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The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
A timely, thrilling account of a man who, as an explorer, dared to lead the first successful expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon--and, as an American visionary, waged a bitterly-contested campaign for environmental sustainability in the American West.
When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today (thanks to Powell) as the Grand Canyon.
With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John Ross recreates Powell's expedition in all its glory and terror, but his second (unheralded) career as a scientist, bureaucrat, and land-management pioneer concerns us today. Powell was the first to ask: how should the development of the west be shaped? How much could the land support? What was the role of the government and private industry in all of this? He began a national conversation about sustainable development when most everyone else still looked upon land as an inexhaustible resource. Though he supported irrigation and dams, his prescient warnings forecast the 1930s dustbowl and the growing water scarcities of today. Practical, yet visionary, Powell didn't have all the answers, but was first to ask the right questions.
When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today (thanks to Powell) as the Grand Canyon.
With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John Ross recreates Powell's expedition in all its glory and terror, but his second (unheralded) career as a scientist, bureaucrat, and land-management pioneer concerns us today. Powell was the first to ask: how should the development of the west be shaped? How much could the land support? What was the role of the government and private industry in all of this? He began a national conversation about sustainable development when most everyone else still looked upon land as an inexhaustible resource. Though he supported irrigation and dams, his prescient warnings forecast the 1930s dustbowl and the growing water scarcities of today. Practical, yet visionary, Powell didn't have all the answers, but was first to ask the right questions.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published July 3, 2018
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882 people want to read
About the author
John F. Ross
15 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
August 13, 2018
An Interesting Bio
The Promise of the Grand Canyon may not be the best title for this book for a few reasons:
1. It's more about Powell than the Canyon
2. It's more about use of natural resources (namely water) than it is about Powell
3. The author seems (not sure of this, but seems that way) to have an unfounded bias toward Powell
To start with the last point, there is a lot of conflict in the work, as with anywhere men are struggling to be first in a national or international endeavor. The author seemed quick to point the finger at those around Powell. He never pointed the finger at Powell, and always defended him. He overlooked a few obvious faults. Other men were villain-ized for doing the same things Powell was doing. It just didn't seem as credible as your normal history is preferred to be. It left me feeling skeptical and wondering what was not known.
For the second point, again the overall agenda seemed to be bent towards natural resources management. Where Powell's predictions were wrong, this was overlooked and excused too readily. I don't have a problem with that, but I think the title could better reflect the true agenda.
And, for the first point, the book begins with Powell's early life, his upbringing, and his military career. Then the rest of the first half is about his journeys to explore and map the Grand Canyon area. This is all quite interesting material, if not brilliantly written. It keeps your attention. The last half of the book descended into the maelstrom of politics and an almost two century old set of feuds that the author seemed unable to adequately argue. It was not very interesting. There seemed to be no movement. I felt like I was locked in a chamber of congress and forced to listen to the old windbags for too long myself. I found myself wishing I could grab a backpack, tent, and canoe and shove off for the canyon myself... just to escape the dirty business of Washington.
But, to the point of the book... I learned quite a bit here. The author gives a lot of info about the creation of the USGS, the University System, and the history of America's last frontier. The Grand Canyon was the last place we actually explored and mapped in our country. The book gives a bit of info on the Paiute Indians. You learn about the preponderance of liars across the country who pretended to be a part of Powell's expedition. The part about the split in the expedition that first succeeded was very interesting, and sad to see that 3 of the men vanished... dead after abandoning Powell's expedition.
Powell's ideas come across excellently in the book. I was impressed by Powell's realization that 'the clouds formed the mountain and not the other way around.' The book shows how Powell learned to read the lines on the canyon walls and predict water conditions. He made himself into an ethnologist, when he as yet had no training or experience in that field. Actually, all of his work was self taught, which is admirable. But, then again, here not enough credit was given to earlier geological work that was already accomplished in Europe. The first geological maps created there are only briefly acknowledged near the end. I just felt like we were praising the light bulb salesman rather than the inventor of the electric light possibly. It's one thing to say Powell explored and mapped the final frontier. It's another erroneous idea to pretend he invented geology.
Yeah, that whole Promise thing there in the title was kind of overrated. What we have here is a Civil War hero who lost an arm for the preservation of the Union, then returned to battle. He went on to open up the last frontier for our country. He was a very good self-taught naturalist, if not the best leader. And, that was apparently one of his weaknesses... he seemed to be not so great a leader, but more of a do-er. He had very little regard for the men who followed him and often endangered their lives over pieces of equipment. He made them all feel like the men who abandoned him had the only hope of survival. The men who stayed with him out of loyalty gave final letters and valuables to the men who were leaving to be forwarded to their loved ones, because they didn't even believe in their own chances of survival. The departing men, who departed amicably, did not leave letters with Powell's men because they had no faith in him as a leader. Powell knew their departure increased his own odds of success, all of which is acknowledged by the author.
None of that changes the facts of Powell's accomplishments. It just balances strengths with human weaknesses. And that, after all, is what makes a good bio worth reading... the good, the bad, and the ugly in a human life.
The Promise of the Grand Canyon may not be the best title for this book for a few reasons:
1. It's more about Powell than the Canyon
2. It's more about use of natural resources (namely water) than it is about Powell
3. The author seems (not sure of this, but seems that way) to have an unfounded bias toward Powell
To start with the last point, there is a lot of conflict in the work, as with anywhere men are struggling to be first in a national or international endeavor. The author seemed quick to point the finger at those around Powell. He never pointed the finger at Powell, and always defended him. He overlooked a few obvious faults. Other men were villain-ized for doing the same things Powell was doing. It just didn't seem as credible as your normal history is preferred to be. It left me feeling skeptical and wondering what was not known.
For the second point, again the overall agenda seemed to be bent towards natural resources management. Where Powell's predictions were wrong, this was overlooked and excused too readily. I don't have a problem with that, but I think the title could better reflect the true agenda.
And, for the first point, the book begins with Powell's early life, his upbringing, and his military career. Then the rest of the first half is about his journeys to explore and map the Grand Canyon area. This is all quite interesting material, if not brilliantly written. It keeps your attention. The last half of the book descended into the maelstrom of politics and an almost two century old set of feuds that the author seemed unable to adequately argue. It was not very interesting. There seemed to be no movement. I felt like I was locked in a chamber of congress and forced to listen to the old windbags for too long myself. I found myself wishing I could grab a backpack, tent, and canoe and shove off for the canyon myself... just to escape the dirty business of Washington.
But, to the point of the book... I learned quite a bit here. The author gives a lot of info about the creation of the USGS, the University System, and the history of America's last frontier. The Grand Canyon was the last place we actually explored and mapped in our country. The book gives a bit of info on the Paiute Indians. You learn about the preponderance of liars across the country who pretended to be a part of Powell's expedition. The part about the split in the expedition that first succeeded was very interesting, and sad to see that 3 of the men vanished... dead after abandoning Powell's expedition.
Powell's ideas come across excellently in the book. I was impressed by Powell's realization that 'the clouds formed the mountain and not the other way around.' The book shows how Powell learned to read the lines on the canyon walls and predict water conditions. He made himself into an ethnologist, when he as yet had no training or experience in that field. Actually, all of his work was self taught, which is admirable. But, then again, here not enough credit was given to earlier geological work that was already accomplished in Europe. The first geological maps created there are only briefly acknowledged near the end. I just felt like we were praising the light bulb salesman rather than the inventor of the electric light possibly. It's one thing to say Powell explored and mapped the final frontier. It's another erroneous idea to pretend he invented geology.
Yeah, that whole Promise thing there in the title was kind of overrated. What we have here is a Civil War hero who lost an arm for the preservation of the Union, then returned to battle. He went on to open up the last frontier for our country. He was a very good self-taught naturalist, if not the best leader. And, that was apparently one of his weaknesses... he seemed to be not so great a leader, but more of a do-er. He had very little regard for the men who followed him and often endangered their lives over pieces of equipment. He made them all feel like the men who abandoned him had the only hope of survival. The men who stayed with him out of loyalty gave final letters and valuables to the men who were leaving to be forwarded to their loved ones, because they didn't even believe in their own chances of survival. The departing men, who departed amicably, did not leave letters with Powell's men because they had no faith in him as a leader. Powell knew their departure increased his own odds of success, all of which is acknowledged by the author.
