The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-08
IMPROBABLE.

.',,,,,,,, E,n.di,ion 80 OF the Powell Ex-
From the Detroit Tr'' -
lew oays ,ince the telegraph reported a start
ing rum . from some point i'm the Far West, that
mac Powell and the whole OF his party, engaged In
IA exploring and scientific expedition upon the
1oorado river mad all been lost with the exception
~ a single Individual. On Friday night the tele-
onb fnenished what purports to be the particulars
81 this loss said to have been narrated Dy one Jonn
A. Rsdon the sole Survivor & oi oae S6 so minnie
ba In the details of his statement as 10 nave Ieu
10 general belief in tner m n tbe fhi
oogo napers OF Saturday morning, purportlng t0gNe
Inc statement as rendered 10 Which a
he detected and which become more glailng w, when y;
real facts become known SO taI we 3e hevond m
SAVING that the report OF this man Rlsdoh Reyomu y
dI S reasonable doubt is tissue OF fabrlcatlon from
beginning TO emu be wife Of Major Powell the head Of
a. axnaItfon Is no in this city spending the sea-
snn of her husbands absence with her tather MT
Daan of the firm OF Buhl Co, and from ner we
otber facts that utterly fasify this story The lead
mo features of Rsdon's statement are as lOlloWs'
T6a he joined Major P3wes @ 7 party pa s J of Nav m of this
snrinp the party, consisting OF about tWelYe lnui-
yduas, reached the Colorado river tha On Iie t1Sn
or 18th of May the whole party, with tne e&cepGlon
Of Risdon i'm attempting to cross the COLORADO river
i'm large bark canoe, near some rapids, were losI
that he remained some days in the vlcny endeaVor.
INC to find the remains OF some of the party, but
failed to do so; that then taking the two teams
s0ngngg @ 70 'pG post on Red river about June l.
Now the facts which prove the utter unreHaolllty
ofths story, as obtained from MIS-. r0wel' & are aS
follows:-This is the third season that MAJOR POweu
has been engaged in these eXploTaIlons, ana Mrs
Powell has heretofore accompanied her husband IN
ali his travels passing the last winter IN the moun-
tains with him and his party She knows by name
every member of the party HIS present eXpedltlon
is compOsed of the same INDIVIDUALS tnaJ were WIN
him last summer and winter Among them there
was no such man as John A. Rsdon, or any person
bearing the names given IN tne C1icago papers Oh
SATURDAY. as composing the party and as lost: Major
Powell's first eXpeditiOn was in 1861 and conse-
menty he could not have enlisted any man IN 1t as
ioined it, Again, Rlsdon says they were all
drowned on the 10th or 18th OF May, in the
Colorado river Mrs Powell has a letter from her
SHsband, dated Green River Station, on the Pacific
Railroad, May o. saying that he expected TO start
about the 25th, and the Chicago Irloune, OF May ~
published letter from him, dated May a. two days
later from the same station, giving an account OF
what the party proposed to do some eight days after
RsdOn browns them hundreds of miles away on the
Colorado. Again. there was not an animal connected
with the expedition, the party relying Wnoly upon
the boats for transportation as Ine eApeuI0n was
to be confined wholly to regions accessible by
streams; hence there were no Two teams lor Mr.
RisdOn to bring away. Further the party only con-
sisted of twelve or fifteen men ana IL would be dll-
6cut in that number to find twenty-five to put into
a 'bark canoe to cross river and be swallowed up.
The foregoing facts are alone sufficient to prove
RsdOns story an entire fabrication, and to have been
gotten up for a sensation, but there are several
others that might be named, showing It's extreme
improbability Major Powell is a man of much ex-
perience in exploring expeditions, this being his
third season, and his party is chiefly composed OF
travels and with few exceptions, are men of Gull
ture and fine scholarship. Major Powell is a man
of extreme care in all his movements, and there
is nothing Of the foohardiness about him or his
men that would prompt them to trust the
whole party at one time in a 'bark canoe to
cross dangerous rapids. 1t is only few weeks
since he was in Chicago, and there had the boats
made expressly for his expedition each of them hav
ing artight compartments of six feet in length at
each end, as a preventative against any founder
ing in case they should accidentally be thrown into
any rapids 1t is not therefore, likely that he would
have occasion to trust his whole party in single
'bark canoe" Major Powell did not expect to
make the Colorado until September. They We're
to embark at Green River Station, on the Pacific
Railroad, and spend June, July, and August
in explorations upon Green river, which
is a branch of the Colorado. From these facts, and
others that might be given, we think the friends OF
those connected with the expedition need feel no
uneasness their safety. Neither need there be
uneasness for want OF later news from the party
themselves, as they took ten months provisions,
thinking it might be that time before they again
emerged into the limits of civilization, although
Major Powell thought they might come out late in
the fall. Mrs. Powell says she shall feel no fear II
she has no further word from her husband for ten
months. The telegraph tells us that Major Powells
mother, who lives In Wheaton, Illinois, has letter
from him dated May 2s, and does not credit the
story at ALL