Descent into the Grand Canyon

One of the most daring voyages in the history of American exploration was Major John Wesley Powell's descent through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, in 1869. The river had been discovered three hundred years before his memorable journey, but Major Powell was the first to explore the magnificent gorge through which it flows and to report his findings to the world.

Major Powell was a scientist. The lack of knowledge about the Grand Canyon was a challenge too strong for him to resist. With a party of ten picked men, he started on the perilous voyage, on May 24, 1869. He did not know that ahead of them was a seething stretch of water, two hundred miles in length, broken by rapids and waterfalls, teethed with jagged stones, and walled in by solid rock a mile high in places.