None of that changes the facts of Powell's accomplishments. It just balances strengths with human weaknesses. And that, after all, is what makes a good bio worth reading... the good, the bad, and the ugly in a human life.
February 4, 2019
Non-fiction read that will educate you on the man who was much more than the 1st person to navigated the Grand Canyon (1869). A great patriot, having lost an arm at Shiloh during the Civil War, he went on to be a defender of the American Indian and trying to protect the arid American West of over population on a land that could not support a mass influx of people. A water visionary way ahead of his time, he tried to protect the Colorado River Basin to his dying day and as those of us know that depend on the Colorado for water, "it has become America's most contested and controlled river and most likely, the World's".
June 24, 2019
If you have ever been to the Grand Canyon and been awed by the sheer beauty and spectacle of the place then this biography is for you. John Wesley Powell was a man whose adventures, experiences, and sheer strength of character and later work for the USGS and time in Washington DC are all unfolded in this book. From his early teens Powell proved to be an extraordinary man. From looking after his family as a teenager as his itinerate father preached the gospel to being wounded in the Cicil War and losing an arm, to befriending Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Sherman and Brigham Young to being the first white man to lead an audacious group of explores down the Colorado River, Powell’s experiences were greater than can be easily imagined.
The book takes you on his journey and you be both humbled and amazed at his resourcefulness, strength of character and vision. Author John Ross’s prose is crisp, clear, and captures the breadth of vision that Powell had on his two topographic and geographic journeys. Life was tough during his travels. No, life seemed to be impossibly tough, and yet Powell persevered. As you read this book you will learn as much about the Grand Canyon as you will of Powell. Ross offers both the vast sweep of the American West and the incidentals of Powell. Who knew that it was Powell who help improvise one of the first active, effective air conditioners in history, and that this early air conditioner was created to ease the suffering of President Garfield after he had been shot?
The second part of this biography does not capture the energy of the first half. How could it? The second part of the biography follows Powell to Washington where he must trade his enormous energy and resilience as an explorer for one who must navigate the shoals, rapids and watery depths of Washington politics. Powell did his best. His work with the United States Geological Service firmly planted that agency’s roots.
Powell must be rolling over in his grave as many of today's law makers fritter their way through the truth and reality of climate change. Powell had the foresight to see in the 1870’s today’s reality of the scant water resources in the arid west that he knew so well. He understood the value of water, and the limitations and problems that would occur if this precious resource was not managed and respected.
The book takes you on his journey and you be both humbled and amazed at his resourcefulness, strength of character and vision. Author John Ross’s prose is crisp, clear, and captures the breadth of vision that Powell had on his two topographic and geographic journeys. Life was tough during his travels. No, life seemed to be impossibly tough, and yet Powell persevered. As you read this book you will learn as much about the Grand Canyon as you will of Powell. Ross offers both the vast sweep of the American West and the incidentals of Powell. Who knew that it was Powell who help improvise one of the first active, effective air conditioners in history, and that this early air conditioner was created to ease the suffering of President Garfield after he had been shot?
The second part of this biography does not capture the energy of the first half. How could it? The second part of the biography follows Powell to Washington where he must trade his enormous energy and resilience as an explorer for one who must navigate the shoals, rapids and watery depths of Washington politics. Powell did his best. His work with the United States Geological Service firmly planted that agency’s roots.
Powell must be rolling over in his grave as many of today's law makers fritter their way through the truth and reality of climate change. Powell had the foresight to see in the 1870’s today’s reality of the scant water resources in the arid west that he knew so well. He understood the value of water, and the limitations and problems that would occur if this precious resource was not managed and respected.
June 21, 2020
I came away from this biography of John Wesley Powell thinking that Lake Powell in Arizona, which is named for him, represents both his great triumph and his great disappointment. Powell first achieved fame for leading the first (and second) successful expedition of white men to travel the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He then turned his attention to the detailed study and mapping of the typography and geology of the entire country, particularly the West. As the result of this research Powell, who became the founding director of the U.S. Geological Survey, tried in vain to warn Congress that the arid lands west of the 100 meridian would not support traditional homestead farming. Since vested interests wanted to believe otherwise, Powell’s warning was ignored until the Dustbowl eventually proved him right. Powell’s second warning, that large-scale irrigation projects which dammed and diverted major rivers (e.g., Lake Powell) could not ultimately satisfy the demands of western settlement and agriculture, is proving to be true in our time.
Ross’s book is worth reading for this important and timely information. However, the author seems to subscribe to the theory that a man is defined by his work. Thus, Powell’s career is covered in encyclopedic - sometimes excruciating — detail while his personal character remains obscure. His devoted wife drops out of the narrative from the time she gives birth to their daughter (having loyally followed Powell to the then-primitive Mormon communities in Utah) until she and the daughter are present at Powell’s deathbed decades later. What was the marriage and family life like in between? I’m not even sure if Mr. and Mrs. Powell had any other children.
Further, Ross seems to want to defend Powell against charges that he was egotistical and dictatorial in his professional life, but there are certainly hints that those charges have some merit. When he wrote his account of the Colorado River expeditions, Powell neglected to name any of the members of the Second Expedition. Powell’s problems with Congress were not only caused by his unpopular arguments about western agriculture, but also because he stubbornly insisted on spending appropriations on the projects he thought most important, rather than those designated by Congress. A more in-depth study of Powell’s character and relationships, even if unflattering, would have made for a more interesting biography.
As it is, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an important but often overlooked aspect of our country’s westward expansion.
Ross’s book is worth reading for this important and timely information. However, the author seems to subscribe to the theory that a man is defined by his work. Thus, Powell’s career is covered in encyclopedic - sometimes excruciating — detail while his personal character remains obscure. His devoted wife drops out of the narrative from the time she gives birth to their daughter (having loyally followed Powell to the then-primitive Mormon communities in Utah) until she and the daughter are present at Powell’s deathbed decades later. What was the marriage and family life like in between? I’m not even sure if Mr. and Mrs. Powell had any other children.
Further, Ross seems to want to defend Powell against charges that he was egotistical and dictatorial in his professional life, but there are certainly hints that those charges have some merit. When he wrote his account of the Colorado River expeditions, Powell neglected to name any of the members of the Second Expedition. Powell’s problems with Congress were not only caused by his unpopular arguments about western agriculture, but also because he stubbornly insisted on spending appropriations on the projects he thought most important, rather than those designated by Congress. A more in-depth study of Powell’s character and relationships, even if unflattering, would have made for a more interesting biography.
As it is, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an important but often overlooked aspect of our country’s westward expansion.
October 22, 2018
This was an excellent overview of the life of John Wesley Powell, his explorations of the Grand Canyon, and his political career. More than just a biography or a story about an adventure down the Colorado river, the book provides a bigger and more complex picture of John Wesley Powell's legacy as an activist for water rights in the Western united States. Powell's efforts created the scientific backbone for America's first water policies in the west, which continue into the 21st century. Powell was a mostly self educated scientist on the American frontier in Illinois with a knack for big ideas and a way of creating public enthusiasm. As the final frontier of American exploration, the Grand Canyon presented the biggest challenge to American explorers of his day. The area lay empty on maps. As a novice scientist he tackled the task of not only exploring and mapping the region, but also collecting data on rock formation and river flow, providing some of the initial theories of geology and erosion in the western desert. The grand canyon showcases one of the worlds best examples of evolutionary geology with exposed rock dating back millions of years. He also worked with local native Americans, learning their languages and becoming an ally in Washington DC, opening up ethnographic surveys of local people in an attempt to help them. In an era of small government and gilded age corporations, he helped create and grow a federal scientific organization that lasts to this day, the U.S. Geological Survey. He fought off politicians, wealthy mining corporations, and expanding railroad barons who promised that the west was completely irrigable and ready for open immediate settlement. He used scientific data he collected and commissioned to instead proposed environmentally friendly policies that would help small American landowners make a living and local native peoples to survive by keeping rich businesses from monopolizing and stripping the valuable resources of the western desert. His work stands as a sentinel for modern environmentally conscious Americans to maintain the rich environmental and cultural heritage of the American west by the thoughtful use of resources.
