Seventeen years after Powell, Frank M.
Brown, a Denver capitalist, determined to survey the canyons with the
purpose of building a railway through them to the Gulf of California.
The
main start was made May 25, 1889, from the Rio Grande Western's tracks
across the Green River, with six boats and sixteen men. It was a disastrous
expedition. Brown himself lost his life at Soap Creek Rapids, some fifteen
miles below Lee's Ferry, and four days later two others were drowned in
Marble Canyon. The expedition was then abandoned, the remnant of the party
climbing the Canyon walls, and finding their way back to civilization
assisted by the kindly owner of a cattle ranch.
Stanton's Boats Travel Through the Whole Canyon System. In November of the
same year, however, Robert Brewster Stanton, Brown's engineer, observing
precautions that Brown had so unfortunately neglected, prepared to continue
the exploration. He had his boats hauled on wagons to the mouth of Crescent
Creek near Fremont River, to avoid a repetition of the experiences in
Cataract Canyon; and a good start was made. The party ate Christmas dinner
at Lee's Ferry, and a few days later, slightly below where Brown lost his
life, the photographer of the expedition fell from a ledge and broke his
leg. With incredible labor, the unfortunate man was got out of the Canyon,
four miles in distance and seventeen hundred feet in altitude, on an
improvised stretcher, and then taken in a wagon which Stanton had fetched
from Lee's Ferry.
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