Evening star., 1916-01-02
FINISH MEMORIAL
TO MAJ. POWELL
Interior Department Officials
Announce Completion of
Arizona Monument.
DEDICATION is EXPECTED
TO OCCUR NEXT SUMMER
Tribute to Explorer of Grand Can
yon Is Stone Altar Decorated
With Indian Imagery.

1 y
With Indian Imagery.
A memorial to Maj. John Wesley Pow
ell, who first explored the Grand Can
yon and to whose efforts the creation
of the United States geological survey
was due, has been completed at Senti-
nal Point in Arizona, overlooking Gran
lite gorge, according to announcement
made last night by the Department of
the Interior.
! This memorial was authorized by
Congress. which appropriated $1,000 for
it in March, 1909. The plan for the me-
mortal was broached first at the Inter-
national Geological Congress in 1904.
The dedication of the memorial will
| take place early next summer, it is ex
lpected, and should Congress make a ma
| tional park of the Grand Canyon, as is
expected. the two dedications will take
place at the same time.
| The memorial to Maj Powell is an
| altar decorated with Indian imagery,
supporting a bronze tablet, resting
upon a pyramidal base of rough-hewn
| stone. Fifteen steps lead from the
west up to the altar floor, from which it
| is possible to gaze into the very heart
| of the mile-deep canyon. The struc-
| ture is of weathered limestone from the
neighborhood.
Was Born in New York.
John Wesley Powell was born at
Mount Morris, N. Y, March "a, 1894,
of English parents. He taught school
he entered as private and came out
| nf p,,f
always called major
| He lost his right arm at the battle
of Shiloh.
i At the close of the war Maj Powell
became professor Of geology in the Illi-
| nois Normal University. An habitual
| wandered in wild places, he led small
party of students and naturalists in
| 1857 into the mountains of Colorado.
His incidental exploration of two small
| canyons of the Grand river kindled the
purpose which shaped his after career
namely, 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 organized
| his expedition, proceeded down the
| Grand river and 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
Passage of the Grand Canyon.
| His great adventure. the passage of
the Grand canyon of the Colorado,
was made in the summer of 1869 Un-
til then it was unknown. yet enough
had been seen to foment rumor," he
wrote in his report to the Smithsonian
Institution, land many wonderful
stories have been told in the hunters
cabin and prospector's camp. Stories
were related or parties entering the
gorge in boats and being carried down
with fearful velocity into 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. 1t was currently be-
lieved that the river was lost under
| the rocks for sevral hundrd miles
There were other accounts of great
falls, whose roaring music could be
| heard on the distant mountain sum-
| mits."
| the start into "the great unknown"
| was made August l3. The party, con-
| sisting of ten men in four boats, had
| been afloat since their start from
| Green River City May "a. Two of the
| boats were decked, forming water
tight compartments.
Taken From His Diary.
| Maj PoweI's diary recounts a con-
tinual succession of exciting battles
with fate. In repeated upsets one of
! their boats was lost and most OF their
| -four destroyed. They were down to
| few days rations, principally of dried
apples.
| August % three of the party left
| them, preferring to take their chances
| of climbing the almost perpendicular
walls and finding their way to some
settlement.
These men were never heard Of
| again.
| And the very next day the party,
| after a most exciting passage over
series of rocky cascades, swept out of
| the Grand Canyon in safety.
| He repeated the passage, for scien-
| tific research, two years later, and
| then he used boat into which he was
strapped. Several times this boat roll
ed over in the rapids and once nearly
| drowned him.
| Maj. Powelrs desire to continue in
| work of similar nature prompted him
to seek annual appropriations for con-
| Quoting an independent survey of the
territories. In this work he continued
until through his agency, the geologi-
/ cal survey was organized in 1879.
Became the Director.
| At his solicitation Clarence King ac-
cepted the position of first director.
The same year the bureau of ethnol-
ogy under the Smithsonian Institution
was organized through his efforts. or
this he was appointed director.
! In 1881 Clarence King resigned the
directorship of the geological survey
and Maj. Powell was appointed as his
lsuccessor by President Garfield. Maj.
Powell continued in charge of both bu-
reaus until his resignation as director
| Of the geological survey in 1894. Sub
| sequent to that he devoted his atten-
tion entirely to the bureau of eth
| nology, of which he was director until
his death in September, 1902.
| The geological survey was built into
an efficient organization under the per-
sonal direction and guidance of Maj.
Powell.