Report of the Exploring Expedition: From Santa Fé, New Mexico, to the Junction of the Grand and Green Rivers of the Great Colorado of the West, in 1859

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One of the last Army expeditions in the region, this was an exploration of parts of New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado during the summer of 1859, northward out of Santa Fe along the Old Spanish Trail, to discover if there were a practical railroad or wagon route through the San Juan River country to the southern settlements of Utah Territory (in case of further armed conflicts like the "Utah War"), and on to the west coast. The report found the mountainous terrain impractical for a railroad, and the weather too severe for permanent settlement. The Civil War delayed publication.
 

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Page 92 - ... trachytes and porphyry, indicating that it is composed of erupted rocks similar to those which form the Sierra Abajo, of which it is in fact almost an exact counterpart. From the cliffs over Ojo Verde we could see the strata composing both the upper and second plateaus, rising from the east, south, and southwest on to the base of the Sierra La Sal, each conspicuous stratum being distinctly traceable in the walls of the canons and valleys which head in the sierra. It is evident, therefore, that...
Page 58 - Cretaceous sediments being deposited during the period in which a subsidence of several thousand feet took place. Fourth. At the close of the Cretaceous age a period of elevation began, which continued to the drift epoch. This was succeeded by a period of depression and again by one of elevation. Fifth. The great elevatory movement of the Rocky Mountains took place between the close of the Cretaceous period and that of the Miocene Tertiary.
Page 95 - ... far less variety and beauty of detail than this. From the pinnacle on which we stood the eye swept over an area some fifty miles in diameter, everywhere marked by features of more than ordinary interest: lofty lines of massive mesas rising in successive steps to form the frame of the picture; the interval between them more than 2,000 feet below their summits.
Page 132 - ... shorter on the umbilical, having two short, unequal, digitate, terminal branches at the end, and some three or four short, irregular divisions along the oblique margin of the umbilical side; second lateral lobe small, or scarcely more than twice as large as the auxiliary lobe of the siphonal sinus, and somewhat irregularly bifid, the divisions being short, and, like the lateral margins, more or less digitate. " Greatest diameter of a specimen retaining only a small portion of the non-septate...
Page 132 - ... of nearly the same form as the latter, but more spreading, and the third pair are smaller, and merely provided with a few digitations; first lateral sinus (dorsal saddle of old nomenclature) as long as the siphonal lobe, but much wider, and deeply divided into two unequal parts, of which the one on the siphonal side is larger than the other; each of these principal divisions being ornamented by some four or five short, irregular branchlets, with obtusely digitate margins; first lateral lobe longer...
Page 5 - Appendix, p. 684. and, crossing the Rio Grande del Norte, followed up the valley of the River Chama, finally leaving it at the dividing ridge between the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and those of the Gulf of California. From here they struck across the headwaters of the San Juan River, passing along the junction of the Grand and Green rivers. Thence they proceeded southward to the San Juan River, which they followed up as far as Canyon Largo, passing thence down the valley of the Puerco to the old...
Page 125 - ... which bifurcate along the umbonal ridge ; marks of growth rather obscure. Upper valve flat, oval, apparently smooth or only having obscure lines of growth. Length from the most prominent part of the umbo to the ventral margin, 1 inch; transverse breadth, 0.72 inch; depth or convexity, about 0.42 inch. It is possible that this shell may be identical with E.
Page 92 - Similar buildings were found lower down, and broken pottery was picked up upon the summits of the cliffs overhanging Grand River; evidence that these dreadful canons were once the homes of families belonging to that great people formerly spread over all this region now so utterly sterile, solitary, and desolate.
Page 88 - Surouaro is the name of a ruined town which must have once contained a population of several thousands. The name is said to be of Indian (Utah) origin, and to signify desolation, and certainly no better could have been selected. . . . The houses are, many of them, large, and all built of stone, hammer dressed on the exposed faces.
Page 8 - ... been actively employed with the duties of the "sanitary commission" in the West, I am not yet in the receipt of his results. I may add for myself that, as in the case of every available officer of the Government, my time has been so much engrossed by the duties which have pressed upon me, arising out of the existing state of affairs in our country, that I have been prevented from pushing the reports and maps, &c., of the San Juan exploration to a conclusion. I hope, however, that they will all...

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