| Title | : | Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0060955864 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780060955861 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 |
| Publication | : | First published September 30, 2001 |
Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon Reviews
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5 Stars for Down The Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy thought the Grand Canyon (audiobook) by Edward Dolnick read by Danny Campbell.
I’ve been to the Grand Canyon several times. I had heard about this trip through the Grand Canyon by Powell and his men but I’d never heard all the details of the trip. This was so much harder than I had realized. I had no idea that the men didn’t know how to white water raft. And that there boats were so ill suited for this kind of an adventure. They were constantly gambling with their lives too see this trip through to it’s end. -
I read the book in preparation for an upcoming trip to the Grand Canyon. I read it in my methodical style as I do such books constantly referring to maps and googling other references to increase my understanding. It has me super-excited about the trip!
It is a great book about an epic 1000 mile journey down the Green and Colorado Rivers through the Grand Canyon in 1869, led by a man-John Wesley Powell, who had one arm amputated during the Civil War. It is a gripping story with lessons on geology, geography, scholarly history, theology, and human psychology. The area was unexplored by Europeans at the time and yet the 10 men bravely headed down the river to explore and map the area. They rowed backwards facing upstream, always worried that the next rapid might be a sheer drop-off that would destroy their boats and drown them, and yet they went on with 6 men in the end finishing the trip. The story is based upon 3 men’s diaries with perspectives on each day’s event that are drastically different. I especially enjoyed the excerpts from John Wesley Powell’s diary and book as he is the consummate romantic marveling about all he sees along the way while the others are consumed by their fears. His writing reminds me of John Muir’s. It is one amazing story!!! -
A decent read, but it would be a great companion if you do a tour of the Western US. The Green and Colorado Rivers and the Grand Canyon, of course, are featured. These were the first men to descend the rivers successfully. Almost 500 sets of rapids along the way. Incredible dangers, completely wrong boats to use, all novices who had no river experience, lost one of 4 boats soon after start and 1/3 of their rations, grueling conditions. These were men who could endure, and had to. None died as a result of the river, although 3 men quit just before running the last (and probably the worst set of rapids). They were murdered as they tried to walk out. Who did it is a mystery--although commonly blamed on local Indians--there are some other possible culprits. 3 Stars
John Wesley Powell, the trip leader, was a Civil War veteran who had lost his right arm at Shiloh. Thirty-five years old and unknown, Powell was a tenderfoot who barely knew the West, a geology professor at a no-name college, an amateur explorer with so little clout that he had ended up reaching into his own (nearly empty) pocket to finance this makeshift expedition. His appearance was as unimpressive as his resumé—at 5 feet, 6 inches and 120 pounds, he was small and scrawny even by the standards of the age, a stick of beef jerky adorned with whiskers.
To Powell, a natural leader, all that was unimportant. Overflowing with energy and ambition, he was a man of almost pathological optimism. With a goal in mind, he was impossible to discourage.
They really went off into the unknown. The Southwest US was generally unexplored except by the Native Americans living there.
Powell lost an arm at Shiloh where he commanded an artillery battery.
Powell felt a lifelong bond with those who had seen and endured what he had. When he met a Mississippi congressman, C. E. Hooker, who had lost an arm fighting for the Confederacy at the Battle of Vicksburg, Powell made a pact with his new friend and wartime enemy. Powell had lost his right arm, Hooker his left. Whenever either of the two bought a new pair of gloves, Powell proposed, he should send his friend the extra, useless glove. For thirty years, the two men kept to their bargain, shipping spare gloves back and forth.
Overall, a lot of rapids run or portaged around. It does get a little monotonous in the middle but still admire how they did it. -
I loved the author's newest book,
The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 so I looked for other's he has written. I enjoy history written from journals and thought the topic of being the first to run the rapids through the Grand Canyon would be an excellent topic. Not to be.
The story was all over the place diverting to various places that went beyond supplying the pertinent information for the story to excess detail that need not be part of the book. I did not want a history of the Civil War for example.