May 30, 2019
Having read many excerpts from Powell's diary of the 1869 exploration of the Grand Canyon, and much of Donald Worster's biography of Powell, I thought I knew the man. But Ross's book revealed to me how much I didn't know. It is beautifully written and wonderfully researched. While Powell's experiences during the Civil War and his explorations of the Colorado River lay the foundations for his extraordinary life, it is his role as leader of the newly formed United States Geological Survey (USGS) which is the focus of much of the book. Ross gives him credit for bringing science to the federal government and a sense of reality to the unbridled enthusiasm for western development. Powell understood the limits that the arid west faced. Had he lived during our time, he would have been at the forefront of climate change science, Ross believes.
November 2, 2019
I quit.
May 7, 2019
I agree with others that this book was mistitled. It's more a biography of John Wesley Powell and a history of the US Geological Survey (USGS), including geology & ethnology. However, from a marketing perspective, I bought the book because of interest in the Grand Canyon. Interesting account of the origins of water rights and its significance in our arid west. Also, interesting coverage of early US science policy, funding competition between surveyors, "Indian Wars," and academic publication pressures. Difficult to keep track of all the characters as they pop in and out of the story. Too much boring detail of congressional testimony and the acrimony between Powell and his opponents.
February 5, 2021
I loved this book. There were a few slow parts but I found Powell and his work fascinating so I didn’t mind. I listened to the audiobook which I recommend; the reader does a good job (and sounds a lot like Carl Sagan). I almost want to listen to it again with an atlas in front of me so I can “tag along.”
November 9, 2018
Since I first heard of John Wesley Powell’s expedition down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, I’ve wanted to know more about him.
This is the book I’ve been waiting for. It is an excellent history of not only that expedition (there were actually two of them) but also of his life and especially his love of the western lands and desire the precious commodity of water be managed correctly.
Coming from a religious family, his father attempted to thwart his effort to study science and force him into religious educational institutions. Along with this pressure was the family situation of being abolitionists in places where it wasn’t safe to be such. The family moved several times just for safety purposes.
As a boy he was fortunate to come in contact with a close of friend of his father, Big George, who played a very important mentor role for him when he most needed it.
The hulking man (Big George) and slip of a boy (John Wesley) mounted frequent expeditions, seeking blue-flag irises that fringed beaver ponds, or the pink ladyslipper orchids blossoming in the shadows of the hardwood forests to the east. Some five hundred ancient earthworks lay within the vicinity of the salt licks, lost witness to a long-vanished indigenous culture
now known as the Mound Builders. The pair explored one complex known as the ‘fort,’ a rectangular earthen enclosure measuring about 100 by 110 feet, just northwest of town. It was easy enough for Wes to fill his pockets with arrowheads. His guide to this ancient world was a man bigger than life, not only in his sheer immensity that would shake almost violently with laughter, but in his passionate long view of the connections between so many things visible to the naked eye. With Big George there was room to ask questions that Wes would not dare to put to his father.
“Crookham (George) taught Wes how to read a landscape: Far from a trackless wilderness, the land around Jackson revealed surprising secrets to those with patience and an inquisitive eye. The inexplicable fossil bones and the great earthen mounds spoke of a world shaped by others that the present immigrants. To Wes, the natural world was coming to be visibly governed by an intrinsic logic and unfolding clarity that his father’s faith could not match. Big George provided a trellis onto which Wes’s wonder would grow.” (18)
It was here that his world view began to open up. When Big George’s home, museum and all his writings specimens were burned by slavery supporters it was ingrained into Powell’s personality of always being an outsider and to come to terms about being so.
He continued to find more mentors who quickened within in him to desire to know everything there was to know about natural history, especially to do with geology and the rivers.
The rivers connectivity provided exceptional freedom of movement. And along with this came an interaction of new ideas and older traditions—sometime comical, but often enough explosive, collisions of people from innumerable backgrounds, castes, and inheritances. More than any other single factor, river transportation improvements had brought about the antebellum transformation of the Midwest from a little—settled backwater to the nation’s breadbasket. “ (38)
“But this particular skiff would give Wes ample freedom to prosecute the next serious stage of his self-education: assembling a first-class collection of freshwater shells. North America boasts the world’s largest diversity of freshwater mussels, some 350 varieties know in Powell’s day….”Wes liked to beach his skiff on the shoals that appeared at riverbends to poke among the rocks for shells dropped by muskrat or raccoon, as the iridescent white, pink, and purple interiors struck his eye. The trash piles, or middens, of early riparian Indians also proved rich hunting grounds.” (41)
“Wes not only discerned the telling similarities and differences between species, but also how much individuals within a single species might vary. He could detect the relations between shells and where they grew.” (41-42)
“—he became conversant with what would soon be termed ‘glacial wash,’ the pebbles, clay, sand, and cobbles that the great sheets had dumped upon the emerging landscape as they receded. He began to tell how soil and vegetation altered with changes in the drift. The intimate relation between surface geology and agriculture made itself inescapably clear.” (42)
“His on-again, off-again sampling of higher education was over. Financial difficulties and boredom had ended his brief matriculations….” (43)
“His mollusk collection had grown into one of the North American’s finest, which he carefully housed in sturdy wooden boxes he built himself.” (44)
“The 1860 census listed Wesley not as a teacher, but as a naturalist.” (44)
When the Civil War came Powell immediately set about to do what he could for the Union cause.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Powell enlists in the 20th Illinois Voluntary Infantry Regiment. The men vote Powell Sargent of Company H. He immediately began to study military engineering and the science of war. He is promoted to Second LT. (46)
Always the quick learner, he soon picked up on engineering, especially in the area of building fortifications and where best to place them. He first comes to the notice of first Fremont and shortly thereafter, Grant.
“In October Grant detached the ‘acting engineer’ from the 20th Illinois and authorized him to independently raise an artillery battery and manage Cap Girardeau’s siege guns, a rare action for a general to take toward so junior and officer, even in the feverish expansion of Union forces.” (50)
Then at Shiloh he is wounded in the right arm.
“Powell’s complexion remained deadly pale, his pulse small and threading. Metcalfe gave him laudanum and instructed Emma to force tea into him. All Saturday night she attended to her husband of only four months, amid the groans and cries of the wounded.” (59)
“Metcalfe deployed a bone saw with speed, finishing the procedure in the fewest possible minutes to minimized shock and blood loss.” (60)
Metcalfe tied off the arteries with threads, then rasped and scraped the bone edges, pulled the flap of skin over the stump below the elbow, and sewed it closed. He did little to the nerve ends: neuralgic pain would haunt Powell for the rest of his life. But he was alive.” (60)
“Powell came of age that bloody week. Emma did her best to buoy his spirits, keeping a sharp eye out for those tiny dark spots that marked the first sign of gangrene. No long could he wash his own hand or button his shirt. Emma faithfully attended to these prosaic transactions; keeping the wound clean, washing his clothes, and generally serving as his lost right hand. Powell later credited her continued presence, fortitude, and unwearied devotion with keeping him alive.” (61)
He finishes out the war, contributing to the bombardment of Vicksburg and its subsequent fall.
After the war, he becomes a professor of geology, creates a museum, leads expeditions collecting flora and fauna specimens, studying geology, making maps and keeping meticulous records.
Soon, the idea of rafting down the Grand Canyon became an all-consuming desire of his. Grant helped him get it financed and organized. The story of the trip is worth the price of the book. No one had ever done what he was about to do. The trip caused him to ask himself geological questions. In his mind he became able to “peel-back” the landscape and see its history and story becoming convince that water was the sole source of geological erosion as well as formation.
He never sought fame and was never interested in making a lot of money. But fame came to him when America needed a hero.
