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PR. ca ORES | 
FIRST EXPLORER © 
OF GRAND CANYON 
Achievement of James White 
Set Forth in Senate 
Document. 
MADE THE VOYAGE IN 1867 
—s 
Nearly Starved, Was Rescued from 
the Raft Upon Which He Lived | 
for Fourteen Days. 
A. Government: publication ‘of . more 
than usual local interest is Senate Doc- 
ument No.42, just issued under resolu- 
| tion. adopted June 4, 1917, being an ar- 
| ticle by Thomas F. Dawson, who gives 
the credit of first traversing the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado to James White, 
Ee Colorado gold prospector, who it is 
claimed made the voyage two years pre- 
vious to the expedition under the di- 
rection of Major J. W.’ Powell in 1869. 
The local interest lies in the fact that! 
the rescue of White, nearly starved, 
| naked, semi-delirious and emaciated al- 
| most beyond human resemblance, from 
he had been swept along the perilous 
| ehannel, was made by residents of the 
river town of Callville, a settlement of 
“Mormons * at the head of navigation 
‘of the mighty stream, in what is now 
Nevada, 
Old residents. of..Utah will remember, 
and readers of the State’s early history 
will kave learned, that half a century 
and more ago a not inconsiderable com- 
merce between San Francisco and this 
city was carried on via this. roundabout 
route—by. freight téams Callville-Salt 
| Lake, and by barges, scows, sailing ves- 
sels’ and steamers San Francisco-Call- 
ville, Only a few weeks since, in the 
regular department of The’ Saturday 
News having the caption ‘‘ Fifty Years 
Ago,’’ mention was made of the explora- 
|tion, by a party from St. George, Utah, 
'of a part of the river hitherto believed 
‘to have been untraversed iby white men. 
the raft upon which for fourteen days) 
Tiare, dicrvcolauy, O14 1917 
Hits perils, was not to be compared with 
| White’s terrible trip. ‘These Utahans) 
‘floated or poled their way down from 
somewhere near the mouth of the Grand 
| Wash. He launched his raft several 
hundred miles further up, if not on the 
‘Grand River' above its junction ‘with 
the ‘Green: to form the Colorado, at 
But. that voyage, though not ed. with | 
least immediately below that junction, | 
and certainly tar above the point where 
the San Juan comes in. It was on the} 
25th of. this month, fifty years ago, that 
White and one companion, having been} 
who. had killed} 
| the third member and leader of the} 
attacked: by Indians, 
Peat sought escape by trusting them- | 
selves to the mercies of the treacherous 
pate ;yand it was on the 8th of. Sep- 
itemker that White alone—-his compan- 
j ion having been washed jdverboard, and 
| drowned at one of the. many rapids en- 
countered during the fearful journey, | 
; found succor at the Callville settlement, | 
i His was not the first craft from “ up 
river” to meet the eyes of those settlers, | 
the St. George. party having preceded 
i him by several months. 
'ing to Mr. Dawson’s showing, was the 
first to have traversed the long 500-mile 
i stretch of ‘the pitiless stream through 
| the gigantic gorge that is truly one of 
i the wonders of: the world. : 
' Mr. Dawson justifiey the: putting forth | 
‘of the claim to this honor in behalf, of) 
| White, by the fact that the Government 
monument tou Major Powell, at the brink: 
ofthe Grand Canyon, has raised anew 
the question as to whether the distine- 
tion conferred upon that officer should) 
jnot be. shared with another. The state-. 
ments made in pamphlet, and the con-— 
‘gpalten reached, will undoubtedly be) 
challenged, but they appear on their 
face to be well founded. Mr. White is 
‘still living in Trinidad, Col., or was a 
month ago. 
But, technically speaking, the Powell) 
monument sets up no claim which any~| 
body will attempt to contest... It refers, 
to. the. indomitable one-armed ‘officer 
‘as ‘‘ The. first explorer ’* of, the Grand' 
Canyon. It cannot be claimed (for 
White that he ‘‘ explored’ the gorge.— 
Deseret Nevis # Fa 
But Me, accord- | 
