9653

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9653
• Author: Gilbert, S.
• Title: Powell's River, The Colorado - The Most Sought-after, Fought-over River in the History of North America.
• USFW Year: 1972.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

the uncharted. Wasatch range of utah. At this point the Father, not

wanting to retrace bis steps, decided to return';to Santa Fe by fol-
lowing the river down the west side until a sui table ford was found.

Of course, the west bank of the river is just as entrenched in

canyons as was the east, so that severaJ. attempts to ford were unsuc-

cessful. Finally the expedition came to a place ( now called the
Crossing of the Fathers at Leels Ferry, Arizona) where they cut steps
in the sandstone walls and let their horses down to the river by
ropes. There was no turning back; the river was crossed. C3,4)

Powell. The ConQueror

After the Ci vll War, ex-officer and geologist Major John Wesley

Powell became interested in the uncharted Colorado River Basin.

Backed. by the Smithsonian Institute, he organized a scientific exped-
ition to explore the Colorado-an adventure that lasted three years.
On May 24, 1B69, Powell's party set out from Green River, Wyoming
on the-,-Green River in four boats made of oak. The first sixty-two

miles passed with calm waters and relatively fiat cream-colored terrain.

Then the party plunged through Flaming Gorge (just south of the utah-
Wyoming border) into the first of nearly a 1,000 miles of deep, colorful

canyons and rapid, terrifying water.

Powell reached the mouth of the river with the loss of severaJ.

men, three of the four boats, and most of his scientific equipment.

But the river had been runl Most important, however, the ColoradD

1 The Green River, named by Father Silvestre, is actuaJ.ly the upper
continuation of the Colorado, its main source. In crossing the Green,
Father Silvestre had crossed the Colorado.

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