I can only imagine the awe of those canyons -- so pristine. The danger, the adventure, the excitement! The story potential. Fizzled. The story dragged on and was continually sided tracked by overwhelming detail of geology, the Civil War, and current rafting techniques. All have their place in the story but the level of detail overwhelmed the purpose of the book, the journey down the river. -
Here is the TL;DR:
Good idea for a book. Lost me at citing Dolly Parton in a Wonderbra. (I know. Why would you even...?)
The Grand Canyon is something close to unfathomable. From the rim, its sheer magnitude seems to make comprehension impossible. It's big, yes - very big. What does that mean? The Canyon is more than just large: it's beautiful and it's varied, filled with over a billion years of history (the oldest rocks in the canyon are 1.84 billion years old) and secrets and tucked-away places, vermillion rocks and fossils, smooth-worn secret grottos and slot canyons, waterfalls and streams that run to the Colorado, condors and mountain lions - and on. How do you comprehend something like that?
Dolnick's book Down the Great Unknown is not a bad start, conceptually. This book, shall we say, contains multitudes - multitudes of great parts and also multitudes (beyond multitudes) of writing that induces multitudinous eye rolls.
But first, the good:
Dolnick has done his research well: he's deeply familiar with the world of the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and the age of the explorers in the West. He knows his sources well, too: a mark of his fluency is how easily and seamlessly, almost conversationally, he brings in his primary sources. This book at its heart traces the journey John Wesley Powell and his men made down the Colorado River (beginning from the Green River in Wyoming) through the Grand Canyon. Dolnick relies on a number of often contradictory sources; the ease with which he incorporates them in most instances is a highlight of the book. He does justice to his sources' words and allows them to shine, while also going beyond these texts to highlight the world around them.
Another good point: Dolnick is very good at describing the Grand Canyon. As mentioned above, sometimes the word we stick on is vast or grand - all of which are just iterations of us saying, "The Grand Canyon is freaking massive." But Dolnick introduces us the variance and the nuance, the multitudes the Grand Canyon contains. I read this book after 4 days backpacking in the Grand Canyon, seeking some remembrance of the quiet lovely places I'd found - Dolnick does this aspect of the Canyon justice.
The Bad:
On to the less than positive aspects of this book. My God, the metaphors. The metaphors! It's part and parcel of describing something like the Grand Canyon that you have to make it understandable. How big is big? It's hard to understand without some comparison. I understand that. But Dolnick went too far and chose some awful, awful analogies. Some of his comparisons and metaphors were very apt and helped me understand the scale of the Canyon and the river. However, it was hard to find a page that did NOT contain a metaphor - and some were just tasteless and ridiculous. At some point, I stopped taking them seriously, even if they could have been helpful. See two of the silliest here:
“The Green ran muddy and red-colored, the Grand ran clear, and the two rivers flowed side by side, like a young couple wary of committing to marriage” (166).
“The effect is to exaggerate the river's fall, which seems hardly necessary. This is like outfitting Shaquille O'Neal with elevator shoes, dressing Dolly Parton in a Wonderbra” (247)
Do we really need to talk about Dolly Parton's bra? Even hypothetically?
Perhaps these aren't that bad. But when there's a new ridiculous metaphor every other page, they get old very quickly. And overall, Dolnick would have benefited from a better editor (seriously can't believe they left in a comment on Dolly Parton wearing a Wonderbra). The metaphors needed a ruthless hand on the chopping block. So did his verbs. Every source seemed to "observe". Did they observe? Or did they just say? Or write? He tried to incorporate quotations from modern river-runners, and somehow the wording always just felt awkward and weird - similarly, he sometimes tried to bridge a gap between his 19th century sources and the present by speculating on thoughts and feelings, and it just didn't work. Finally, I felt that he tried to incorporate immaterial historical sections that added little to the text. I'm a Civil War aficionado, and even I thought he incorporated too much Civil War talk - a little would have added texture, but the amount he included felt irrelevant. I wondered if he did this in part because the actual storyline felt very thin.
