REVIEWS
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Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2018. xx + 396 pp. Cloth, $39.95
Anniversaries of key historical events spawn books, and the 150th anniversary of John Wesley Powell’s 1869 exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers has bred several. The best of these so far is Don Lago’s The Powell Expedition. The most revered writers on the topic tend to be either academics or river guides, erstwhile or present. Academics bring the best tools of their disciplines to the subject, while river guides bring their understanding of the river. Lago, a respected Grand Canyon historian, brings both.
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By Don Lago
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The Powell Expedition: New Discoveries About John Wesley Powell’s 1869 River Journey
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Lago’s book is not a simple rehashing of the 1869 journey. Rather, it is an examination of new information missed by previous writers, a summary of the best research on the most challenging questions raised by the expedition, and a recounting of theories generated in answer to those questions. The book should appeal to Western historians, river historians, river guides, and serious river runners who want to delve deeper than Powell’s own writings on his trip, which unfortunately sacrifice accuracy for expediency. Part I of the book examines whether Powell and his crew were the first to navigate the Green and Colorado. It focuses on the story of James White, whose “naked, sunburned, bruised, semiconscious” body (21) was fished from the Colorado at Callville, Nevada, in September 1867. When White revived, he claimed to have started along the San Juan River and floated through the Grand Canyon. In examining the man’s life and the evidence of his story, Lago deflates the credibility of White and his most ardent advocates.
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Lago makes some of his most important contributions in Part II, “the heart of this book” (xiii), which examines Powell’s crew members. Major Powell built a famous career on the backs of his crew, without whose help he could not have survived the journey. Though Powell has become almost a household name (aided by the large reservoir named after him), his men are largely unknown to the general populace. Historians, who tend to revere the major not only as a great explorer but also as a founder of environmentalism, have underappreciated and even denigrated Powell’s men. Lago helps correct this imbalance. For example, he explores how the Howland brothers, especially Oramel, helped lay the foundation for Powell’s journey and were important to its success. He elucidates the life of William H. Dunn, “the most mysterious of Powell’s crewmembers” (126). And he leads readers to the real William Hawkins, a crewman previously “abducted by alias” (144) in the literature. Lago works further to rebalance the record in Part III, taking some of the shine off the famous story of how Powell lost his arm at Shiloh and revealing that it was not a bullet that did the damage but rather “cannonball shrapnel” (208). Throughout the volume, Lago demonstrates that it was Powell’s “political astuteness” (230), not just his penchant for science, that drove much of his decision-making. Part IV of the book, titled “Naming Names,” along with chapter 9 in Part II, helps readers understand the names of Powell’s 1869 boats the No Name and Maid of the Cañon. Part IV also provides insight into the naming of the Canyon of Lodore. In Part V, “The End of the Adventure,” Lago provides accounts of the end of Powell’s 1869 journey by James Leithead and William H. Hardy. He also traces what happened to the two boats with which Powell reached his destination, concluding that one went on to live “a long and productive
4/23/19 11:15 AM
