Hello.
I changed the title. If you've seen the program flashing about, uh,
yesterday afternoon talking to my wife was finishing up the power point
and we're talking about the great unknown. And I said, I've got to go
change my title. And then last night, driving down here with Brad Emmick,
we detailed it a little bit. So, um after I thought of that was so obvious
that that should have been the title all along. Mapping the great unknown
about Powell and his crew in eighteen sixty nine on the river.
This work is advanced.
I don't know, just to enter. Contrary to appearances, I am not related to
John Wesley Powell and I had no intention of doing any research on PAL.
Major biographies had been done, and I was interested in other aspects of
Colorado River history. Nineteen seventy three Did my first river trip? Um
, you could see the course of the pal did way up at the top, but Green
River, Wyoming on down to the mouth of the Virgin River. Uh, Dana Repeat
trip a couple of years later, part way through the canyon. But an event
occurred on that first trip, about two hundred forty miles into Grand
Canyon. Three men left the trip. The Holland Brothers and William Dunne
and nineteen seventy five was My next trip, went down below Diamond Creek
to Lake Mead and saw the separation plaque. We didn't stop. There were
doing a run out off the cliff, too. Commemorate the three men who had
hiked out
in nineteen eighty nine. Emit the park archaeologist. You have awesome!
She told me about another separation plaque. Nineteen thirty four. You'LL
see down at the bottom on the left that she had in her office, and there's
a whole long story. That's a complete other talk. Um, nineteen. Ninety
four. Roy Webb, Utah historian, told me about seeing a separation plaque
from nineteen thirty four and Vernal, Utah at the Hats Warehouse.
An investigation into those two plaques that still exist but have been
removed from the canyon. I started looking into the history of the this so
called affair it separation, and the plaques
in um looked into Powell's original journals, and they still exist there
at the National Anthropological Archives that Smithsonian. And this is, uh
, August twenty seventh, the night they got to the rapid at separation.
That's pals handwriting, for the most part, except for that string of
numbers across the top, and you can see a transcription above that, Uh,
first thought that one hundred nineteen degrees number was a longitude, uh
, so it's important to know how far near the end of the trip they were,
his pal explained to the three men trying to convince him to stay on the
river hundred nineteen degrees his middle of the Central Valley in
California. I thought No wonder the three guys left if Pel was that far
off.
Um, the next day, the three men hiked out. There's thie total, um, Pal
original journal for that event. Boys left us on the twenty eighth. Um,
you'll read in the reprints from his report that he spends pages flowery
pages on that. So this got me into looking at PAL surveying methods. Uh,
turns out that hundred nineteen degrees was a sex in observation of double
angle stars, citing so not a longitude at all.
The prior year. The prior two years, Palate taken college students out on
some of the first experiential field trips in eighteen, sixty eighty. Had
a map. Call the Gore Linsky map. He was a draftsman. Um, he took it. It's
in eighteen sixty seven maps of, Well, pretty much had the latest
available maps. All the students had a a map of this in the field.
Then, uh, Matt mentioned that this map this morning, Freehold Warren map
eighteen sixty eight. And palle had this map with him on the river in
eighteen. Sixty nine. The men referred to that. They identify some
locations on the map. There was an eighteen sixty nine freehold warring
map is always updated, um, with new information. Every trip that went out
West gave the information to them and they updated the map.
It didn't come out till December of sixty nine. I don't know if they
incorporated Enea Pell's information or not. Is he just gotten off three
months earlier and probably not.
They also had a Mormon map with him. Uh, I have no idea what that is. I've
never seen anybody that's found information on it, but it may have came
come out of AA trip that Jacob Hamlin and two others went from the Grand
Wash cliffs below the Grand Canyon to the south of the Virgin River and
two years before Palace trip.
This is the first, uh, printed map. I think Matt showed that this morning.
Scribner's monthly popular cereal and ah, first really good map showing
grandkid, but it was only three and a half inches by five inches. So
essentially an index card, so not quite as useful as some of the others
that came out later. Uh, Frederick Dellenbaugh was a crew member on PAL
Second Trip, and he was one of the topography furs. And these are the two
maps that appeared in his books and later early nineteen hundreds.
Preliminary map number one and number two from eighteen seventy three.
And, uh, Dellenbaugh finished the map and Kanab January February that year
and, uh, shipped it off to D. C.
