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Show y,,, f. r vv ; a--' iics . - - "V. ii-1 ., . -,. ... ; :. " - t ,.' ; .' - Paul a ' - - Jy CV. -"T :v -J -.r .-A 6 - - ,w 'fv. ?ri . i He-: - , - ( -JL rjTLj ii . .... aVC'h 1v-ds ' - -: "- i ' " -;: John Wesley- Powell was. thefitsb ;;fic explorer to enter the Canyon m '-'n through Desolation Canyon. ; The ' 7iew of the canybri ' demonstrates ; why . ' irm ii Powell named it as he did. (Photo was made possible by local pilot Dick Smith who flew the photographer through the cmanyon this week. t s jj.3 Hundred Years Ago This Month ,yi littered Desolation Canyon : ?is in the month of July k ;.;ars ago that Major Wesley Powell entered , ; tiaversed the Moab ! 4 ; aling since . the latter !' - i May from Green Ri- Ijoming the expedition ' rd Desolation Canyon a I :-7 ago next Tuesday, J : l. " "voyage of '69" had ; j time covered some of xst impressive canyons . (splored. The first 50 i south of Green River, "Jg had consisted of boating. 1 ing Gorge contained -ist major rapids en--"-rl by the party of n their four boats. It J litis vicinity along the J" -f the Green River that fame upon an inscrip-i inscrip-i a man's name and -Powell, in his journal ! the inscription as: 18-5" saying that f figure in the date ure. His men judg-f judg-f ;asbeing 1835 or 1855, : s wasn't until Powell's expedition that the was accurately , Frederick Dellen- : ')siH825 that General 1l:Sl H. Ashley took his 4' 'r trappers through A Mot the Green River J';..'1 covered with buffalo eOtaew nothing of Ashley, thinking until this time that he was the first to travel the river. : Ashley . subsequently sub-sequently became prominent as a trader and explorer, and later' as a state Governor ' and a Congressman. Another Traveler . Another traveler of that northern section of the Green was William Manly, who had . taken a group of California- . bound' prospectors down the ' canyons iri 1849. Both of . these parties left the Green River at the junction of the 1 Yampa and Powell was the first to scientifically negotiate nego-tiate the remainder - of the wild, unknown river. The head of Flaming Gorge was the supposed location of the mythical "Suck," a terror ter-ror to the trappers of that time and described in Beck- with's narrative. Powell met no such whirlpool and contin- . ued his journey into the un- known. Brown's Hole, later to be-come be-come famous as a refuge for outlaws, was renamed by Powell as Brown's Park. Also Al-so encountered in the journey jour-ney previous to Desolation Canyon was the colorful Lo- dore Canyon which was one of the most disastrous of the entire trip. It was in Lodore that much of the scienific equipment and provisions were lost. The measuring instruments in-struments were later located and made it possible to re- cord the elevation and geographical geo-graphical setting of the canyons can-yons being explored. Explored Other Canyons Other canyons negotiated . in., the latter part of June 100 years ago by Powell included . Whirlpool and Split Mountain Canyons. -When the-mouth of the Uintah River, was reached reach-ed Powell went to. the last outpost of civilization, the Uintah Indian Agency which was 30 miles up the Uintah River. After passing the mouth of ' the White River (which drains the Book Cliffs region north of Grand County), the : party entered Desolation Canyon. Can-yon. The untamed northwest corner ofGrand County joins with three others .Emery, Carbon and Uintah) in the approximate middle of Desolation Deso-lation Canyon. |