page_title: John Wesley Powell
section_title: Legacy, honours, and namesakes
hierarchical_section_title: John Wesley Powell / Legacy, honours, and namesakes
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of violinist Maud Powell, niece of John Wesley Powell, American explorer, at the monument erected in his honor at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1918.[1]
context_page_description: John Wesley Powell was a geologist, U.S. Soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He is famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, including the first official U.S. government-sponsored passage through the Grand Canyon.
  Powell served as second director of the U.S. Geological Survey and proposed, for development of the arid West, policies that were prescient for his accurate evaluation of conditions. He became the first director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution during his service as director of the U.S. Geological Survey, where he supported linguistic and sociological research and publications.
context_section_description: In recognition of his national service, Powell was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.
  The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed 12 March 2019, authorizes the establishment of the "John Wesley Powell National Conservation Area", consisting of approximately 29,868 acres in the state of Utah.
  The rare mineral powellite was named after him.
  Green River, Wyoming, the embarkation site of both Powell expeditions commissioned a ​9  ¹⁄₂ foot tall statue depicting Powell holding an oar, which now stands in front of the Sweetwater County History Museum.
  Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, was named for Powell.
  He is the namesake of Powell Peak.
  Powell Plateau, near Steamboat Mountain on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was also named in his honor.
  Major Powell never explored the Powell Flats area, but it and the town Powell, Wyoming were given his name.
  In Powell's honor, the USGS National Center in Reston, Virginia, was dedicated as the "John Wesley Powell Federal Building" in 1974. In addition, the highest award presented by the USGS to persons outside the federal government is named the John Wesley Powell Award.
  The residential building of the Criminal Justice Services Department of Mesa County in Grand Junction, Colorado, is named after John Wesley Powell.
  John Wesley Powell Middle School is located in Littleton, Colorado.
  Powell Junior High School is located in Mesa, Arizona.
  He was portrayed by John Beal in the 1960 film Ten Who Dared.
  Powell is the subject of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils song "Mr. Powell", which is on The Car Over the Lake Album
  Powell's 1869 expedition is the subject of a 2015 play, Men on Boats, using a female cast to impart a sense of questioning the 19th century male values embodied in the expedition.
  Wallace Stegner's book, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the second opening of the West (1954), along with Powell's own writings, are the best books regarding the Powell expedition of 1869 and Powell's works in conservation after the Civil War.
  In 1984, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
caption: Maud Powell, niece of John Wesley Powell, photographed at his monument, Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1918.
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