A Railway Proposed through the Canyons—The Brown Party, 1889, Undertakes the Survey—Frail Boats and Disasters—The Dragon Claims Three—Collapse of the Expedition—Stanton Tries the Feat Again, 1889-90—A Fall and a Broken Leg—Success of Stanton—The Dragon Still Untrammelled.
The topographic, geologic, and geodetic work of the survey did not cease with our departure from the river, but was continued in the remarkable country shown in the relief map opposite page 41, till the relationships and distances of the various features were established and reduced to black and white. That autumn, while we were engaged in these labours, Wheeler, with an elaborate outfit, entered the region, pursuing his desultory operations; and, drifting along the north side of the Grand Canyon for a little distance, he proceeded to the neighbourhood of St. George. The following year, for some unknown purpose, he crossed the Colorado at the Paria, though he knew that Powell’s parties had previously mapped this area. When the winter of 1872-73 had fairly set in we established a permanent camp at Kanab, where, under Thompson’s always efficient direction, our triangulations and topographic notes were plotted on paper, making the first preliminary map of that country. When this was ready, Hillers and I took it, and crossing the southern end of the High Plateaus, then deep with snow, we rode by way of the Sevier Valley to Salt Lake, where the map was sent on by express to Washington, whither Powell had already gone.
Camp at Oak Spring, Uinkaret Mountains.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
Seventeen years passed away before any one again tried to navigate the Colorado. The settling of the country, the knowledge of it Powell had published, the completion of the Southern Pacific Railway to Yuma in 1877, and of the Atlantic and Pacific from Isleta to The Needles, in 1880-83, and of the Rio Grande Western across the Green at Gunnison Valley, simplified travel in the Basin of the Colorado. A new railway was then proposed from Grand Junction, Colorado, down the Colorado River, through the Canyons to the Gulf of California, a distance of twelve hundred miles. At that time coal was a difficult article to procure on the Pacific Coast, and it was thought that this “water-level” road, crossing no mountains, would be profitable in bringing the coal of Colorado to the Golden Gate. At present coal in abundance is to be had in the Puget Sound region, and this reason for constructing a Grand Canyon railway is done away with. There is nothing to support a railway through the three hundred miles of the great gorge (or through the other two hundred miles of canyon to the Junction), except tourist travel and the possible development of mines. These are manifestly insufficient at the present time to warrant even a less costly railway, which, averaging about four thousand feet below the surface of the surrounding country, would be of little service to those living away from its immediate line, and there is small chance to live along the line. In addition the floods in the Grand Canyon are enormous and capricious. Sometimes heavy torrents from cloudbursts plunge down the sides of the canyon and these would require to be considered as well as those of the river itself. To be absolutely safe from the latter the line would probably require, in the Grand Canyon, to be built at least one hundred and twenty feet above low water, so that for the whole distance through the Marble-Grand Canyon there would seldom be room beside the tracks for even a station. But Frank M. Brown had faith, and a company for the construction of the Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railway was organised. Brown was the president, and in 1889 he formed an expedition to Survey the line.
Mukoontuweap Canyon, North Fork of the Virgen.
Ten miles long, 3500 feet deep.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Surv. |
On March 25th the preliminary party, consisting of F. M. Brown, F. C. Kendrick, chief engineer, and T. P. Rigney, assistant engineer, left Denver for Grand Junction, a station on the Rio Grande Western (near the C of Colorado, State name on map, p. 51), and the next morning set the first stake for the new railway which was to cost the president so dear. Then they bought a boat from the ferryman, and after repairing it laid in a supply of rations, engaged some men, and ran a half-mile down Grand River. Brown then left to go East in order to perfect his arrangements for this attempt to survey a railway route through the dangerous canyons. The boat party continued down Grand River to the head of the canyon, twenty-four miles, and then more slowly descended over rougher water, averaging five or six miles a day. At a distance of forty-three miles from the start the rapids grew very bad, and at one place they were forced to make a portage for twelve miles. At the end of one hundred miles they came to the little Mormon settlement of Moab. From here to the Junction of the Grand and Green was a distance of sixty miles, and the water was the same as it is just above the Junction, in the canyons of the Green, Stillwater, and Labyrinth, that is, comparatively smooth and offering no obstacles except a rather swift current. Nowhere had the cliffs risen above one thousand feet, and the river had an average fall of five feet to the mile. This was the first party on record to navigate, for any considerable distance, the canyons of Grand River. From the Junction they proceeded up the Green, towing the boat, desiring to reach the Rio Grande Western Railway crossing, one hundred and twenty miles away. By this time their rations were much diminished and they allowed themselves each day only one-half the ordinary amount, at the same time going on up the river as fast as possible, yet at the end of about eight days, when still thirty miles from their destination, they were reduced to their last meal. Fortunately they then arrived at the cabin of some cattlemen, Wheeler Brothers, who, discovering their plight, put their own ample larder, with true Western hospitality, at the surveyors’ disposal. Thus opportunely fortified and refreshed, the men reached the railway crossing the following night.