The pals reports air kind of lacking. This is an example from Fremont to
report in eighteen forty five. He shows the latitudes and longitudes.
Astronomical observations, barometric observations, instruments, uh,
raiding the instruments, how accurate they were.
Eighteen sixty one. The IVs report lives has been mentioned several times
through here. Also, astronomical observations, barometric observations,
instruments, uh, and pages and pages. If you look in these reports of data
, all the observations they did with their instruments, of course, they
were doing land surveys. For the most part, I've seen some river, um,
Fremont, You know, cross rivers, but ah, different conditions that pal had
when he was on the river course. But the's were, you know, thirty, twenty
, ten, twenty, thirty years before pals report yet done of palace reports.
Ever show any data or any instruments?
This is, uh, Bell, William Bell. Any tracks in North America? The second
edition, eighteen. Seventy. And he's, uh, has a pal report in there. This
is the end of the report where palace giving mileage is traveled through
the canyons from Green River, the railroad crossing a green river down to
the below them Grand Canyon. But it also appeared prior to that. And I
just found this newspaper article
the same month that pallet gone off the river. He got off early September.
This is back in normal, Illinois, September twenty seventh, and he gives
the biologist for the canyon. So, uh, little different version appeared in
bills and publication. But Palate also put it in these papers, and they
got reprinted essentially the same reporters he hadn't built sneak tracks
on the second trip. The topography for above the Grand Canyon. Uh, Frances
Marion Bishop. This is him in the field, working in a part of one of his
maps. He's her at the Utah State Historical Society. These air this
section's remaining the incomplete as faras the general course. But, ah,
the sections of the map started in Green River. Go down a little ways and
then ended Lee's ferry, and you could see the sections without the rest of
the river course on the left and on the right is with the river course.
Pell's Report eighteen seventy five government report had two maps in it.
This is Green River, down to the mouth of the White River, the very first
portion of the the River trip
and also a profile green and Colorado rivers. Um, with the the profile and
the top are those rivers. And on the bottom, a couple of almost, um, level
lines is the, uh, Ohio Mississippi River. So he's showing the comparison
the drop in the river of out west with Back East. The only two maps for
that report reporting on this Grand Canyon River trip.
You have already seen Della, Boss. Preliminary maps one and two. This is
an overlay of those maps on too, Uh, present day. So blue is the eighteen
seventies spelled maps and the red is, uh, this century's maps. I think
Pal got away with not doing a standard report with his data and
instruments and measurements. Because the map you look, it's really pretty
good for those conditions. This is eighteen seventies on the river,
especially the first trip. But they also had their problems in the second
trip. Faras, uh, voting food. Things like that not is desperate, and they
spent a lot more time. So for eighteen seventies, I think they did a
pretty good job. And I think that's the reason I never found anything that
said to Pel, Where are your data?
So, uh, Pel has an agreement with three men on the trip. Jack Sumner, um,
agrees to do all the necessary work required with a sexton. Done.
Barometric yl observations. Um, when needed. Determining altitude of walls
of the canyon and then hourly and daily, um, barometric observations.
Howland was to make the topographical map. And I've got a picture of their
apologies. Toe previous Speaker This is an illustration from pals report
on the right in the center there are no known pictures of William done,
but he dressed in buckskins. And rather than using a mountain man, I use
one of pals illustrations from his report of a Native American.
Could be an example for Dr Villa's next talk.
This is a copy of the agreement that said You have a library, Special
collections, Dellenbach collection. He copied the original, and, uh, I
have no idea where the original and never heard anybody report that, but
it's supposed to be with another. Originally a crew member on the Pal
second Trip, Thompson.
Pal had an Elgin watch. It's still at the Grand Canyon National Park
Museum. It's been there since the forties. Pals, nephews, widow donated it
to them. It's called an Elgin Watches from the National Watch Company
manufactured in Elgin, Illinois. So you see the red line over there on the
timepiece under Elgin. So, uh, people just referred to it all the time Is
the Elgin watch? And, uh, pal talks about in this testament in the Elgin
Almanac that it was better than the four pocket chronometer sze he had
with him? Uh, its rate stayed the same And you'LL see I'll show some data
of the when they were making observations for time on the Elgin and pal
just other places. He just talked about having four chronometer Sze Now we
know their pocket chronometer sze particular type.
