John Wesley Powell: The Life and Legacy of One of 19th Century America’s Most Influential Explorers

One of the men most responsible for the closing of the frontier was John Wesley Powell, arguably the best-known American explorer after Lewis and Clark. He was lionized for a long portion of his life and vilified for another. Powell was a competent man, self-confident and able to instill confidence in his abilities to lead, and his expeditions helped Americans better understand the West, an impressive achievement for the son of English immigrants who wanted him to become a Methodist preacher. Instead, he became America’s most influential scientist, without the kind of academic training required to rise to that position today.

As if the achievements alone weren’t enough, he managed to accomplish them despite physical handicaps. He was a schoolteacher at the age of 18, and throughout his 20s he conducted solo voyages up and down the Mississippi, from New Orleans to St. Paul. He did the same on the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi, in addition to exploring the Illinois and Des Moines Rivers. During the Civil War, Powell was a Union officer who rose to the rank of major, and even after he lost an arm at the Battle of Shiloh, he performed critical engineering work in the Vicksburg Campaign and commanded artillery at the Battle of Nashville. After the war, he virtually created the United States Geologic Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology and brought serious scientific study to American landforms, geology, and the study of native peoples. He was also one of the founders of the influential National Geographic Society.