Powell, John Wesley (1834–1902)

John Wesley Powell, an American explorer, scientific frontiersman, teacher, military leader, geologist, naturalist, government administrator, ethnographer, and geographer, is best known for having been the first to explore the length of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. According to William Morris Davis, Powell laid the foundation for American geomorphology and profoundly influenced those who came after him.

Born in Mount Morris, New York, Powell spent many of his early years in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois. His father, a dedicated Methodist abolitionist preacher and farmer, moved the family frequently to serve various congregations. John had obligations on the farm owing to his father's frequent absences. Irregularly educated, he received considerable natural history training from a neighbor, who provided a classroom, a small library, a laboratory, and field instruction.

By age 18, he was teaching school, studying, traveling, and collecting specimens locally, and he furthered his own education by planning and executing trips on the Ohio, Des Moines, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers. Though he never graduated, he did manage to complete approximately 2 yrs. (years) of university training.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, having enlisted in the Twentieth Illinois Infantry, he was very quickly promoted to sergeant and to second lieutenant. Assignments included engineering roads and bridges and establishing camps and battlements. Struck in the lower right arm by a rifle shot at Shiloh, his lower arm was amputated; however, he remained in the army for 3 more yrs. and was later stationed at Vicksburg, where he commanded artillery. During one of his military leaves, Powell married Emma Dean from Detroit.

After the war, he took a professorship at Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois Normal School, teaching a variety of science classes. An advocate for increased science and fieldwork in college curricula, he organized a field trip in 1867 across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains with his wife and students. This event led him to organize his first trip down the Colorado River in 1869.

Embarking on May 24, 1869, the expedition included four wooden boats, manufactured in Chicago and delivered by rail to Green River, Wyoming; supplies for months of travel; and 10 men from various backgrounds. They floated on the Green, through the Uinta Mountains to the junction with the Grand River and into the Grand Canyon. Vertical cliffs, giant rapids, and steep falls made progress slow and difficult. Even with near disasters, including the loss of supplies, scientific equipment, and most of the food, the party emerged from the canyon more [Page 2277]than 3 months after departure. During the journey, Powell documented geologic columns, identified fossils, recorded elevations with a barometer, and kept careful scientific records. He later conducted further research in the plateaus of the Colorado, focusing on geology, geomorphology, and ethnology.

Powell's contribution to geology, geomorphology, and geography are considerable. He classified landform regions of the United States, mountain types, and stream drainage systems. He developed concepts such as the graded stream, the base level of erosion, superposition, and antecedent rivers, which led later geomorphologists to unifying theories. He recognized that landforms evolve as the result of differential removal of materials; he explained surface processes and landforms and that uplift and erosion are slow processes. These concepts reinforced the notion of uniformitarianism, the doctrine that processes operate in the same way over geologic time. He carefully observed and documented landscape features, having measured stratigraphy, lithology, and fossils throughout the Grand Canyon and Colorado plateaus.

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