~John Wesley Powell~

John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He is famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado drivers that included the first known passage through the Grand Canyon.

Powell served as second director of the US Geological Survey(1881–1894) and proposed policies for development of the arid West which were prescient for his accurate evaluation of conditions. He was director of the Smithsonian Institution, where he supported linguistic and sociological research and publications.

Powell was born in Mount Morris, New York, in 1834, the son of Joseph and Mary Powell. His father, a poor itinerant preacher, had emigrated to the U.S. from Shrewsbury, England, in 1830. His family moved westward to Jackson, Ohio, then Walworth County, Wisconsin, before settling in Illinois in rural Boone County.

Powell studied at Illinois College, Wheaton College, and Oberlin College, acquiring a knowledge of Ancient Greek and Latin. Powell had a restless nature and a deep interest in the natural sciences. As a young man he undertook a series of adventures through the Mississippi River valley. In 1855 he spent four months walking across Wisconsin. During 1856 he rowed the Mississippi from St. Anthony, Minnesota, to the sea. In 1857 he rowed down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to St. Louis; and in 1858 down the Illinois River, then up the Mississippi and the Des Moines River to central Iowa. At age 25 he was elected to the Illinois Natural History Society in 1859.