He was not only a geologist of renown but also a ethnologist from his study of the western Indian tribes establishing and heading the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institute. He soon became director of the newly organized US Geological Survey. While at the Survey he built it into a world known agency for the superior work it performed and detailed topographical maps it produced.
But his tenure was not without controversy. It was a controversy he did shy away from.
“On January 17, 1890, John Wesley Powell strode into a Senate committee room in Washington to testify. He was hard to miss, one contemporary comparing him to a sturdy oak, gnarled and seamed from the blasts of many winters. Clear gray eyes stared out from a deeply lined face, mostly covered by a shaggy bird’s nest of gray beard, flecked with cigar ash. No one would call the fifty-six-year-old veteran and explorer handsome, but one knew immediately when he entered a room. Only five feet six inches tall, he spoke rather slowly, fur forcefully, with a fearless independence of mind. When he expressed himself emphatically, the stump of his right arm would bob and weave as if boxing with the ghosts of the war that had maimed him, every once in a while, Powell would reach around his back with his left hand and forcibly subdue it—a movement that invariably silenced a room. I was not often comfortable to watch hi, but most always mesmerizing. The authority he radiated even in a room crowded with titanic personalities was palpable.” (1)
“But Powell would not tell them what they wanted to hear. He told them all too rightly that the West offered not enough water to reclaim by irrigation more than a tiny fraction of land. Their dreams of a verdant West needed to be tempered and shaped to reality. He might as well have told them the earth is flat. The senators were outraged.
“He had brought a map to explain—one of the profoundest such document ever created in American history. The “Arid Region of the United States…’” (3)
“The map assembled under his direction by USGS cartographers, revealed the western half of American separated into watersheds, the natural land basins through which water flows.” (3)
“It was the Earth’s first ecological map, building on, but pushing far beyond Alex von Humboldt’s efforts earlier that century.” (3)
Late in his life while still the director of the USGS, he gives an address to the gathered dignitaries at a conference on the use of irrigation to develop the western lands. The conference was organized by western businessmen, senators, congressmen and even the President himself, Grover Cleveland.
“Pale and gray, the Major no longer radiated the vigorous health of his prime. The long train ride from Chicago had worn him considerably. His stump burned. Yet, looking out over all the adoring faces raised expectantly beneath him, Powell laid aside his prepared remarks, announcing to more applause that they could read his technical paper on water supply later. The Major’s gray eyes flamed. Perhaps he knew the end of his career approached. And then he delivered the most eloquent, impassioned speech of his life.
“He outlined his pride in his great nation’s enterprise, then confirmed his populist bona fides: ‘I am more interested in the home and the cradle than I am in the bank counter.’ But he felt obliged to remind those convened of the West’s blunt environmental realities. He was going to make himself absolutely clear: ‘When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug that can be dug in this arid region,’ he gravely proclaimed, ‘there is still not sufficient water to irrigate all the land.’ All this effort he continued, could only reclaim a small fraction of the West. The crowd rustled in their chairs, now thoroughly confused.
“That no misapprehension should linger, he explained it again. Take all the water in the arid region, devoting not one drop of it to the public lands, and there would still not be enough water even to moisten all the vast stretches in private hands. With this statement, Powell undercut the Congress’s entire platform….Smythe would report that the ‘first sensation of the delegates was one of amazement, the second one of anger and the third one of contempt.’ Powell was sinning against the central American idol of optimism.” (330-331)
This, of course, ends his tenure at the USGS and not long afterwards suffers a stroke and in September of 1902 dies.
But, what a legacy he left.
“During his life, Powell had refused to regard the West through rose-colored glasses—and that remains one of his greatest legacies. That did not mean he had no wonder for the West’s rich gifts, for he stood in amazement at Indian cultures, the extraordinary geography, and the rich promise that the land offered. But as a consummate reader of the landscape, combined with the geologist’s long view, he understood the interplay between the Earth and humanity was indeed a complex, ever-changing, and delicate dance. This battler and risk taker, this scientist and visionary, ultimately asked Americans to temper their desires with a practical understanding of what the land and its climate was capable of—how far it could be pushed and how much it could be used. He did not ask for reverence for the land, but rather—more significantly—he asked for humility when regarding it. It was not then, and not today, an easy message for Americans to hear.” (336-337)
He was truly a remarkable man who lived a remarkable life which is well told in this fine book.
This is the book I’ve been waiting for. It is an excellent history of not only that expedition (there were actually two of them) but also of his life and especially his love of the western lands and desire the precious commodity of water be managed correctly.
Coming from a religious family, his father attempted to thwart his effort to study science and force him into religious educational institutions. Along with this pressure was the family situation of being abolitionists in places where it wasn’t safe to be such. The family moved several times just for safety purposes.
As a boy he was fortunate to come in contact with a close of friend of his father, Big George, who played a very important mentor role for him when he most needed it.
The hulking man (Big George) and slip of a boy (John Wesley) mounted frequent expeditions, seeking blue-flag irises that fringed beaver ponds, or the pink ladyslipper orchids blossoming in the shadows of the hardwood forests to the east. Some five hundred ancient earthworks lay within the vicinity of the salt licks, lost witness to a long-vanished indigenous culture
now known as the Mound Builders. The pair explored one complex known as the ‘fort,’ a rectangular earthen enclosure measuring about 100 by 110 feet, just northwest of town. It was easy enough for Wes to fill his pockets with arrowheads. His guide to this ancient world was a man bigger than life, not only in his sheer immensity that would shake almost violently with laughter, but in his passionate long view of the connections between so many things visible to the naked eye. With Big George there was room to ask questions that Wes would not dare to put to his father.
“Crookham (George) taught Wes how to read a landscape: Far from a trackless wilderness, the land around Jackson revealed surprising secrets to those with patience and an inquisitive eye. The inexplicable fossil bones and the great earthen mounds spoke of a world shaped by others that the present immigrants. To Wes, the natural world was coming to be visibly governed by an intrinsic logic and unfolding clarity that his father’s faith could not match. Big George provided a trellis onto which Wes’s wonder would grow.” (18)
It was here that his world view began to open up. When Big George’s home, museum and all his writings specimens were burned by slavery supporters it was ingrained into Powell’s personality of always being an outsider and to come to terms about being so.
He continued to find more mentors who quickened within in him to desire to know everything there was to know about natural history, especially to do with geology and the rivers.
The rivers connectivity provided exceptional freedom of movement. And along with this came an interaction of new ideas and older traditions—sometime comical, but often enough explosive, collisions of people from innumerable backgrounds, castes, and inheritances. More than any other single factor, river transportation improvements had brought about the antebellum transformation of the Midwest from a little—settled backwater to the nation’s breadbasket. “ (38)
“But this particular skiff would give Wes ample freedom to prosecute the next serious stage of his self-education: assembling a first-class collection of freshwater shells. North America boasts the world’s largest diversity of freshwater mussels, some 350 varieties know in Powell’s day….”Wes liked to beach his skiff on the shoals that appeared at riverbends to poke among the rocks for shells dropped by muskrat or raccoon, as the iridescent white, pink, and purple interiors struck his eye. The trash piles, or middens, of early riparian Indians also proved rich hunting grounds.” (41)
“Wes not only discerned the telling similarities and differences between species, but also how much individuals within a single species might vary. He could detect the relations between shells and where they grew.” (41-42)
“—he became conversant with what would soon be termed ‘glacial wash,’ the pebbles, clay, sand, and cobbles that the great sheets had dumped upon the emerging landscape as they receded. He began to tell how soil and vegetation altered with changes in the drift. The intimate relation between surface geology and agriculture made itself inescapably clear.” (42)
“His on-again, off-again sampling of higher education was over. Financial difficulties and boredom had ended his brief matriculations….” (43)
“His mollusk collection had grown into one of the North American’s finest, which he carefully housed in sturdy wooden boxes he built himself.” (44)
“The 1860 census listed Wesley not as a teacher, but as a naturalist.” (44)
When the Civil War came Powell immediately set about to do what he could for the Union cause.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Powell enlists in the 20th Illinois Voluntary Infantry Regiment. The men vote Powell Sargent of Company H. He immediately began to study military engineering and the science of war. He is promoted to Second LT. (46)
Always the quick learner, he soon picked up on engineering, especially in the area of building fortifications and where best to place them. He first comes to the notice of first Fremont and shortly thereafter, Grant.
