{"id":538,"date":"2011-08-01T20:16:03","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T03:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.detling.us\/?p=538"},"modified":"2011-08-01T20:16:03","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T03:16:03","slug":"down-the-colorado-river-through-the-grand-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.detling.us\/?p=538","title":{"rendered":"Down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just finished a paperback (not an e-book) entitled Down the Great Unknown<\/strong><\/em>, by Edward Dolnick, a historical treatment of the Powell expedition’s 1869 journey down the Green and Colorado Rivers through the Grand Canyon. It is a carefully researched history of the journey (organized by John Wesley Powell) that is a more complete picture of this incredible feat. A successful expedition, in Dolnick’s view, was anything but foreordained. “Powell’s 1869 expedition launched his career, but it came within a boat length or two of drowning him before he had become even a footnote.” This is a first rate account, easily read, and thoroughly documented.\u00a0 It also contains interesting speculation of the fate of three of the four adventurers who left the party before the journey was completed (I won’t divulge details of this part of the story).<\/p>\n

Dolnick, Edward. Down the Great Unknown<\/em><\/strong>. (New York: Harper Perennial, 2001).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished a paperback (not an e-book) entitled Down the Great Unknown, by Edward Dolnick, a historical treatment of the Powell expedition’s 1869 journey down the Green and Colorado Rivers through the Grand Canyon. It is a carefully researched history of the journey (organized by John Wesley Powell) that is a more complete picture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[42,74,80,132],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-booknotes","category-main","tag-colorado-river","tag-history","tag-john-wesley-powell","tag-western-americana"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t