The Latter Had Gone To
Ferry Lieutenant Beale And His Outfit Across The River.
So in reality he
was ahead of Ives, for he entered the Black Canyon to the highest point
attainable by steamers before Ives did, and thus got the better of the man
who had refused to hire him and his steamer.
Journey Is Abandoned. But Ives went on as if Johnson had never existed,
"discovered" what was already known, viz.: that the river "was flanked
by walls many hundreds of feet in height, rising perpendicularly out of the
water, the Colorado emerging from the bowels of the range," and then struck
a sunken rock, and had to give up in disgust.
Returns East across Country. Sending his vessel, the Explorer,
back to Fort Yuma under the command of Robinson, its efficient captain, the
gallant lieutenant now struck out across country, having received new
supplies and his pack-train. Under the guidance of an intelligent Mohave
Indian, Ireteba, they reached Diamond Creek, and there not only came in
contact with the Wallapais, but for the first time saw the Big Canyon, as
they called the Grand Canyon. He then pushed on east, entered Havasupai
(Cataract) Canyon, visited the Indians there, then made a wide detour to
examine the San Francisco peaks, struck east again, crossed the Little
Colorado, and reached the province of Tusayan, where dwell the Hopis. After
a short visit there, he crossed south and east to Fort Defiance, and
finally returned east with his report. When the Civil War broke out, Ives
joined the Confederate forces and was killed in one of the battles.
Ives's Prediction. As an evidence of the folly of making predictions in
regard to what the future has in store for any region, let me quote one
paragraph from Ives which always has amused me:
"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. When Sherman
began his march to the sea, Powell was given command of twenty batteries of
artillery. He served on the staff of General Thomas at the battle of
Nashville, and was mustered out in the early summer of 1865. Even during
these exciting years, his beloved science not only never lost its
attraction for him, but he utilized every possible opportunity to add to
his knowledge. He made a collection of fossils unearthed in the digging of
the Vicksburg trenches, and from the Mississippi swamps gathered land and
river shells. In Illinois, while on detached service, mosses engaged his
attention, and he was indefatigable in studying the geology of the region
through which his section of the army passed.
Begins Geological Explorations in Colorado. After the war he declined a
lucrative political office to take the chair of geology in the struggling
Wesleyan University, of Bloomington, Illinois. He had married his cousin,
Emma Dean, in 1862, and, after a glimpse of the country in 1867, he took
her and a party that he had organized, to make geological explorations in
Colorado. This was the beginning of his work that ultimately wrested the
secrets from the mysterious canyons of the Colorado River. This preliminary
work led him on, as it were, to the greater work, and in 1869, on May 24,
with four boats, the Emma Dean, Kitty Clyde's Sister, Maid of the Canyon,
and No-Name, and nine companions, John C. Sumner, William H. Dunn, Walter
H. Powell, G. Y. Bradley, O. G. Howland, Seneca Howland, Frank Goodman,
William R. Hawkins, and Andres Hall, he set forth from Green River City.
The simple records of that trip, and a later one made in 1871-1873 (in
which Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, the author of "The Romance of the Colorado
River", was engaged, read like a romance. A condensation of them is but an
aggravation. No one interested in the Canyon should neglect to read them,
and I am now arranging to republish Powell's original monograph, together
with his monumental work on "The Canyons of the Colorado", the plates of
which I purchased at his death for this purpose.
Powell's First Expedition. In the first expedition, the party was from May
24 to August 30 passing through the Canyon system, from Green River City to
the mouth of the Rio Virgen. On the first of September, four of the men,
with a small supply of provisions, resumed their journey on the river to
Fort Mohave, while Powell and his brother returned to civilization by way
of Salt Lake City.
Second Expedition. Though chapter nine of Powell's report as published by
the Government, speaks of the "continuation of the explorations" of the
Canyon, and gives an account of the studies made in and around the region
of the Virgen River, and chapter ten contains Professor A. H. Thompson's
"Report on a Trip to the Mouth of the Dirty Devil River," there is nothing
in the volume that suggests the magnitude of the second trip through the
Canyon.
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