In reviewing all the early travels through this inhospitable region, one is struck by the frequent neglect of the question of food-supplies. In such a barren land, this is the item of first importance, and yet many of the leaders treated it apparently as of slight consequence. Great discomfort and suffering and death often followed a failure to provide proper supplies, or, when provided, to take sufficient care to preserve them.
Looking down the Canyon de Chelly, a Tributary of the San Juan and Containing many Cliff Houses.
Photograph by Ben Wittick. |
On the 25th of May, 1889, Brown’s party was ready and started from the point where the Rio Grande Western crosses Green River. There were sixteen men and six boats. Five of the boats were new; the sixth was the one Kendrick and Rigney had used on the Grand River trip. The chief engineer of the proposed railway was Robert Brewster Stanton, and that he was not in the very beginning given the entire management was most unfortunate, for Brown himself seems not to have had a realisation of the enormous difficulties of the task before him. But the arrangements were completed before Stanton was engaged. All the men were surprised, disappointed, dismayed, at the character of the boats Brown had provided for this dangerous enterprise, and Stanton said his heart sank at the first sight of them. They were entirely inadequate, built of cedar instead of oak, only fifteen feet long and three feet wide, and weighed but one hundred and fifty pounds each. They would have been beautiful for an ordinary river, but for the raging, plunging, tumultuous Colorado their name was suicide. Then not a life-preserver had been brought. This neglect was another shock to the members of the party and their friends. Stanton was urged to take one for himself, but he declined to provide this advantage over the other men. Since then he has been disposed to blame Powell for not telling Brown that life-preservers are a necessity on the Colorado. It was also said that Powell declared to Brown that they were not imperative and consequently he is censured for the subsequent disasters. There was certainly a misunderstanding in this, for Powell, knowing the situation from such abundant experience, never could have said life-preservers were not necessary, though on his first trip there was but one. In this connection Thompson writes me: “The Major sent for me at once when Mr. Brown called at the office. I think we talked—we three, I mean—for half an hour, then the Major said, ‘Professor Thompson knows just as much about the river as I do, and more about what is necessary for such a trip; you talk with him.’ I took Mr. Brown to my room and we had a long talk. I think the next day Mr. Brown came again. I had two interviews with him alone. I told him distinctly that life-preservers were necessary. I probably told him we did not wear them all the time, but I told him we put them on at every dangerous rapid, and I showed him the picture in the Major’s Report where we were wearing them. I clearly remember telling him to have one arm above and one below the preserver. I am positive about this, for after we received word of the loss of Brown we talked it over and I recalled the conversation. He impressed me as thinking we exaggerated the dangers of the river. He made a memorandum of things I said. I think he also talked with Hillers, and I have no doubt the latter told him to take life-preservers. But he had the Report, and there is no excuse for his neglecting so indispensable an article of the outfit. He was warned over and over again to neglect no precaution. I distinctly remember that the Major told him in so many words, ‘not to underestimate the dangers of the river, and to never be caught off guard.’" On a previous page I have remarked that proper boats and a knowledge of how to handle them are more important than life-preservers, but that does not mean that a party should leave the life-preservers behind. In descending the Colorado every possible precaution must be taken. The first of these is the right kind of boats, second, proper arrangement as to food-supplies, and, third, life-preservers, etc. The New York Tribune, after the collapse of this Brown expedition, quotes Powell in an interview as saying that he would not have ventured in the boats Brown selected and that he thought Brown “failed to comprehend the significant fact that nothing can get through the Colorado Canyon that cannot float. Boats are repeatedly upset and inferior boats are mashed like egg-shells.” Brown, undoubtedly, was rather inclined to look upon the descent somewhat lightly. Being a brave, energetic man it was hard for him to believe that this river demanded so much extra prudence and caution, when Powell had successfully descended it twice without, so far as the water was concerned, losing a man. However, the ill-fated expedition went on its way.
A Cave-Lake in a Sandstone Cliff near Kanab, S. Utah.
