River Master: John Wesley Powell's Legendary Exploration of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon

by Cecil Kuhne

In 1869, Civil War veteran and amputee Major John Wesley Powell led an expedition down the uncharted Colorado River through the then-nameless Grand Canyon. This is the story of what started as a geological survey, but ended in danger, chaos, and blood. The men were inexperienced and ill-equipped, and they faced unimaginable peril. Along the way there was death, mutiny, and abject terror, but Powell persevered and produced a masterwork of adventure writing still held in the highest regard by the boatmen who follow his course today. With never-before-used primary sources and firsthand experience navigating Powell’s legendary route, Cecil Kuhne brings this remarkable chapter of frontier history to life.


The American Grit series brings you true tales of endurance, survival, and ingenuity from the annals of American history. These books focus on the trials of remarkable individuals with an emphasis on rich primary source material and artwork.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Adventure, Biography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small book gives a very thorough reckoning of the first intentional exploration of the Green, Grand and Colorado rivers. The author, a professional river guide and adventure writer, also covers the controversies and notes subsequent expeditions. This is a both readable and balanced narrative.

For sources, Kuhne was able to draw on Powell's own (and very embellished) report, along with diaries and reported interviews. Apologists and attackers are weighed on both sides to help determine the truth in the extensive Aftermath and Epilogue sections. The majority of the book before that is a well constructed timeline of the expedition travels, including some notations on current locations. With reservoirs and Powell's namesake lake in the way, this expedition cannot be recreated today. Powell went on to co-found the National Geographic society.

There is one good map at the beginning of the book, and a nice section of photographs in the middle. The second (and rarely discussed - even by Powell) expedition had cameras, and some of those photos are amazing. It would have been nice to have maps of the canyon sections to accompany the appropriate chapters, though online search provides an excellent supplement. I believe I added this book to my reading list on spotting it in a Montana bookstore, and I am quite glad I did - recommended!

[Douglas Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow did John Wesley Powell and his men have balls. Imagine a rowboat with oars; you sit backward and can’t see what’s coming up ahead. They jacked up the boats some, but that’s how these dudes went down the Green and Colorado Rivers through the Grand Canyon. Insane. Ten dudes, four of whom quit. Ex-soldier Powell, who financed two-thirds of the operation himself, had lost his right arm at the Battle of Shiloh. Today’s professional rafters would wet their pants if told they had to run all 200-plus whitewater rapids over the 1,000-plus roiling, cataract-filled miles of this journey in long, narrow, shallow, heavy, round-hulled boats. Kuhne’s history of this geological survey is workmanlike, even plain, relating evidence sans sycophancy. Early on there is some license taken (e.g., Powell stares “…into the swirling current for a long time. He then slowly walked away, never looking back”) but this is minimal. Constantly wet, sandy, and miserable, the men experienced every trouble from equipment failure to acrimony to the severest physical conditions. Hundreds of dangerous stretches resulted in either lining the boats (carefully leading them downriver by rope) or portaging—a difficult, tedious, “surprisingly dangerous” process. Powell, in an impossible position, comes off mixed, the men regarding “…him with varying degrees of admiration, respect, disdain, and utter contempt.” VERDICT Good news for those who like bad news—there’s no good news. A story not of bravery, exactly, but of balls.

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[Dennis Gibb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of pioneers John Wesley Powell was a formidable man who was no shrinking violet. The story of his going down this river in what were effectively rowboats with untrained and inexperienced companions and surviving is incredible.

While I found the story engaging and useful in expanding my knowledge of the subject and his impact on the world of ethnology I found the authors telling of the story difficult at times to follow and his descriptions of the terrain almost duplicative.

It is a worthwhile read since few today know of this man and his work.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

River Master by Cecil Kuhne is a re-telling of the 1869 Powell Expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers. The book "humanizes" the Major, focusing on his flaws in leadership during the expedition.

Kuhne writes that Powell's book on the expedition is not a day-by-day account of the journey and is, in fact, somewhat of a fabrication combining events from his second expedition (1871-72) with the first, moving events around chronologically and geographically, and taking dramatic license with the material. He also describes that Powell glossed over or ignored his animosity with the crew.

Kuhne quotes liberally from previous biographers, most notably Wallace Stegner ("Beyond the Hundreth Meridian" and David Worster ("A River Running West"). He also quotes a great deal and is heavily influenced by Stanton's "Colorado River Controversies" - Stanton was the first (I think) to point out the literary license taken by Powell in his expedition book. Kuhne also rehashes the James White controversy - White claimed to have been the first through the Grand Canyon in 1867, two years before the Powell's Colorado River Exploring Expedition.

