‘THE SAVING 
TO THE MEMORY OF A BRAVE 
- MAN. 
nd} At the end of Sentinel Point, where you 
an | can look down into the deepest and wildest 
so|part of the Grand Cafion of the Colorado, 
the|}the government has built a memorial to 
ar.|the courageous explorer who first of all 
J.j{iving men passed through the entire 
his |length of the great gorge. That man was 
-er-| Maj. John W. Powell, a one-armed. vet- 
lerjeran of the Civil War, a teacher and 
on| scientific student who later became chief 
ch, of the Geological Survey. 
Neither Indian nor frontiersman had 
S JOURNA 
'eSlever tried to penetrate the mysteries of) | 
Onithe Grand Cafion. The Indians were| 
1S, | afraid, partly for superstitious reasons 
'S-/and partly because of their knowledge of 
as!the rapids and whirlpools that threatened 
D-}death to the intruder. The pioneer white 
ae men saw no reason to risk the dangers 
_ {that the Indians described only to satisfy 
in| their curiosity. In Powell the passion for 
7o| knowing and the will for doing were 
in|united for the first time. 
t-| His expedition started in the summer of 
1, }1869 from Green River, Wyoming. There 
k| were ten men in four boats: They passed 
€|through the smaller yet mighty cafions 
d/that lie above the Grand Cafion, and en- 
€/tered that tremendous gorge on August 
| 13th. Seventeen days later the party! 
8. | floated safely out of the southern end of | 
1¢| the cafion and tied up at the mouth of the 
*T) Virgin River. 
ie 
They found no actual cataracts and no. 
‘;subterranean passages in the cafion, al-i 
though everyone had believed that such} 
dangers existed; but they had plenty of 
hairbreadth escapes among the rapids and 
whirlpools, and it was only with the 
greatest difficulty that they portaged or let 
down their boats over the most difficult | 
places. Several times a boat was upset, 
and so much of their provisions and 
equipment was lost in that way that they 
would have been in danger of starvation 
if they had not emerged just when they |, 
did. They had only ten pounds of flour 
left when they reached the Virgin River. 
A few days before they ran out of the} 
cafion three members of the party, dis- 
couraged at the hardships of the voyage 
and alarmed at the small stock of pro- 
visions that was left, insisted on leaving 
the others, climbing up the side of the 
caiion and striking out for the Mormon 
settlements across the plateau. They 
were never seen again, for they were 
killed by Indians wito were deceived into 
believing them enemies. 
In 1872 Major Powell led another 
party through the Grand Cafion; but since 
then only one or two parties have made 
the entire trip, which is too difficult and 
dangerous to interest any but the most 
adventurous. 
The memorial is in the form of a stone 
altar approached by a flight of massive 
steps and marked by a bronze tablet suit- 
ably inscribed. The altar is reminiscent 
of those built by the sun-worshiping tribes 
of this cafon country, and ceremonial or 
signal fires can and perhaps will from time 
to time be kindled on it. 
AS ASN 
Ft Qh eet ee 
Se nO Vir ovetse 
QI 
=e 
