Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer

Wes Powell's father was an abolitionist and his stance made it very difficult for his son, so difficult in fact that he was taunted and beaten in school. His mother Mary decided to keep him at home after that and a neighbor gladly took him under his wing to tutor him. George Crookham was a naturalist and "believed that all things about nature should be learned by observation and experience." Soon young John Wesley Powell was hooked on nature. By the time he was twelve he was the man of the family as his father, an itinerant preacher, was often gone from home long stretches of time. Now that the family was in Wisconsin, he had to depend solely on science books that Big George sent for his studies. When he was older he, a staunch abolitionist like his father, joined the Union forces. He took a brief leave of absence to "marry his beloved Emma Dean." Not long after rejoining his regiment he was gravely injured in the Battle of Shiloh and his arm had to be amputated below the elbow. Wes had big dreams and an insatiable curiosity about the natural world. His dreams did not end with the loss of his arm. He petitioned for "financial support for a scientific expedition down the Colorado River" at a government office in Washington, D.C. Would the laughter he received signal the end of his dream to explore the wild expanse of the United States? This story was so well done I completely ignored the art work and kept on going to the end. Although this is an abbreviated history of John Wesley Powell, it is a very gripping and tightly knit tale. The art work, when I went back to browse it was beautiful and flowed quite well with the story. In the back of the book is a map and chronology of Powell's Colorado River exploration, an author's note on his later life, a chronology of his life and a bibliography. This marvelous type of biography can either be used in a school report or a stepping stone for a youngster to consider a career for him or herself in the natural sciences!

As the previous review mentions this is a children's book. And what a fabulous book! I teach music at an Expeditionary School. The first and second grade expedition was fish. In music we took that fish "down a journey on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe." Although our focus was the music by Grofe, many of the children had not been to the Grand Canyon nor knew what it was. In between the movements of the symphony I was able to read portions of the book and introduce the children to John Wesley Powell, his expedition, and the beauty and grandeur of the Grand Canyon itself. The book is written wonderfully for such a situation. Thorough in its approach but concise in its presentation, the book keeps the children's attention and teaches them wonderful American history. Each of the children knew who John Wesley Powell was, what he had done, how his expedition went, and then figured out on their own that Lake Powell was named after him. The book added greatly to my lessons in adding another dimension to the Grand Canyon. We rounded out our experience by drawing pictures to each of the movements of the symphony based on our interpretations of each movement, and the title of the section. We then culminated in watching the "Grand Canyon Suite" video by Don Briggs sold by the Grand Canyon Association itself. All in all a wonderful teaching experience. An excellent unit both for school and homeschool. I highly recommend this book.