The depth from front to rear is about 125 feet. The outer opening is the whole front of the arch. It belongs to the class of natural arches, alcoves, bridges, “holes in the wall,”, etc., common in this kind of sandstone throughout the Southwest.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
The boats were named the Ward, the Mason, after Brown’s sons, the Mary after his wife, and the Denver and the Colorado. On arriving they were recalked. The bottoms were covered with copper. The party consisted of the following persons: Frank M. Brown, president; Robert Brewster Stanton, chief engineer; John Hislop, first assistant engineer; C. W. Potter, T. P. Rigney, E. A. Reynolds, J. H. Hughes, W.H. Bush, Edward Coe, Edward—, Peter Hansborough, Henry Richards, G. W. Gibson, Charles Potter, F. A. Nims, photographer, and J. C. Terry. The baggage of each man was limited to twenty-five pounds. The cargoes were packed in tight, zinc-lined boxes three feet long, with one of which each boat was provided, but these were found to be cumbersome and heavy, the boats being down to within one inch of the gunwales in the water, so they were taken out and all lashed together, forming a sort of raft. This carried about one-third of all the supplies, and all the extra oars and rope, a most unwise arrangement from every point of view. The nondescript craft hampered their movements, could not be controlled, and if once it got loose everything was sure to be lost. It would have been better to throw these boxes away at once and take what the boats could carry and no more, but this was apparently not thought of. All things considered, it is a wonder this party ever got through Cataract Canyon alive. At some little rapid, after leaving the railway crossing, the first boat stove a hole in her side, but this was readily repaired and the party ran without further accident over the smooth stretches of river preceding the Junction, arriving at this latter point in four days. They were now on the threshold of Cataract Canyon. Stopping to adjust instruments and repair boats for a day, they proceeded to the battle with the cataracts on May 31st. For forty-one miles they would now have their courage, muscle, and nerve put to the full test. Stanton records seventy-five rapids and cataracts, fifty-seven of them within a space of nineteen miles, with falls in places of sixteen to twenty feet. This, then, was what they were approaching with these frail craft. Two miles down they heard the roar of falling water and the place was reconnoitred, with the result that a large rapid was found to bar the way. The raft of provisions, and the boat that had towed it, were on the opposite side of the river, which afforded no chance for a camp or a portage, and a signal was made for the party to come over. A half mile intervened between this boat and the head of the rapid, but with the encumbering raft it was drawn down so dangerously near the descent that, to save themselves, the rope holding the raft was cut. Thus freed the boat succeeded in landing just at the head of the fall, but the raft went over, and that was the end of it. The sections were found scattered all the way through the canyon. The next twenty-eight miles were filled with mishaps and losses. Twelve miles farther down, the boat in which Brown, Hughes, and Reynolds were running a rapid capsized. The men clung to her for a mile and a half and then succeeded in getting ashore. The rapids in this part are very close together, and to these men it seemed like one continuous cataract, which it very nearly is. On the same day another boat containing the cooking outfit struck a rock and went to pieces. The provisions she carried were, most of them, contributed to the maw of the dragon to follow those of the unfortunate raft. Sometimes the boats got away from the men altogether, running wild, finally lodging somewhere below to be found again with the contents missing. Soon they had so many large holes in them that one, No. 3, had to be broken up to obtain materials for repairing the others. Thus the party, by the time they had fairly arrived at the deepest and worst portion of this splendid chasm, were in a sad plight, but a plight mainly due to the original bad planning and mismanagement, and not necessary in navigating this gorge. They seldom attempted to cross the river, working down along one side and never entering the boats at all except where absolutely necessary.1 Thus they were greatly hampered in their movements. With our boats we never gave the crossing of the river a thought, and were in them continually, except where a portage was demanded. We could therefore always choose our course with as much freedom as is possible. But it must not be forgotten that the Brown party were in Cataract Canyon about the time of high water, while we passed through at a lower stage. This would make a difference, low water being in all the canyons far safer, though the work is harder on the men and the boats. By the l5th of June all provisions had disappeared except a sack and a half of flour, presumably one hundred pounds to the sack, a little coffee, some sugar, and condensed milk. The flour was all baked and divided equally, each man receiving two and one half pounds of bread, one pound of sugar, and four ounces of coffee. At one point they fortunately found a barrel of cut loaf-sugar amongst the driftwood. This had been lost from some army-supplies crossing at Gunnison Valley up the Green, or up Grand River, and they also found, a little below this, pieces of a waggon with the skeleton of a man. These also had, of course, come from at least a hundred miles above the Junction on the Green, or sixty miles up the Grand, as no waggon could get to the river at any place nearer to Cataract Canyon. The waggon-box had probably acted as a raft, bearing its gruesome passenger all these long miles into the heart of the mighty gorge, where the dragon stored his prize, and for many a year treasured it among the deep shadows.
