| OCR Text |
Show THE HISTORY BLAZER ArEH'S OF LTA H'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. LTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3503 An Evening on the River with Major Powell, 1871 ' 1 STARTED OUT AT 9: 00 WJTH hrlAJ. POWELL], Fred [ Dellenbaugh], and Jack [ Hillers], and went up Bear [ Yarnpa] River for a couple of miles. We had a most delightful time, there being a bright moonlight and Venus just showing herself over the edge of a tall cliff. Now we came to a place where the rocks overhung the water and again we flitted by some beautiful green island. We bent and twisted here and there while every now and then we would hear some beaver slide off the bank into the river. The Maj. sang and recited poetry and said how Morris would have enjoyed such a ride, and I thought how much the folks at home would have enjoyed such a ride away out here in the very heart of a wilderness. There are 5 high buttes that rise up from the shore and one that looks for all the world like Brigham Young's ' Tabernacle' at Salt Lake City. After we had rowed up we floated down. ' Oh, but my soul was filled with joy.' We reached camp at 10: 30 and after a smoke and talk we went to bed to dream of home." So wrote Clem Powell in his journal entry for June 26, 1871. Historian Charles Kelly prepared Clem's journal for publication and a brief biography of him, excerpted below. Waltcr Clement ( Clem) Powell was born January 31, 1850, perhaps in northern Kentucky, though the exact place of his birth is not known. His father was Walter Scott Powell, a brother of Reverend Joseph Powell, the father of Maj. John Wesley Powell; hence Clem was a first cousin to the Major. Both of his parents appear to have died before Clem reached the age of six. He and his sisters Minnie, Belle, Lily, and Ada, and brother Morris were given a home by Reverend Joseph and Mary Powell. Clem attended school in the elementary division of Illinois Institute, later known as Wheaton College. Clem was selected by his cousin as assistant to E. 0. Beaman, official photographer of Powell's 1871- 72 expedition, who made the first photographs of the Green and Colorado rivers through their canyons. Dry plates and film had not yet been perfected; photographs were made by the wet plate process, which necessitated carrying chemicals, developing trays, water, and a dark tent in which glass plates could be sensitized and developed on the spot. This equipment was packed in a box that Clem was required to carry wherever Beaman went with his camera. He frequently calls this box ' that infernal mountain howitzer," and since the Major often wanted pictures taken from great heights above the river, carrying the ' howitzer" became one of the most strenuous tasks required of any man in the party. It was understood that Clem was to learn photography and would then become a permanent member of the Major's staff, accompanying his various expeditions to survey and map the unknown West. While the young man seems to have applied himself to this task, he never quite ( more) mastered the art, due perhaps in put to Beaman's opposition. When the expedition went through the Grand Canyon in 1872, he was still an assistant, Jack :- Iilers having replaced Beaman. Clem's diaries of the Powell expedition consisted originally of four closely written pocket notebooks, but only the first, second, and fourth of these survive. Fortunately the three volumes cover all the river journey. The particular charm of this record lies in the fact that Clem Powell, an impressionable young man, was more interested in personalities than in geology, topography, or photography. Recording his thoughts exclusively for the eye of his brother, Moms, he wrote with unbounded spontaneity and no thought of future publicity. One may find more of the scientific side of the expedition's labors in other journals, but the human side, giving us our fullest understanding of the day- to- day joys and sorrows, achievements and frustrations, is nowhere so richly developed as in Clem's words. See Charles Kelly's ' Walter Clement PoweIl( l850- 2883)" d '' Journal of W. C. Powell " in ? he Expibration of the Colorado Rim and the High Plateaus of Utah in 1871- 92, published as volumes 16 and 17 ( 1948- 49) of Utah Historical Quarter&. W HISTORBLYA ZERi s pduced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. |
