oar was washed off and gave me a chase to the head of the next rapid before it was recovered. Run 2, an oarlock separated and I used an extra paddle to recover it Static also hit the rock but no harm was done and we muddled thru. E.C. in the Edith came thru without mishap. All cockpits are well filled with water in most of these big rapids.

Rapids 21-22 & 23 have a combined fall of 30 feet + in % 0 f a mile. 5 # 2 4 - 2 5 26 give us no trouble but flood us and keep us continually soaked # 2 6 goes to right side of an island. Mr. C. has expressed his pleasure at the way all work is going.

LaRue has not seen anything that looked like a dam site owing to rotten slide rock, no turns and wide canyon Mr. Paige finds a lot of geology to keep him busy. T h e boys are great joshers, rather lacking in veneration, and call him the "rock hound" [portion of the diary illegible or erased] He takes it all good natureddly [sic] and rather seems to enjoy it.

They also talk a great deal of the allurements of the town of Hite to be found at the end of Cataract. Stoudt has not tumbled and looks forward to a shopping expedition in its department stores.

No. 26 divides on an island and has a very abrubt [sic] drop at the lower end.

No. 27 was nearly a mile long in 3 sections and half filled our boats. Emery ran the Static thru.

Tasker says the country above this camp No. 8, is called Water Hole Flat, Garfield Co., Utah. Leigh and Tasker took two boats through the interval to camp 7 at head of rapid 28. Mr. C. has run his line \l/2 miles farther. We have little room for our beds. Walls are quite sheer and very picturesque on north. We have seen 5 Rapids 21, 22, and 23, as numbered on this expedition, constitute what is known today as "The Big Drop," one of the sharpest inclines on the entire Colorado River. Many bad accidents have occurred here. Just below the Big Drop the river elevation is 3,700 feet, the maximum elevation of Lake Powell.

many places where a climb out is possible on both sides. Paige reached a spot within 200 feet of the top at one point T h e boys went fishing last night and this A.M. Got a dozen bony tails. Pictured one. There are 4 high, narrow peaks projecting from the wall south of camp. Camp 6 Wed. Sept 21 1921 Made photos of peaks and down stream at camp, all aboard for # 2 8 . Emery and I had ran one boat successfully; then each started down a second time.

E.C. was carried against a great rock on the shore, broke an oar and hit another submerged rock. No damage down [done?].

Emery carried Henry and I gave Tasker a lift thru the 10 ft fall in No. 29. In No. 32, while Emery was making a movie my oar lock came apart and I had a rather strenuous time recovering the oar. It should make a good picture. This rapid is at the mouth of Gypsum Canyon, which comes in from the South.

Mr. C ran his line up for nearly 3 miles. We camped for the day at the mouth of a small canyon a mile below. Emery and I follow it up until it boxes. See many deer tracks.

Camp is at a beautiful spot. The boys fired some great drift piles tonight and lighted up the canyon walls to the very top, 2400 feet above. One of the fires went up about 50 feet.

This is the first bend suitable for a dam site but the walls are rotten, just as they have been all through, and wide apart. Camp 7 Thurs. Sept 22. Emery made some camp movies this morning as the engineers were leaving for their work. In rapid # 3 6 Emery and Henry got into a m[e]an hole but, got out without a capsize. This series has 8 ft. fall

The survey crew at work near the end of Cataract Canyon. Photograph gift of Kolb Studio, Grand Canyon.

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For the first time today the shore pinches out on the South side for a short distance. Movies were made by Emery of the engineers working along shore. The narrow walls here expedite the surveyers work, [portion of the diary illegible or erased] camped at a beautiful side canyon with clear pools, coming in from the north.

I suggest calling it Chenoweth Canyon, but he overrules it and calls it Clearwater. 6 We are 24/2 miles from the Junction The drop in the river is 315.4 feet.

I tried to reach the head of this canyon, but failed. LaRue found two arrow heads and I got a small piece of pottery in a high [?] cliff ruin close to camp. The boys lighted 10 fires in the big drift piles and we try our luck at taking some pictures by their light Camp 8.

Friday Sept 23 Only two medium sized rapids today and two riffles. The engineers ran their line for 5 l/$ miles. T h e narrow canyon helps a lot. C a m p was made about 30 miles from the Junct. where shale slopes run up on e[i]ther side to the top. Below this point LaRue has located a dam site.7 Emery, Paige and myself climbed out on the south side leaving at 5 P.M. The top was reached 1 hr and 15 min later. We g [crossed out] at at [an?] elevation of 1575 ft above the river. Darkness came on before we got back at 8 P.M. Hard work but we made it safely. Camp 9.