But prior to that, um, the year before that in eighteen, seventy year
after his trip, essentially the same testament as the almanac. But the
news article pride or that names to the brands of the chronometer, the
pocket chronometer Jorgenson They also had a Jorgenson chronometer on the
second trip in a fraud. Hm, which is pretty interesting That's a new,
fairly recent find for me in this news article. Uh, barometers. They don't
mention what types. But a recent book by John Ross on John Pal John Wesley
Powell talks about, um, James Green is manufacturing the barometers
Smithsonian had.
Ordered and purchased, uh, barometers from James screen. And, um, you
often read that Smithsonian Insufficient supplied them. But in the wreck
of the no name boat in the Canyon of Lador talks, PAL talks about the
three barometers being lost. But he also wrote, Could I go out to Seoul
Lake and get barometers from New York? James Green was based in New York,
so the Smithsonian may have paid for the barometer's. But Pal may have
just gotten them from New York. He was concerning Tilly rescued the
barometer's off the record off the wrecked boat he had considered going
out from there to Salt Lake to order barometers.
Uh, thermometers. They never mentioned what types. This is a wet bulb
tribal. And, uh, I'll show you some data that shows that that's what they
used in their barometric observations. James Green also made barometers.
So if they got the, uh, I mean, if they got the barometer's from Jane
screen, it's likely they got the thermometers there also.
Um I talked to, uh, Henry Dickless Lowell Observatory emeritus astronomer
and showed him the data that I had transcribed from pals. First trip. No
book number two. And right away. He asked, Didn't they have about it in
order? Usually, you know, with these astronomical observations, the
observation doesn't tell you anything unless you reduce the data to
latitude and longitude. About it, you see, on the left was, ah, common, uh
, set of tables as well as the nautical almanac. On the second trip, they
had a show of unease.
In order to work there. Data.
Uh, Alice. Uh, first major biographer was William Cope Dera, and he's
talking about notebook number two, which is the geological notes and
sections. In astronomical record of eighteen sixty nine, he says
Astronomical barometric readings. We find a total of thirty two pages of
notes of daily entries. They consist entirely of lengthy Siri's of
tabulated figures and appeared in record astronomical data. We questioned
the possible value of this material to you. I mean, this is the basis of
palace mapping. Dare doesn't think it's worth it.
Here. A couple of entries for time for Elgin. The first one where The
Music temple Just below the mouth of San Juan. And the second one? Is that
the mouth of the flax for the little Colorado River? And you'LL see Time,
Elgin And for rate of Elgin, he doesn't mention the chronometer Sze of
checking the rate. So they had always said that. Um, you know, the
chronometer didn't work very well. And the Elgin's what they relied on in
the the little data we have verifies that.
Here's on the top of barometric observations, and you'LL see a D for drive
old and W for wet bulb. It's important to know the humidity when you're
doing that, taking the pressures from the barometer. What they would do is
have to barometers have won at the river, and then they would take another
barometer up to the top of the cliffs and take readings. They should do
them simultaneously, which is hard to do, but they could kind of interpret
it that way. I found no evidence that despite what some books say about,
they're using, the barometer's too know how far down the river has dropped
in elevation. It's kind of get an idea how far they've gone and how far
they have to go. I find no evidence of that. They would have had to take
barometric observations at every camp when they got there at night and in
the morning before they left. And, uh, some days they were just working
boats and probably didn't take any. And there no data in, uh, no book
number two to confirm any of that
no.
Um so Helland is hired to do the topographical map and they get to the, uh
, through the canyon of the door and some other canyons. They get down to
the mouth of the U. N. To River Palin Cement hike up to the Indian agency
up there. Uh, Howland's working on the maps because the wreck of the no
name he says he's, uh, lost his notes and the map, and he's redoing them.
But he also says he's going to send the maps up to the agency. And then
after that, there are no other references to any of this. So, in fact, I
prevent. The first part of the trip may have had a map sent up there, but
who knows where it is?
Here they're doing Ah, method of observations called looter distances. And
there there's, Ah, away of flat finding latitude and longitude of lunar
distances using the tables, like about its of the nautical AMA almanac
definition down below. We won't get into that.