I think that a reader that is unfamiliar with Stanton's work could benefit from reading this book. I did not learn anything new from this book because I have read dozens of books about the Powell expedition and Powell himself. If one is looking for a very complete telling of the expedition (noting the flawed leadership of Powell), I found "Down the Great Unknown" by Edward Dolnick to be a much better read that equitably deals with the dynamics between the crew and Powell.

One of the things I found greatly distracting was the errors in geography and geology in the book. For instance, he gives a mileage of 35 miles from Swallow Canyon through Browns Park to Lodore on the Green River; it's actually around 20 miles - I know...I've kayaked it. He also misidentifies the rock units in Cataract Canyon (Navajo instead of Wingate), places the Crossing of the Fathers as "near Lake Powell" rather than beneath it, and places Vasey's Paradise downstream of Redwall Cavern. This is a little nitpicky, but it distracts from the book. If he is wrong about what I do know...how much is he wrong about what I don't?

I can't really recommend this book because, in my opinion, it does not add anything new to our knowledge about the expedition and contains numerous errors.

In addition to Dolnick's book, I would recommend that readers consult the source material for this book - notably Stanton's "Colorado River Controversies". Other good reads for the source material is the 1947 collection of original documents from both expeditions from the Utah Historical Quarterly (University of Utah Press) and a nice side-by-side comparison of the Major's actual diary, his written account from his book, and the surviving diaries of the other members of the expedition "The Great Unknown" by John Cooley.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"River Master" describes the 97-day 1869 Powell expedition down the uncharted Colorado River. They went into the unknown with the intent to map and do a geological survey of the Colorado River. These ten men had never been on a river, let alone handled whitewater. Their boats were less than ideal for this trip. Yet not a single one drowned, despite many dangerous mishaps.

The author quoted from or summarized the information in the journals written by the men during the trip and records of later interviews with them about the trip. He describe what the trip was like, including the friction caused by running out of food, the danger, and personality conflicts. He also talked about James White's earlier trip on the Colorado River and some later expeditions, including one in 18871/72 led by Major Powell. He talked about Powell's official report, which was written like a journal but was much more colorful than the terse entries made during the actual trip.

The intent of this book was to accurately portray what happened on the trip, so the description was interesting and exciting but didn't include the questionable stories from the later official report. While I enjoyed this amazing story, I think whitewater rafters could better appreciate just what these men went through since much of what was recorded talked about the rapids they encountered. Overall, I'd recommend this book.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free Kindle copy of River Master by Cecil Kuhne courtesy of Net Galley and Countryman Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as the subject of the book sounded interesting.  I have not read any other books on this subject. It is the first book by the Cecil Kuhne that I have read.

The subtitle of the book: John Wesley Powell's Legendary Exploration of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon accurately describes the book. The author used the journals of several of the participants including Powell's to counter the legend established by the "official report" of the harrowing trip on the Colorado River.

The book devotes large sections to direct qoutes from the journal and the author has a habit of repeating himself in between these frequent segments. His writing style may appeal to whitewater rafters, but I found it to be not as engaging as I had hoped.  It certainly is not in the same league as several of the books based on the journals of Lewis and Clark as an example.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in this particular voyage of discovery, but it may be more enjoyable for those who are into the whitewater sport.

[Alec · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book because it was one of the shortest ones about Powell’s voyage that was at the gift shop at Zion National Park. I had been wanting to read a book about him for a few years since I learned about when visiting the National Parks of the southwest. However, despite its shortness and ease of reading, I can’t believe how repetitive it is! I was in a constant state of Deja vu. I started getting examples of the same lines being repeated, the same journal entries, the same descriptions of the boats. But since this isn’t for a class and I don’t have to write a book review, I stopped. Just be warned you may be frustrated by the repetition in the book.

[Victoria Wiedrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning started off slowly and there was quite a lot of description of the rocks of the Grand Canyon. The second half of the book delved more into the personality differences between the men. The last part of the book was the most interesting as it talked about who really was the first person to ride the length of the Colorado river.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to prepare for my own adventure on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon 154 years after Powell and company’s dangerous trek. Very well written and researched history of the first official successful expedition down the green and Colorado rivers and through the Grand Canyon. I appreciated the historical analysis in the final chapters.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

He got for himself all the credit
On the spot and with posterity.

[Mike Histand · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engrossing tale of JW Powell's improbable trip through the rapids of the Greene and Colorado.