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Title: Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell, Wallace Earle Stegner ISBN: 0-14-243752-2 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An epic narrative by an epochal figure
Comment: John Wesley Powell, for better or worse, made the American West what it is today. He was the primary founder of the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that has vandalized the West, and of the United States Geological Service. He also completed the last great feat of exploration on American soil when he and his cohorts undertook the voyage that is the main subject of this book. That the book combines two voyages into one epic adventure is not widely known, but it does not detract from the narrative to any meaningful extent.
Powell's narrative of the so-called Grand Canyon voyage is simply, yet powerfully, written, even carrying touches of the poetic. It is easy to sense his feelings of awe and wonder, particularly in exploring the canyons themselves. Powell never put his main function, scientific discovery, out of mind until the race through the Grand Canyon became one against the calendar as well as the power of the river. Even then, his writing evidences a sense of charity and concern toward his men.
Powell's narrative evokes many vivid memories of the beauty and timelessness of the country he explored, particularly his writings on the now-vanished Glen Canyon. It seems a pity, somehow, that much of what he saw is buried under stagnant, polluted reservoirs, the worst of which ironically carries his name. Would this brilliant, feeling man approve? I do not think so.
The growing recognition of the role native Americans have played in our country's history and development would find a more sympathetic vein with Powell, and his studies of ethnography and acclimatation to the arid habitat by native Americans may prove a more lasting memoir. These parts of the book should be read with equal care.
As to the canyons themselves, Powell would be the first to tell you that the artificial plug of stone at Page, Arizona, is only temporary, and that, as with the volcanic debris at Lava Falls, the river will soon have its way again.
Rating: 4
Summary: Exploration of the Last Unmapped Part of Continental U.S.
Comment: On May 24, 1869, Major John W. Powell, a one-armed veteran of the Civil War, along with nine others (geologists, geographers, scouts and adventurers), set out from Green River, Wyoming to explore the last great unmapped and unknown portion of the continental U.S. No man had ever descended the Colorado river as it cut its way through 1,000 miles of incredibly rugged badlands. However, Powell and his band of men completed a remarkable journey of exploration through this country.
A passage from Powell's narrative of the expedition, after they had been on the river nearly two months, conveys very well a perspective of the challenge Powell and his men faced, the courage they demonstrated and Powell's matter of fact, but powerful writing style.
"We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, chafe each other as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito-net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried and the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun and reshrunken to their normal bulk. The sugar has all melted and gone on its way down the river. But we have a large sack of coffee. The lightening of the boats has this advantage--they will ride the waves better; and we shall have but little to carry when we make a portage. We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth and the great river shrinks into insignificance as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs that rise to the world above. The waves are but puny ripples. We are but pigmies, running up and down among the sands or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not. What rocks beset the channel, we know not. What walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever. To me, the cheer is somber and the jests ghastly."
This book is a classic tale of exploration and discovery!
Rating: 5
Summary: Best book ever
Comment: makes you feel like you are there, check out the song mr. powell by the ozark mountain daredevils.
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Title: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West by Wallace Earle Stegner, Bernard DeVoto ISBN: 0140159940 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1992 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Down the Great Unknown : John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon by Edward Dolnick ISBN: 0060955864 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: A Field Guide to the Grand Canyon by Stephen R. Whitney, Stephenr Whitney ISBN: 0898864895 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0345326490 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri ISBN: 0816512868 Publisher: University of Arizona Press Pub. Date: March, 1992 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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