The Promise of the Grand Canyon

John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West

By: John F. Ross

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

“A convincing case for Powell’s legacy as a pioneering conservationist.”--The Wall Street Journal

"A bold study of an eco-visionary at a watershed moment in US history."--Nature

A timely, thrilling account of the explorer who dared to lead the first successful expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon—and waged a bitterly-contested campaign for sustainability in the West.

John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition—starving, battered, and nearly naked—they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before.

With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John F. Ross tells how that perilous expedition launched the one-armed Civil War hero on the path to becoming the nation’s foremost proponent of environmental sustainability and a powerful, if controversial, visionary for the development of the American West. So much of what he preached—most broadly about land and water stewardship—remains prophetically to the point today.

Mislead title

I choose this book wanting to learn more about Grand Canyon , but there were only few chapters about it. Rest should have been named great American surveyors. Still yet interesting and well read.

History repeats

Excellent writing, fascinating stories with psychological acuity, grand vistas of personality and geology.

Wisely admits reading today’s papers about water resources climate change and “science incredulity” have not changed

Sometimes overwhelming biographical threads that made a library copy of the book very helpful to follow.

Rollicking adventure

Learned much about the region I have always called home, as well as the fascinating man who dared much in the pursuit of understanding our world

Powell: hero, scientist, climatologist, visionary

Amazing story of a Civil War hero that conquered the uncharted Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. His emphasis on science led to the US Geological Survey in opposition to Manifest Destiny and exploitation of our limited water resources. His vision of stewardship of our land is amazing forward and needed in our current climate change environment.

About John Wesley Powell not so much the G.C.

Fun to learn about the US land policy from the roots. Good read for anyone that uses public lands and how we got the ideas that now form water and use management in the West.