"This Region Can Be Approached Only From The South, And After Entering It
There Is Nothing To Do But To Leave.
Ours has been the first, and will
doubtless be the last party of whites, to visit this profitless locality."
Yet Ives enjoyed the Canyon, and wrote some truly eloquent descriptions of
it.
How surprised he would be could he come back now, approach it from the
north, cross the river in a steel cage, and find at El Tovar such an hotel
as even the city of Washington never surpassed in Ives's day. Then, taking
the Grand Canyon Railway, he could speed to Williams, and in twenty-four
hours reach the Pacific, or in four days the Atlantic. We march forward
with great strides in these days.
Powell's Preparations for His Life-Work. Even at the time of his writing
(1858), John Wesley Powell was being prepared to bring Ives's words to
naught. Born March 24, 1834, at Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York,
he found himself in 1858 at Wheaton, Illinois, engaged in making a
conchological collection for the Illinois State Natural History Society.
While engaged in this work, he also secured collections in botany, zoology,
and mineralogy. His mind now opened to perceive that all these sciences
were related to the greater science of geology, and thenceforward he
declared that this should become his lifework.
Experiences in Civil War. During the Civil War, he fought with bravery and
honor, losing an arm at the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862.
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