In Marble Canyon, about Midway between Paria and Little Colorado.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
They had still fifteen miles of Cataract Canyon and the ten miles of the more kindly Narrow before them, and Brown was now to hurry along and attempt to reach some placer mines at Dandy Crossing, near the mouth of Frémont River, where there were a few miners and where some food might be obtained. Ancient dwellings were seen all along the gorge in the side canyons, some completely ruined, others in a fair state of preservation, but the inhabitants had gone long ago, and no help could be hoped for in this direction. Most of the men now became thoroughly discouraged at the dismal prospect and wished to abandon immediately and entirely the enterprise, but Stanton was not of that mind. The difficulties showed him how hard it would be to do this part over again, and he resolved to stay and finish the work as far as possible now. His first assistant, Hislop, G. W. Gibson, the coloured cook, and the coloured steward, H. C. Richards, volunteered to stand by him, and the next morning the eleven others pushed on, leaving a boat for these five to follow with. For six days this determined little crew worked along at the rate of about four miles a day, with a ration of one small scrap of bread, a little coffee, and some condensed milk for breakfast and supper, and three lumps of sugar for dinner. Stanton says there was not a murmur of discontent from the men “carrying the survey over the rocks and cliffs on the side of the canyon, and handling the boat through the rapids of the river. At night, when they lay down on the sand to sleep, after a meal that was nine-tenths water and hope and one-tenth bread and coffee, it was without complaint.” Relief was had on the sixth day, when they met a boat being towed up with provisions. This was near the end of Narrow Canyon. At one point in the lower part of Cataract they passed a place where, on a rock surface about six feet above the level of the water, they saw the inscription, “D. JULIEN—1836.” They thought it could have been cut only from a boat or raft, and concluded that it was done by a party of Canadians which they heard had tried to explore this country at that early day. This inscription occurs also in two other known places, near the lower part of Stillwater Canyon (four or five miles above mouth of Grand River), and farther up, about the middle of Bowknot Bend, Labyrinth Canyon, Green River. (See cut, page 352.) At Dandy Crossing, the party rested a few days, the boats were repaired, and fresh supplies of food purchased. They met near here Jack Sumner, of Powell’s first party. From this place to the head of Marble Canyon, the mouth of the Paria, it is plain and easy going, at least for any one who has been through Cataract Canyon. Brown and Stanton went ahead with six men, the others coming along later with the survey.
Marble Canyon, Lower Portion.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
At Dandy Crossing three of the party left the river—J. N. Hughes, J. C. Terry, and T. P. Rigney. One man joined the party, Harry McDonald, a frontiersman and an experienced boatman. At Lee Ferry, Reynolds left and Brown went to Kanab for supplies, for Dandy Crossing was not a metropolis, and more rations were needed before venturing to enter the Grand Canyon. Only one transit instrument was left, and it was decided that Brown, Stanton, Hislop, McDonald, Hansborough, Richards, Gibson, and Nims, the photographer, should form the party to proceed, making an examination, taking notes and photographs, but not attempting an instrumental survey. Brown returned from Kanab by July 9th, and an immediate start was made with the three boats,—boats entirely unfitted for the work in Cataract Canyon, and tenfold more inadequate for the giant gorge, with its terrible descents, now before them. It seems a pity they did not realise this and leave the continuation of the work till proper boats could be had, but it appears as if they again underestimated the dangers of the river. At any rate they went bravely forward with a courage that deserved a better reward. The first ugly rapids in Marble Canyon are the two near together about ten miles below Lee’s Ferry, where the prospectors met their punishment early in July, 1872. These the Brown party reached safely, and made the necessary portages, camping at the foot of the Soap Creek or lower fall. Brown appeared to feel lonely and troubled, and asked Stanton to come and sit by his bed and talk. They smoked and talked till a late hour about home and the prospect for the next day. Brown’s wife and two children were at this time travelling in Europe and probably the thought of them so far away made him somewhat blue. Then, if he had before thought that this canyon would be easy, the nature of the rapids around him served to undeceive his mind. The deepening gorge, inadequate boats, and increasingly bad rapids probably affected his nerves, for that night he dreamed of the rapids, and this troubled him so much that he mentioned it to Stanton in the morning. Breakfast over, they went on. We had camped at the head of the Soap