April 30, 2011 Lake Powell (1) Lake Powell (3) Lake Powell (4)
Lake Powell (5) John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September
23, 1902) was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the
American West, and director of major scientific and cultural
institutions. He is famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic
Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado
rivers that included the first known passage through the Grand
Canyon. Powell served as second director of the US Geological
Survey (1881–1894) and proposed policies for development of the
arid West which were prescient for his accurate evaluation of
conditions. He was director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the
Smithsonian Institution, where he supported linguistic and
sociological research and publications. From 1867 Powell led a
series of expeditions into the Rocky Mountains and around the
Green and Colorado rivers. In 1869 he set out to explore the
Colorado and the Grand Canyon. Gathering nine men, four boats
and food for 10 months, he set out fr