In 1857, the War Department assigned Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives to explore whether the Colorado River would be useful to transport troops and supplies to Utah to fight the Mormon War. Ives determined the river to be unnavigable for military purposes and the region to be “altogether valueless … (It) shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed.” It was an almost laughable historical miscalculation. Over the next 80 years the forces of Manifest Destiny, the search for rail routes, and extraction of resources belied Ives’ claim, overwhelming the Grand Canyon region’s indigenous populations and ecosystems.
Truth be told, those explorers were not the first to tread upon the Canyon landscape. The indigenous people of this sometimes harsh and unforgiving region had established trails, farms, trade routes, and villages thousands of years before Ives came along and declared it “unvisited.”
Notwithstanding Ives’ mistaken assessment, I remain in awe of the bravery and fortitude of both the indigenous people and the early European-American explorers. As I search for the exact locations to replicate archival photographs, I have at my fingertips maps produced with global satellite technology, up-to-date weather reports, and the guidance of Grand Canyon veterans. Ives and other exploreres such as Powell, Matthes, and Stanton had few such resources. They were, in fact, the ones who established the baseline for most of those tools we use today.
Powell's Second Expedition at Granite Rapids - 1872
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Credit: Photograph: Jack Hillers U.S. Geological Survey RM 94L, Stake 1462
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Credit: Photograph: USGS/Helen Fairley 2023
One-armed, Union Army veteran,John Wesley Powell’s first expedition in 1869 down the Colorado River into the unknown (to white people) of the Grand Canyon was intended to be a scientific expedition, funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Illinois Natural History Museum. Faced with the threat of starvation after the loss of boats, food, and scientific equipment, it became a voyage of survival. However, the successful second expedition in 1871-72, did turn out to be a truly scientific endeavor. Funded in part by Congress, Powell was able to secure better boats and better boatmen to complete his scientific study of the topography and geology of the land. His watershed map of the American West introduced the idea of sustainability and stewardship of the Earth at a time when America’s divine promise, “Manifest Destiny”, implied the riches of natural resources were there for the taking.
Photographer's note: : In this historic photo, Powell’s camp #100 is in the foreground. The Cañonita and the Emma Dean (named for Powell’s wife) have been hauled out and overturned for repairs. Part of Hiller’s darkroom tent seen on the left. Dana Butte is in the background.
Powell's Boat and Chair at Little Nankoweap - 1872
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Credit: Photograph: Jack Hillers U.S. Geological Survey RM 52.1, Stake 3127
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Credit: Photograph: USGS/Alan Fairley 2023
To take photos like this, expedition photographer Jack Hillers used the wet-plate Collodion process which meant he and his assistant had to transport a heavy box containing the darkroom in addition to the large-format camera with side-by-side lenses, bags of processing chemicals, and fragile glass plates. Raging rapids, wind, rain, blowing sand, or improper mix of chemicals could destroy hours or weeks of work in a flash.
Stanton Expedition Boats at Lees Ferry - 1889
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Credit: The Huntington Library, Papers of Otis R. Marston V040/0009
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
In the late 1880s, Denver real estate investor Frank Brown recruited Robert Stanton, a 43-year old civil and mining engineer to determine the best route for a railroad through the Grand Canyon to deliver coal from the Rocky Mountains to San Diego.In May, 1889, Stanton, with Brown, started his first expedition down the river. Tragically, Brown’s boat flipped at Saltwater Riffle, shortly after departing Lee’s Ferry, and Brown, who was without a lifejacket, drowned. 13 miles further downriver, another two men died when their boat flipped. Stanton abandoned the effort, regrouped with better boats and the best life jackets available and started again in December of the same year. He finally reached the Gulf of California in April, 1890. The railroad was never built.
Birdseye Expedition at Pipe Creek - 1923
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Credit: Photograph: Lewis Ransome Freeman Northern Arizona University, Cline Library NAU.PH.568.5195
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone 2023
The U.S. Geological Survey sponsored a topographical survey in 1923 led by Claude Hale Birdseye. Its intent was to identify possible dam sites to supply water and hydroelectricity to the burgeoning populations of the Southwest. A high degree of topographic detail was required to evaluate the water-holding capacity of potential reservoirs.
None of the sites surveyed by the Birdseye/USGS expedition were chosen for dam development. Instead, Boulder Canyon (Hoover Dam) and Glen Canyon were chosen. Hoover Dam (Lake Mead) was completed in 1936 and Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell) in 1963.
