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Powell Memorial. This monument was built in 1915 to honor the first party to run the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and their leader, John Wesley Powell. Powell has been an artillery major in the Civil War. In 1869, he set out with four wooden boats and nine other men to explore the Colorado River. Three months later, six near-naked, half-starved men made it through. (The four who quit the expedition basically chickened out. Three exited a few days before the end of the trip and were killed. Mormons claimed they were killed by Southern Paiutes. Others, however, presume that the Mormons themselves killed the travelers who they would have suspected of being federal spies.) In 1871, Powell came back with a new crew. He went on to be the second director of the US Geological Survey and a staunch advocate of the conservation of public lands. |