Early in 1871, when Major Powell^[1] was preparing for his second descent through the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, he was besieged by men eager to accompany him; some even offered to pay well for the privilege. It was for me, therefore, a piece of great good fortune when, after an interview in Chicago with the eminent explorer, he decided to add me to his small party. I was very young at the time, but muscular and healthy, and familiar with the handling of small boats. The Major remarked that in the business before us it was not so much age and strength that were needed as “nerve,” and he evidently believed I had enough of this to carry me through. Certainly in the two-years, continuous work on the river and in the adjacent country I had some opportunity to develop this desirable quality. I shall never cease to feel grateful to him for the confidence reposed in me. It gave me one of the unique experiences of my life,—an experience which, on exactly the same lines, can never be repeated within our borders. Now, these thirty years after, I review that experience with satisfaction and pleasure, recalling, with deep affection, the kind and generous companions of that wild and memorable journey. No party of men thrown together, without external contact for months at a time, could have been more harmonious; and never once did any member of that party show the white feather. I desire to acknowledge here, also, my indebtedness to Prof. A. H. Thompson, Major Powell’s associate in his second expedition, for many kindnesses.

[1] I use the title Major for the reason that he was so widely known for so long a period by it. He was a volunteer officer during the Civil War, holding the rank of Colonel at the end. The title Major, then, has no military significance in this connection.

When his report to Congress was published, Major Powell, perhaps for the sake of dramatic unity, concluded to omit mention of the personnel of the second expedition, awarding credit, for all that was accomplished, to the men of his first wonderful voyage of 1869. And these men surely deserved all that could be bestowed on them. They had, under the Major’s clear-sighted guidance and cool judgment, performed one of the distinguished feats of history. They had faced unknown dangers. They had determined that the forbidding torrent could be mastered. But it has always seemed to me that the men of the second party, who made the same journey, who mapped and explored the river and much of the country roundabout, doing a large amount of difficult work in the scientific line, should have been accorded some recognition. The absence of this has sometimes been embarrassing for the reason that when statements of members of the second party were referred to the official report, their names were found missing from the list. This inclined to produce an unfavourable impression concerning these individuals. In order to provide in my own case against any unpleasant circumstance owing to this omission, I wrote to Major Powell on the subject and received the following highly satisfactory answer:

Washington, D. C., January 18, 1888.
My Dear Dellenbaugh:
Replying to your note of the 14th instant, it gives me great pleasure to state that you were a member of my second party of exploration down the Colorado, during the years 1871 and 1872, that you occupied a place in my own boat and rendered valuable services to the expedition, and that it was with regret on my part that your connection with the Survey ceased.
Yours cordially, J. W. Powell.

Recently, when I informed him of my intention to publish this volume, he very kindly wrote as follows:

Washington, January 6, 1902.
Dear Dellenbaugh:
I am pleased to hear that you are engaged in writing a book on the Colorado Canyon. I hope that you will put on record the second trip and the gentlemen who were members of that expedition. No other trip has been made since that time, though many have tried to follow us. One party, that headed by Mr. Stanton, went through the Grand Canyon on its second attempt, but many persons have lost their lives in attempting to follow us through the whole length of the canyons. I shall be very glad to write a short introduction to your book.
Yours cordially, J. W. Powell.

In complying with this request to put on record the second expedition and the gentlemen who composed it, I feel all the greater pleasure, because, at the same time, I seem to be fulfilling a duty towards my old comrades. The reader is referred to Chapter XIV., and to pages 368-9 for later data on descents. Notwithstanding these the canyons remain almost terra incognita for each new navigator. There have been some who appear to be inclined to withhold from Major Powell the full credit which is his for solving the great problem of the Southwest, and who, therefore, make much of the flimsy story of White, and even assume on faint evidence that others fathomed the mystery even before White. There is, in my opinion, no ground for such assumptions. Several trappers, like Pattie and Carson, had gained a considerable knowledge of the general course and character of the river as early as 1830, but to Major Powell and his two parties undoubtedly belongs the high honour of being the first to explore and explain the truth about it and its extraordinary canyon environment. If danger, difficulty, and disaster mean romance, then assuredly the Colorado of the West is entitled to first rank, for seldom has any human being touched its borderland even, without some bitter or fatal experience. Never is the Colorado twice alike, and each new experience is different from the last. Once acknowledge this and the dangers, however, and approach it in a humble and reverent spirit, albeit firmly, and death need seldom be the penalty of a voyage on its restless waters.

I have endeavoured to present the history of the river, and immediate environment, so far as I have been able to learn it, but within the limits of a single volume of this size much must necessarily be omitted. Reference to the admirable works of Powell, Gilbert, and Button will give the reader full information concerning the geology and topography; Garces, by Elliott Coues, gives the story of the friars; and the excellent memoir of Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, will give a complete understanding of the travels and exploits of the real pioneers of the Rocky Mountain country. I differ with this author, however, as to the wise and commendable nature of the early trappers’ dealings with the natives, and this will be explained in the pages on that subject. He also says in his preface that “no feature of western geography was ever discovered by government explorers after 1840.” While this is correct in the main, it gives an erroneous impression so far as the canyons of the Colorado are concerned. These canyons were “discovered,” as mentioned above, by some of the trappers, but their interior character was not known, except in the vaguest way, so that the discovery was much like discovering a range of mountains on the horizon and not entering beyond the foothills.

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.