John Wesley Powell - Green River, UT
N 38° 59.639 W 110° 08.404
12S E 574470 N 4316460
This life-size statue of John Wesley Powell, who led the first organized exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers, is located in Green River, Utah.
Waymark Code: WMDBR6
Location: Utah, United States
Date Posted: 12/21/2011
Views: 11
Located east of the parking area for the John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum, is a site with large open grassy areas, pavillions for picnicing and this statue of John Wesley Powell.
This life-size bronze statue shows John Wesley Powell, with his right arm missing, appears to be pointing with his left hand, in the direction of the Green River. He is dressed in typical pioneer clothing of the 1860's with long pants, a collared shirt, suspenders, sturdy boots, and a wide brim hat. He is situated with a vantage point, about 10 feet high, atop a platform of fabricated rocks.
On May 24, 1869, Powell and nine men he recruited for a truly monumental journey pushed from shore their boats and headed down the Green River from Green River, Wyoming, amidst shouts and cheers from onlookers who must have thought they would never see these 10 men again. They took provisions for ten months.
About a month later one of the men, an Englishman named Frank Goodman, approached the Major saying "I've had more excitement that a man deserves in a lifetime. I'm leaving." At that point in the trip they had already lost one boat to the rapids and most of their supplies. It must have been rather exciting as the men knew not what to expect from one day to the next. Goodman walked away from the expedition to a nearby settlement. He lived for many years among the Paiute Indians of eastern Utah then later settled in Vernal, UT, married and had a family.
The 1869 expedition continued down the Green to the confluence of the Grand River flowing west into Utah. The two mighty rivers then merged into the Colorado, Spanish for red river as when it rained the side tributaries spilled their muddy red sediment into the clear green waters of the main channel causing it to run red and thick with silt.
River runners described the Colorado in the days before Glen Canyon Dam as "too thick to drink and too thin to plow."
During the next two months on the river, the men encountered many more rapids that could not be run safely in Powell's estimation. He was ever cautious, fearful they would lose the rest of the supplies and perhaps even their lives. So they lined the boats down the side of the rapids, or portaged boats and supplies through the rocks along the shoreline. However, there were times when they had to run the swollen river through rapids that surely made them pray.
At a place now called Separation Canyon, O.G. Howland, his brother Senaca, and Bill Dunn came to the Major and spoke of "how we surely will all die if we continue on this journey." They could only see more danger ahead. Try as they might, they could not convince Powell to abandon the river.
The next morning, the three men bid farewell to Powell and the remaining five adventurers. Powell left his boat the Emma Dean at the head of Separation Rapid in case they changed their minds. With the other five men Powell ran what would turn out to be the first of two remaining major rapids they would encounter. The Howlands and Dunn climbed out of the canyon walking towards civilization only to meet their death at the hands of Shivwits Indians who mistook them for miners that had killed a Hualapai woman on the south side of the river. At least that was the story Powell heard the next year when he visited the Shivwits area with Mormon Scout Jacob Hamlin.
It was ironic they parted company then as two days later Powell and his men reached the mouth of the Virgin River (now under Lake Mead) and were met by settlers fishing from the river bank. The adventurers had not been heard from in three months and were presumed dead.
Powell had completed what he sought to do ... explore and confirm his theory on the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, a region up to that time almost wholly unknown and concerning which there were many vague and often wild rumors. His theory was the river preceded the canyons and then cut them as the Plateau rose.
URL of the statue: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.