Down the Great Unknown

Down the Great Unknown PDF Author: Edward Dolnick
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006176034X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Drawing on rarely examined diaries and journals, Down the Great Unknown is the first book to tell the full, dramatic story of the Powell expedition. On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. The Grand Canyon, not explored before, was as mysterious as Atlantis—and as perilous. The ten men set out from Green River Station, Wyoming Territory down the Colorado in four wooden rowboats. Ninety-nine days later, six half-starved wretches came ashore near Callville, Arizona. Lewis and Clark opened the West in 1803, six decades later Powell and his scruffy band aimed to resolve the West’s last mystery. A brilliant narrative, a thrilling journey, a cast of memorable heroes—all these mark Down the Great Unknown, the true story of the last epic adventure on American soil.

Down the Great Unknown

Down the Great Unknown PDF Author: Edward Dolnick
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006176034X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Get Book

Book Description
Drawing on rarely examined diaries and journals, Down the Great Unknown is the first book to tell the full, dramatic story of the Powell expedition. On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. The Grand Canyon, not explored before, was as mysterious as Atlantis—and as perilous. The ten men set out from Green River Station, Wyoming Territory down the Colorado in four wooden rowboats. Ninety-nine days later, six half-starved wretches came ashore near Callville, Arizona. Lewis and Clark opened the West in 1803, six decades later Powell and his scruffy band aimed to resolve the West’s last mystery. A brilliant narrative, a thrilling journey, a cast of memorable heroes—all these mark Down the Great Unknown, the true story of the last epic adventure on American soil.

The Promise of the Grand Canyon

The Promise of the Grand Canyon PDF Author: John F. Ross
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143128957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
“A convincing case for Powell’s legacy as a pioneering conservationist.”--The Wall Street Journal "A bold study of an eco-visionary at a watershed moment in US history."--Nature A timely, thrilling account of the explorer who dared to lead the first successful expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon—and waged a bitterly-contested campaign for sustainability in the West. John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition—starving, battered, and nearly naked—they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before. With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John F. Ross tells how that perilous expedition launched the one-armed Civil War hero on the path to becoming the nation’s foremost proponent of environmental sustainability and a powerful, if controversial, visionary for the development of the American West. So much of what he preached—most broadly about land and water stewardship—remains prophetically to the point today.

Damming Grand Canyon

Damming Grand Canyon PDF Author: Diane E Boyer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
In 1923, America paid close attention, via special radio broadcasts, newspaper headlines, and cover stories in popular magazines, as a government party descended the Colorado to survey Grand Canyon. Fifty years after John Wesley Powell's journey, the canyon still had an aura of mystery and extreme danger. At one point, the party was thought lost in a flood. Something important besides adventure was going on. Led by Claude Birdseye and including colorful characters such as early river-runner Emery Kolb, popular writer Lewis Freeman, and hydraulic engineer Eugene La Rue, the expedition not only made the first accurate survey of the river gorge but sought to decide the canyon's fate. The primary goal was to determine the best places to dam the Grand. With Boulder Dam not yet built, the USGS, especially La Rue, contested with the Bureau of Reclamation over how best to develop the Colorado River. The survey party played a major role in what was known and thought about Grand Canyon. The authors weave a narrative from the party's firsthand accounts and frame it with a thorough history of water politics and development and the Colorado River. The recommended dams were not built, but the survey both provided base data that stood the test of time and helped define Grand Canyon in the popular imagination. Also by Robert Webb: Lee's Ferry

The Grand Canyon Expedition

The Grand Canyon Expedition PDF Author: John Wesley Powell
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
ISBN: 1423651669
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Explore one of the nation's greatest natural wonders and celebrate the 100th birthday of Grand Canyon National Park with this grand voyage. Join John Wesley Powell's expedition to explore one of the 7 Wonders of the Natural World, and one of the last unmapped portions of the continental United States. Powell's detailed descriptions of the rocks, plants, and animals seen in the canyon, the geography of the area, and his team's interactions with native groups of the area and mishaps along the trail allow readers to feel the thrill, the awe, and the humility of standing on the canyon's edge. Powell's account of his groundbreaking expedition on the Colorado and Green rivers joins Gibbs Smith's best-selling Wilderness series, standing beside the works of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Mark Twain, and Jack London. John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) was a soldier, geologist, professor, explorer, and director of the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1869, he embarked on a three-month journey down the Colorado River, which would become the first recorded voyage through the Grand Canyon.

Canyons of the Colorado

Canyons of the Colorado PDF Author: John Wesley Powell
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
"Canyons of the Colorado" by John Wesley Powell. Published by DigiCat. DigiCat publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each DigiCat edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon PDF Author: Robert H. Webb
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816515783
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Photographs made in Grand Canyon a century ago may provide us with a sense of history; photographs made today from the same vantage points give us a more precise picture of change in this seemingly timeless place. Between 1889 and 1890, Robert Brewster Stanton made photographs every one to two miles through the river corridor for the purpose of planning a water-level railroad route; he produced the largest collection of photographs of the Colorado River at one point in time. Robert Webb, a USGS hydrologist conducting research on debris flows in the Canyon, obtained the photographs, and from 1989 to 1995, he replicated all 445 of the views captured by Stanton, matching as closely as possible the original camera positions and lighting conditions. Grand Canyon, a Century of Change assembles the most dramatic of these paired photographs to demonstrate both the persistence of nature and the presence of humanity. The level of detail obtained from the photographs represent one of the most extensive long-term monitoring efforts ever conducted in a national park and the most detailed documentation effort ever performed using repeat photography. Much more than simply a picture book, Grand Canyon, a Century of Change is an environmental history of the river corridor, a fascinating book that clearly shows the impact of human influence on Grand Canyon and warns us that the Canyon's future is very much in our hands.

Down the Colorado

Down the Colorado PDF Author: Eliot Porter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Explorers
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description
One hundred years ago John Wesley Powell set out to explore the Grand Canyon of the Colorado - something no man had attempted before. His official report of the voyage remains one of the great adventure stories in all the literature of the American West.

The Emerald Mile

The Emerald Mile PDF Author: Kevin Fedarko
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439159866
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The epic story of the fastest boat ride in history, on a hand-built dory named the "Emerald Mile," through the heart of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado river.

The Powell Expedition

The Powell Expedition PDF Author: Don Lago
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 0874175992
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
"The Powell Expedition is a thought-provoking, nuanced work that reads at times like a detective story, and it should offer much fodder for historians." —The Wall Street Journal John Wesley Powell’s 1869 expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers and through the Grand Canyon continues to be one of the most celebrated adventures in American history, ranking with the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Apollo landings on the moon. For nearly twenty years Lago has researched the Powell expedition from new angles, traveled to thirteen states, and looked into archives and other sources no one else has searched. He has come up with many important new documents that change and expand our basic understanding of the expedition by looking into Powell’s crewmembers, some of whom have been almost entirely ignored by Powell historians. Historians tended to assume that Powell was the whole story and that his crewmembers were irrelevant. More seriously, because several crew members made critical comments about Powell and his leadership, historians who admired Powell were eager to ignore and discredit them. Lago offers a feast of new and important material about the river trip, and it will significantly rewrite the story of Powell’s famous expedition. This book is not only a major work on the Powell expedition, but on the history of American exploration of the West.

A Grand Canyon Journey

A Grand Canyon Journey PDF Author: Peter Anderson
Publisher: Turtleback Books
ISBN: 9780613187046
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Describes the geology, evolution, and beauty of the Grand Canyon by leading the reader down the Bright Angel Trail