Customer Reviews

A Canyon Voyage: The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition down the Green-Colorado River from Wyoming, and the Explorations on Land, in the Years 1871 and 1872

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At the time of the 2nd voyage down the Colorado, Dellenbaugh was on about 19 years old. He didn't write the book until many years later. What a wonderful/spellbinding look at the most beautiful place in North America (The Colorado Plateau). Not only that but I found it extremely hunorous as well. Great Great book!!!

Love and respect for the Green and Colorado Rivers is greatly enhanced by Dellenbaugh's narritive of the 2nd Powell expadition. Well written, accurate history, and spell binding from start to finish. An adventure that can only be partially accomplished today is TOTALLY available in "A Canyon Voyage!"

This is an exceptionally well written account of a wonderful adventure through the canyons of the Colorado River. For anyone who loves the West's wildness, and writing most sensitive and humorous, this is a "must read". This book is illustrated with many fine original photographs and etchings.

Frederick Dellaenbaugh was a young man when John Wesley Powell tapped him to participate in Powell's second trip down the Colorado River. Powell had made the journey already a few years before, so the second voyage was less pure exploration and more science; the crew included Almon Harris Thompson (called affectionately "Prof." throughout), a professional geographer who also happened to be Powell's brother-in-law. With several boats and men of widely varying experience, the expedition sailed the Green river (thought at that time to be the upper Colorado) to its junction with the Colorado, and the Colorado itself as far as the middle of the Grand Canyon. Swirling rapids, maggotty food, blistering heat, sudden blizzards beset the adventurers, who still though it all made their geographical, geological, and ethnographical observations which resulted in (among other things) the first maps of the four corners region and the Grand Canyon (reproduced in the book).
While wild adventure, humor, and a real sense of the Old West permeate the book, there is a certain sadness, too. The Native Americans whom Dellenbaugh encounters are people clearly already defeated -- fearful, distrusting, sad. We catch glimpses of the Navaho trying to accommodate themselves to the new reality of white (especially Mormon) settlement, creating new networks of trade focused on growing frontier towns. But the seeds of the end are planted already in the irrigated fields of the Mormon settlers, and sometimes it seems as if the natives knew this too. Also, the topography through which the explorers travelled has now partly vanished behind the dams that have ruined Glen Canyon and other stretches of white water and canyon scenery. No one can now do what Dellenbaugh and his companions did; the sense of loss hovers unintentionally about every page.
Dellenbaugh was a keen observer (though perhaps a bit naive) with a talent for making even the monotony of running rapid after rapid spellbinding. One does feel that he may have veiled some of the conflicts that must have arisen in two (non-continuous) years of isolation, though if so this trait is refreshing in a world where we now expect everyone to tattle on everyone else. Every now and then just a shimmer of impatience with one of the crew seeps through. But the real hero who emerges from this book, somewhat surprisingly, is not the leader Powell -- the young Dellenbaugh seems never to have gotten close to him -- but rather the Prof., who rises to every challenge with decency and humaneness, and of whom Dellenbaugh seems to have been genuinely, and for good reason, in awe. Like Powell he is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He deserved that honor, but where he lives is in the pages of this book.

The narrative is wonderful. Dellenbaugh's account of the expedition is very descriptive and entertaining. He has an excellent sense of humor and really captures the excitement and the beauty and the drama, as well as the ordinary, everyday events.

Be careful, though, about which edition you buy. I was very disappointed to find that the Fili-Quarian Classics Edition was missing all the illustrations (though the captions and the complete list of illustrations are inexplicably included). Also, the index is completely wrong. I'm not sure why the publisher bothered to include it without correcting the page numbers, since it's worthless. It's amusing that the biggest, most catchy font on the cover says "High Quality Paperback" and "Affordable & High Quality Paperback Book Edition". Also, this edition is huge--11 x 8.5 x .6 inches. Nothing you'd want to take on a trip. A much better choice, as I found out later, is the edition put out by the University of Arizona Press, which includes all the original photos and drawings, the index that actually matches the book, and is a nice portable size--8.4 x 5.4 x .9 inches. Now I have them both.

As a sometime hiker of the UT/AZ region (Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Arches, Zion, Bryce...), I found this historical record fascinating. This book recounts the expedition of a dozen or so men who spent two long summers running the Green and Colorado Rivers from Green River WY to part way through the Grand Canyon. During the intervening winter, they split into smaller groups and explored the high plateaus northwest of these rivers.

Beyond braving dangerous river rapids and the elements and terrain of the backcountry of the plateaus, the explorers also crossed paths with potentially volatile Native Americans time and again.

While the book reads a bit dryly at times ("we made camp having gone 10 miles with 13 rapids, running 10 and portaging 3"), it also provides plenty of compelling text for those with any interest in the area.

I enjoyed following along using Google Earth and its provided photos as I tracked the progress of the expedition. There is plenty of discussion of the River as well as of nearly daily climbs to "gain a view" of the surroundings, and understanding the terrain helps make the story real.

Here is a USGS website with the actual photos (many stereo) from the expedition--these are very cool and they include a couple great photos of Major Powell's chair affixed to his boat as well as photos of Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge (now underwater):
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