All in all, this book is not a bad read for someone itching to understand the depths of the Grand Canyon a little better. I found it nostalgic; I'm sure anyone who's hiked into the Canyon, or rafted the Colorado, would find it the same. Dolnick is a good writer, but he got carried away. What's left is a kernel of a good story and promise of impressive nature-writing, buried under irrelevant bloat. I had previously purchased a book by Dolnick on the decoding of the Rosetta Stone; upon finishing this book, I promptly returned the other one. I don't think I can take more metaphors. -
“Down the Great Unknown” by Edward Dolnick, published by Harper Collins.
Category – History/Adventure Publication Date – 2001
If you are looking for a history book that is full of adventure, “Down the Great Unknown” would be an excellent choice.
In 1869 a one armed man, John Wesley Powell, decided to explore the Grand Canyon by way of the Colorado River. He was going to a place no man has been and had no idea of what he was getting himself into. He attempted to get the United States involved in the project but when they refused he took the project on himself.
He was able to convince nine mountain men to help him, even though they had no experience on a river like the Colorado. They used boats that were not suitable for the rapids they would encounter. Not only would they have to face the rapids but some were so formidable that they had to portage around them. They were also faced with starvation as the food they brought was either lost or became inedible.
When they finally ended their journey only six men had completed the trip, they were exhausted, nearly naked, and in dire need of food.
Where do these men come from? What drives them to do the things they do. Where do they find the courage to complete the task when all seems hopeless?
A great read that combines history with an incredible journey down the Grand Canyon. -
Good book. This is a nicely written account of the the Powell expedition but not a real page turner. I liked the digressions about Powell losing his arm at Shilo. If you want to know about the first trip down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon, this is for you. I think the low draft rubber rafts of today would have made Powells expedition much easier. enjoy.
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This is a really well written account of John Wesley Powell's expedition from Green River Station, Wyoming to a Mormon settlement downstream of the Grand Canyon. Edward Dolnick continuously impressed me with his ability to describe all the features of whitewater with analogies and descriptions that made my arm chair feel like an overburdened vessel at the mercy of titanic waves. The story of the ten fool hardy men who risked it all to chart the unknown is told in such detail that at times you want to scramble out of the canyons yourself. Thankfully, the author does just that, he whisks us away to the battle of Shiloh where Powell lost his arm, and later we get out of the canyon to hear 1869's version of fake news about the death's of Powell and his crew. The story of the expedition is put into historical context so that we get the proper setting of this insane excursion. Inevitably, we arrive back in the canyons, painstakingly inching through danger after danger while the food runs out and spirits wane.
As a whitewater enthusiast and geologist, I was wary of generic descriptions and inaccurate details. Instead, I found this book to be profoundly accurate and I found myself wondering how I spent so many years paddling white water without making the connections Dolnick put forth to the reader. My only gripe is that he kept referring to the Vishnu Schist as granite, but this is because Powell himself called it granite and the journal entrees of three men where commonly cited.
In the end, this is the ultimate tale of perseverance. Against all odds, these men journeyed into the pits of hell and...well I'll let you find out. Enjoy! -
In 1869 John Wesley Powell and ten other adventurous men set out to explore the Green and Colorado Rivers. The story of the trip down through the canyons was told through actual letters and diaries that
Dolnick researched. This would have been more than enough to give this book a 4 star rating.
The problem I had with it, was the constant insertions of 1) other times in history 2) extensive descriptions of the canyon wall and cliffs 3) modern day tales of disasters on the rivers.
I enjoyed the book, but not not as much I wanted too. -
An enjoyable read, simultaneously gripping and informative. I picked up Down the Great Unknown after reading another of Dolnick's books (The Clockwork Universe) that I enjoyed immensely, and while this isn't quite in the same league as that one, it's still worth looking into. Dolnick's style isn't as dense as many nonfiction writers, so this is an easy read but doesn't skimp on the details, and even his tendency to put in anecdotes surrounding this period is entertaining. (Granted they are occasionally a little too much.)