Creek Rapids, and this party at the foot. In the first rapid below, which was one of five that we easily ran before stopping for dinner, Brown’s boat was capsized. He and his oarsman McDonald, were thrown out on opposite sides, McDonald into the current and Brown unfortunately into the eddy, where he was drawn under by one of the whirlpools numerous in this locality, and was never seen again. A half-minute later Stanton’s boat passed the spot, but all he saw was the lost leader’s note-book on the, surface of the angry waters which had so suddenly swallowed up its owner. The whole day long the party sat sadly watching the place to see if the treacherous river would give up the dead, but darkness fell in the gorge, and the Colorado dashed along toward the sea as if no boat had ever touched its relentless tide. What was one man more or less to this great dragon’s maw! For three days after the others battled their way along without further disaster, and then came Sunday, when they rested. On Monday, while Stanton and Nims were making notes and photographs, the men were to finish up the lower end of the second of two very bad rapids where portages were made. Stanton’s boat, containing Hansborough and Richards, was following the first boat, which had made the stretch with difficulty because the current set against the left-hand cliff. The second boat was driven against the foot of this wall under an overhanging shelf, and in the attempt to push her off she was capsized and Hansborough never rose again. Richards, who was a strong swimmer, made some distance down-stream, but before the first boat could reach him he sank, and that was the end for him. This terrible disaster, added to the death of Brown, and the foolhardiness of proceeding farther with such boats as they had, forced the decision which should have been made at Lee’s Ferry. Stanton resolved to leave the river, but with the determination to return again to battle with the dragon at the earliest opportunity. The next thing was to get out of the canyon. They searched for some side canyon leading in from the north, by means of which they might return to the world, and just above Vesey’s Paradise they found it and spent their last night in Marble Canyon at that point. From the rapid where Brown was lost, to Vesey’s Paradise, my diary records that on our expedition of 1872 we ran twenty-six rapids, let down four times, and made two portages, all without any particular difficulty. I mention this merely to show the difference proper boats make in navigating this river, for the season was nearly the same; Brown was there in July and we in August, both the season of high water. The night passed by Stanton and his disheartened but courageous band at Vesey’s Paradise was long to be remembered, for one of the violent thunderstorms frequent in the canyon in summer, came up. The rain fell in floods, while about midnight the storm culminated in a climax of fury. Stanton says that in all his experience in the Western mountains he never heard anything like it. “Nowhere has the awful grandeur equalled that night in the lonesome depths of what was to us death’s canyon.” The next day was fair, and by two in the afternoon, July l9th, they were on the surface of the country, twenty-five hundred feet above the river, and that night reached a cattle ranch.
Looking West from Jacob’s Pool on Road to Lee’s Ferry. Vermilion Cliffs in Distance.
The “Jacob” after whom the pool was named was Jacob Hamblin. This is the country Stanton was in after leaving the river.
Photograph by W. Bell. |
By November 25th of the same year (1889) the indefatigable Stanton had organised a new party to continue the railway survey. He still had confidence in the scheme, and he refused to give up. And this time the boats were planned with some regard to the waters upon which they were to be used. McDonald was sent to superintend their building at the boatyard of H. H. Douglas & Co., Waukegan, Illinois. There were three, each twenty-two feet long, the same as our boats, four and one-half feet beam, and twenty-two inches deep, and each weighed 850 pounds. They were built of half-inch oak, on plans furnished by Stanton, with ribs one-and-one-half by three-quarters of an inch, placed four inches apart, all copper fastened. Each boat had ten separate air-tight galvanised-iron compartments running around the sides, and they were so arranged that the canned goods could be put under the foot-boards for ballast. There was a deck fore and aft, and there were life-lines along the sides. They were certainly excellent boats, and while in some respects I think our model was better, especially because the two transverse bulkheads amidships in ours tended to make their sides very strong and stiff, yet these boats of Stanton’s were so good that the men would be safe as long as they handled them correctly. Cork life-preservers of the best quality were provided, and the order was for each man to wear his whenever in rough or uncertain water. All stores and provisions were packed in water-tight rubber bags, made like ocean mail-sacks, expressly for the purpose. The expedition was thus well provided.
Tapeets Creek.
