Introduction: For those who are interested in late 19th Century Western history, today begins an abridged account of one of America’s most outstanding explorers of the Colorado Plateau’s canyon country, and with the proviso a man who certainly was ensnarled with allegations of duplicity given his role in his surveys of the canyon country defined by the Green and Colorado rivers. In this 9-part marathon series (though nonetheless abridged from the original manuscript the narrative is drawn from), I intend to tell all, that is, the good, bad and the ugly. These diaries will be posted starting today around this time (3:30 or 4 MST), and will continue successively for the rest of the week. I will also state from the outset I am not a typical Powell biographer in the sense I defend the man’s character by turning a blind eye to the charges that were later levied against him by some of his 1869 crew members and the public who, some of them, felt betrayed by his writings. Still, I rise to his defense in some ways, while acknowledging, as he did in his later years, some rather glaring mistakes that he made.
Let me also state I admire Major Powell for his great accomplishments at all odds, and despite the proven blunders in his wake through history. When you write about a person, you tend to get inside their head. Thus a tendency to see through the smoke or cut through the literary collusion that, otherwise, might be glossed over by other written sources, and some with a predetermined bias. In a much larger work that I wrote many years ago, and still seeking its publication, I was therefore able to get a better sense and feel of what Major Powell (an honorary and well deserved Civil War title of rank he preferred to his dying day) was like, both as a person and commander of his two celebrated expeditions. Likewise, I had a better understanding why he did what he did, though not to say or suggest I condoned his actions, machinations, and methods that led to his ultimate success. Rather, I considered the Gestalt of his situation as the recognized leader of the expedition compared to those under his command. Arguably, I think he was also the only person who could have pulled off the impossible, that is, asserting how none of the others under his command could have done similarly.
This larger, and more comprehensive, tome that I wrote led me in more recent years (POWELL ––Confessions, Secrets & Revelations From Beyond The Grave), my idea was to present an innovative way to tell a still popular story to an audience. Namely, a faux play with Major Powell in the center stage and the two so-called diarists respectively on his left and right. Additionally, there is another person overseeing the performance, something akin to a Chorus as was popular in Greek tragedies. It's not the case I consider the Powell saga a tragedy, so much as there was a tragic outcome given the first expedition’s loss of three crew members, as well as the drama created by that expedition certainly warrants such a place in American History.
About the diarists. . .all three members of the expedition had authored their accounts of the 1869 expedition, though Major Powell’s chronicle would eventually serve as the sole tome. One of the diarists even went to his grave with his secret diary. This diary is also the most important of the three because he <<> of what really happened. However, I will have to put that explanation off until later in these presentations.
Following Major Powell’s inaugural and intrepid run down the Colorado and Green rivers, there was another, and longer, expedition, which began in 1871. That odyssey, too, was revealed in the same book authored by Major Powell (published in 1875, the first such publication of two). Herein lies one of the more glaring snags that haunted Major Powell for the rest of his celebrated life. This contentious matter also amounts to his avid and supportive readers assuming what transpired in the descriptive prose of Major Powell’s expert account was actually one long expedition that began in 1869 and ended in 1872! When factoring in Major Powell’s prior Rocky Mountain excursion, in 1868, which was intended to explore some sector of the West (i.e., at the time he did not know exactly where to begin), readers merely assumed the excursion was even longer.