John Wesley Powell Museum

This morning Barbara and I visited the nearby John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River, Utah. For those of you who don’t know who Mr. Powell was, he was the first white explorer to explore the Grand Canyon. During his exploration of the area he named most of the canyons and some of the rapids him and his men encountered. He was also a civil war hero, where he lost his right arm during the battle of Shiloh, the second director of the United States Geological Survey and a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University.

In March 1869, Mr. Powell and nine other men set sail on the Green River at what is known today as Flaming Gorge, Wyoming. He had ordered four wooden boats from a mail order catalogue in Chicago. These boats were delivered to Wyoming by the almost completed transcontinental railroad. Powell and his men travelled south on the Green River to the confluence of the Colorado River and then west, through Marble Canyon and the Grand Canyon to the confluence of the Virgin River. By the time they made it to the Colorado River they had lost two of their boats. One was destroyed trying to traverse a rapid and the other was destroyed by fire. Along the way four of the men left the group as food was scarce and their destination still uncertain. By the time the remaining six men made it to the Grand Canyon the only food they had remaining was some flour, coffee and dried meat. These six men continued on until August 28th when three of the men decided they were going no further. They left the group and the river at what is known today as Separation Canyon. These three men were never seen or heard from again. Three days later, on my birthday, only 89 years earlier, August 31st, 1869, the remining three men arrived at the confluence of the Virgin River. Mr. Powell would return to the river two years later in 1871, but had to leave the group when he received word that his wife was taken ill.

I really enjoyed the museum and it was interesting to me to see the replicas of the boats that Mr. Powell and his men used. At the museum they had a 30 minute movie. After the movie showing the 1869 Powell expedition Barbara indicated that she was impressed that I had done the trip through the canyon. It was a wonderful adventure and the best vacation of my life.