Sept. Sat. 24, 1921 Moved camp x/2 mile today to LaRues spillway site Emery and Henry pulled out for Dark Canyon. The boys did not need me in the afternoon so I climbed out again on the Northside. Killed a side winder and found some mountain sheep horns. There are many formations on the plateau possibly 600 feet high the nearest one about four miles distant. Got back to camp again at 8. Had a difficult time in the dark, no moon but a clear sky A trail could be made in the rotten rock on either side without much difficulty C a m p 10.

Sun. Sept 25 1921 LaRue took one loaded boat around the turn John and I remained in camp, a half mile below last camp, sweating in the sun and fighting flies, while the crew survey the dam site, or power plant flat. It is not much, just a sloping hillside where a small canyon comes down. Emery and H. come back and report the worst rapid yet, a mile above Dark Canyon. Camp 11 Mon. Sept 26 Mr. Chenoweth works on the flat until 2.30 then we pull out. Find a rapid much worse than ten years ago. I run one boat through this evening C a m p 12 Tues Sept 27 1921 This rapid has [blank] fall but has a lot of rocks badly placed at a turn near the end. One of my boats goes into these rocks but worms thru without touching. Emery got through safely. About noon we arrive at Dark Canyon. The 6 Clearwater Canyon was visited by members of Powell's 1871 expedition, one of whom, S. V. Jones, was so ecstatic about its beauties that he called it "Eden Canyon." Although a few other canyons might seem to fit Jones's description, an investigation in 1963 disclosed that Clearwater was the only canyon that could possibly fit with accounts of time, distance, and other information in the expedition diaries.

7 LaRue's concrete dam at this point would have been known as Dark Canyon Dam, and was to have risen 532 feet above the river. The reservoir would have backed up the Green to Green River, Utah, On the Colorado it would have submerged "the small settlement of Moab." The dam site was strongly considered until the late 1940's, when it was decided to build a higher than previously planned dam in lower Glen Canyon. Dark Canyon Dam site has been innundated by Lake Powell. (See U.S., Department of the Interior, Geological Society, E. C. LaRue, Water Power and Flood Control of Colorado River Below Green River, Utah, Water Supply Paper 556 (Washington, D . C , 1935).

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rapid has not improved with age, in fact its much worse; has about 50 rocks badly placed on the south side and has a dangerous turn, filled with great rocks. Still I thought it could be run and save a lot of time. Evidently I was mistaken. One loaded boat, the L.A. was put in, landed in a nest of rocks 50 feet from the south shore. Got a line from shore but our combined efforts failed to budge it. I cooned the line to shore T h e Edison, half loaded, did a little better; lodged on a flat rock but was shoved off and landed safely. The Static was emptied, started better, but went into the turn and capsized. I hung to the boat but until it approached the Island Rapid where I swam out. The boat got into an eddy 100 ft. below, Tasker had made a run and came down in the Edison and the boat was towed to shore. Both boats were towed back to camp at lower end of the rapid. Camp 13 Wed. Sept 28. 1921. Emery has made a pulley out of a 4 inch cottonwood stick and some 1 inch sticks. It is swung on the ropes with a line both ways. We go to boat and run the load to shore. Takes until nearly noon. The boat was pried off, and after a little lining was safely landed. The Edith was lined thru. Camp 13.

Thurs. Sept. 29. 1921. Tasker and Lint take a boat each thru the Island Rapid. It is very tame compared with what it was ten years ago. A mile below is a little one which is the first place, M r Paige says, where bed rock projects. LaRue has another dam location that holds us up a mile above Mill Crag Bend. Camp 14* Friday, Sept 30. 1921. About 2 P.M. we reach Mill Crag Bend. Remain here for camp. Mr. C ran his line up Mill Crag for % mile. See our chisled [sic] names left here ten years ago less 1 month.

[There is an entire page that is illegible in the diary. It appears to be an account of the party's arrival at Hite.]

Sat. Oct. 1. 1921 The boys celebrated last night with fireworks. It rained a little last night and drizzled today. There are many mineral springs all thru this section. T h e dam site survey was completed and the line continued within less than a mile of the Freemont [sic]. T h e boys saw some mountain sheep today. C a m p 15.9 Sun. Oct. 2. 1921 Chilly from the rains. Mr. C. completed his line to the Freemont and tied in to his old line. The river is 10 ft lower now. Hite is reached about 11 A.M. T h e mayor Tom Humphries, is out but returns later with four cattlemen visiting him. Two women from Hanksville who have been putting up fruit left yesterday.

When we were v here before only one^woman had visited the ranch in 12 years. T h e boys tried to make the motor run but without success. Continued down to Lopers ranch. It was dark when last boat arrived. Sand bars held them back 10 s Although engineers in these years liked to build dams on horseshoe bends, where penstocks and spillways could be run through the rock neck, LaRue realized that any dam at Mille Crag Bend would greatly limit the size of Glen Canyon Reservoir, just downstream.