Perfect for the reader with a casual interest in the Westward expansion, exploration, or the time period in general. Likely not so intriguing for those with a deeper familiarity with the same. -
I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time as one of the final stops on a week long vacation in Arizona and Utah. I only had about 2 hours to take it in, and so rushed from pullout to pullout. In the weeks afterwards, when my friends asked me what I thought, I answered that it was "Nothing special, just a big hole in the ground." The half dozen or so trips that I have made there in the past 10 years have long since changed my opinion.
My love for the rugged canyon lands of Arizona and Utah is what drew me to this book. It truly is a 5-star account of Powell expedition, the first men known to have made the complete 1000 mile trip through the canyons of Utah and Arizona, including the Grand Canyon. As many other reviewers note, the author makes frequent references to events outside the expedition; events of the Civil War, and experiences of other rafters and boatmen. Some are beneficial, and some are not. A chapter devoted entirely to the Civil War Battle at Shiloh definitely falls into the latter. It was so tiresome, that it provoked me to skim through many similar accounts in the later chapters of the book.
As far as the telling of the story, Dolnick writes extremely well. He introduces us to men of a tenacious spirit, willing to endure and overcome intense hardships in order to do what others had not done. Without these qualities, they would never have survived their passage through "The Great Unknown." These are men to be admired for their resilience and courage, for doing what few believed could be done.
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This book covers the journey of John Powell and his team of 9 others as they became the first [white] men to venture successfully through the whole Grand Canyon on 1869.
I love a book full of adventure and travel. And sometimes this book hit that sweet spot. But at times it became repetitive (which isn't particularly the fault of the author, he only had so much to work with) and some tangents felt forced as if there just needed to be filler. Down the Great Unknown took me a long time to get through. The print was tiny (if only I had read it on my Kindle!) and the pace was slow enough to often put my tired eyes to rest. An interesting look into the journey but definitely not a book for those only into history in passing (unlike this girl who will pretty much read any history book in existence). -
I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the parts about John Wesley Powell and the ragtag band of nine mountain men that went with him on this journey but the rest was all over the place. Pages filled with unnecessary fluff, information that has nothing to do with the journey, and the author’s speculations on events. Reading this dry book not only was tedious and it lacks background information in many areas of the stories. I wanted to love this book, like so many others I am fascinated by the Grand Canyon. It is not a book I would recommend to you if you are doing research or wanting a well-rounded story.
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The story of Powell and his crew making their way through the Grand Canyon in boats in 1869 is beyond fascinating. And Dolnick is the perfect one to tell that story. (This is the second of his books I have read, the other being The Clockwork Universe - about the scientific revolution - also a wonderful book.)
Powell himself wrote eloquently of this adventure, but Dolnick brings an outsider's sensibility to bear on the thing. For example, several of the men kept diaries, so Dolnick can compare their differing descriptions of specific days' goings-on. Also, Powell's published works were written years after the events and he greatly expanded on his diary entries. His memory had to be as fallible as anyone's and his motivation in later life was to persuade congress of his environmentalist beliefs. None of this diminishes the value of his writings, but it allows Dolnick to contextualize the history.
A gripping read. -
This is a fascinating story, with some colorful characters and a lot of relation to the overall mythos of the American Dream and specifically the ideal of Manifest Destiny. Powell is an incredibly interesting figure, whose drive and grit are admirable and honestly inspiring, even as he left a lot to be desired as a leader and an explorer. All this being said, Dolnick's account of Powell's crew and journey is only alright. It tends to get bogged down in the details of the journey rather than the themes, and often breaks into tangential areas of comment that add some to the primary narrative but not enough to justify their inclusion in many cases. The men that Powell traveled with are compelling enough in their own right, they didn't need extras added on to make the entire story more "interesting." What I wished was a more in-depth character study of each of the men involved, or at least more details about their lives and fame following the expedition.
This is not a bad book, and I wish that Goodreads enabled me to actually give it 3.5 stars. It just wasn't as good as it could have been, or as Powell's story ultimately deserved. -
Fun to read. I do a lot of hiking and backpacking. My adventures are child’s play in comparison. What these guys went through was astonishing.
