検索キーワード： "John Wesley" 科学・工学

Welcome to Volume VIII of the National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs series. Journey with us through 33 sections, each dedicated to an integral aspect of the life of John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). Powell was a pioneering figure in the geological explorations of the West, and the driving force behind the establishment of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879. A strong advocate for Native American tribes and culture, Powell led the Bureau of Ethnology with a passionate spirit. He penned a comprehensive study of the western U.S., championing careful irrigation and land conservation. His ...

The great unknown of the Southwest is conquered by a one-armed man and his crew of adventurers, placing the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon on the map of the American continent. It is a journey no human being had ever made before. Dangerous rapids, narrow canyon walls offering no escape, terrifying river waterfalls, capsized boats, near drowning, lost equipment and disillusioned men are dramatically described by John Wesley Powell, leader of this adventurous party.

John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition - starving, battered, and nearly naked - they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before.