Grand Canyon

Description

A progenitor of the National Geographic Society, John Wesley Powell was a naturalist, a rough-and-ready explorer, and a visionary in his understanding of the uncharted Colorado River. This program illustrates Powell's historic passage through the Grand Canyon in 1869, when the 35-year-old set out with eight companions from Green River, Wyoming, into the unknown. The film describes how, at various stopping points, four members of the crew abandoned the mission-one vanishing from recorded history and three dying in the desert instead of the rapids they thought would kill them-while Powell and his remaining cohorts went on to achieve scientific and popular glory.

Runtime

57 min

Subjects

Geography

Genre

Date of Publication

[2010], c2000

Database

Films on Demand

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