“In October Grant detached the ‘acting engineer’ from the 20th Illinois and authorized him to independently raise an artillery battery and manage Cap Girardeau’s siege guns, a rare action for a general to take toward so junior and officer, even in the feverish expansion of Union forces.” (50)
Then at Shiloh he is wounded in the right arm.
“Powell’s complexion remained deadly pale, his pulse small and threading. Metcalfe gave him laudanum and instructed Emma to force tea into him. All Saturday night she attended to her husband of only four months, amid the groans and cries of the wounded.” (59)
“Metcalfe deployed a bone saw with speed, finishing the procedure in the fewest possible minutes to minimized shock and blood loss.” (60)
Metcalfe tied off the arteries with threads, then rasped and scraped the bone edges, pulled the flap of skin over the stump below the elbow, and sewed it closed. He did little to the nerve ends: neuralgic pain would haunt Powell for the rest of his life. But he was alive.” (60)
“Powell came of age that bloody week. Emma did her best to buoy his spirits, keeping a sharp eye out for those tiny dark spots that marked the first sign of gangrene. No long could he wash his own hand or button his shirt. Emma faithfully attended to these prosaic transactions; keeping the wound clean, washing his clothes, and generally serving as his lost right hand. Powell later credited her continued presence, fortitude, and unwearied devotion with keeping him alive.” (61)
He finishes out the war, contributing to the bombardment of Vicksburg and its subsequent fall.
After the war, he becomes a professor of geology, creates a museum, leads expeditions collecting flora and fauna specimens, studying geology, making maps and keeping meticulous records.
Soon, the idea of rafting down the Grand Canyon became an all-consuming desire of his. Grant helped him get it financed and organized. The story of the trip is worth the price of the book. No one had ever done what he was about to do. The trip caused him to ask himself geological questions. In his mind he became able to “peel-back” the landscape and see its history and story becoming convince that water was the sole source of geological erosion as well as formation.
He never sought fame and was never interested in making a lot of money. But fame came to him when America needed a hero.
He was not only a geologist of renown but also a ethnologist from his study of the western Indian tribes establishing and heading the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institute. He soon became director of the newly organized US Geological Survey. While at the Survey he built it into a world known agency for the superior work it performed and detailed topographical maps it produced.
But his tenure was not without controversy. It was a controversy he did shy away from.
“On January 17, 1890, John Wesley Powell strode into a Senate committee room in Washington to testify. He was hard to miss, one contemporary comparing him to a sturdy oak, gnarled and seamed from the blasts of many winters. Clear gray eyes stared out from a deeply lined face, mostly covered by a shaggy bird’s nest of gray beard, flecked with cigar ash. No one would call the fifty-six-year-old veteran and explorer handsome, but one knew immediately when he entered a room. Only five feet six inches tall, he spoke rather slowly, fur forcefully, with a fearless independence of mind. When he expressed himself emphatically, the stump of his right arm would bob and weave as if boxing with the ghosts of the war that had maimed him, every once in a while, Powell would reach around his back with his left hand and forcibly subdue it—a movement that invariably silenced a room. I was not often comfortable to watch hi, but most always mesmerizing. The authority he radiated even in a room crowded with titanic personalities was palpable.” (1)
“But Powell would not tell them what they wanted to hear. He told them all too rightly that the West offered not enough water to reclaim by irrigation more than a tiny fraction of land. Their dreams of a verdant West needed to be tempered and shaped to reality. He might as well have told them the earth is flat. The senators were outraged.
“He had brought a map to explain—one of the profoundest such document ever created in American history. The “Arid Region of the United States…’” (3)
“The map assembled under his direction by USGS cartographers, revealed the western half of American separated into watersheds, the natural land basins through which water flows.” (3)
“It was the Earth’s first ecological map, building on, but pushing far beyond Alex von Humboldt’s efforts earlier that century.” (3)
Late in his life while still the director of the USGS, he gives an address to the gathered dignitaries at a conference on the use of irrigation to develop the western lands. The conference was organized by western businessmen, senators, congressmen and even the President himself, Grover Cleveland.
“Pale and gray, the Major no longer radiated the vigorous health of his prime. The long train ride from Chicago had worn him considerably. His stump burned. Yet, looking out over all the adoring faces raised expectantly beneath him, Powell laid aside his prepared remarks, announcing to more applause that they could read his technical paper on water supply later. The Major’s gray eyes flamed. Perhaps he knew the end of his career approached. And then he delivered the most eloquent, impassioned speech of his life.
“He outlined his pride in his great nation’s enterprise, then confirmed his populist bona fides: ‘I am more interested in the home and the cradle than I am in the bank counter.’ But he felt obliged to remind those convened of the West’s blunt environmental realities. He was going to make himself absolutely clear: ‘When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug that can be dug in this arid region,’ he gravely proclaimed, ‘there is still not sufficient water to irrigate all the land.’ All this effort he continued, could only reclaim a small fraction of the West. The crowd rustled in their chairs, now thoroughly confused.
“That no misapprehension should linger, he explained it again. Take all the water in the arid region, devoting not one drop of it to the public lands, and there would still not be enough water even to moisten all the vast stretches in private hands. With this statement, Powell undercut the Congress’s entire platform….Smythe would report that the ‘first sensation of the delegates was one of amazement, the second one of anger and the third one of contempt.’ Powell was sinning against the central American idol of optimism.” (330-331)
This, of course, ends his tenure at the USGS and not long afterwards suffers a stroke and in September of 1902 dies.
But, what a legacy he left.
“During his life, Powell had refused to regard the West through rose-colored glasses—and that remains one of his greatest legacies. That did not mean he had no wonder for the West’s rich gifts, for he stood in amazement at Indian cultures, the extraordinary geography, and the rich promise that the land offered. But as a consummate reader of the landscape, combined with the geologist’s long view, he understood the interplay between the Earth and humanity was indeed a complex, ever-changing, and delicate dance. This battler and risk taker, this scientist and visionary, ultimately asked Americans to temper their desires with a practical understanding of what the land and its climate was capable of—how far it could be pushed and how much it could be used. He did not ask for reverence for the land, but rather—more significantly—he asked for humility when regarding it. It was not then, and not today, an easy message for Americans to hear.” (336-337)
He was truly a remarkable man who lived a remarkable life which is well told in this fine book.
October 28, 2021
I truely enjoyed the history and information in this book. John Wesley Powell was a legend and visionary before his time. If still alive today he would be saying “I told you so” about all our over use of dams, reservoirs, and the current climate change and drought in the West!
June 5, 2022
Great history of the exploration of the Grand Canyon and the wider West by scientist and conservationist John Wesley Powell. Powell was the leader of proper documentation of the West's water, resources, geology and natural beauty and the inter-relationship with progress and Manifest Destiny. Overall enjoyable but chapters could have been a tad shorter.
April 16, 2019
It is easy to be lost in a maze of hills and a confusion of mountain peaks unless the grand topographic forms on which the hills and mountains are sculptured are seen with a mental vsion that reaches further than the eye. He who can see a mountain range, or a river drainage, or a flock of hills, is more rare than a poet. ~John Wesley Powell
So stood John Wesley Powell, who had this ability in an age before the internet and arial photography. Truly a visionary 80 years before his time. This is simply a must-read book, exceptionally well put together. The first half detailing with his life up to and through the 1869 journey along the Colorado River exploring the Grand Canyon, and the second half exploring his ground-breaking work creating the US Geographical Survey and the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology.
Particularly poignant, Powell's comparison of suffering after injury at Shiloh to the time spent in exploring the Colorado River/Grand Canyon for the first time - When he who has been chained by wounds to a hospital cot until his canvas tent seems like a dungeon cell, until the groans of those who lie about tortured with probe and knife are piled up, a weight of horror on his ears that he cannot throw off, cannot forget, and until the stench of festering wounds and anesthetic drugs has filled the air with its loathsome bruthen,-when he at last goes out into the open field, what a world he sees! How beautiful the sky, how bright the sunshine....
