First Through Grand Canyon

In May of 1869, eleven men in Wyoming stood beside four moored boats on the Green River where, weeks earlier, the Union Pacific Railroad had bridged it. These men's mission, their goal, and their fates hung on their intent to navigate those four boats down the Green River and through the unexplored canyons of the Colorado a thousand miles to, through, and beyond Grand Canyon. As fortune would have it, 98 days later, only six of those eleven men and only two of those four boats would ride the Colorado past the Grand Wash Cliffs at the foot of Grand Canyon. The story of these brave men and their harrowing accomplishments forms one of the most astonishing epics in the exploration history of North America. Here for the first time this gripping saga of extreme adventure, optimism, courage, fear, heroism, humor, triumph and tragedy is told by the men themselves via their newly transcribed, unabridged journals and letters written during the expedition.