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What an incredibly fascinating story! Additionaly the reader is provided with unnumerable interesting facts not only about river running itself but about the time in which the story unfolds. Also it is well written.
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This is the weakest adventure/exploration-type book I've read so far and I don't recommend it. Most of it is pretty damn boring. It gets a little more interesting towards the end, but only for a little bit. The interesting bit concerns the situation at the end of their trip down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon. No one had ever been all the way down it before, on boat or foot, so they had no idea what was in store for them. For most of the trip they had dealt with this by exploring the river carefully and pulling to the side whenever they approached dangerous rapids. They would then carry the boats over land around the rapids, a time-consuming and laborious process. But as they went down into the canyon, and the walls towered above them, they quickly realized that they might end up in a situation where there were rapids ahead but no way to get off of the river, because of mile-high cliffs on both sides. This never actually happened. What did happen was that as they ran out of supplies, they realized they just had to make a run for it, and so they just raced through the most terrible rapids. Luckily, they made it.
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I picked this book up at the Grand Canyon after watching the IMAX movie that includes a dramatic reenactment of Powell's journey. A one-armed Civil War veteran led the first exploratory trip through the Grand Canyon? And some of the men took a land route right at the end and were never heard from again? Sounds as exciting as the Amazon river & rainforest adventures that I enjoy so much!
Parts of this were really interesting, but Dolnick's focus on including every detail written down by the various group members that kept journals made parts really boring, too. I wanted the big picture, the main adventures, not the mundane details. And while some of the additional background (geological history) was interesting, the civil war battle background was not what I came for.
The men don't even enter the Grand Canyon until over halfway through the book, and while the rest of the journey is important, I think a lot of that could have been condensed. -
That the author was so present in the telling of this story was both its best and worst feature. He brings context to events and circumstances, but he does so through odd illustrations. For instance, he describes a boatman stuck in a muddy whirlpool as being in the center of a massive glass of chocolate milk as it is stirred by a giant 8-year old. It was consistently distracting, but I think it enhanced my understanding of the challenges the expedition team faced in the process of exploring the Grand Canyon for the first time.
In the end, I think it was worth reading, especially for the passages regarding Powell's fascination with geology and for the social context (e.g. national arguments about Manifest Destiny) revealed through the men's experiences with the outside world. -
“I decided to run it,” wrote Sumner, “though there was a queer feeling in my craw, as I could see plainly enough a certain swamping for all the boats. But what was around the curve below out of our sight?” If there was a waterfall lurking just out of range, everyone understood, they were about to speed to their deaths. But, with no options, Sumner announced that he was ready to start. “Who follows?” he cried. Hawkins and Hall, the two youngest members of the expedition, one the none-too-expert cook and the other the ex-mule driver who had once complained that his boat would neither gee nor haw, answered first. “Pull out!” they yelled. “We’ll follow you to tidewater or hell.”
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Wonderful book, the audacity of what these guys pulled off is amazing. Good insight into leadership skills - some to use, some to avoid & how they worked or didn't. Well written & made me want to find out what happened next. Not to mention great descriptions of the landscapes & river as they progressed. Certainly something to read if you live in the area.
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Could be better written.
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Few non-fiction books are true page turners—this one was.
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This was a long journey, for Powell and for me.
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Noone had a clue: 1000 miles. One mile gradient. 99 days. May 25 - August 29.
Painstakingly reconstructed from diaries kept by some expedition members. “What they did not write we will never know.” Dolnick did not fill in gaps. It is complemented from many other sources. All to get a most accurate account.
The result is a very readable narrative, which feels like a novel. It was wonderful to read the different perspective of the diary keepers. It gave insight in their characters. Makes it very colorful. Optimistic (Powell) and matter of fact (Bradley and Sumner),
Dolnick places Powell’s expedition in the history of that time. He also compares it with current (2001) viewpoints. As such the narrative is interspersed with interesting facts about white water rafting. That gives this even more perpective.
