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Subject: FW: FYI Mapping the Grand Canyon website
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 09:26:18 -0500
From: "Zellmer, Linda R" <[log in to unmask]>


Hello,

        Please excuse the cross-posting, but I thought that you might be
interested in information about this site that I received through USGS.
Linda Zellmer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda Zellmer
Head, Geology Library
Geology Building, Room 601
1001 E. 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-1405
Phone: (812) 855-2275 Fax: (812) 855-6614
[log in to unmask]

Mapping the Grand Canyon, 1923


John Wesley Powell led the first expedition down the Grand Canyon in
1869, ten years before the creation of the USGS and twelve years before
he became the second director of the USGS.

The first official USGS expedition through the Grand Canyon was not made
until 1923.  At that time, Grand Canyon and Marble Canyon were the last
unsurveyed stretches of the Colorado River. Although 54 years had passed
since the Powell expedition, only 27 men were known to have traversed
the length of the Grand Canyon and no successful expeditions had been
made since 1911.

On August 1, 1923, two USGS topographers, one USGS hydrologist, one
university geologist, and six crewmen began their 251 mile, 74 day trip
down the Colorado River. Led by the Chief Topographic Engineer for the
USGS, Claude Birdseye, the objective of the expedition was to make an
unbroken level survey line through Marble and Grand Canyons and run the
survey line up the side canyons.  In addition, the team was to survey
possible dam sites.  The expedition was successfully completed on
October 19, 1923.

A new USGS website about the 1923 Grand Canyon Expedition is now
available
at: http://geography.wr.usgs.gov/outreach/grandcanyon.  Additional
geography outreach information covering the Western Region is available
at:  http://geography.wr.usgs.gov/outreach/ .




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