Down the Great Unknown

I live about 70 miles south of the Grand Canyon. It is a part of our lives. My kids take field trips up there every year. We all give directions to lost tourists on how to get to the Canyon. There are river runners among us, and guides and tourists and preservationists, and geologists. The Grand Canyon may as well be a part of Flagstaff, it's that intertwined with our daily lives.

Sure I've been there. It's cool the first time you go, but the more visits and the more relatives you schlep up there the more the place just starts to look like just a big hole. You go up there, you look over the edge, you drive home.

The last time I was up there in February I bought a couple of books that looked interesting. I figured if I am going to live so close to this natural wonder I should know something about it. I got this book shown above, Down the Great Unknown by Edward Dolnick and also the Penguin edition of John Wesley Powell's own biographical description of his trip. I tried the first hand account, but it was not for me. There was little set up and context to the journey and it was, as I learned later, a very one-sided somewhat fanciful account of the trip that Powell had not in fact written during the expedition, but written several years later from his memory. His journal at the time of the trip consisted mainly of one sentence summaries of the mileage for the day and the number of rapids crossed.

Edward Dolnick's summary of the expedition was more comprehensive. It took information and stories from the journals of 3 men on the trip, not just Powell's. It gave background history on white water rafting, debating the way the 10 men actually went down the entire river in boats that were not made for the task. There was lots of history and context but there was also danger and literal cliffhangers to liven up the dry history.
I loved the book and I wasn't expecting to at all. I needed to know more about the place where I live and I thought this would be a great source. What I got was a greater appreciation for the great big hole that I live near. It's scary. We all know that. I see the articles in the newspaper every week. People die up there all the time. It's almost boring to hear that another person died at the canyon. My dad's cousin even fell in in the 90's and died. It's a big hole, but it's also a force of nature to be reckoned with.
This book gave me some insight on why a man, Powell, or any man in fact would want  to try and explore the biggest hole in the earth.

I highly recommend this book. It's fascinating. It teaches the history of the old west, and the history of the Grand Canyon in a way that is very accessible and understandable. History really does come alive in this book.

Perhaps the coolest thing about this book is that it made me want to explore. Yesterday I took the whole family up to put our feet in the mighty Colorado River and see a part of  John Wesley Powell's journey ourselves. It made the book come full circle for me. I am truly enlightened.

See here for the details of my trip to Lee's Ferry and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.