There are many seque ways. For instance Powell’s rise to Major in the Civil War to illustrate that he was capable to lead in adverse circumstances. Very helpfull to guide his man when disaster struck.
Or the many climbs out of the canyons to explore what is beyond, take measurements and hunt for fossils.
Those stories give this journey a wonderful depth. Dolnick has as a way with words. For instance when describing Powell’s character: [..], a jangle of primary colors with hardly a pastel in the mix.”
No one had a clue.
Descend a mile over 1000 miles. Will the drop be sudden or gradual?
Niagara Falls is 170ft. To give it perspective.
It’s going to be epic and dangerous. Like the canyon landscape. With no way of escape. Like Mallory and Irvine, who disappeared in their June 1924 attempt to climb Mnt Everest. And all those other early explorers. Beyond the reach of rescue.
With no river experience whatsover. With wooden boats. Madness. A journey through no-man’s land in steep canyon’s. The only way out is at the end…
The odds of this endeavor are vividly described in chapter one: they are very slim!
I am excited to go on this journey!
Each chapter has a little map of the stretch they are at. I liked that very much!
And there they go…
In the first chapters it is again reiterated how ill equiped and ill prepared they really are. As we well know, they would make it. And now we will see how…
Follows is a description how rapid after rapid, cataracts, short falls and portages, they go down the canyons. Always fearing that the next one could be deadly.
They were aware of the dangers. Especially after emerging from the Green and entering the Colorada itself, p.178: “For men whose fate was not in their own hands, speculation [about how bad it still could be] was irresistible but useless.”
And, p.191: “Uncertainty sucked out their strenght and resolve more surely than other hazard”
Each stretch has its own chapter.
One would expect a boring account of canyon after canyon. Describing difficulties and how they were overcome. But each chapter is surprisingly different. With always tidbits of fun knowledge about where they are, the landscape, geology (Powell keeps on marveling about the beauty and seeing before his eyes time’s abyss, the real age of the Earth. The concept of evolution, described by Darwin, had exploded just 10 years before. People, those days, believed that the Earth was 6000 years old), how people in those times experience these dry deserts, how they react to difficulties, about hunting, fishing. It’s really a diverse mix of adventure. But, yes, the focus is on the river.
In the end it was sheer survival. Tempers flared. Food was almost gone. p.257: “Angry, hungry, exhausted, scared” they were in a race for their lives. Instruments gone, they did not know how much farther they had to go…
And then it was over. On September 1, the Colorado River Exploring Expedition disbanded, never to reunite. It made me feel a little sad. It was an epic journey. But noone besides Powell, took much away from this trip. Powell rises to glory, but the others vanished in obscurity.
A great read.
A must for all the white water rafters out there. -
I visited the Grand Canyon last summer and drove through parts of the region discussed in "Down the Great Unknown," such as Glen Canyon. I'm glad that I read this book after visiting because I could use my memories of the landscape to picture some of the scenes on Powell's journey and I could better appreciate the changes to the Colorado River and its canyons that author Edward Dolnick describes. For instance, we stopped to have lunch in Glen Canyon, near the Glen Canyon dam, and I remember thinking how weird it was that their was this verdant, little metropolis in the middle of the desert. So it was eye-opening and heartbreaking to read about the canyons, rock formations, and Anasazi ruins that Powell floated through and by on his 1869 journey that are now gone, flooded by the Glen Canyon Dam. In fact, in Dolnick's epilogue, he gives a eulogy to the Colorado River of 1869, "The river Powell knew is no more, for it is now interrupted by a series of great dams. In long stretches the river still runs fierce and formidable, but it is a penned beast, like a zoo lion" (p. 289). Even the color of the Colorado is different - it now runs a clear green instead of muddy, tumultuous brown.