9 They celebrated their exit from Cataract Canyon, which ends at Mille Crag Bend.

The right bank tributary, five and one-half miles below Cataract, was for a time known as the Fremont. Map makers have recently changed the name back to the original and more colorful name, Dirty Devil. The short canyon between Mille Crag Bend and the Dirty Devil is Narrow Canyon. Glen Canyon officially begins at the Dirty Devil.

10 Loper Ranch is located at the mouth of Red Canyon. Bert Loper lived there as a hermit from 1907 to 1915.

Emery Kolb running rapids in Cataract Canyon on the Photograph gift of Kolb Studio, Grand Canyon.

expedition.

Mon. Oct 3 '21 Open country brings dew and a chilly night but it is more than comfortably warm in the day on the river. Lunch is eaten at Smith's Fork where we photograph the pictographs. A mile and a half run brings us to Hansen Creek where Mr. C. has a cache. His back country work begins here, and we sort out our stuff; as we part company tomorrow. All men work and boats are in good condition. Mr. C. retains the boat L A . 1 1 Tues. Oct. 4. '21 Left at 9 A.M. with two boats the Static and the Edison with Mr. Paige, LaRue and self to handle them E.C. and Henry on the Edith. T h e L.A. is left with Mr. C. to bring down to Lees Ferry. About 11 oclock we hear a motor and are soon met by Tom Whimmer and another in one of the open boats. They tell us that Hough has proceeded twenty miles below Halls Creek. Some of Mr. C's stuff is unloaded here and 1500 lbs. is taken on for Mr. Trimbles party; to be left with one boat at the mouth of the San Juan. We lunch with Whimmer, leave at 1 P.M. but hold up for 15 minutes to talk with Mr. White and two others who have just hauled in a canoe. Six miles below see one of Hough's motors on shore. Lots of swift water.

Camp at 5. LaRue says the PM run was 16 miles. Hardly seems that.

11 The lower part of Glen Canyon was surveyed primarily by land, with USGS crews working out of Lee's Ferry. Chenoweth left the 1921 boating expedition to survey the upper reaches of Glen Canyon.

Wed. Oct. 5. 1921 Left camp at 7 this A.M. A mile below the Water Pocket Fold cropped out Made some snaps from the boat. Passed two eroded formations at rivers edge. A half mile below at 9 A.M. passed a permanent camp evidently belonging to the men who have located the oil seeps that show here. Location notice badly washed. One is Frank Bennett Just before noon we pass Hough's camp. T w o miles below at the Escalante reach the corps, all are well. About 2.30, on approaching the San J u a n ; was pleased for diversfe] reasons to find the Trimble party here, 12 arrived two days previous. They welcome the load of supplies as well as the boat.

They look as if they have had a hard time, surveying \AAl/2 miles of the San Juan, with a fall of 1000 ft. (?) It's a dirty red stream; the Colo, is clear by comparison.

Elev. about 3250 ft. Loper has his two boats in good condition. Mr. H. D. Miser, geologist for the party is to go out with Mr. Paige. Emery and Henry left about 3.30.

We left with the Edison at 4.15. Two hours traveling bring us to the Canyon Bridge but it takes a walk up to the Aztec ruins, so called, to convince me. 13 See a coyote We camped on the island below to avoid the slime. It threatens rain tonight.

12 The K. W. Trimble party was surveying for profile maps of the San Juan River. Trimble's boatman was Bert Loper.

13 This well-known, two-room cliff ruin just inside the mouth of Forbidding Canyon apparently led nineteenth century prospectors to name the stream Aztec Creek. The cliffdwellers were then believed to have been ancestors of the Aztecs. In 1911 the Kolb brothers tried, but failed to locate this canyon. The 1921 expedition was the first to walk up Forbidding and Bridge canyons to Rainbow Bridge. On this five-mile walk, Ellsworth and Emery Kolb cut numerous direction signs in rocks along the trail.

282

Utah Historical

Quarterly

Thurs. Oct. 6. 1921. It did rain and blow. Left mouth of Aztec about 8, reached the Bridge in 1.50 leisurely walking Elev. by two baromoters [sic] up and down vary between 315 and 350 feet above river level. Small canyon at Rainbow Bridge could be darned; stream could be elevated and diverted around Bridge. Flood water below this point would have to be pumped out 1 4 Pass a small cliff ruin half way up. Drifting clouds about Navajo Mt. Leave a few directional signs. LaRue posts some notices for engineers upstream. We camp about 11 miles below the island at Aztec. Gregories m a p for Bridge is incorrect.

Leave a can of gas with a note for Hough. Saw two beaver, one close Rock wall on north to keep stock from going up stream.