Also, incredibly relevant today, his speech at the national irrigation congress in Los Angeles, Oct. 1893: When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the brooks, when all the springs are used, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug in all this arid region, there is still not sufficient water to irrigate all the land.
So stood John Wesley Powell, who had this ability in an age before the internet and arial photography. Truly a visionary 80 years before his time. This is simply a must-read book, exceptionally well put together. The first half detailing with his life up to and through the 1869 journey along the Colorado River exploring the Grand Canyon, and the second half exploring his ground-breaking work creating the US Geographical Survey and the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology.
Particularly poignant, Powell's comparison of suffering after injury at Shiloh to the time spent in exploring the Colorado River/Grand Canyon for the first time - When he who has been chained by wounds to a hospital cot until his canvas tent seems like a dungeon cell, until the groans of those who lie about tortured with probe and knife are piled up, a weight of horror on his ears that he cannot throw off, cannot forget, and until the stench of festering wounds and anesthetic drugs has filled the air with its loathsome bruthen,-when he at last goes out into the open field, what a world he sees! How beautiful the sky, how bright the sunshine....
Also, incredibly relevant today, his speech at the national irrigation congress in Los Angeles, Oct. 1893: When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the brooks, when all the springs are used, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug in all this arid region, there is still not sufficient water to irrigate all the land.
February 29, 2020
John Wesley Powell was an environmental activist generations ahead of his time. He foretold the Dust Bowl 40 + years ahead when he described the arid conditions in the West and limited water supplies there. The fact that he survived the Civil War and his initial trip down the. Colorado River with only one good arm is testament to his toughness; yet he was humble enough to work his whole life for the common good and not his own financial wealth.
February 11, 2021
A completely captivating saga about one of the west’s great explorers, engineers, and visionaries. John Wesley Powell is one of my new heroes, not only for his imaginative exploration of the West but because he focused on the essence of what makes western America so unconquerable – limited water. Powell is the first explorer I’ve studied who understood at a fundamental level how lack of water created America’s western plains and how the lack of water would determine its future. Even beyond Powell’s intuitive conservationism, he is a compelling character.
Powell was a polymath – studying geology, botany, anthropology, engineering, and other pursuits simultaneously from youth to old age. He dropped out of several universities as a young man, including Oberlin, but never stopped learning and eventually earned honorary PhDs from both Harvard and University of Heidelberg. He helped found the National Geographic Society; he conceived the US Geological Survey; he designed the US Bureau of Reclamation; he led an important Smithsonian effort.
And if that weren’t enough, he was the first White man to navigate the Grand Canyon – embarking on that 1869 boat expedition with a few primitive legends to guide him, not knowing how the river descended from its 6,115 elevation at Green River, Wyoming, to sea level at the mouth of the Canyon in Nevada. Waterfalls and rapids, that’s how it does it! The idea of putting your boat into the river with your brother and eight close friends -- having no map of what was ahead and running unexpected rapids and falls for the next three months -- is breathtaking.
“Powell had clung tenaciously to maintaining the expedition’s scientific work – their barometric readings, mapping, their calculations of latitude and longitude, the observations about the landscape. Any semblance of this being a scientific expedition had now vanished. The endeavor had degenerated into a madcap dash down a terrifying river, its sole object now getting its members through alive. Powell had come so far, only to watch his grandest dreams wash away as the shaken party raced through some of the most remarkable geological features on Earth.”
What a riveting adventure tale. I won’t spoil it for you but, not everyone makes it out alive. One surprise for me was Powell’s close ties to Brigham Young and even St. George as he braved the Canyon and its demons. Just the river trip alone renders the whole book worth it, but you will also enjoy every part of Powell’s story, from the Civil War battle where he lost his right arm, to the political prowess he showed navigating 1800s Washington DC politics. Powell’s superpowers astound me.
Powell was a polymath – studying geology, botany, anthropology, engineering, and other pursuits simultaneously from youth to old age. He dropped out of several universities as a young man, including Oberlin, but never stopped learning and eventually earned honorary PhDs from both Harvard and University of Heidelberg. He helped found the National Geographic Society; he conceived the US Geological Survey; he designed the US Bureau of Reclamation; he led an important Smithsonian effort.
And if that weren’t enough, he was the first White man to navigate the Grand Canyon – embarking on that 1869 boat expedition with a few primitive legends to guide him, not knowing how the river descended from its 6,115 elevation at Green River, Wyoming, to sea level at the mouth of the Canyon in Nevada. Waterfalls and rapids, that’s how it does it! The idea of putting your boat into the river with your brother and eight close friends -- having no map of what was ahead and running unexpected rapids and falls for the next three months -- is breathtaking.
“Powell had clung tenaciously to maintaining the expedition’s scientific work – their barometric readings, mapping, their calculations of latitude and longitude, the observations about the landscape. Any semblance of this being a scientific expedition had now vanished. The endeavor had degenerated into a madcap dash down a terrifying river, its sole object now getting its members through alive. Powell had come so far, only to watch his grandest dreams wash away as the shaken party raced through some of the most remarkable geological features on Earth.”
What a riveting adventure tale. I won’t spoil it for you but, not everyone makes it out alive. One surprise for me was Powell’s close ties to Brigham Young and even St. George as he braved the Canyon and its demons. Just the river trip alone renders the whole book worth it, but you will also enjoy every part of Powell’s story, from the Civil War battle where he lost his right arm, to the political prowess he showed navigating 1800s Washington DC politics. Powell’s superpowers astound me.
July 27, 2018
This is one of the best books I've ever read about John Wesley Powell. I was impressed with his accomplishments before I read this book, but I gained even more respect for his accomplishments in every chapter.
For instance, I knew he lost his right arm in a civil war battle, but I learned that he rejoined the North to lead his troops after recovering from having his right arm amputated below the elbow.
A self taught geologist years ahead of his time. An engineer relied upon by General Grant to design battle fortifications. A hydrologist who wrote and spoke passionately about the limited water resources in the arid West. Before being called on to lead the Geologic Survey, he was appointed as the first director the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology.
When they were trying to save the life of President Garfield after he was shot in the back, who did they contact to devise one of the world's first air conditioners to cool Garfields sick room in the white house? Why Major Powell of course!
Any of these accomplishments would have been enough to satisfy most people, but he led the first expedition to sucessfully explore the Grand Canyon and navigate the Colorado River from the Green River. through Canyonlands, Glen Canyon. the Grand Canyon continuing through what is now present day Lake Mead.
Oh. and if that wasn't wasn't enough, he was also a surveyor and cartographer mapping the Grand Canyon and vast unexplored areas of the West.
We owe immeasurable gratitude to Mr. Powell and his forward thinking ideas.
For instance, I knew he lost his right arm in a civil war battle, but I learned that he rejoined the North to lead his troops after recovering from having his right arm amputated below the elbow.
A self taught geologist years ahead of his time. An engineer relied upon by General Grant to design battle fortifications. A hydrologist who wrote and spoke passionately about the limited water resources in the arid West. Before being called on to lead the Geologic Survey, he was appointed as the first director the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology.
When they were trying to save the life of President Garfield after he was shot in the back, who did they contact to devise one of the world's first air conditioners to cool Garfields sick room in the white house? Why Major Powell of course!
Any of these accomplishments would have been enough to satisfy most people, but he led the first expedition to sucessfully explore the Grand Canyon and navigate the Colorado River from the Green River. through Canyonlands, Glen Canyon. the Grand Canyon continuing through what is now present day Lake Mead.
Oh. and if that wasn't wasn't enough, he was also a surveyor and cartographer mapping the Grand Canyon and vast unexplored areas of the West.
We owe immeasurable gratitude to Mr. Powell and his forward thinking ideas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2020
John F. Ross paints John Wesley Powell (aka Wes and John) as a complex personality always serving his country as: an educator; soldier during the Civil War where a gunshot severed his writing hand and forearm; an explorer, geologist, ethnologist, and cartographer of the American West; and a naturalist and ethnographer.