Character of some of the tributary valleys of the north side of the Grand Canyon through the Maibab section. The extreme height of the north wall is seen in the distance. A considerable valley intervenes between it and the river.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
From the railway2 the boats were hauled on waggons to the mouth of Crescent Creek near Frémont River, so as to avoid doing Cataract Canyon over again. There were twelve men, of whom four had been with the Brown party. They were R. B. Stanton, Langdon Gibson, Harry McDonald, and Elmer Kane, in boat No. 1, called the Bonnie Jean, John Hislop F. A. Nims, Reginald Travers, and W. H. Edwards in boat No. 2, called the Lillie; and A. B. Twining, H. G. Ballard, L. G. Brown, and James Hogue, the cook, in the Marie, boat No. 3. Christmas dinner was eaten at Lee’s Ferry, with wild flowers picked that day for decoration. On the 28th they started into the great canyon, passed the old wreck of a boat and part of a miner’s outfit, and on the 3ist reached the rapid where Brown was lost. It was now the season of low water, and the rapid appeared less formidable, though on entering it the place was seen to be in general the same, yet the water was nine feet lower. The next day Nims, the photographer, fell from a ledge a distance of twenty-two feet, receiving a severe jar and breaking one of his legs just above the ankle. The break was bandaged, and one of the boats being so loaded that there was a level bed for the injured man to lie on, they ran down about two miles to a side canyon coming in from the north. By means of this Stanton climbed out, walked thirty-five miles to Lee’s Ferry, and brought a waggon back to the edge. Nims was placed on an improvised stretcher, and carried up the cliffs, four miles in distance and seventeen hundred feet in altitude. At half-past three in the afternoon the surface was reached. Twice the stretcher had to be swung along by ropes where there was no footing, and twice had to be perpendicularly lifted ten or fifteen feet. No one was injured. Nims was taken to Lee’s Ferry and left with W. M. Johnson, who had been a member of our land parties during the winter of 1871-72, and who had come with the Cañonita party through Glen Canyon. Nims was in good hands. After this accident Stanton was obliged to assume the duties of photographer and took some seven hundred and fifty views without previous experience.
The Grand Canyon.
In the First Granite Gorge. Upper walls are not seen. Those in sight are 100 to 1200 feet. Above they rise in terraces to between 5000 and 6000. Photogaph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
By January 13th they had arrived at Point Retreat, where the canyon had before been abandoned, and here they found the supplies and blankets they had cached in a marble cave in perfect condition. The new boats were so well suited to the river work that they were able to run most of the rapids just as we had done, often going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, and sometimes by actual measurement, twenty. Ten miles below Point Retreat, and twenty-five miles above the Little Colorado, when they were going into camp one evening they discovered the body of Peter Hansborough. The next morning, with a brief ceremony, they buried the remains at the foot of the cliff, carving his name on the face of the rock, and a point opposite was named after the unfortunate man. From Point Hansborough the canyon widens, “the marble benches retreat, new strata of limestone, quartzite, and sandstone come up from the river,” writes Stanton, “and the debris forms a talus equal to a mountain slope. Here the bottoms widen into little farms covered with green grass and groves of mesquite, making a most charming summer picture, in strong contrast with the dismal narrow canyons above.” They then passed the Little Colorado and entered the Grand Canyon proper, meeting with a lone prospector in the wide portion just below the Little Colorado, the only person they had seen in any of the canyons traversed.
Arriving at the First Granite Gorge (Archæan formation), they were at the beginning of the wildest stretch of river of all, perhaps the wildest to be found anywhere, the fall in the first ten miles averaging twenty-one feet to the mile, the greatest average except in Lodore and a portion of Cataract, and as this descent is not spread over the ten miles, but occurs in a series of falls with comparatively calm water between, it is not hard to picture the conditions. Stanton also pronounces these rapids of the First Granite Gorge the most powerful he saw, except two in the Second Granite Gorge. On January 29th they had cautiously advanced till they were before the great descent some of our party had called the Sockdologer, the heaviest fall on the river, about eighty feet in a third of a mile. They proceeded all along in much the same careful fashion as we had done, and as everyone who hopes to make this passage alive must proceed. The water being low, they were able to let their boats by line over the upper end of the Sockdologer with safety, but, in attempting to continue, the Marie was caught by a cross-current and thrown against the rocks, turned half over, filled with water, and jammed tightly between two boulders lying just beneath the
The Great Unconformity.
Top of the Granite, Grand Canyon.
