Written by Oliver Chanler
VOICE ONE: This is
Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA
Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a famous
natural place, the Grand Canyon. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In late
September, Fifteen-Forty, a group of Spanish explorers led by
Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to a stop. For weeks they had
walked north across the great southwestern American desert. The land
was dry. The sun was hot. They were searching for seven golden
cities they had been told about. There was not much to see on this
land, just the far-away line where the sky meets the ground.
Suddenly, they came to the edge of what seemed to be a huge cut in
the Earth. There seemed to be no way to walk around this deep
canyon. It stretched below them into the distance, to their left and
right, as far as they could see. Below them and across from where
they stood were strange shapes of yellow, red, brown and black rocks
and stone. VOICE TWO: A small, muddy river appeared to be flowing at
the bottom. Captain Cardenas ordered three of his soldiers to climb
down the side of the canyon to see if they could find a way to cross
to the other side. The three climbed about one-third of the way
down. They found that the canyon was much deeper than they thought,
so they climbed back up. Captain Cardenas and his group turned back
to the south. Today, history recognizes them as the first Europeans
to see the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River. They had
reached a place that today is considered one of the most beautiful,
strange, and interesting places in the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE
ONE: European explorers did not return to the Grand Canyon for more
than two centuries. Instead, native peoples continued to live there,
as they had for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. In
Seventeen-Seventy-Six, two Spanish clergymen were seeking a way to
travel from Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, to Monterey,
California on the west coast of North America. Father Francisco
Escalante and Father Francisco Garces were unsuccessful in their
search. However, they re-discovered the Grand Canyon. VOICE TWO:
During the Nineteenth Century, the population of the United States
was expanding rapidly to the west. The Grand Canyon was considered a
barrier to travelers. Only two places had been found where the river
is low enough to cross. As settlers moved west, the United States
government wanted more information about western territories. Much
of the Grand Canyon was unknown. The words "Unknown Territory" were
written on maps that showed the area. VOICE ONE: In May,
Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, Major John Wesley Powell and nine others began
the first full exploration of the Colorado River. They put four
wooden boats into the water at Green River Station in Wyoming. They
began their trip to where the Green River joined the Colorado River.
Major Powell wrote in his book that they were beginning "the trip
down the Great Unknown". Major Powell had served in the Union army
during the American Civil War. He lost his right arm in a battle
during the war. After the war he became a professor of geology at
Illinois Wesleyan University. He also studied paleontology, the
science of life existing in different periods of Earth's history.
And he became expert in ethnology, the study of different cultures.
He was the right person to explore the Grand Canyon. He was
someone who could describe the geology of the area, as well as learn
about the American Indians who had begun living in the canyon as
many as nine- thousand years ago. Several of those tribes still
consider the Grand Canyon their home. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO:
The geology of the Grand Canyon is like a history of the formation
of the Earth. During millions of years, water, ice, and wind formed
the canyon. Although the Grand Canyon is in the middle of a desert,
water plays an important part in the way the land looks. The sun
shines bright and hot almost every day. It makes the soil hard. When
rain does come, it cannot sink into the soil. Instead it flows to
the Colorado River. Often, heavy rains cause violent floods along
small rivers and streams that flow into the Colorado. These floods
move huge amounts of soil and sometimes stones as big as houses. All
of this material falls into the river and then is pushed along by
the rapidly flowing river. This way the river slowly digs itself
deeper into the rock surface of the Earth. The Colorado has been
doing this for millions of years. You can see in the sides of the
Grand Canyon different kinds of rock at different levels. Each of
the eighteen levels was formed during a different period of Earth's
history. VOICE ONE: The ancestor of the Colorado River began flowing
about seventy-million years ago. After it began flowing, volcano
explosions and other natural events changed the river's path many
times. About seventeen-million years ago, pressures deep in the
Earth pushed up the land through which the river flowed. The river
continued to flow through the area, cutting deeper into the rock.
The Grand Canyon is twenty-nine kilometers across at the widest
place, and more than one and one-half kilometers deep. At the bottom
of the Grand Canyon, where the river flows today, the rock is almost
two- thousand-million years old. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Nine,
not many people expected John Wesley Powell and his team of
explorers to survive the trip through the Grand Canyon. No one had
ever done it before. There are many dangers on the fast-moving
river. Rocks hidden under the water can smash small boats. In places
where the river is narrow, the water becomes violent as it rushes
between high rock walls. Also, there are rapids of fast moving water
in places where the river drops to a lower level. In some places,
strong currents can push a boat into rocks in the water, or against
the walls of the canyon. Major Powell knew the trip would be
dangerous. When the boats came near a rapid, he and his crew would
stop. Sometimes they decided to go through by rowing the boats with
their oars, as they did in calm water. At other times they carried
the boats and all their equipment around dangerous rapids. Major
Powell wrote every day in a book about what they did and saw. This
is how he described the difficulties of one day: VOICE THREE: "We
carried the boats around rapids two times this morning... During the
afternoon we ran a narrow part of the river, more than half a mile
in length, narrow and rapid. We float on water that is flowing down
a gliding plane. At the bottom of the narrow part of the river, the
river turns sharply to the right, and the water rolls up against a
rock that seems to be in the middle of the stream. We pull with all
our power to the right, but it seems impossible to avoid being
carried against the cliff, and we are carried up high on the waves -
not against the rocks, for the water strikes us and we are pushed
back and pass on with safety..." VOICE ONE: More than three months
after starting, Major Powell and his group reached the end of the
Grand Canyon. Three men had left the group earlier and were never
seen again. Two of the men in the group continued down the river to
the sea, becoming the first people known to have traveled the entire
length of the Colorado River. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Today, the
Grand Canyon is in a national park. About five-million people visit
it each year. They stop at its edge and look in wonder at a place
that can create great emotions in those seeing it. Others walk down
the many paths into the canyon. Some ride rubber boats down the
Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. River guides are experts at
taking the boats through the most violent rapids. This activity,
called white-water rafting, is very popular. VOICE ONE: Generally,
the trip takes about two weeks in boats that carry three or four
people. Bigger boats with motors that carry about twenty people can
make the trip in several days. As people float down the river, they
see the many wonderful and strange shapes created by the forces of
nature. They may see animals, such as bighorn sheep, and coyotes.
They experience the excitement of traveling through white water
rapids, and sleeping under the stars. The sound of the river is
always present, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. After several days
traveling on and sleeping near the river as it flows through the
Grand Canyon, many visitors say they feel their cares and worries
leave them. Their concerns are replaced by a feeling of wonder about
the canyon and the powers of nature. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This
program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson.
This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join
us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special
English on the Voice of America.
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