The Romance of the Colorado River / The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons

Member of the United States Colorado River Expedition of 1871 and 1872
“No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms: This, as it frothed by, might have been a bath For the fiend’s glowing hoof——” Browning
To my friends and comrades of the Colorado River Expedition of 1871 and 1872 in grateful remembrance.

Looking up the Bright Angel Trail. This is one of the modern trails into the Grand Canyon, which at this point is some 6000 feet deep. From water-color sketch by Thomas Moran, N.A.
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.