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Down The Great Unknown
May 11, 186. A group of roughnecks gather in the dust bucket of Green River, Wyoming, waiting for their one-armed leader to take them down the last great mystery of the western United States; the Grand Canyon. 5-year-old John Wesley Powell arrives by train with four flat-bottomed, flat-ended boats with which the team will negotiate the uncharted waters of the Green and Colorado Rivers. They bring with them 10 months worth of coffee, flour, and other provisions for what will ultimately end up being about three months worth of traveling. Powell set out in hopes to chart and map the Grand Canyon in its entirety. The only way of doing this was by boat via the Colorado. The other men were mostly just looking for an adventure. These were knowledgeable, capable adventurers who seemed like they would be beyond Powell's control, but for the most part, these men never questioned their leader.
For the crew, the adventure began on May 4, when the boats were launched into the river, but for Powell, the journey started two years before when he had first visited the Grand Canyon during a field trip for his geology class at Illinois Wesleyan. He was amazed by the beauty of the canyon and was almost immediately set on charting the area for him and others. Soon after, he began partitioning the U.S. Government for a grant to explore the Grand Canyon, but was denied. Powell sought funding elsewhere, asking friends, acquaintances, and friend's acquaintances for donations for the trip. Eventually he gained enough money, along with his life savings, to fund his ideal journey.
The Grand Canyon was a geologist's dream. It was filled with rich history of the Earth and the changes it has undergone throughout the course of its existence. Though Powell had brought with him dozens of measuring tools, the shape, color and layers of rock told a story to the naked eye. Powell had also found a great deal of evidence of cave dwellers and other inhabitants of the area.
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Powell's interests were not just anthropological, though. He was also a man seeking to make a name for himself in the history of the United States. As a Civil War veteran, he exuded bravery and determination. He had his right arm shattered by a cannon ball at the Battle of Shiloh, and after several surgeries, his arm was amputated. But losing an arm did not stop him from earning the rank of Major after returning to the service for another three years. Being a veteran, though, was not enough for Powell, he wanted more for himself, and thought that exploring the most mysterious part of the United States would surely bring him that recognition. On May 4, Powell and his crew left from Green River, Wyoming. The trip started off being a journey of science and careful measurements, but would soon become a tale of survival.
The early parts of the river were somewhat easy to negotiate, - men per boat was the perfect number to power and steer through rather mild rapids. This was the case for about the first 70-75 miles of the river. It took them about two weeks to get that far, but around 80 miles; the trip had its first major episode.
The team was negotiating a series of difficult rapids when one of the boats suddenly hit a rock and shattered into pieces. The team lost one third of their food supply and a great deal of instruments. To add to the difficulty, the two boats had to take on an extra person, making it crewmembers per boat. Powell blamed the two members of the boat for not listening to his commands. This added an unwanted element to their journey; blame. This would foreshadow events to come and the overall feel of the journey. From that point on, crewmembers had remained in low spirits for rest of the journey. That was the point where Powell realized that there was a possibility of failing his mission, and failure was his greatest fear. Powell from that point on changed his policy about shooting rapids.
Although going through rapids was sometimes beneficial, (the team could gain miles much faster than slower parts of the river), if there was a rapid that Powell thought was too risky to run, he would command the crew to portage the boats and carry the boats and supplies around the rapids. One crewmember, George Bradley remarked that losing one of the boats and some rations was a positive change in the trip. "We have plenty of rations left, much more than we care to carry around the rapids, especially when they are more than a mile long."
Another element of the journey that negatively affected the crew was that due to poor care for the food rations, water had gotten to them and it mold took over a large portion of the food. By the end of the trip the crew was on less than half rations of food. They didn't necessarily need to be on half rations because the trip was much shorter than that for which they had prepared, but it was still a safe, smart move on behalf of the Powell and the crew.
At one point, all that was left was flour; the crew was reduced to eating dough balls. These conditions led to even more discontent among the men. The sentiment among the crew of the members was so intense that one night at camp, three crewmembers announced that they were going to climb out of the canyon and try to find their way to civilization. At this point, the crew was deep in the Colorado River, thus in uncharted territory. Any town or settlement would be miles away; it was almost certain death. Despite Powell's pleas, the men left on foot the next morning with a letter to Powell's wife and half of the records kept throughout the trip. The men were never seen again and it is theorized that Native Americans killed them. This occurred on the 7th day, two days before the team made it out of the Grand Canyon.
After the journey was over, Powell never saw the remaining crewmembers again. I think that was due to the tension that was created throughout the trip. Powell had ordered the men around and they obeyed without question, but they were becoming more and more agitated with every order they followed.