Photogaph by T. Mitchell Prudden. |
surface. In winter, the air in the canyon is not very cold, but the river coming so swiftly from the far north is, and the men with lines about their waists who tried to go through the rushing waist-deep water found it icy. Taking turns, they succeeded with a grappling-hook in getting out the cargo, losing only two sacks of provisions, but though they laboured till dark they were not able to move the boat. Giving her up for lost, they tried to secure a night’s rest on the sharp rocks. Had a great rise in the river occurred now the party would have been in a terrible predicament, but though it rose a few days later it spared them on this occasion. It came up only two feet, and this was a kindness, for it lifted the
Marie so that they were able to pull her out of the vise. When they saw her condition, however, they were dismayed for one side was half gone, and the other was smashed in. The keel remained whole. By cutting four feet out of the centre and drawing the ends together, five days’ hard work made practically another boat. They were then able to proceed, and, going past Bright Angel Creek, arrived on February 6th at what Stanton describes as “the most powerful and unmanageable rapid” on the river. This, I believe, was the place where we were capsized. Thompson at that time, before we ran it, declared it looked to him like the worst rapid we had encountered but at the stage of water then prevailing we could not get near it. Stanton wisely made a portage, of the supplies and let the boats down by lines. His boat, the
Bonnie Jean, played all sorts of pranks, rushing out into the current, ducking and diving under water, and finally floating down sideways. Then they thought they would try what Stanton calls Powell’s plan of shooting a boat through and catching it below. Such a harum-scarum method was never used on our expedition, and I never heard Powell suggest that it was on the first. Stanton cites as authority one of Powell’s statements in the Report. At any rate in this instance it was as disastrous as might have been expected. The poor
Marie was again the sufferer, and came out below “in pieces about the size of toothpicks.” The
Lillie was then carried down and reached the river beyond in safety. A day or two after this McDonald decided to leave the party, and started up a little creek coming in from the north, to climb out to the plateau, and make his way to
Kanab. This he succeeded in doing after several days of hard work and tramping through the heavy snow on the plateau. The other ten men concluded to remain with Stanton and they all went on in the two boats. Several days later they passed the mouth of the Kanab. The terrible First Granite Gorge was well behind them. But now the river began to rise. Before reaching the Kanab it rose four feet and continued to rise for two days and nights, altogether some ten or twelve feet. A little below the Kanab, where the canyon is very narrow, they came upon a peculiar phenomenon. They heard a loud roar and saw breakers ahead. Thinking it a bad rapid, they landed immediately on some rocks, and, going along these to examine the place, the breakers had disappeared, but as they stood in amazement there suddenly arose at their feet the same huge waves, twelve or fifteen feet high and one hundred and fifty feet long, across the river, “rolling down-stream like great sea waves, and breaking in white foam with a terrible noise.” These waves, as was later ascertained, were
Looking up the Grand Canyon, at the Foot of Toroweap, Uinkaret Division.
Depth of innter gorge about 3000 feet—width, brink to brink, about 3500 feet.
Oil Sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. |
the result of a cloudburst on the headwaters of the Little Colorado, and indicate what might be expected in here in the event of a combination of such waves with the highest stage of water. The next day they were diminished, and the river fell somewhat, but it was still so powerful they could barely control the boats and had a wild and tumultuous ride, sometimes being almost bodily thrown out of the boats. By this time their rations were getting low, but by pushing on as fast as possible they reached Diamond Creek on March 1st, where supplies were planned to meet them. Remaining there ten days to recuperate they went on with only eight men, three concluding to leave at this place. The Second Granite Gorge begins about eighteen miles above Diamond Creek, and is about thirty miles long. It is much like the First Granite Gorge, being the same formation, excepting that it is shorter and that the declivity of the river is not so great. From Diamond Creek down to the end of the canyon is about fifty miles. It is a bad stretch, and contains some heavy falls which, as the river was still somewhat high, were often impossible to get around, and they were obliged to run them. The stage of water in both these Granite Gorges makes a great difference in the character of the falls. For example, in the Second Gorge, when Wheeler made his precarious journey in 1871, he was able, coming from below, to surmount the rapids along the sides with two of his boats, because the water happened to be at a stage that permitted this, whereas Stanton found it impossible to pass some of them without running, and Powell found the one that split his party the same way. So it appears that one day finds these gorges easier or harder than another; but at their easiest they are truly fearful places. At one of the worst falls Stanton’s boat suddenly crashed upon a rock that projected from the shore, and there she hung, all the men being thrown forward. The boat filled and stuck fast, while the great waves rolled over her and her crew. Stanton tried to straighten himself up, and was taken in the back by a breaker and washed out of the craft altogether into a whirlpool, and finally shot to the surface fifty feet farther down. He had on his cork jacket and was saved, though he was ducked again and carried along swiftly by the tremendous current. The second boat had better luck and came through in time to pick Stanton up. The damaged boat was gotten off with a hole in her side ten by eighteen inches, which was closed by a copper patch, at the first chance, the air chambers having kept the craft afloat. After this the bad rapids were soon ended, and on the morning of March 17th (1890) the party emerged into an open country and upon a peaceful, quiet river. Continuing down through Black and the other canyons, and through the intervening valleys, they reached, on the 26th of April, the salt tide where Alarçon, three and a half centuries earlier, had first put a keel upon these turbulent waters, the only party thus far to make the entire passage from the Junction to the sea. And as yet no one has made the complete descent from Green River Valley to the counter-current of the Tidal Bore, so if there is any reader who desires to distinguish himself here is a feat still open to him.
