The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons — John Shaqi
The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great CanyonsDellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
History
The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons
Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Description and travel; Gran
For the titles of works of reference, of the narratives of trappers,
etc., I refer to the works of H. H. Bancroft; to Warren’s _Memoirs_,
vol. i. Pacific Railroad reports; and to the first volume of Lieut.
Geo. M. Wheeler’s report on Explorations West of the 100th Meridian.
The trappers and prospectors who had some experience on the Green and
the Colorado have left either no records or very incomplete ones. It
seems tolerably certain, however, that no experience of importance has
escaped notice. So far as attempts at descent are concerned, they
invariably met with speedy disaster and were given up.
In writing the Spanish and other foreign proper names I have in no case
translated, because such translations result in needless confusion. To
translate “Rio del Tizon” as Firebrand River is making another name of
it. Few would recognise the Colorado River under the title of Red
River, as used, for example, in Pattie’s narrative. While Colorado
means red, it is quite another matter as a _name_. Nor do I approve of
hyphenating native words, as is so frequently done. It is no easier to
understand Mis-sis-sip-pi than Mississippi. My thanks are due to Mr.
Thomas Moran, the distinguished painter, for the admirable sketch from
nature he has so kindly permitted a reproduction of for a frontispiece.
Mr. Moran has been identified as a painter of the Grand Canyon ever
since 1873, when he went there with one of Powell’s parties and made
sketches from the end of the Kaibab Plateau which afterwards resulted
in the splendid picture of the Grand Canyon now owned by the
Government.
I am indebted to Prof. A. H. Thompson for the use of his river diary as
a check upon my own, and also for many photographs now difficult to
obtain; and to Dr. G. K. Gilbert, Mr. E. E. Howell, Dr. T. Mitchell
Prudden, and Mr. Delancy Gill for the use of special photographs. Other
debts in this line I acknowledge in each instance and hence will not
repeat here. I had hoped to have an opportunity of again reading over
the diary which “Jack” Sumner kept on the first Powell expedition, and
which I have not seen since the time of the second expedition, but the
serious illness of Major Powell prevented my requesting the use of it.
F. S. Dellenbaugh.
New York, October, 1902.
NOTE.—Since the last edition of this work was published, the inquiries
of Mr. Robert Brewster Stanton have brought to light among some
forgotten papers of Major Powell’s at the Bureau of Ethnology in
Washington the diary of Jack Sumner and also that of Major Powell
himself. Both begin at the mouth of the Uinta River.
Major Powell, because of his one-armed condition, had the only
life-preserver. The preserver was rubber of the inflating type and is
in the Smithsonian Institution, presented by Mr. Stanton who obtained
it from one of the survivors in 1907.
NOTE ON THE AUTHOR’S ITINERARY IN THE BASIN OF THE COLORADO RIVER AND
ADJACENT TERRITORY
(Except where otherwise stated journeys were on horseback.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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