U.S. Geological Expedition Leaving Lees Ferry - 1923
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Credit: Photograph: Emery Kolb Northern Arizona University, Cline Library Emery Kolb Collection NAU.PH.568.5209
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone 2023
Retaking this photo, standing on the banks of a seemingly calm Colorado River at Lees Ferry, I couldn’t help but feel the excitement, fear, and melancholy these explorers must have felt as they slowly paddled their way towards the Paria Riffle and the entrance to Marble Canyon, the beginning of their journey into the Grand Canyon. Only a few people had gone before them and made it through alive. Isn’t there a bit of melancholy when one faces a highly risky situation, knowing you might get hurt or not even make it out?
Layover in Memory of President Harding - 1923
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Credit: Photograph: Eugene LaRue U.S. Geological Survey RM 43.9 L, Stake 678
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Credit: Photograph: USGS/Alan Fairley 2016
President Warren Harding died on August 2, 1923 when the Birdseye Expedition was at Soap Creek. Birdseye had brought a new technology, the portable radio, along on the voyage. When they learned of Harding’s death, they decided to take a day off at Boulder Rapids (later renamed Harding Rapids) to join the rest of the country in a day of commemoration. In this photo, Frank Dodge is shaving the face of Emory Kolb.
Note the growth of the invasive tamarisk tree in the 2016 photo. The tamarisk population has grown dramatically since the Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1966. Without the regular floods that were the key architects of the canyon ecosystem, some invasive species have taken control and transformed the ecosystem.
The Upset Hotel - 1923
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Credit: Photograph: Eugene LaRue U.S. Geological Survey RM 150.9L, Stake 2237
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Credit: Photograph: USGS/Alan Fairley - 2016
Intrepid photographer Emory Kolb flipped his boat running this rapid located around Mile 150 (as measured from Lees Ferry) so Birdseye named it Upset Rapid. Today, river runners have named the camp site just downstream from the rapid, the Upset Hotel.
Playing Horseshoes Across from Froggy Fault - 1923
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Credit: Photograph: Eugene LaRue U.S. Geological Survey RM 197L, Stake 2839x
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Credit: Photograph: USGS/Alan Fairley 2016
Hour after hour, day after day, paddling in temperatures that regularly exceed 90° takes a toll on the men and women that navigate through the canyon. Establishing a camp that includes shade is a high priority. Crew member Elwyn Blake wrote in his diary on September 24, the day this photo was taken, "Black willows are beginning to appear along the banks of the river that afford shade which is very welcome now that there are no high walls close to the river to answer the purpose."
Nevills Expedition at Lees Ferry - 1938
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Credit: AP Photos - 1938 Headline: 'Victors over 300 miles of the turbulent Colorado River'
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone 2023
Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter were the first botanists, and the first white women to successfully run the Canyon. The Canyon was seen as an inappropriate place for women, especially traveling with men. Before the Glen Canyon Dam was built, the river was wild and unpredictable. During spring flooding, snowmelt thick with mud followed by storm water from summer monsoons carried boulders and debris that scoured canyons and washed away beaches. The dam changed all that. Seasonal differences evaporated. No more huge floods or meager flows. The water was always 49° F and never shrank during a drought. Clover and Jotter’s comprehensive list of plants in the Grand Canyon from 1938 was the only one published before the dam was built and has become a critical source for understanding how ecosystems changed as a result of the dam.
Superintendent Tillotson with Clover and Nevills - 1938
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Credit: Grand Canyon National Park Museum GRCA 00772
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Credit: Photograph: NPS/Ted Barone - 2023
Clover and Jotter traveled with the Nevills Expedition and garnered quite a lot of skepticism from the press. Some said the river was not a place for women. Others were more concerned. “Two Women to Risk Lives for Science in Colorado Canyon” wrote the Minneapolis Tribune. Even though Clover and Jotter were there to catalogue the plant species, they were expected to cook nearly all the meals on the expedition. Each morning, they woke up before dawn to cook breakfast and clean up. If they had time, they would collect and press a few plants and then help prepare the boats for departure.
Both women were trained botanists from the University of Michigan, but the ample publicity that surrounded the expedition focused on their gender. As Lois Jotter wrote, “It’s a shame that we’ve been remembered as the first women to run the Canyon but not as the first botanists.”
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