Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-01-03

/ Lane has now realized was planned at
the international Geological congress
I Of 1901 in recognition Of Major Pow
ellis distinguished services as director
Of the United States geological survey.
/ In March, 1909, congress appropriated
! goo for the purpose, ''in recosnl-
ton of his distinguished public SER
/ vices as a soldier explorer. and adj
/ ministrator of government scientific
work" DR.. Holmes chose the site,
The original purpose was to make
the memorial a Roman chair facing
the canyon. Last spring Secretary
Lane substituted an altar for the
chair. and Mark Daniels, then gem
erai superintendent and landscape
engineer of national parks, designed
the structure as 1t stands today.
1t was then late in July. and Mr..
Walter Ward, engineer of the rccla-
nation service, had difficult task
before him to find and hew the rock
and build the structure within the
slender appropriation. The Riverside
1 Portland Cement company helped by
donating half the cement
This memorial. so expressive of the
spirit and character of the man whose
! life work It celebrates, and so admir-
ably located, will be formally dedi-
Gated early next summer. Secretary
Lanes purpose is to make the event
one Of impressive importance. If, as
is expected, congress meantime makes
the Grand Canyon a national park Git
I Is a national monument now, the
1.-TWO dedications will take place to-
gether, making celebration alto
gether notable in tho history of ma
tional parks,
Devotional Fires on the Altar.
This memorial embodyng to re-
markable degree the essential spirit
Of the Grand Canyon IS planned to
become the scene of perhaps daily
ceremonals of most interesting
character reviving the spirit and to
some extent the practice Of the an
cient religious forms in vogue among
the original Indian tribes Of the
,neighborhood. Devotional fires Will
blaze upon this altar.
John Wesley Powell was born at
Mount Morris. n. " March -, 1884,
OF English parents. He taught school
tin Illinois till the civil war which he
entered as private and 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 Pow
ell became professor Of geology in the
Illinois Normal university. An habit
ual wanderer in wild places, he led q
small party of students and natural
lists in 1867 into the mountains OF
Colorado His incidental exploration
of two small canyons Of the Grand
river llindled the purpose which
shaped his after career namely, to
explore the canyons Of the Grand and
Green rivers and of the then mysterl-
Gus Colorado river which their union
forms
The following summer he organized
his expedition, proceeded down inc
Grand river ana across the mountains
to the White river where from his
winter camp he made extensive studies
of the rivers and their canyons and
perfected plans for his dangerous pas
sage of the unknown Colorado.
His great adventure, the passage OF
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado
was made in the summer Of 1869. IN
til then it was unknown. yet enough
had been seen to foment rumor, ne
wrote in his report to the Smithson-
ian institution, and many wonderful
stories have been told in the hunters
cabin and prospector's camp stories
were related OF parties entering the
gorge in boats and being carried down
with fearful velocity into w1lfipools'
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 pc
lieved that the river was lost under
the rocks for several hundred miles.
There were other account OF great
falls whose roaring music could be
heard on the distant mountain sum
mits.'
Into the Great Unknown.
Tho start into the Great Unknown
was made on August 10. The party
consisting of ten men in four Doats,
had been afloat since their start from
Green River City on May "a. Two or
the boats were deckcd. forming water
tight compartments
Now, after three months of labori-
! ious battle with rapids and waterfalls
| and the still more laborious explora-
ton of innumerable side canyons, they
had reached. with sc2nt provisions the
supreme test Of strength ana courage.
diary. we know not what rocks be-
set the channel. We know not; what
walls rise on the river, we know not.
All, well. we may conjecture many
things The men talk as cheerfnlly as
ever. jests are banded about freely
! this morning; but TO me the cheer Is
somber and the jests are ghastly."
The following days comes tie first
of many tests. The diary goes on:
First OF Many Upscts.
about II o'clock We hear great
/ roar ahead. and approach it very cau-
] tiously The sound grows louder and
| louder as we run, and at last we find
ourselves above a long broken fall,
with lodges and pinnacles Of rock OBJ
structing the river There is descent
Of perhaps seventy-five or eighty feet
( i'm a third OF mile, and the rushing
waters break into great waves on the
rocks. and lash themselves into mad
white foam. We can land just above,
I but there is no f0oth0ld on either side
/ by which We can make a portage,
III * nearly thousand feet 10 the
top Of the granite. so II viii be impos-
slhle 90 carry our boats around,
thaHsh we can climb 10 the summit