A river running west: reflections on John Wesley Powell

Abstract

The American scientist, explorer, and conservationist John Wesley Powell (1834–1901) represents, in many ways, a counter to 19th-century imperialism in the arid West: an approach to westward expansion that was more sensitive to failure and more eager to see the West secured in the hands of a self-organized agrarian community. Toward that end he sponsored a mapping project to show how settlement might be based on watershed alignments and conserve the vital resources of the region. That projects is still relevant to nations that are trying to understand how to govern their relations with the natural environment.

Keywords:

• John Wesley Powell
• American West
• aridity
• empire
• watershed
• Progressivism
• conservation

Notes

1. See Worster (2001).

2. This book, according to Samuel Trask Dana and Sally K. Fairfax, “contends with [George Perkins] Marsh's work for the distinction of being the most significant document in American conservation history” (Dana and Fairfax 1980, p. 39).

3. The map was drawn by the German-born immigrant Charles A. Schott (1826–1902) and is reprinted on the unnumbered page facing Chapter 1 in Powell's Report on the Arid Lands. For Schott's scientific career, see Abbe (1915).

4. The maps are reprinted in deBuys (2001, p.478).

5. His testimony was summed up in Powell (1890). See also Worster (2001, p. 494–496).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Donald Worster

Donald Worster is the Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Professor of US History of the Department of History, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA