Rating: 
Summary: Exciting, but Flawed, Historical Account
Review: If author Edward Dolnick had been content to provide a straightforwrd account of John Wesley Powell's historic exploration of the Grand Canyon, then "Down the Great Unknown" would be a timeless adventure classic. Dolnick is a gifted writer with a great flair for enticing details. Unfortunately, he continually gets sidetracked with stories having little or nothing to do with expedition, and often goes, if you'll pardon the pun, overboard with his cutesy metaphors. The end result is an informative book that is almost as exhausting to read as the expedition itself was to endure.The tale of the Powell expedition hardly needs embellishing. He set out with nine men down the Green and Colorado rivers through what at the time was virtually unknown territory in wooden boats battling some of the most forbidding whitewater in the world. That his party survied at all is remarkable. That they did so without any deaths or serious injury (at least from accident or mishap), is astounding. Dolnick's problem as a narrator presents itself early on when he detours from the trip for two full chapters describing Powell's losing his arm at the Battle of Shiloh. Certainly, the injury is an important part of Powell's story, but a complete retelling of the history of battle itself is unnecessary. As the book progresses, Dolnick gets distracted with other Grand Canyon anecdotes, and often spends time describing in the second person what it is like to go rafting in the area today. One or two such descriptions would have sufficed, but the author keeps going back to them again and again. Overall, "Down the Great Unknown" covers a fascinating subject, but is a widely uneven reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: whitewater rapids
Review: If you enjoy adventure and American history you are in for a treat. My knowledge of John Wesley Powell and his cohorts 1869 trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon was nonexistent so anything I read was new to me. In addition to literally riding the rapids with Powell's group through their three months trip we are also given a history lesson on Powell and the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War in which a number of interesting facts are given to illustrate the horror of the Civil War. Powell was extremely interested in geology and he was thrilled with what he was experiencing on the trip through the Grand Canyon and oblivious to the fact that his mates were experiencing frustration at his leisure pace while starvation loomed due to inadequate provisions. One individual of the ten men crew left the group after the first narrow escape and three others left only one day before exiting the canyon and were eventually murdered under mysterious circumstances. Powell made a second trip a few years later but aborted the trip when halfway through the canyon. What became of the remaining six members of the ten man group who made the 1869 trip is also provided in addition to interesting facts about the Grand Canyon that will most likely be new to you. You shouldn't hesitate to give this book a try. I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book is Definitely Worth Your Time
Review: If you enjoy adventure and American history you are in for a treat. My knowledge of John Wesley Powell and his cohorts 1869 trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon was nonexistent so anything I read was new to me. In addition to literally riding the rapids with Powell's group through their three months trip we are also given a history lesson on Powell and the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War in which a number of interesting facts are given to illustrate the horror of the Civil War. Powell was extremely interested in geology and he was thrilled with what he was experiencing on the trip through the Grand Canyon and oblivious to the fact that his mates were experiencing frustration at his leisure pace while starvation loomed due to inadequate provisions. One individual of the ten men crew left the group after the first narrow escape and three others left only one day before exiting the canyon and were eventually murdered under mysterious circumstances. Powell made a second trip a few years later but aborted the trip when halfway through the canyon. What became of the remaining six members of the ten man group who made the 1869 trip is also provided in addition to interesting facts about the Grand Canyon that will most likely be new to you. You shouldn't hesitate to give this book a try. I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling tale of adventure and adversity
Review: The history of exploration in America is vast, and most people don't know much about lots of it. This book gives the general reader an intimate and well-written look at the first complete traversing of the Grand Canyon. The writing style is quite breezy, and it makes reading this work easy on the reader. Using diaries and mementos from the participants, the author skillfully weaves an engrossing tale of travail and triumph. He also gives us modern prespectives on river running, to underscore just how difficult this task was, particularly for people unprepared for the hardships and difficulties they were eventually to face. Reading this book lifts the spirit about the couage of those men who braved the unknown in search of something new.
Rating:
Summary: whitewater rapids
Review: The principal focus of this history is the whitewater rapids, at least 20 of which are described in some detail. It helps to have some knowledge of whitewater rafting, I'm sure. This was also the most problematic part of the expedition. But all of Powell's associates and adventures are described in some detail. Powell chose his men for their experience and courage--several of them had accompanied him on a previous Rocky Mountain expedition. Many previous and more recent trips on the Green and Colorado round out the narrative,and frequent mention is made of Powell's autocratic personality, which may mean that he put more personal energy into the venture than did his companions. He was always climbing cliffs and doing measurements. He, however, having only one arm and an officer's personality, developed in the Civil War, did not do a majority of the dirty work, which included frequent "lining and portaging"; he left that to the others. But he wrote a more complete journal than any of the others, which is frequently
quoted by Dolnick. Powell waxed rhapsodic over the visual pleasures of the Grand Canyon, which he saw with the eyes of a trained geologist. The boats were mostly inadequate for the task, and the food, which seems pretty bad by modern standards, was a constant concern, and nearly ran out.
Rating:
Summary: The True Story Behind the Powell Expedition
Review: There are several epic sagas of exploration in the present-day "lower 48" United States. Chronologically, the first was Cabeza de Vaca's 1527-35 trek from Florida through the American Southwest and into Mexico. Then there was the journey of Lewis and Clark in 1803. Finally, there was that insane one-armed army major who with nine companions floated down the unmapped Green and Colorado rivers. Having read and enjoyed John Wesley Powell's own book about his 1869 expedition, I was shocked to hear that is was written decades after the events had taken place. Time had added an optimistic, even roseate glow to what was actually one hundred days of hell on earth with a crew that was grumbling and even mutinous at times. Instead of basing his book exclusively on Powell's book, he used the actual diaries written by Powell, Bradley, and others at the time to round out his tale. No doubt, you know that thousands of people of floated down the Colorado in recent years. But Powell and his men used keeled rowboats in which the men with their oars faced the rapids with their BACKS. In other words, they were facing the wrong direction most of the time. When they undertook the journey, they had no way of knowing whether there were waterfalls that would plunge them to their deaths. (There is one such waterfall on the Little Colorado, which feeds into the Colorado proper south of Lee's Ferry.) As it was, irrespective of how much they grumbled, Powell saw all his men landed safely, except for the three who abandoned the party at Sepration Canyon and were mysteriously murdered by Indians or (possibly) paranoid Mormons who disbelieved their story of running the Colorado. Dolnick's descriptions of the perils of white-water running rival Krakauer's descriptions of climbing Everest in INTO THIN AIR or the tempest in Sebastian Junger's THE PERFECT STORM. The author's attention to detail and apparent knowledge of his subject made DOWN THE GREAT UNKNOWN a joy to read. My only real complaint is that Dolnick interrupts the journey with a multi-chapter flashback of Powell's experiences at the battle of Shiloh, where he lost his arm. The matter, however interesting in itself, should have been introduced earlier, along with more background information about his crew, rather than interrupting the main narrative. My only other complaint is that I would have preferred standard superscripted numerical endnotes to the phrase cues he uses; and I would have preferred a better map of the entire expedition that appears on the endpapers of the hardback version. Still and all, this is a superlative page-turner that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in American history or even tales of adventure.
Rating:
Summary: By far the best JWP book I have bought
Review: This excellent book is a combination of facts, suspense, humor, and social and political background that will keep you interested throughout the book and hoping it will not end. The author has the ability to keep your interest and bring the entire journey to life. I found reading it along with the photos of "In the Footsteps of JWP: An Album of Comparative Photographs" helped me experience the beauty as well as the dangers of Wesley's adventure. I have only two regrets-First that Edward Dolnick has not written more books and Second that books like this were not around when I snoozed my way through my history and life science courses in high school!
Rating:
Summary: new historical account
Review: This is a new history of a famous exploration first written about by Wallace Stegner and by Powell himself in his long journals written several years after the journey in 1869. Long passages are devoted to descriptions of the 4 inadequate boats traversing the whitewater rapids. As is repeatedly pointed out,the boats have been notably improved since 1869. Dolnick repeatedly refers to more recent journeys down the Colorado and the reasons for their greater success. Frequent mention is also made of the provisions that often had to be carried around the rapids,with great personal strength and effort, and that finally nearly ran out. Fortunately, Powell chose his men for their courage, and all made it through, except for 3 who quit near the end and were killed, according to history, by Indians. Powell is noteworthy for his intellectual curiosity which results in numerous episodes of fossil-hunting and cliff climbing. He was more intensely involved in this venture than the others, which resulted in great personal danger; another result was that his men considered him to be something of an autocrat. He paid them inadequately or not at all. He apparently recognized that what he was doing was an important geologic and exploratory expedition.
Rating:
Summary: new historical account
Review: This is a new history of a famous exploration first written about by Wallace Stegner and by Powell himself in his long journals written several years after the journey in 1869. Long passages are devoted to descriptions of the 4 inadequate boats traversing the whitewater rapids. As is repeatedly pointed out,the boats have been notably improved since 1869. Dolnick repeatedly refers to more recent journeys down the Colorado and the reasons for their greater success. Frequent mention is also made of the provisions that often had to be carried around the rapids,with great personal strength and effort, and that finally nearly ran out. Fortunately, Powell chose his men for their courage, and all made it through, except for 3 who quit near the end and were killed, according to history, by Indians. Powell is noteworthy for his intellectual curiosity which results in numerous episodes of fossil-hunting and cliff climbing. He was more intensely involved in this venture than the others, which resulted in great personal danger; another result was that his men considered him to be something of an autocrat. He paid them inadequately or not at all. He apparently recognized that what he was doing was an important geologic and exploratory expedition.
Rating:
Summary: Down the Great Unknown with the Unknowing
Review: This is an exciting adventure story. The book describes the Powell Expedition's journey of exploration of the last unmapped area of the lower 48 -- the Colorado River and it's canyons (including the Grand Canyon). These century and more ago adventure stories always amaze me as a modern reader. Major Powell and his group knew nothing about the Colorado River or the canyons. They didn't know if game would be available, they didn't know if the river contained just rapids or huge water falls like the Niagra. They didn't know how to run river rapids -- all of the men were hardy outdoors types (some courtesy of the Civil War completed four years before their great adventure). None of the men were boatmen and none had ever run white water. Nevertheless, the intrepid Powell and his expedition started out on the Green River in present day Wyoming and followed it down through it's merger with the Colorado and through the Grand Canyon over the course of 100 days. Powell was driven by the adventurer's quest to leave his mark and a love of Geology and natural history. His crew were driven by nothing more than youthful adventurism and wages. Although they lost one boat, had much of their food spoiled, went weeks without killing any game and regularly climbed rocky canyon sides for vantage points, no men were lost as part of the expedition. Several later expeditions following in their wake had men drown, die from falls and exposure and generally suffered for their lack of experience, planning and knowledge. Powell was an enthusiastic leader -- and lucky. He had also left an arm in Tennessee courtesy of Confederate gunnery during the Battle of Shiloh. Powell endured his wilderness trip with one arm and -- this is incredible -- usually was one of his party who ascended canyon sides to take readings or scout the coming river conditions. There is an unbelievable story in the book of Powell being trapped on the side of a cliff, hanging on by one hand. His man above had to pull him up. With no rope, he had to take off his union suit, dangle it behind Powell and have Powell let go of the cliff in order to grab the lifeline and be pulled to safety. The book has many thrilling vignettes like the one above. Their trip was hard work. About a third of the rapids encountered were portaged or lined instead of run. Portage was hard work -- unloading all the supplies, carrying them around the rapid, carrying the boats (made of heavy oak) around the rapids -- over rock and w/o shoes near the end of the trip. Lining was also hard, boats were let out through the rapid with rope and jumped around vantage points in order to get them safely through. But many rapids were run - some without adequate knowledge of what was in store, some because many parts of the canyons through which they traveled had no side landings over which to portage or line. That these backward rowing men in boats designed to runabout placid harbors were not dashed to pieces and drowned ten times during their journey is amazing. It also makes for a heck of a good story. The writing is good. The author makes much use of Powell's classic book on the trip -- as well as his river notes, and the journals of several other participants who have survived. The descriptions and story telling give as good of a "you are there" feel as a book can. He also cuts away at times to modern river runners to give an appreciation of how certain famous rapids look to people who run them for a living. This and dashes of geology and brief histories add a nice balance to the book. It is amazing how these adventurers were willing to go blindly into "the great unknown." They stared death in the face and defeated it by a combination of luck, pluck and determination. A good book for armchair adventurers.
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