Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1916-01-06
MEMORIAL At
GRAND CANYON
Altar Erected by Interior Depart.
ment to Memory Of Ma
jor Powell.

Washington, Jan. Announce
ment is made today that the Depart
ment of the Interior has completed,
on the rim of the Grand Canyon, in
Arizona, a memorial to Major John
Wesley Powell, the intrepid pioneer
and celebrated scientist who first ex-
plored the Grand Canyon. The me-
mortal is an altar decorated in In
dian imagery and supporting a
bronze tablet, resting upon a pyra-
midal base of rough-hewn stone.
Fifteen steps lead from the west up
to the altar floor, from which one
may gaze into the very heart of the
glowing mile-deep canyon. 1t is a
structure worthy alike of the rugged,
forceful personality of the man and
of the titanic chasm which it over
looks.
The spot chosen for the memorial
is Sentinel Point, promontory south
of the railway station, which COM
mands particularly fine view of the
Granite Gorge and of the river,
whose unknown terrors Of whirlpool
and cataract the Powell party braved
in small open boats. The structure,
which is built of weathered limestone
from the neighborhood, has a rec
tangular base 21 by % feet. The
altar carries on it's east side a medal
lion portrait of Major Powell in
bronze bas-relief by Leila Usher and
the following inscription:
Erected by the Congress of the
United States to Maj. John Wesley
Powell, first explorer Of the Grand
Canyon, who descended the river
with his party in rowboats, travers-
ing the gorge beneath this point
August II, 1869, and again Septem-
ber /, 1872"
The Dedication Ceremonies.
The general effect is unobstrusive,
natural, and appropriate. A few
small, gnarled trees grow close by,
but do not obstruct the view. The
structure stands back from the edge
sufficiently to permit visitors in con-
siderable numbers to group them
selves in front.
The memorial which Secretary
Lane has now realized was planned
at the International Geographical
Congress of 1914 in recognition of
Major Powell's distinguished servic-
es as director of the United States
Geological Survey. In March, 1909,
70 ho
purpose, lin. recognition of his dis
tinguished public services as a SOL
dier, explorer, and administrator of
government scientific work" DR..
Holmes chose the site.
This memorial, so expressive of
the spirit and character of the man
whose life work it celebrates, and so
admirably located, will be formally
dedicated early next summer.
John Wesley Powell was born at
Mount Morris, N. Y, March "a, 1884,
of English parents. He taught
school in Illinois till the Civil War,
which he entered as a private ana
came out of as lieutenant colonel.
But he was always called Major"
He lost his right arm at the Battle
of Shiloh.
At the close of the war Major
Powell became professor of geology
in the Illinois Normal university. An
habitual wanderer in wild places. he
led q small party of students and
naturalists in 1867 into the noun
tains of Colorado. His incidental
exploration of two small canyons of
the Grand river kindled the purpose
which shaped his after career, name
ly, to explore the canyons of the
Grand and Green rivers and Of the
then mysterious Colorado river
which their union forms.
The following summer he organ
lied his expedition, proceeded down
the Grand river and across the noun
tains to the White river, where from
his winter camp he made extensive
studies of the rivers and their can
yons, and perfected plans for his
dangerous passage Of the unknown
Colorado.
His great adventure, the passage
of the Grand Canyon Of the Colora-
do, was made in the summer of 1869.
Until then it was unbroken. "Yet
enough has beed seen to foment ru-
NOR" he wrote in his report to the
Smithsonian Institution, "and many
wonderful stories have been told in
the hunters cabin and the prospect
ors camp. Stories were related of
parties entering the gorge in boats
and being carried down with fear
full velocity into the whirlpools,
where all were overwhelmed in the
abyss of waters; others, of under
ground passages for the great river.
into which boats had passed never to
be seen again. It was currently be-
lieved that the river was lost under
the rocks for several hundred miles.
There were no accounts of great
falls, whose roaring music could be
heard on the distant mountain sum
mits.'
In tho Great Unknown.
The start into the Great Un-
known" was made on August 13.
The party, consisting Of ten men in
four boats had been atloat since