The 100th anniversary of Major Powell’s pioneer exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers was commemorated in 1969 by a national centennial sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Society, and many other organizations. This touched off many magazine and newspaper articles, several commemorative programs and dedications, and several publications of lasting interest. Noteworthy among the latter is U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 669 entitled “The Colorado River Region and John Wesley Powell.” Of its four separate parts, two are of special interest to our Canyonlands story: part A, “John Wesley Powell: Pioneer Statesman of Federal Science,” by Rabbitt (1969) and part C, “Geologic History of the Colorado River,” by Hunt (1969). An interesting history of the National Park Service by Everhart (1972) was published as part of the national park centennial effort. The Powell Society, Ltd., of Denver, Colo., was founded mainly to publish four “River Runners’ Guides to the Canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers, with Emphasis on Geologic Features,” covering five reaches of the two rivers from Flaming Gorge Dam, Utah, to Grand Canyon, Ariz. One of these by Mutschler (1969) covers Labyrinth, Stillwater, and Cataract Canyons, all in Canyonlands National Park. Another guidebook by Baars and Molenaar (1971) covers the Colorado River from about Potash, Utah, to the confluence with the Green, and Cataract Canyon. It is difficult to realize that thousands of people annually now boat down the canyons Powell dared to explore without knowledge of the dangers that lay ahead.

During the summer of 1968 a U.S. Geological Survey expedition led by Eugene M. Shoemaker retraced the historic 1869 and 1871 river voyages of Major Powell, in order to reoccupy the camera stations of the 1871 voyage and rephotograph the same scenes nearly 100 years later. Remarkably enough, about 150 camera stations were recovered, many requiring considerable search, and official photographer Hal G. Stephens rephotographed the scenes taken with cumbersome wet-plate cameras nearly 100 years earlier by E. O. Beaman (above the site of Lees Ferry) and by J. K. Hillers (below the site). A report containing these remarkable sets of before and after photographs hopefully will be published eventually as a delayed part of the Powell centennial. A few pairs have been published by others (Baars and Molenaar, 1971, p. 90-99), and two pairs are shown herein as figures [62] and [67]. As these photographs show, in most places the rocks and even the vegetation remain virtually unchanged after nearly a century, but a few other pairs not included herein show catastrophic changes resulting from local floods or rockfalls.

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK, showing location in Utah, Lake Powell, Dead Horse Point State Park, boundaries, streams, roads, trails, landforms, and principal named features. There was insufficient room to show all named features; some not shown are related in text by distance and direction to named ones, and some additional names are given in figures [7], [51], and [59]. Hans Flat Ranger Station near left border is in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The reader is referred to road maps issued by the State or by oil companies for the location of U.S. Highway 163 (shown as 160 on old maps) and other nearby roads and for the locations of the towns of Green River, Crescent Junction, Moab, La Sal Junction, and Monticello. Visitors also can obtain pamphlets at the entrance stations to the Needles and Island in the Sky districts of the park or at the National Park Service office in Moab; these contain up-to-date maps of the park and the latest available information on roads, trails, campsites, and picnic sites. (Fig. 1)
[High-resolution Map]

On June 26, 1969, state and local officials met along the Green River at the mouth of Split Mountain Canyon, in Dinosaur National Monument, to dedicate a monument to Major Powell, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his first river trip, and to dedicate the Powell Centennial Scenic Drive, also known as the Powell Memorial Highway. In the absence of any roads closely paralleling the Green and Colorado Rivers except for short distances, this route is virtually the only means of approach to the rivers and comprises parts of several state and federal highways connecting Green River, Wyo., and Grand Canyon, Ariz. A segment of it, U.S. Highway 163, connects Crescent Junction, Moab, Monticello, and Blanding, all in Utah, and provides the principal access routes to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and Natural Bridges National Monument.

The ceremonies at the mouth of Split Mountain Canyon began with the landing of the official party flotilla of four boats similar to the ones used 100 years earlier by Powell, who was impersonated by a bearded man dressed to resemble the one-armed major. After the dedication, the four boats resumed the voyage down the Green River for another ceremony.

On June 29 a second monument was dedicated at the head of Desolation Canyon, some 50 miles southwest of Vernal, Utah, where the 1869 Powell expedition first ventured into the then unknown wilderness. The bronze plaque identifies Desolation Canyon, named by Powell, as a national historic landmark that comprises 58,000 acres in an area 1 mile wide on each side of a 95-mile reach of the Green River.

Early History