Monument for John Wesley Powell Proposed

It Happened on
June 6, 1909

The article is partially transcribed. Only the first two paragraphs are available.

THERE is no more thrilling example of courage and daring undertaken in response to a purely patriotic impulse, or one which better reveals the American type of manhood than the exploration of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado by Major John Wesley Powell, afterward director of the United States Geological Survey. Few careers might be so well emulated by the young American of today. Warned by the Indians not to enter the dangerous canyon of the river, as he was also by the fate of earlier explorers, Powell laid his plans with much wise forethought; and with the knowledge of the probable dangers, he decided that there was at least such a chance of success as to warrant the undertaking.

On the 24th of May, 1869, with nine chosen companions, he launched his boats upon the Green River where it is crossed by the Union Pacific Railroad, and for the three succeeding months was lost to the world and involved in perils which were of almost daily occurrence. Between walls of rock so steep and so close together that for long distances they afforded no landing place for the boats, the river rages over rapids, shows then a quiet surface, only to be succeeded by other rapids and cataracts the more dangerous as the Grand Canyon is approached. Before undertaking the expedition Powell knew well that the river fell a vertical distance of more than a mile within the course of one hundred miles he was about to attempt to cover; yet into this unknown channel he launched his boats unflinchingly.

This is the conception day event of 2 people, who also made a difference in history

270 days after the event (plus or minus 9 days) were born.

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