Here is some history that I've been trying to track down and document.
There is a river that flows down the west slope of the Rockies in Colorado. It was called the Grand River and frontiersmen knew where it connected up with the Gunnison River at that junction. The name they applied was "Grand Junction". Well that is pretty simple. Grand Junction Colorado took its name from the preceding sentences.
Then my assumption is that the trappers and skinners and explorers most certainly didn't stop trapping and skinning and and exploring when they arrived at Grand Junction Colorado. They continued down stream to Utah/Arizona and perhaps beyond. So to them the river they followed was the "Grand River".
Now to be sure the junction of the Grand River with the Green River creates a problem since the Green River contributed nearly twice the flow downstream yet it seems no one was willing to name the river at the aforementioned junction the Green River. Instead it remained being called the "Grand River".
Now as an aside the Grand River got its name changed to the "Colorado River" by an act of congress in 1925 when the State of Colorado petitioned them for the name change. It was granted. And so the Colorado River today is called the Colorado River by that act. It is important to accept his if I am to remain credible here.
So and therefore I propose that the aforementioned frontiersman verbally spread the story of their adventures that were south and west of Grand Junction CO to other frontiersmen returning to St Louis MO who "possibly" got the story out to others, some of which were interested in venturing west could have heard their stories about what lay south and west of Grand Junction thereby getting people back east very exited of the broad and deep canyons that were known to be there on the "Grand" river. AKA The "Grand Canyon".
Of course the prevailing and most published opinion is that John Wesley Powell floated down the Green River into the Grand River and far beyond and named the huge canyons the Grand Canyons.
Now I have to agree that Powell deserves the credit for for the naming of The Grand Canyon because he published his stories about the grandeur of what he saw. Nevertheless I propose that the verbal stories of a huge canyon on the Grand River worked their way back east that "could" have been foretold by his reading of frontiersman verbal stories.
I am looking for these stories.
Do you have something for me?
There is a river that flows down the west slope of the Rockies in Colorado. It was called the Grand River and frontiersmen knew where it connected up with the Gunnison River at that junction. The name they applied was "Grand Junction". Well that is pretty simple. Grand Junction Colorado took its name from the preceding sentences.
Then my assumption is that the trappers and skinners and explorers most certainly didn't stop trapping and skinning and and exploring when they arrived at Grand Junction Colorado. They continued down stream to Utah/Arizona and perhaps beyond. So to them the river they followed was the "Grand River".
Now to be sure the junction of the Grand River with the Green River creates a problem since the Green River contributed nearly twice the flow downstream yet it seems no one was willing to name the river at the aforementioned junction the Green River. Instead it remained being called the "Grand River".
Now as an aside the Grand River got its name changed to the "Colorado River" by an act of congress in 1925 when the State of Colorado petitioned them for the name change. It was granted. And so the Colorado River today is called the Colorado River by that act. It is important to accept his if I am to remain credible here.
So and therefore I propose that the aforementioned frontiersman verbally spread the story of their adventures that were south and west of Grand Junction CO to other frontiersmen returning to St Louis MO who "possibly" got the story out to others, some of which were interested in venturing west could have heard their stories about what lay south and west of Grand Junction thereby getting people back east very exited of the broad and deep canyons that were known to be there on the "Grand" river. AKA The "Grand Canyon".
Of course the prevailing and most published opinion is that John Wesley Powell floated down the Green River into the Grand River and far beyond and named the huge canyons the Grand Canyons.
Now I have to agree that Powell deserves the credit for for the naming of The Grand Canyon because he published his stories about the grandeur of what he saw. Nevertheless I propose that the verbal stories of a huge canyon on the Grand River worked their way back east that "could" have been foretold by his reading of frontiersman verbal stories.
I am looking for these stories.
Do you have something for me?