THROWBACK THURSDAY & DBP MAGAZINE ONLINE PRESENTS: Spotlight on an Original Dirtbag: The One-Armed Explorer by M.Toughill Part 4: The Legacy of JW Powell and The Grand Canyon It is easy to think of the Grand Canyon as the ultimate adventure today. Born into a world where all has been conquered, from the highest mountains to the mightiest rivers, it seems a foregone conclusion that everything must eventually be explored, and in hindsight the task seems legendary but within the grasp of Man. Today millions of people from all over the world visit Grand Canyon National Park each year, and 15,000 people paddle the river. But 150 years ago, Major Powells trip by wooden boat was a first descent of the highest magnitude, an impossible feat through an impassable canyon. The first American to attempt to navigate the Colorado was Lt. Joseph C. Ives, who pushed upstream in a steamboat in 1857, but he was forced to send the boat back at the Black Canyon, where he continued overland to the Grand Canyon. It seemed to him and to all white men who had come before that the way was impossible. The canyon can be approached only from the south, and after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lone and majestic way, shall forever be unvisited and undisturbed. Most everyone with an educated opinion on the subject believed the lieutenants appraisal. It is possible that a local prospector by the name of James White may have escaped an attack by Native Americans on his party (which killed his companions) by riding a log raft. He was found 100 miles downstream, yet his rescuers claimed he had floated all the way down the Grand Canyon; he didnt know where he was and the feat is discounted by most historians. Before Powells expedition the entire river above the canyons was unexplored, but the race was on. Another would be explorer, Samuel Adams, like Lt. Ives, attempted first to ascend the river by steamboat more than once. Then, after lecturing Congress (at about the same time the Major was preparing to set out) on the feasibility of the river for commerce, The Colorado must be, emphatically, to the Pacific coast what the Mississippi is to the Atlantic, Adams with an expedition of eight men and four boats set out on the Blue River in Colorado, intent on proving his theory. Upon reaching Gore Canyon (famous among todays boating community) all of his boats had been destroyed in the rapids, and he declared that nothing in the Grand Canyon could possibly surpass the powerful rapids and height of Gore! He continued on, and in total four boats, four rafts , and eight men were lost, and Adams and three survivors stumbled out of the Grand Valley about the same time that Powell emerged victorious. Oddly enough, Powell and his men were believed to be dead. The Chicago Tribune reported on July 3, 1869, Twenty-one Men Engulfed in a Moment. All but one sole survivor, who had returned to Springfield, IL to tell the tale, had drowned. The man was obviously a con, but that was not realized for months, and the news of the disaster made bigger headlines than the launching of the expedition had. It would also be many years after Powells feat before men would again attempt the journey, twenty in fact. Businessman Frank Brown had a vision to build a railroad along the Colorado down through the Grand Canyon. With five flimsy boats and sixteen men (and no life vests) his expedition set out on the Green River on May 25, 1889. From Cataract Canyon onward, the trip suffered a disaster every day, with boats sinking, supplies lost, and desperate swims. Brown was drowned in a flip in Salt Water Riffle, and five days later when the man who had carved his epitaph was killed along with another man in 25 Mile Rapid, the survivors quit and climbed out, on July 17th. They looked back down at the Colorado to see their leaders lifeless body - they recognized his jacket - floating down the river. Then two innovations occurred that revolutionized river running, and the impossible began to become possible. First, boat designs were corrected. The heavy round bottoms boats favored by early explorers were jettisoned in favor of lighter flat bottomed crafts, reasoning that maneuverability (the flat bottom turns much faster) and weight (Powells heavy boats, reinforced for strength, took four men to be carried empty) would allow boatmen to dance down river dodging holes and ferrying across rapids. The modern Dory was born. Second, Than Galloway turned his boat around to face the rapids to see where he was paddling. The Powell expedition, with such heavy craft, featured two men pulling at oars, facing to the rear while the third man (the Major in his boat) called commands. What seems so obvious, facing downstream to see where youre going, was unheard of at the time. When Galloway, in the lighter boat that he could self propel, turned to read the river, he changed everything. However, not until he made a successful journey through the Grand Canyon in 1909, followed by the Kolb brothers in 1911, did the technique become popular. Looking back through the lens of time, it is all the more amazing that JW Powell and his men accomplished that first journey in the boats they chose with the techniques of the day. Very few men could have pulled it off. There were no photos taken of the boats or on that first journey, so we dont know everything about how they accomplished their mission, and the journals were reckless with the truth and mostly written after the fact, but it remains one of the greatest feats in the annals of exploration. (Every month DBP highlites the life of another person from history who helped create the world of whitewater we now enjoy. The full article runs next Thursday in DBP MAGAZINE ONLINE. Our Spotlight on JW Powell wraps up NEXT WEEK: the last chapter... the Grand Canyon today.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:20:30 +0000
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