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N0KFQ > TODAY 28.08.10 22:18l 53 Lines 2357 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 28
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Sent: 100828/2021Z @:N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA #:15261 [Branson] FBB7.00i $:15261_N
From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Aug 28, 1869:
Three leave Powell's Grand Canyon expedition
Convinced they will have a better chance surviving the desert
than the raging rapids that lay ahead, three men leave John
Wesley Powell's expedition through the Grand Canyon and scale
the cliffs to the plateau above.
Though it turned out the men had made a serious mistake, they
can hardly be faulted for believing that Powell's plan to float
the brutal rapids was suicidal. Powell, a one-armed Civil War
veteran and self-trained naturalist, had embarked on his daring
descent of the mighty Colorado River three months earlier.
Accompanied by 11 men in four wooden boats, he led the
expedition through the Grand Canyon and over punishing rapids
that many would hesitate to run even with modern rafts.
The worst was yet to come. Near the lower end of the canyon, the
party heard the roar of giant rapids. Moving to shore, they
explored on foot and saw, in the words of one man, "the worst
rapids yet." Powell agreed, writing that, "The billows are huge
and I fear our boats could not ride them...There is discontent
in the camp tonight and I fear some of the party will take to
the mountains but hope not."
The next day, three of Powell's men did leave. Convinced that
the rapids were impassable, they decided to take their chances
crossing the harsh desert lands above the canyon rims. On this
day in 1869, Seneca Howland, O.G. Howland, and William H. Dunn
said goodbye to Powell and the other men and began the long
climb up out of the Grand Canyon. The remaining members of the
party steeled themselves, climbed into boats, and pushed off
into the wild rapids.
Amazingly, all of them survived and the expedition emerged from
the canyon the next day. When he reached the nearest settlement,
Powell learned that the three men who left had been less
fortunate--they encountered a war party of Shivwit Indians and
were killed. Ironically, the three murders were initially seen
as more newsworthy than Powell's feat and the expedition gained
valuable publicity. When Powell embarked on his second trip
through the Grand Canyon in 1871, the publicity from the first
trip had insured that the second voyage was far better financed
than the first.
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