I transcribed the data Astronomical data from notebook number two and it
appears an appendix in the first and second edition of Michael Gilly Aires.
Book on with the Pal journals uh, third edition on the right. He includes
some other information as long as that, as well as that of those
transcriptions I did because a couple of guys attempted to and succeeded
in a couple of instances, reduced using the books of tables and lunar
methods of of getting some, uh, reduce figures. Which shows a pel was very
and the men were very accurate at a couple of places in dock. Marston
historian. He was mentioned earlier. Um, he was in the Navy submarine
trained a submarine commander, became an historian River Runner boatman.
And he talks about They're doing all these observations at the mouth of
the or at the junction of the Green and the Grand River started the
Colorado River. And, uh, August seventh was in eclipse, and Powell was
hoping to be it. A junctions of some river with the Colorado because, uh,
worldwide, the eclipse was being observed in a lot of places and a lot of
data collected so pal could correlate his data very, very accurately, not
only get the spot where they were on the river, but the spot where that
other river joined it. Very important. Marsten trained is a naval officer.
Should have learned how to use the Sexton do celestial navigation. Yet he
says, Um, why why did Pal do this? But just why the view would have been
any better here than elsewhere is not explained unless it was for
publicity. In Marston's manuscript, he mentions how many times they
deserve what they did. Fourth, that never says anything about what it
meant. I think, er Marston having trained with the sex that so I steal
navigation should have come up with some accurate figures. Um, the Navy
had stopped for a few years teaching celestial navigation, but in two
thousand fifteen they started again because they thought it was important
, Um, that if the key computers went all the heck, that they should have
some people that knew how to find where they were
Here's, um where are we? Mouth of the San Juan River. They do get a
latitude in. Those figures are in the book number two thirty seven degrees
, eleven minutes forty seven seconds. They were only one minute off.
When they get to the little Colorado River they get, Bradley says. They
got latitude again, Uh, but the figure does not appear in any of the
notebooks and journals. However,
They know that when they are there, where they're going to end, the trip
is due west from the Little Colorado River. They don't know what the
river's going to do in between, but they know where they're going to end
up. It's going to be at the same latitude, so Little Colorado River,
thirty six eleven twenty eight call villa at the bottom. Where they're
heading is five minutes difference. But they ended up at the Virgin River
, which is three minutes difference from the little Colorado River. So
they were pretty right on at that point, even though no numbers were
listed.
Um, Bradley talks about this spot there that if they keep going in that
direction, they will be back to where they started. The river makes a big
Ben and comes around hits to the Northeast. The red line is from where
that observation was made up to Green River, where they started the trip.
The green line on the right is along the course of the river. So the
further you go north, the further off you are. But it's really there for a
few months. For about five miles, they're heading back to Green River,
Wyoming.
There it is On the Belknap guide, that stretch of river with the red arrow
heading to near Green River. Um,
August twenty seventh. They take a observation from for altitude, but I
mean for latitude, but no numbers. No, we didn't. No data reduction to
show where they were. Longitude was important too. These three men trying
to keep them on the river. Uh, the next observations. August twenty ninth.
And only one more observation. September fourth at St George After they
get off the river, uh, once again, no reductions.
Pal called his method overland. Meandering reconnaissance, which is kind
of like Dead Reckoning. And Della about the second trip confirms that, uh
, where you take a compass reading and you estimate the distance you've
traveled until the compass changes. Here's a set of flight, part of a
flight mind map that shows the straight sections that airplane flies when
it's taking photographs of the river along the course of the river. Um,
Pell's trip had eighteen on eighteen seventy one had the eighteen sixty
nine map with him. I don't know for sure if they went through Grand Canyon
, but
I had a little discussion with mapped or about that they definitely had
the eighteen sixty nine map with him. No one's seen it since some feature
there. There are data for the next trip. Eighteen, seventy one, seventy
two. And, um, you know, a lot of conjecture goes in this a lot of
speculation that pal started it. Ah, well, we make conjecture many things
, so that's what I'm, uh, doing here. But pals most astute observation.
And then I'LL finish it display for rare humor, pal. Right? Soon I see the
cook. Billy Missouri roads, Hawkins down by the boat taking up the sexton
rather a strange proceeding for him, and I questioned him concerning it.
He replies that he is trying to find the latitude and longitude of the
nearest pie. Thank you.