Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-02

cause him to travel thousands of miles.
only hve times, SO far as is known,
canyon from end to end. The canyon was
hrst discovered by Europeans and report
ed to the civilized world in 154O, but
none of those early explorers found any
way to get down from the plateau to
the river. In 1776 a Spanish priest found
a practicable crossing and he was the
nrst white man to go down into the
gorge and come up again. In 1857 the
war Department sent an expedition
under Lieut.. Ives to explore the Colorado
should be found practicable. He entered,
but did not traverse the gorge.
Maj. j. w. Powell, whose name is writ
large in the history of American science,
hGse laborS as an
First Explorer explorer and as
OF Grand Canyon. s tnoa,enah, were s. ul
ue, and who left as a rich legacy to the
American people and as an endearing
monument to himself the geological sur
vey. of which he was director, and whose
scope he outlined, was the first explorer
Of the canyon. In 1869 Maj. Powell under
took the exploration Of the Colorado Of
he started from Green River City on the
Green river, in Utah.
His project was undertaken against the
most urgent remonstrances from those
best acquainted with that region, includ-
ing the Indians, who maiqtained that
boats could not live in any one Of a
score of rapids and cataracts known to
them, to say nothing of the vast I'M
known reaches, in which at any moment
a Niagara might be discovered. 1t was
then believed that for hundreds of miles
the river disappeared entirely beneath
He started May -, and August 30
landed at the mouth of Virgin river.
more than a thousand miles by the
channel down the river from the place
where he started, minus two boats and
four men. One man left soon after they
started. Three others fled from the ter
rors of the gorge only to meet death at
the hands of the Indians on the plateau.
and the boats We're wrecked in the
rapids.
x *
In 1890 Robert b. Stanton went
through the canyon, with eight asso-
ciates in
Four Other Parties boats,
Made Perilous Journey. snrxaH to o
determine the feasibility of building a
railroad along its base. Three other
parties, one In 1896 one in 1897 and one
in 1908. made the same perilous journey,
but no others.
Scarcely less romantic than these
through Journeys was the expedition in
1882, when Maj. Powell was accompanied
by Charles D. Walcott, then his assistant
in the geological survey, afterward his
successor as it's chief, and now the sec
rotary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Mr.. Walcott and small party Of men
were left in the region of stupendous
depth to make a study of the geology
of the labyrinthian gorges. 1t was known
when Maj. Powell left him that SHOWS
on the summit of the plateau would pre-
vent his return until the sun should melt
them the next spring. The party stayed
all winter in that deep solitude.
Men like Powell, who have traversed
the whole length of the canyon; men like
Walcott, who have lived months at
time in it's deeps; men like the guides,
who have lived there close to it; tourists
who have gone down the trail behind the
guides and other tourists who have only
glimpsed it's wonders from the edge, unite
and agree in the opinion first expressed
by Powell that it is 1.-The most wonderful
geological and spectacular phenomenon
known to mankind-the Grand Canyon
sublimest of gorges; titan OF chasms.