Lost in the Grand Canyon (American Experience/WGBH, 1999)
Considering that I rafted and paddled over 200 miles on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, it’s obvious that I would eagerly anticipate watching, Lost in the Grand Canyon, the adventurous tale of the first known expedition through the canyon led by Major John Wesley Powell. Powell ventured into an unmapped area, named “Unexplored Country” on the U. S. Army map, without any knowledge of the 100 sets of dangerous rapids and the steep canyon itself. He knew about reports that there was no way out alive. Nonetheless, this bold, tough, driven Civil War veteran dared take on the task—with only one arm!
This informative film creates a mesmerizing account of an epic expedition—one of the most influential in American history that now seems somewhat forgotten.
It tells the dramatic story with old drawings, maps, photographs, film, newspaper articles, interviews with historians, Powell’s journal and a recreation of the expedition. After viewing this film, I think the time is right for Hollywood to step in and create one of those classic Cecil B. DeMille-type films of this remarkable exploit to dramatize this formidable feat with some pizzazz.
When Powell embarked in 1869 with 4 rowboats and 12 volunteers upon this dangerous journey of 99 days into the unknown, everyone basically ignored it. One modern historian described the expedition as one of “ambition, optimism and ignorance”. Eighty miles into the trip, one boat was smashed in the rapids, losing one-third of the food supplies and scientific equipment. From that wreck at “Disaster Falls”—as named by Powell—the bickering and feuding among the expedition members would begin. They debated how to maneuver the rapids, live on meager rations, and whether to continue the expedition. Soon after, three members left. Attempting to climb out of the canyon, they were never seen again. Several newspapers erroneously reported the expedition had crashed in the rocks and all died, or later, that the entire expedition had disappeared.
With a realistic visual recreation of the journey and comments from Powell’s journal, the film deftly creates tension, moments of suspense, and exciting scenes of shooting the turbulent rapids. Simultaneously, it communicates the crew’s sense of awe at the splendors of the canyon, and particularly, when they enter the narrowest, deepest part.
The viewer can empathize with them as they gaze at the geological wonders or hear the deafening roar and fear the next set of rapids. “What a world of grandeur is spread before us! Cathedral-shaped buttes towering thousands of feet, ledges from which the gods might have quarried and canyon walls sunk in the river into insignificance,” wrote Powell.
He was a self-taught scientist who marveled at the amazing geological strata he viewed…”as pygmies lost among the boulders.” But this most sublime place on earth also imbued him with a sense of god and represented a personal salvation for a maimed Civil War veteran.
The determined Powell urged the crew on through many dangerous unsheltered rapids, Ninety-nine days later they emerged successfully from the canyon, quickly shocking the country with their accomplishment and becoming instantaneous media “heroes”. As an adroit entrepreneur, Powell conducted a successful lecture tour, brought photographers and painters to the canyon to capture its beauty and thus national attention (resulting in the famous enormous landscape paintings of Thomas Moran). He led another expedition—all of which led to President Theodore Roosevelt’s well-photographed visit, the establishment of a national park, and his declaration that the canyon was “…a natural wonder absolutely unparalleled in the world.”
As the Grand Canyon evolved into a national shrine and a symbol of American pride (and something Europe didn’t have), Powell entered the second phase of his incredible career: as the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey and the director of Ethnology of Native Americans within the Smithsonian Institution. The film describes his successes and failures in those positions, particularly in dealing with Congress, which unwisely rejected his recommendations on how to safely and properly settle the West. The hardships, failures, deaths and haphazard misuse of the new Western territories by settlers and immigrants might have been ameliorated, if the veteran’s pleas for cautious, intelligent planning had been heeded.
It is most appropriate and noteworthy that the film has revived the impressive, diverse career of one of American’s most outstanding 19th century leaders. The daring expedition in the canyon alone is sufficient to captivate any student. I just wish they had included a couple minutes of imagery and description of this pristine wilderness of the 19th century and a few more thunderous rapids.
Powell’s legacy will always be connected his discovery, vivid descriptions and promotion of the Grand Canyon as America’s most treasured shrine. That would please him immensely.
Kenny Karem Louisville Collegiate School (kennykentucky@aol.com)