Dolnick's descriptions of the ways time and humans have transformed the river get to the heart of this book and Powell's purpose for his incredible, perhaps crazy, endeavor. Powell didn't travel down the Green and Colorado Rivers to do something that had never been done before. It was primarily a scientific journey. Powell was a geologist and wanted to study time through the rocks of the Grand Canyon. "Reading those rocks, more than reading the river, was his great ambition...To scan a thousand-foot cliff in the Grand Canyon is to look back a hundred million years" (p. 219). In his chapter, Time's Abyss, Dolnick gives, for me, one of the most understandable explanations of geologic time and the age of the Grand Canyon, as well as Powell's ability to think in geologic time. "The oldest rocks in the Grand Canyon...are nearly two billion years old, not quite half as old as the earth. On a timeline where the history of earth is compressed to a single year, dinosaurs show up only in mid-December and vanish on December 26. (Humans make their appearance on the evening of December 31. Columbus discovers America at three seconds to midnight)" (p. 221-222). Explanations like this helped me understand how the rocks that we see in the Grand Canyon are so very old, but the canyon itself is relatively young, and added a whole new perspective on my memories of the canyon I saw last summer.
The chapter Time's Abyss could be considered an aside from the action of Powell and his crew hurtling down the Colorado. Although I appreciated the action of the journey and the depiction of the crew members through the numerous primary sources cited by Dolnick, I think I enjoyed his asides and contextual additions just as much, if not more. Powell and his men were cut off, isolated from all other humans during the trip, so it was helpful for Dolnick to put the audacity of the trip and Powell's goals into historical context: four years after the Civil War (Powell survived the whole river adventure with only one arm); Manifest Destiny; Mormon settlements in the West; dissemination of news; theology vs. geology. Dolnick also uses his asides to contrast what we know of the Colorado today and river rafting today, which I found compelling. That said, it was the action on the river and fate of Powell and his men that kept me turning the pages.
I suggest this read to you if you love the history of the West and its landscapes and landmarks. I think it would be a fascinating read for people who like to run rapids and boating as well. Finally, if you enjoy a tale of the indefatigable human spirit, as well as a reminder that the world is so much bigger, older, and more mysterious than we can ever know, then this is the book for you. -
3.5 This is an amazing story, and Dolnick's done a really good job marshalling his sources for a scrupulously documented narrative of every twist and turn in the journey. He's also careful when considering the options for unresolved historical questions, like the disappearance of Oramel and Seneca Howland and Bill Dunn.
At times, though, his narrative is as tortuous as the river trip he's describing. I don't necessarily find the additional material digressive or extraneous, but its insertion sometimes feels random. The two chapters on the Civil War and Shiloh, for example, are invaluable for understanding John Wesley Powell's disability, Walter Powell's awkward character and (more tangentially) some of the underlying sentiment within the party, but their presentation after the expedition is already underway is slightly bizarre. We've already learned that JW Powell only had one arm, so holding an explanation of this back until chapters 7 & 8 just feels weirdly clumsy.
Dolnick also has a struggle on his hands with explaining 1869's views of the West and understandings of whitewater boating. The Colorado's rapids are now a well-visited tourist project, and their dangers are navigated with all of the accumulated knowledge of rapid-running that Powell & his team didn't have. Dolnick's discussions of developing boat design and rivercraft are invaluable, but again somewhat chaotically introduced.
His determination to explain all this, however, also unleashes his worst tendencies towards over-writing. The book is cluttered with innumerable similes and analogies - sometimes gauche, sometimes overstretched to the point of snapping - that are supposed to clarify this distinction for modern readers (many of whom presumably come to the book because of an interest in pursuing guided rapid-running). Unfortunately, they all too often do the opposite, with Dolnick getting so tangled up in them that they actually serve to prevent the reader focusing on Powell and co's own thinking.
The book's problems are well summed up by their presentation of Powell's later formulations of the West's emptiness. Yes, these developed out of his 1869 experiences, but for the modern reader they're an important part of understanding what happened, so holding them back to the Epilogue is disorienting rather than clarifying.
All this can make the book seem more discursive than it needs to be - or actually is - but don't let it put you off. It ends up feeling like a peculiar backwash during a still incredible journey.