Integrity, truth, and results mattered more to Powell than people. He reported results without attribution or praise. When three friends deserted a river exploration, he let them go and die, seemingly without remorse. These personality traits harmed his relationships.
Yet Powell spoke even less about his own achievements. He wished his maps, reports, and advocacy for the Native American people and the western climate spoke for itself without the bluster of the danger and near death experiences.
During the period where Manifest Destiny, and Lock's philosophy that growth had no limits, Powell recognized that the arid western landscape had limits, and worked with politicians to create a western expansion that let the land itself inform development. "Common interests, common rights, and common duties demand that we work together for common purposes," Powell said (page 319).
His integrity and knowledge led him to recommend others for government positions, even when he was more qualified. The project, a sustainable western expansion, mattered more than than his appointment to lead the project.
This is a book for the nature lover, the ethnographers and anthropologists, the scientists, and political and business leaders.
Integrity, truth, and results mattered more to Powell than people. He reported results without attribution or praise. When three friends deserted a river exploration, he let them go and die, seemingly without remorse. These personality traits harmed his relationships.
Yet Powell spoke even less about his own achievements. He wished his maps, reports, and advocacy for the Native American people and the western climate spoke for itself without the bluster of the danger and near death experiences.
During the period where Manifest Destiny, and Lock's philosophy that growth had no limits, Powell recognized that the arid western landscape had limits, and worked with politicians to create a western expansion that let the land itself inform development. "Common interests, common rights, and common duties demand that we work together for common purposes," Powell said (page 319).
His integrity and knowledge led him to recommend others for government positions, even when he was more qualified. The project, a sustainable western expansion, mattered more than than his appointment to lead the project.
This is a book for the nature lover, the ethnographers and anthropologists, the scientists, and political and business leaders.
April 3, 2021
Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon a few years ago inspired a desire to vicariously experience Powell's trips down the then unknown Colorado River on wooden rafts with limited supplies and experience. But I learned so much more from this engagingly written and thorough biography of his professional life.
The challenges Powell and his associates faced on the river are matched by those he faced in Washington, DC as he pioneered the surveying and mapping of western US hydrology, developed a deep understanding of the region's geology, pioneered long term thinking about the limited water resources and repeatedly advocated for thorough mapping and planning of same. He seemed to soak up knowledge, learning from the Mormons as they settled Utah and research and writing about the vanishing Native American culture. I never realized that we owe the United States Geological Survey to Powell. Sadly, ambitious, arrogant and ignorant Western Congressmen sneered at and ignored many of his carefully developed ideas and suggestions. Even more amazing is that he accomplished all this while enduring nearly constant pain from his Civil War arm amputation.
His childhood influences are well documented. I only wish more was said about his home life and family during his busy Washington years. His wife, child and relatives disappear from the picture early on. And if a book is going to talk about geographic locations, good maps should always be included, although the internet supplies that deficit.
The challenges Powell and his associates faced on the river are matched by those he faced in Washington, DC as he pioneered the surveying and mapping of western US hydrology, developed a deep understanding of the region's geology, pioneered long term thinking about the limited water resources and repeatedly advocated for thorough mapping and planning of same. He seemed to soak up knowledge, learning from the Mormons as they settled Utah and research and writing about the vanishing Native American culture. I never realized that we owe the United States Geological Survey to Powell. Sadly, ambitious, arrogant and ignorant Western Congressmen sneered at and ignored many of his carefully developed ideas and suggestions. Even more amazing is that he accomplished all this while enduring nearly constant pain from his Civil War arm amputation.
His childhood influences are well documented. I only wish more was said about his home life and family during his busy Washington years. His wife, child and relatives disappear from the picture early on. And if a book is going to talk about geographic locations, good maps should always be included, although the internet supplies that deficit.
August 15, 2018
Even without the fascinating details on the American West and the Colorado River in particular, worth the read just to understand the remarkable life of John Wesley Powell, who lost his arm at Shiloh, then proceeded to navigate the Green and Colorado rivers with a small group of adventurers.
"Those who know him and his battle experience, will recognize this feature of his character. That which seemed impossible to others, grew to him to be an imperative necessity."
"While Powell's choice of men proved to be brilliant in the aggregate, it also would nearly prove the expedition's undoing. Working with independent-minded and authority-bucking characters came with a downside."
A Chicago newspaper on the prospects of Powell's trip down the Colorado, "Ambition had a strong hold upon reason."
" His dawning realization appeared here nationally for the first time: The key to developing the West centered not so much on what evanescent treasures it contained, but rather on what it did not - water."
Powell ran afoul of those with visions of an irrigated West by explaining how some areas could be irrigated, but there was a finite amount of available water, so difficult decisions needed to be made.
Lake Powell is named after him, but ironic that it was formed by the Glen Canyon Dam, where Powell advocated for a number of smaller dams down the Colorado.
"Those who know him and his battle experience, will recognize this feature of his character. That which seemed impossible to others, grew to him to be an imperative necessity."
"While Powell's choice of men proved to be brilliant in the aggregate, it also would nearly prove the expedition's undoing. Working with independent-minded and authority-bucking characters came with a downside."
A Chicago newspaper on the prospects of Powell's trip down the Colorado, "Ambition had a strong hold upon reason."
" His dawning realization appeared here nationally for the first time: The key to developing the West centered not so much on what evanescent treasures it contained, but rather on what it did not - water."
Powell ran afoul of those with visions of an irrigated West by explaining how some areas could be irrigated, but there was a finite amount of available water, so difficult decisions needed to be made.
Lake Powell is named after him, but ironic that it was formed by the Glen Canyon Dam, where Powell advocated for a number of smaller dams down the Colorado.
March 23, 2020
A biography of John Wesley Powell. The author John Ross uses the expeditions down the Colorado River as seminal events in Powell's life, with the beginning of Powell's life leading to the expeditions and the expeditions leading to Powell's vision of the American West and how it could be sustainably cultivated.
The descriptions of Powell's service at the Battle of Shiloh, his ascent of Long's Peak, and the first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers are well done. The second half of the book is dedicated to Powell's work in Washington DC in furthering his vision for the role of science in the federal government and his ideas on the west.
My nitpick of this work is at the beginning. The beginning gives the reader a rudimentary description of American history to provide context for impersonal events and ideas shaping the childhood of Powell interspersed with the more personal details of his actual childhood.
The history is okay for a reader unfamiliar with the United States but could cause readers with more experience pause, afraid they might be starting a work whose primary citations seem to be secondary sources, quite possibly textbooks, which is not the case. The stuff on Powell is really good and taken from primary sources. The information on the history of surveying the American West and the rivalries between the surveyors is also compelling stuff.
The descriptions of Powell's service at the Battle of Shiloh, his ascent of Long's Peak, and the first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers are well done. The second half of the book is dedicated to Powell's work in Washington DC in furthering his vision for the role of science in the federal government and his ideas on the west.
My nitpick of this work is at the beginning. The beginning gives the reader a rudimentary description of American history to provide context for impersonal events and ideas shaping the childhood of Powell interspersed with the more personal details of his actual childhood.
The history is okay for a reader unfamiliar with the United States but could cause readers with more experience pause, afraid they might be starting a work whose primary citations seem to be secondary sources, quite possibly textbooks, which is not the case. The stuff on Powell is really good and taken from primary sources. The information on the history of surveying the American West and the rivalries between the surveyors is also compelling stuff.
February 1, 2022
This book provides a good introduction to John Wesley Powell, his complex character, and the highlights of his life. While covering his earlier years and explorations of the Green and Colorado rivers, the book also touches on the establishment of the US Geological Survey within the Department of Interior, which was more of a dramatic process than I would have imagined.
Later, Powell would become second director of the USGS and would begin the attempt to address the massive issue of water/irrigation in the west. He recognized the limits of water in this arid land, and almost prophetically declared:
“When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the brooks, when all the springs are used, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the artesian waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug that can be dug, there is still not sufficient water to irrigate all this arid region.
