Powell - Colorado River Expedition 1869 - Wyoming Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

On May 24, 1869, the Powell - Colorado River Expedition, ten men and four boats strong, embarked from these environs on a voyage of adventure resulting in civilization's first definite knowledge of this continent's last unexplored major river drainage. Out of the still shaded, but no longer unknown, depths of that river's Grand Canyon came, 98 days later, six tattered river veterans to triumphantly beach two water-worn and rock-mauled hulks.

This adventure, no odyssey if measured by elapsed time alone, easily qualifies by the other standards of suspense, danger and action. Its successful completion captured and held the admiration of a nation.

John Wesley Powell himself -- cast in the hero's role and endowed with rare executive and scientific talents -- rode the crest of national acclaim into public service and the highest councils of the republic. Over the years his ever-sharpening executive ability resulted in the creation and productiveness of important federal agencies, while his scientific genius contributed to the advancement of such divergent disciplines as ethnology, geology and agronomy. Perhaps his greatest gift to the nation, conceived during Colorado River explorations, was the theory of arid-land culture. As developed, through his success in fathering the Bureau of Reclamation, this theory has changed the face of western landscapes and caused extensive geographic regions to blossom and thrive.