Early Visitors (Sidebar 1)
Human history associated with the Grand Canyon can be divided into five periods: archaic—involving the desert cultures before Christ; Indian settlements—600 – 1600 A.D.; land expeditions—1776 – 1858; river expeditions—1867 – 1889; and modern development—1901 – present. The focus of this article is on the exploration of the river by boats. Other periods may be found in literature cited in the references.
The first U.S. river runner was Lt. Joseph Ives in 1857 that steamed up the Colorado to Black Canyon where his craft struck a rock and broke apart. The exploratory team then hiked to the Coconino Plateau and went as far as the Havasupi Indian Reservation below the South Rim.
Next, Jim White rafted down a small portion of the Colorado from Grand Wash to Callville, Nevada in 1867. He lost his two companions during the two-week trip and barely survived himself.
Major John Wesley Powell was the first (1869) to float the entire Grand Canyon from the Green River to Grand Wash in three months. Powell was a Union officer in the Civil War and a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University after the war. He set out with nine other men in oak boats to explore the canyon and take detailed notes of the geology. Only six men continued on to the Virgin River. Four men continued on to the Gulf of California. Powell made a second trip in 1871 as far as Kanab Creek but had to give up that trip due to bad weather and unusual water flows. Powell directed the writing of the first comprehensive geology description of Grand Canyon.
Frank Brown undertook an unusual adventure. He and a railroad engineer, Brewster Stanton, envisioned a railroad through the canyon from Colorado to California to bring coal to the west coast. Brown, Stanton, and fourteen helpers made a boat trip down the Colorado River in 1889. Unfortunately, Brown capsized and was drowned below Lee's Ferry. Stanton discontinued the trip at mile 30 and hiked out of the canyon to the North Rim. He refitted with stronger boats, life preservers, and waterproof duffle bags and headed back down the canyon on Christmas Day 1889. He made it all the way to the Gulf of California but never carried out the railroad plans.
A new railroad line was laid to the South Rim; it opened the way for many visitors and new projects at the canyon in 1901. Teddy Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon a National Monument in 1908. He previously established Grand Canyon National Forest as a National Game Reserve. Many other activities led to trails, bridges, and a ranch; two dams were constructed—one below the canyon called Hoover Dam in 1936 and one above named the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963.
References:
1. Austin, Steven A., Ed. Grand Canyon—Monument to Catastrophe, Santee, CA., Institute for Creation Research, 1994, pp. 97-209.
2. Lister, Robert H. and Florence C. Lister. Southwestern Archaeology in the National Park System: Those Who Came Before Tucson, AZ., University of Arizona Press, 1983, 184 pp.
3. Stevens, Larry. The Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, AZ., Red Lakes Books, 1983, pp. 18-35.
4. Whitney, Stephen. A Field Guide to the Grand Canyon, New York, Quill, 1982, pp. 44-51.
