Powell - Colorado River Expedition 1869

The monument credits Powell with fathering the Bureau of Reclamation, and the record is more tangled. His 1878 report on the arid lands argued that the West held too little water for the farms its boosters promised, and Congress set it aside. The irrigation survey he won in 1888 lost its funding in 1890. In 1893 he told an irrigation congress in Salt Lake City that there was not enough water for the lands they meant to irrigate. The Reclamation Act passed in June 1902, pushed through by the boosters, three months before he died.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Expedition Island — steps away
  Where John Wesley Powell's 1871 survey left for the canyons of the Green and Colorado; where his 1869 trip started has never been proven.

More markers nearby

• Oregon Trail Memorial (Green River) — 0.5 mi
• The Overland Stage Station Route (Green River) — 0.5 mi
• Bryan — 12 mi
• Art Gallery of Time — 12 mi