A century-and-a-half ago, as the transcontinental railroad was completed in northern Utah, another momentous journey was underway in southern Utah.
On May 24, 1969 — two weeks after the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory Summit — John Wesley Powell set out from Green River, Wyo. His journey would take him and his party down the Green River to the Colorado River, near Moab. He and his party continued through Utah canyons and on to Arizona, where his was the first U.S. government-sponsored passage through the Grand Canyon.
The Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts in Mt.