Originally, the crew was in this adventure merely for the excitement aspect of it. They were not geologists or great explorers or looking to get rich, they had been doing things of this sort for their entire lives. Some of the men were civil war veterans and others were just drifters. I am not sure if taking the trip was worth doing for the crew. They certainly gained a new experience and did have an adventure, but they received very little if any recognition for their efforts. For the three that fled the expedition, the mission was a horrible tragedy. These poor men only had 48 hours left of misery to endure with Powell before they could say goodbye to him forever, instead they said goodbye forever. For the men that completed it, the completion in itself was worth doing, but I feel that they walked away from the experience with a negative outlook.
Powell, on the other hand, accomplished more and less than what he expected. The disappointment for him was that he did not chart the entire Grand Canyon. This was due to losing instruments in the first boat crash and giving a large portion of the records to the three who skipped out on the trip. Some instruments were also ruined from water damage. The most important factor in not being able to chart the river was the fact that for a long time, the crew was scrambling merely to survive. Recording the journey had become secondary to staying alive. This seemed to be the only negative aspect of completing the journey for Powell.
When Powell returned he had found that he was a national hero. For months, rumors had been circling around the newspapers that the mission had failed when the crew was sucked into a whirlpool; Powell was living proof that that didn't happen. He was finally the center of attention, a legend in his own time.
He was even recognized by the government. John received a $10,000 grant from Congress to lead more expeditions into the Grand Canyon. In 1871, he led the second expedition into the "somewhat known". During this time, he put inauthentic headdresses on the Native Americans and took pictures of them to sell to raise money for further western exploration. In 1874, Powell published a book in which embellished his original account of his trip down the Grand Canyon.
He was also made director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian. This position mainly pertained to the government's policy towards Native Americans, a group of people with whom Powell was especially fascinated. Powell was also named the director of the United States Geological Survey, a bureau dedicated to exploring and mapping the western United States.
For Powell, the experience was more than worthwhile. He got what he had always wanted, being the recognition of others. On a less obvious level though, John gained a sense of pride for himself. He had done something that no one else had ever done. In this respect, he knew that never giving up paid off. He had proven that someone with a major disability such as a broken arm could accomplish a feat unparalleled by anyone with two arms had ever done.
Adventure. This could possibly be one of the vaguest words in the English language. An adventure could be something in that was began with a specific purpose, like mapping the uncharted waters of the Colorado River. Or the adventure could be unintentional and unexpected, like hearing a pop from the back of your car and having to pull over to the side of the road to fix it yourself. If this is your first time, than it can very well be an adventure. The previous adventures described are both of the physical sorts, but there are also those that are mental. For instance learning to and or making oneself use a style of writing or motivating oneself to do something.
Before going into what types of adventures there are, it is important to define what elements make up an adventure. In every adventure, those people involved must have some sort of struggle. If a math major that has never climbed a mountain tries to do it alone, he or she will most certainly encounter some kind of struggle. However, if a seasoned mountain guide tries to solve a complex equation he or she will encounter a struggle.
Another important part of an adventure is the moment in which the person participating who has encountered a seemingly impossible situation decides to do something about it to better their position. For instance, when the math major reaches an arm above his head and grabs the first hand hold and begins to pull himself up, he has reached a new level. This brings him to the next element of adventure, learning.
In my opinion it is impossible to go through an adventure without learning something. As soon as one encounters a struggle that was unanticipated, the person learns of a different element that is included in that adventure. After the struggle is over, or at least attempted, the person involved learns something about himself, the way in which he deals with a desperate situation.
Now that adventure has been defined, the inevitable question, WHY? There are literally millions of reasons why someone will embark on an adventure. Many common reasons relate to greed, glory, religion (proselytizing), necessity, and in Powell's case research. Some of these things though are not enough to motivate people to go on adventures.
There is always the theory that there is no reason to ever do anything in which one learns or does something out of the ordinary because we are all insignificant and will have no effect on the course of history. This may be true and it may not be. It is a concept with which I find myself struggling all of the time. An example is this very paper. I have read an entire book and watched movies and done research on this topic and for what? To get a good grade so I can pass and have a decent G.P.A. and go to college and get a job and retire when I'm 65 and support my family and die with a clear conscience. The point is that nothing is ever necessary, but without people going on adventures, our country would not exist, our way of life would be unimaginable, no one would ever go out of their way to do anything for anyone else, and for all intensive purposes, everyone would be in effect, dumber.
down the great unknown
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