The Grand Canyon—Lava Falls.
Just below the Toroweap. Total depth of canyon about 4500 feet.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. |
Stanton deserves much praise for his pluck and determination and good judgment in carrying this railway survey to a successful issue, especially after the discouraging disasters of the first attempt. He holds the data and believes the project will some day be carried out. From the foregoing pages the reader may judge the probabilities in the case.
Since the Stanton party several descents successful and unsuccessful have been made. The first was the “Best party,” representing the Colorado Grand Canyon Mining and Improvement Company, with eight men and two boats similar to those used by Stanton. The expedition left Green River, Utah, July 10, 1891. The members were James S. Best, Harry McDonald, John Hislop, William H. Edwards, Elmer Kane, L. H. Jewell, J. H. Jacobs, A. J. Gregory, and J. A. McCormick. Four of these, Hislop, McDonald, Kane, and Edwards had been with Mr. Stanton, to whom I am indebted for this information. The men had cork life-jackets. In Cataract Canyon one boat was wrecked but no one was lost, and they made their way to Lee Ferry with the remaining boat and there abandoned the expedition.
In 1891, a steam launch, the Major Powell, thirty-five feet long, with two six-horsepower engines driving twin screws was brought out in the summer from Chicago by way of the Rio Grande Western Railway to the crossing of Green River, and there launched in September of that year. A screw was soon broken, and the attempt to go down the river abandoned. In 1892 another effort was made, but this also was given up after a few miles. But in 1893, W. H. Edwards, who had been with the Stanton party, together with L. H. Johnson and some others, took the Major Powell down to the Junction and back, making a second trip in April. The round trip took fourteen days. They also went up the Grand some distance. Entering the jaws of Cataract Canyon they went to the head of the first rapid. On trying to return the current proved almost too much for the power. With block and tackle to help the engines they finally got above the swift water, and had no further serious trouble. Mr. Johnson says the launch came near being wrecked. Several other steam craft were later put on the river, the Undine being the most pretentious (see cut, page 390). She was wrecked trying to run up a rapid on Grand River above Moab. In 1894 Lieut. C. L. Potter made an unsuccessful attempt to go from Diamond Creek to the mouth of the Virgin, September 20th, 1895, N. Galloway and William Richmond started from Green River, Wyoming, and went down in flat, bottomed boats to Lee Ferry. September, 1896, they started again from Henry’s Fork, Wyoming, and went to the Needles reaching there February 10, 1897. Since that time Galloway has made several successful descents. In August, 1896, George F. Flavell and a companion left Green River, Wyoming, and successfully descended to Yuma in flat-bottomed boats, reaching there December, 1896.
In 1907, three miners, Charles Russell, E. R. Monett, and Albert Loper, with three steel boats each sixteen feet long, left Green River, Utah, September 20th, to make the descent. Loper and one damaged boat were left at Hite near the mouth of Frémont river, while Russell and Monett proceeded. In the beginning of the Grand Canyon they lost a boat, but with the remaining one after various disasters, they finally made their exit from the Grand Canyon, January 31, 1908. Their boats of steel were about the most unsuitable of any ever put on the river. They carried a copy of this volume all the way through and found it of value.
A view of the Grand Canyon may now be had without risk or discomfort of any kind, as the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway runs trains direct to Hotel Tovar at the very edge of the gorge at one of the grandest portions, opposite Bright Angel Creek. There are several trails in this region leading down to the river besides the one from the hotel. It is always a hard climb for those unaccustomed to mountaineering. From the north, for any who are fond of camping, an interesting trip may be made from Modena on the Salt Lake to Los Angeles Railway via St. George to the Toroweap and the Kaibab country, though this is a matter of several weeks, and necessitates an outfit.
The Grand Canyon may be crossed at two points, Bright Angel Trail and Bass’s Trail, and the heights of the north rim gained in that manner though it is not an easy trip.
In a general way we have now traced the whole history of the discovery and exploration of this wonderful river, which after nearly four centuries still flings defiance at the puny efforts of man to cope with it, while its furious waters dash on through the long, lonely gorges, as untrammelled to-day as they were in the forgotten ages. Those who approach it respectfully and reverently are treated not unkindly, but woe and disaster await all others. The lesson of these pages is plain, and the author commends it to all who hereafter may be inspired to add their story to this Romance of the Colorado River.
1Mr. Stanton has called my attention to the fact that as he was running a railway survey down one side, he wanted to keep to that side the left side.
2The Rio Grande Western. The route was west of the river.
