"In 1869 a one-armed Civil War hero named John Wesley Powell launched four boats on the Green River in Wyoming Territory, beginning what would be the last major voyage of discovery in american history, through the country's only remaining terra incognita; the remote and barren course of the Colorado River."--Jacket.

Recounts the adventures of seventeen-year-old Fred Dellenbaugh, the youngest member of the second Powell expedition, which explored the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon in 1871-2.

John Wesley Powell always had the spirit of adventure in him. As a young man, he traveled all over the United States exploring. When the Civil War began, Powell went to fight for the Union, and even after he lost most of his right arm, he continued to fight until the war was over. In 1869, he embarked with the Colorado River Exploring Expedition-- ten men in four boats-- to float through the Grand Canyon. Ten explorers went in, but only six came out....