What matters it whether I am popular or unpopular? I tell you, gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply these arid lands.”
-John Wesley Powell to the 1893 Los Angeles International Irrigation Conference
Overall, this was an entertaining and an enlightening read.
Later, Powell would become second director of the USGS and would begin the attempt to address the massive issue of water/irrigation in the west. He recognized the limits of water in this arid land, and almost prophetically declared:
“When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the brooks, when all the springs are used, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the artesian waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug that can be dug, there is still not sufficient water to irrigate all this arid region.
What matters it whether I am popular or unpopular? I tell you, gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply these arid lands.”
-John Wesley Powell to the 1893 Los Angeles International Irrigation Conference
Overall, this was an entertaining and an enlightening read.
May 18, 2020
The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West by John Ross is a fast paced history that adds to the Powell history by offering one of the best examinations of the political fights over the creation of the USGS and the Bureau of Ethnology. The story of how Powell traveled the Colorado and across points in the west has been told and re-told a number of times – and certainly in more lyrical terms – but Ross does a great job of telling the story again in gripping prose. Ross also does a fine job of reviewing the limited future that faced Union (and Confederate) veterans who suffered permeant injury in battle and from that building out how Powell refused to be limited by his “handicap.” While this book is about Powell and the USGS it would have been a welcome addition if Ross had spent a little more effort on Powell’s wife who nursed him to health after his war injury, who supported his research and near death travels and yet remains in Ross’s work mostly hidden. This is unfair and unfortunate.
April 26, 2022
This is easily the type of book which can get boring when not handled right. If you focus too much on the rock nerdery of Powell then you can really get caught in the weeds. Ross does a really good job by sticking to the exciting parts but not ignoring the science altogether.
Powell does make himself a pretty interesting subject. Ross gives a short biography of Powell before his exploration of the Grand Canyon, including losing his arm in the Civil War. You would think that would be enough to make someone stay home and enjoy their other arm. Not Powell!
I am still not quite sure how he did 90% of the things he did while only having one arm. One of the most famous anecdotes about him is while he was scaling a cliff, he got caught and hung by his one arm until one of his fellow explorers helped out. It makes me feel like a very lazy person just reading it.
The final section of the book digs into the science of everything and how Powell was able to come to many of his conclusions. This part of the book was presented simply but still made me feel dumb.
Powell does make himself a pretty interesting subject. Ross gives a short biography of Powell before his exploration of the Grand Canyon, including losing his arm in the Civil War. You would think that would be enough to make someone stay home and enjoy their other arm. Not Powell!
I am still not quite sure how he did 90% of the things he did while only having one arm. One of the most famous anecdotes about him is while he was scaling a cliff, he got caught and hung by his one arm until one of his fellow explorers helped out. It makes me feel like a very lazy person just reading it.
The final section of the book digs into the science of everything and how Powell was able to come to many of his conclusions. This part of the book was presented simply but still made me feel dumb.
February 2, 2019
This must've been a hard book to write, for it tries to do so many things. It's part biography; part adventure tale, vividly describing John Wesley Powell's 1869 descent of the Colorado River; and part history, chronicling Powell's battles with Congress in his role as head of the U.S. Geological Survey.
For the most part, John F. Ross brings it off -- although the pace sometimes lags during the descriptions of political infighting, and although his admiration for Powell sometimes gets in the way of his objectivity. Perhaps my biggest regret is that Ross, except in a couple of brief stretches, doesn't take time to portray the extraordinariness of the land -- the Desert Southwest -- on which the story is centered.
Despite its flaws, The Promise of the Grand Canyon is worth a read. And Ross is right when he says that Powell's story has a lot to teach us today, as we confront the reality of climate change.
For the most part, John F. Ross brings it off -- although the pace sometimes lags during the descriptions of political infighting, and although his admiration for Powell sometimes gets in the way of his objectivity. Perhaps my biggest regret is that Ross, except in a couple of brief stretches, doesn't take time to portray the extraordinariness of the land -- the Desert Southwest -- on which the story is centered.
Despite its flaws, The Promise of the Grand Canyon is worth a read. And Ross is right when he says that Powell's story has a lot to teach us today, as we confront the reality of climate change.
May 22, 2019
I listened to this book, and I wonder if I would have been able to read it as a book. I very much enjoyed the chapters on Powell’s early river exploration trips. Perhaps the drama is a bit overstated or stated too often, although it worked okay. In addition to the descriptions of early river explorations, I enjoyed the range of personalities and Powell’s acceptance of some outlying communities and people. But, once the issues of exploration became purely political I nearly tuned out. Of course, I realize that almost all things eventually become political, but that does not mean I enjoy reading/hearing those stories. Still, I am glad to have read about the life of Powell. Everyone knows his name, but I certainly did not have a clue to what he was able to accomplish. I love maps more because of this book.
August 13, 2018
John Wesley Powell has held a particular fascination for me since I read a biography of him back in elementary school many years back. There was something stirring about both his courage and his scientific bent, a man who fought at Shiloh, lost part of his right arm and still journeyed down the Colorado River to see what was in all those canyons, the first to make it through. That he also proved an environmental pioneer, brilliant geologist, an expert on Western Indians and so much just added to his luster. This book, by John F. Ross, captures that spirit well enough and runs through many of the highlights of his life. It's a decent biography. But I couldn't help thinking there is an extraordinary one yet to come, someday.
November 13, 2018
Powell's legacy is far more than being self-educated (no degree), loosing a limb in the Civil War and subsequently leading an active life, or even his challenging trip down the Colorado through canyons of dangerous waters.
He was devoted to the geography of the land and using the waters to best benefit for everyone. He had quite a lengthy career in Washington. His geological surveys and maps, especially topographical maps, demonstrated that there must be plans made to administer water for limited agriculture in the widely desert regions of the West. Western senators tough him bitterly on this into the 1890's.
Similar recent reads of mine: Dry by Neal shusterman, Colossus:Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century by Michael Hiltzik, and Earning the Rockies byRobert D. Kaplan.
He was devoted to the geography of the land and using the waters to best benefit for everyone. He had quite a lengthy career in Washington. His geological surveys and maps, especially topographical maps, demonstrated that there must be plans made to administer water for limited agriculture in the widely desert regions of the West. Western senators tough him bitterly on this into the 1890's.
Similar recent reads of mine: Dry by Neal shusterman, Colossus:Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century by Michael Hiltzik, and Earning the Rockies byRobert D. Kaplan.
April 15, 2019
Ross provides an overview of Powell’s two major Colorado river expeditions and his establishment of the USGS. The first half focuses on the river struggles with some brief autobiographical info. The second half, after some pictures, turns to the policies that Powell worked to implement with the government regarding, ethnology, geology and water. If you are traveling to Utah or Colorado this is a good book for understanding the water issues and how the Colorado river used to be. There is also some interesting history about the Mormons and Paiute Indians, though this area does not get sustained attention. Powell comes across as very human, a mix of impatient and controlling, gifted and intelligent. The book is less about Powell himself than it is about his effect on the West.
January 13, 2020
The subject matter of this book is very interesting. However, I found the writing quite unclear at times. The author drops the name of locations right and left which forced me to look at maps on my computer. A set of maps for the Grand Canyon trip and for the surveys would have been immensely helpful. The author has a definite bias in favor of John Wesley Powell which appears to be well-earned, but ascribing motivation to Mr. Powell as assumptions seemed to me to be steps too far in historical reporting. There is a lot in this book, way beyond the Grand Canyon piece. I thought the political piece was fascinating and indicated that the struggle over western lands and water has been going on for a long, long time. I would have given this book four stars if the writing had been clearer.
January 29, 2020
reviewed ~4 months after reading
It felt more like a Powell biography than title may imply. I recommend, but it was not a page turner. I did, however, learn quite a few things:
His wife Emma sounded like a very interesting person. I would have like to know more about her.
It felt more like a Powell biography than title may imply. I recommend, but it was not a page turner. I did, however, learn quite a few things:
His wife Emma sounded like a very interesting person. I would have like to know more about her.
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