New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-03-31
TRIBUTE TOEXP| ORER|
Nation Will Honor Daring Of John
Wesley Powell.
MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED.

MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED.
Shaft on Brink Of Colorado River
Gorge Will Commemorate Deed Of
the Illinois Soldier First Man to Go
Through the Grand Canyon.
The daring of an nlinoisan, Johr
Wesley Powell, the first explorer to
brave successfully the dangers of de
scending the Colorado river through
the chasm of the Grand canyon, is te
be memorialized by monument that
will stand on the brink of the gorge.
There is among the congressional
appropriations the sum Of $1,000 for
the shaft, and plans are being made fol
a tribute that fttingly will comment
crate feat that is almost unique. II
is for POwell's record as a soldier and
scientist as well as an explorer thai
the nation sets aside the sum Of mon
ey, but the peculiar boldness Of under
taking to shoot the unknown rapids OF
fume, accomplishing vertical de
scent Of 5000 feet in a distance Of less
than a thousand miles, coursing. most
of the way through unscalable walls
distinguishes his career
The explorer died seven years ago
and already the remembrance Of his
noted expedition is being lost. The
fact that, though born in New York
Powell chose to reside in Illinois, that
he enlisted in the civil war as an Hi
nois volunteer and was professor OF
geology at Bloomington, while his ex.
petition started from Chicago, has af
forded interest there to the proposed
tribute Of the government.
The lure of the blank places on the
map and Indian tales Of "a mysterious
and dreadful gorge" were the inspira.
ton Of the undertaking, which was be-
gun in May, 1862 Four boats, none of
them over twenty-one feet long, were
shipped from Chicago to the end of the
partly completed Union Pacific line
and the small party set out.
we start with some anxiety" reads
one Of the entries in the diary of the
trip. "Old mountaineers tell us that
the current cannot be run. The In
dams say, Water heap catch EN-
But all are eager to be off,"
So into the flaming gorge they
plunged on a trip that was to take
months and from which the more timid
Of the party, whose courage failed
at the final test, were not to return
alive. They soon encountered rapids,
over which they had to lower the
boats with ropes, themselves climbing
around the cataract on the precipitous
sides Of the canyon. The boats were
provided with air tight compartments,
SO that they were buoyant even when
filled with water.
EARLY in June one Of the boats was
wrecked in this arduous process. A
week later another was all but lost.
breaking from control and dashing
away downstream. Fortunately it ran
Into an eddy some miles farther on,
and the patty caught up with it.
1t was in the middle of August,
three months after the start, that diff
culties were met that first caused the
intrepid explorers to pause and con-
slider. A stretch Of water was before
them, to which the name Of Hell's
Half Mile has chung, In which the
f1ume dashed downward eighty feet in
distance of one-third Of mile. On
either side were walls OF granite 1000
feet high that gave no foothold.
Beyond the cliffs gained rapidly in
altitude until they reached a mile in
height. They must run the rapids or
abandon the trip, and they did not
falter, though it was slipping into
dark crevice from which there was no
going back. Powell's boat was en-
quilted in the plunge through the rap
ids, but it's compartments kept it from
sinking, and no lives were lost.
On through the grand and gloomy
depths of the most marvellous part of
the gorge they proceeded for two
weeks more, when they approached a
point where the roar Of turbulent wa
tiers announced many miles away that
the greatest test was ahead They put
in to one bank, and day was spent
studying the series Of fearful cataracts
ahead
Here for the only time Powell, the
leader, considered the wisdom Of seal
ing the walls of the gorge and aban-
doning the trip. He took observations
by the stars to determine their latitude
and longitude and estimated they had
seventy-fye miles more to go. Their
provisions were low. Eat one time I |
almost concluded to leave the river"
his diary records
On further study of the situation,
however, he decided that it would be
possible to let the boats over the first |
fall with ropes, then steer them near
the right cliff to a point just above the I
second plunge. There, he figured, there
was chute that could be run safely. |