Friday. Oct 7. 1921 Windy night and lots of sand. Clear this A.M. Leave camp about 8 A.M. Saw a wild horse, dappled gray in color, at rivers edge on right. 15 This part of Glen Canyon compares well with the Grand Canyon in its stratified peaks, some of them attaining the level of the rim. Have quit guessing heights.

Noon. Stopped to make coffee. About 2 P.M. reached Crossing of the Fathers.

Climbed out on the South to take some snaps. Camped at the mouth of Warm Creek.

No sign of Fowler. Leave gas.

Sat Oct 8, 1921 Pulled out at 7.30 A.M. 1 hr, 53 min. rowing to reach Sentinel Rock. 28 min. to Navajo Creek about 11 met Mr. Jockel's precise level party l]/2 miles above Lees Ferry. Took lunch with them. Arrived at Lees' Ferry [blank] A.M. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Cockroft [the name is also spelled with a "K," and you cannot distinguish which letter begins the name] taking guage [sic] readings. Mr. Ducker and Marrs just ready to pull out with the big power boat, with a new paddlewheel, for upstream. 16 Sunday. Oct. 9. 1921 Loafed & cleaned up, visited ranch.

Monday. Oct 10. 1921 Worked on motor. Big boat returned in P.M. Got to Warm Creek in 13 hrs running time.

Tues. Oct. 11. 1921 Mr. Ward, Dennis, Gar dine and others arrived late this evening by motor from Flagstaff.

Oct. 12. 1921. We see the party all on board the motor boat, dissapear [sic] around the bend, headed up stream.

14 A barrier dam in the Narrows, at the mouth of Bridge Canyon, was probably suggested

by LaRue, thus anticipating by some thirty-five years the demand by conservation groups that Lake Powell not be allowed to enter Rainbow Bridge National Monument. In the early 1960's, however, Congress refused to appropriate money for such a barrier dam.

15 Apparently the origin of the name Wild Horse Bar, which is just upstream from the mouth of Rock Creek.

16 This powerboat was the Navajo, owned and operated by the Southern California Edison Company. The paddlewheel of this craft now reposes in solitary ruin a short distance from the left bank of the river at Lee's Ferry. Kolb fails to mention boating through the proposed site of Glen Canyon Dam, probably because LaRue had already investigated it. The site was four miles upstream from Lee's Ferry. From 1921 until 1928 LaRue fought bitterly to have Glen Canyon Dam built first, but he lost to the proponents of Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Bureau of Reclamation investigators in the late 1940's rejected LaRue's Mile 4 dam site in Glen Canyon because of poor foundation conditions. The present Glen Canyon Dam is located 15.3 miles above Lee's Ferry.

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283

Messrs. Paige, LaRue, Miser, Rauch, E.C. Kolb E.L. Kolb board the truck, with Griffith driving, and reach Flagstaff about midnight. Register at the Weatherford Hotel.

Oct. 13. 1921 LaRue and Paige leave by train for their homes. Miser goes with us, by our Ford truck, to the Grand Canyon.

Finis.

T h e Colorado River "is a veritable dragon, loud in its dangerous lair, defiant, fierce, opposing utility everywhere, refusing absolutely to be bridled by Commerce, perpetuating a wilderness, prohibiting mankind's encroachments, and in its immediate tide presenting a formidable host of snarling waters whose angry roar, reverberating wildly league after league between giant rock-walls carved through the bowels of the earth, heralds the impossibility of human conquest and smothers hope. From the tiny rivulets of its snowy birth to the ferocious tidal bore where it dies in the sea, it wages a ceaseless battle as sublime as it is terrible and unique.

"Such is the great Colorado River of the West, rising amidst the fountains of the beautiful Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, . . . Whirling down ten thousand feet in some two thousand miles, it meets the hot level of the Red Sea, once the Sea of Cortes, now the Gulf of California, in tumult and turmoil. In this long run it is cliff-bound nine-tenths of the way, and the whole country drained by it and its tributaries has been wrought by the waters and winds of ages into multitudinous plateaus and canyons. T h e canyons of its tributaries often rival in grandeur those of the main stream itself, and the tributaries receive other canyons equally magnificent, so that we see here a stupendous system of gorges and tributary gorges, which, even now bewildering, were to the early pioneer practically prohibitory. Water is the master sculptor in this weird, wonderful land, yet one could there die easily of thirst. Notwithstanding the gigantic work accomplished, water, except on the river, is scarce. Often- for months the soil of the valleys and plains never feels rain; even dew is unknown. In this arid region much of the vegetation is set with thorns, and some of the animals are made to match the vegetation. A knowledge of this forbidding area, . . . has been finally gained only by a long series of persistent efforts, attended by dangers, privations, reverses, discouragements, and disasters innumerable." (Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, The Romance of the Colorado River . . . [New York, 1904], 4.)

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