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Exploration eti'orts intensified in the IS~Os, in large part because of the United States' acquisition of the southwest part of the country at the close of the Mexican War in • 1315. Upon consolidation of the nation, a transcontinental railroad now seemed more possible, Lieutenant Edward Beale, Captain Jahn Gunnison, and the diehard Fremont all led expeditions into west central Colorado in 1413. They followed essentially the same route--over Cochetopa Pass, into the Gunnison and Uncompahgre River valleys, past the confiuence of the Grand and Gunnison Rivers at present day Grand Junction. and westward. While Beale's party made it to Los Angclcs without event and Fremont's trek to Utah was successful, Gunnison and seven ol'his men were killed and mutilated by the Paiute in southwest Utalt (Vandenbusche and Smith 1931:23). Enthusiasm over a transcontinental railroad slackened somewhat in the wake of Gunnison's demise and even more so in anticipation of the Civil War, the North and South being unable to agree on a railroad route, each demanding that it run tltrottgh its territory. Federal exploration of the Western Slope came to a halt. lnto the late 1360s and early 70s, west central Colorado remained largely unknown, suspected to harbor great riches but unexplored, undeveloped, and still the province of Uintalt (tVltite River Basin), the Uncompalt~;re (Gunnison and Uncompahgre River Basins), and the Parianuc (Grand River Valley) Ute Indians (Fishell 1983:9-f\). Flowever, at the termination of the Civil War, attention turned once more to the West, and eEForts to catalogue the (ands beyond the Rockies were renewed. Both the U.S. Army and the U. S. Geologic Survey dispatched exploration parties, the Army searching for post sites and possible roads, the USES locating agricultural and mining lands. The first of the post-war expeditions to investigate the Grand Valley was !ed by Major Joltn Wesley Powell in 1365. His group assembled in Middle Park and spent the summer working its way down the Grand River (past Battlement Mesa) to the confluence with the Green River. Much environmental information was gathered about the upper drainage of the Grand River by Powell's expedition (Ivlehls 1952:26). Several other expeditions touched on west central Colorado, but the most noteworthy were those led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden between 1873 and 1376. Sponsored by the USES. I layden's yearly expeditions involved topographers, surveyors, ;;eologists, botanists, and photographers, who together mapped and reported on almost every mountain and valley of Colorado's western slope. In 1873, one of llayden's parties, consisting of J.T. Gardner, Henry Gannet, A.C. Peale and others, surveyed the Grand Valley between Glenwood Sprin~~s and Grand Junction. The local flora and fauna and soils were noted and assessments as to the arability of the Valley's lands were developed; on Battlement Mesa, in particular, the volcanic ash was judged to be quite suitable for farming (ibid:27). Lured by the trappers' tales of the Rocky Mountain wilderness and fitrthcr encouraged by the reports of the government surveys, many west-ward-bound settlers set 1;