4. John, Aldo and Daisy
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell was born to Joseph Powell and Mary Dean Powell on March 24, 1834, in Mount Morris, New York, a town about 40 miles south of Rochester. Mary and Joseph, not the carpenter but the farmer, Methodist exhorter and tailor, emigrated from England a few years before. Moving seemed to be part of their lives, going to Ohio in 1938, then Wisconsin eight years after that. They found their way to Illinois in 1851. In each location John Wesley was educated in an unconventional way, being home schooled and learning from neighbors. He relied on self-education, especially in natural history. Because of the need to work in the fields, he left school before he turned thirteen but managed to be in the classroom at some of the colleges in Illinois.
John loved the outdoors, spending time exploring plants, minerals and animals. He traveled long distances away from home, taking to the rivers and making it to New Orleans on the mighty Mississippi. As he matured, he considered teaching or farming. In his mid twenties, he was teaching in Hennipen, Illinois, and became secretary of the Illinois State Natural Historical Society. He also took note of a cousin, Emma Dean.
In 1861, despite being an abolitionist, he enlisted in the service to fight for the Union. He began exploring aspects of war, including defenses against the South. He soon came to know General Ulysses S. Grant. He was granted leave in late 1861 and married Emma in Detroit on November 28. He probably returned to Cape Girardeau without a honeymoon. In the ferocious Battle of Shiloh, a musket shot struck his arm, but he barely noticed it. Union soldiers put him on a boat headed to Savannah, Tennessee. There he received medical attention and a few days later, his right arm was amputated. His recovery was painful, but he only rested a few months and returned to the war. With the Confederacy just about beaten, he departed from the army in early 1865.
Powell started teaching at both Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State Normal University. Even during the war, he took note of the surrounding plants and fossils. He continued this endeavor while teaching, accepting a $500 grant to obtain collections of minerals, flora and fauna in the Rocky Mountains for the Illinois Museum of Natural History. This venture in the summer of 1867 included climbing Pike‟s Peak and Long‟s Peak the next year. His interest in formal teaching waned. He, Emma and a few others, set up a camp west of the Continental Divide on the White River. They explored the Colorado River system and nearby canyons while John considered a descent of these rivers the following year.
In May 1869, the 900-mile journey began. It was an epic adventure that began with Powell taking notes on the excursion and later writing about it. More than a half-century earlier, the Lewis and Clark expedition began exploring the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, which was much longer than Powell‟s trip. I‟m not sure which of the two was more frustrating, treacherous, challenging and painful, both physical and mental. John Colton Sumner said that cavalry charges were a walk in the park next to challenging the Colorado River. I‟m happy that I wasn't on either trip.
The crew on the Colorado River jaunt was challenged by numerous waterfalls and rapids and forced to portage many times. They would just make it past a dangerous cataract or rapids when before long they heard the rushing water and had to face another challenge. After a while their night shelter was so ravaged that it provided small comfort from the cold and rain. Ten men started out, most experienced outdoorsmen and all but two veterans of the Civil War. Before reaching the end of the adventure, Frank Goodman left after a few weeks and survived his exit while William H. Dunn and the Howland brothers, Oramel and Seneca, departed at Separation Canyon. They weren't so fortunate, murdered either by Mormons or Native Americans, most likely the latter. On August 13, 1869, John Colton Sumner, George Young Bradley, Andy Hall, Billy Hawkins, the one-armed leader and his brother, Walter Henry Powell, completed the trip, arriving near Moab, Utah.
Just as John Wesley rejoining the war effort, the challenges of the trip didn't stand in his way. He climbed mountains and was in danger, including an incident near Echo Rock. It involved long underwear. Powell was carrying a barometer and needed another hand. Bradley came to the rescue and searched for a stick or tree limb. George himself could have been in trouble because he was above the group leader, so he took off his drawers and lowered them down to John, who was soon at the top of the cliff.
The 1869 expedition wasn't his first and wouldn't be his last. Each outing had the goal of discovering plants, animals and minerals to achieve a better understanding of the country, especially what harm forestry, farming and mining could do. Traveling on land and water, Powell realized that the West had various degrees of rainfall and needed different practices than back east. As anyone traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the land was humid, sub humid, arid and then humid once more. Some dry areas would benefit from irrigation and thus produce crops. The mountains and valleys brought other problems. Farming, mining and raising livestock all required water, but many considerations were necessary so that each of the three could be done. John Wesley wrote about possible solutions.
As if his journeys didn't keep him busy enough, he became the second director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from 1884-1894. At the Smithsonian Institution, he was the Bureau of Ethnology‟s director. John Wesley authored a few books, including Report On The Lands Of The Arid Region. In 1954, Utah native Bernard DeVoto lavished great praise, calling it remarkable. He said:
It is a scientific prophecy and it has been fulfilled. Unhappily the experimental proof has consisted of human and social failure and the destruction of land. If we could have acted on it in full, incalculable loss would have been prevented and the United States would be healthier and wealthier than it is. We did not even make an effective effort to act on it until 1902. . . . We are still far short of catching up with it.
Powell cared greatly about Native Americans, placing himself in their moccasins. However, he still felt superior to them and erroneously felt that ridding the nation of Native Americans would alleviate forest fires, feeling that they caused them. Maybe as he grew older, that attitude changed. To accomplish what he did with a missing limb is nothing short of courageous. John Wesley was bossy on journeys, but others came to him because of his charisma. So he wasn't perfect. He thought that planting trees wouldn't increase rainfall that much and may have been right. However even a small increase is significant and trees are a great benefit to the environment and its current concerns. Powell also was opposed to forest fires, but we know of the benefits of controlled burns, which have been shown to help the growth of plants, trees and shrubs.
Some felt the Homestead Act was a great thing but not J. W. He considered it a hoax. It just drew people to the West without seeing the ecological concerns of the arid land. With the migration, problems only became worse. Not enough people listened to him. On many occasions he was booed, but all through his life, he never gave up. He wrote articles and letters to enlighten the citizenry, including the 1875 book, The Exploration Of The Colorado River And Its Canyons. He was human but most of the time he was right. Powell is a hero because of his understanding of the connection between the environment and the people on earth. Simply put, land had to be managed. The resources were to be used but not abused. John wanted them available for future generations. He was way ahead of his time. If only more of what he advocated had been done, the earth would be a better place today.
On September 23, 1902, Powell died at home in Haven, Maine, due to cardiovascular complications at the age of 68. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Named after or dedicated to him are: John Wesley Powell Middle School in Littleton, Colorado; in Grand Junction in Colorado, a Criminal Justice Services Department building; Lake Powell on the Colorado River; Powell Plateau in Grand Canyon National Park; John Wesley Powell Federal Building in Reston, Virginia. The John Wesley Powell Award is the highest award given to those outside the government by the USGS.