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VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a famous natural place, the GrandCanyon.
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VOICE ONE:
In late September, Fifteen-Forty, a group of Spanish explorersled by Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to a stop. For weeksthey had walked north across the great southwestern American desert.The land was dry. The sun was hot. They were searching for sevengolden cities that they had been told about. There was not much tosee on this land, just the far-away line where the sky meets theground.
Suddenly, they came to the edge ofwhat seemed to be a huge cut in the Earth. There seemed to be no wayto walk around this deep canyon. It stretched below them into thedistance, to their left and right, as far as they could see. Belowthem and across from where they stood were strange shapes of yellow,red, brown and black rocks and stone.
VOICE TWO:
A small, muddy river appeared to be flowing at the bottom.Captain Cardenas ordered three of his soldiers to climb down theside of the canyon to see if they could find a way to cross to theother side. The three climbed about one-third of the way down. Theyfound that the canyon was much deeper than they thought, so theyclimbed back up.
Captain Cardenas and his group turned back to the south. Today,history recognizes them as the first Europeans to see the GrandCanyon, formed by the Colorado River. They had reached a place thattoday is considered one of the most beautiful, strange, andinteresting places in the world.
VOICE ONE:
European explorers did not return to the Grand Canyon for morethan two centuries. Instead, native peoples continued to live there,as they had for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years.
In Seventeen-Seventy-Six, two Spanish clergymen were seeking away to travel from Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, to Monterey,California on the west coast of North America. Father FranciscoEscalante and another clergyman were unsuccessful in their search.However, they re-discovered the Grand Canyon.
VOICE TWO:
During the Nineteenth Century, the population of the UnitedStates was expanding rapidly to the west. The Grand Canyon wasconsidered a barrier to travelers. Only two places had been foundwhere the river is low enough to cross.
As settlers moved west, the United States government wanted moreinformation about western territories. Much of the Grand Canyon wasunknown. The words “Unknown Territory” were written on maps thatshowed the area.
VOICE ONE:
In May, Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, Major John Wesley Powell and nineothers began the first full exploration of the Colorado River. Theyput four wooden boats into the water at Green River Station inWyoming. They began their trip to where the Green River joined theColorado River. Major Powell wrote in his book that they werebeginning “the trip down the Great Unknown”.
Major Powell had served in theUnion army during the American Civil War. He lost his right arm in abattle during the war. After the war he became a professor ofgeology at Illinois Wesleyan University. He also studiedpaleontology, the science of life existing in different periods ofEarth’s history. And he became expert in ethnology, the study ofdifferent cultures. He was the right person to explore the GrandCanyon. He was someone who could describe the geology of the area,as well as learn about the American Indians who had begun living inthe canyon as many as nine-thousand years ago. Several of thosetribes still consider the Grand Canyon their home.
VOICE TWO:
The geology of the Grand Canyon is like a history of theformation of the Earth. During millions of years, water, ice, andwind formed the canyon. Although the Grand Canyon is in the middleof a desert, water plays an important part in the way the landlooks. The sun shines bright and hot almost every day. It makes thesoil hard. When rain does come, it cannot sink into the soil.Instead it flows to the Colorado River.
Often, heavy rains cause violent floods along small rivers andstreams that flow into the Colorado. These floods move huge amountsof soil and sometimes stones as big as houses. All of this materialfalls into the river and then is pushed along by the rapidly flowingriver. This way the river slowly digs itself deeper into the rocksurface of the Earth. The Colorado has been doing this for millionsof years.
You can see in the sides of theGrand Canyon different kinds of rock at different levels. Each ofthe eighteen levels was formed during a different period of Earth’shistory.
VOICE ONE:
The ancestor of the Colorado River began flowing aboutseventy-million years ago. After it began flowing, volcanoexplosions and other natural events changed the river’s path manytimes.
About seventeen-million years ago, pressures deep in the Earthpushed up the land through which the river flowed. The rivercontinued to flow through the area, cutting deeper into the rock.
The Grand Canyon is twenty-ninekilometers across at the widest place, and more than one andone-half kilometers deep. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, wherethe river flows today, the rock is almost two-thousand-million yearsold.
VOICE TWO:
In Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, not many people expected John WesleyPowell and his team of explorers to survive the trip through theGrand Canyon. No one had ever done it before.
There are many dangers on the fast-moving river. Rocks hiddenunder the water can smash small boats. In places where the river isnarrow, the water becomes violent as it rushes between high rockwalls. Also, there are rapids of fast moving water in places wherethe river drops to a lower level. In some places, strong currentscan push a boat into rocks in the water, or against the walls of thecanyon.
Major Powell knew the trip would be dangerous. When the boatscame near a rapid, he and his crew would stop. Sometimes theydecided to go through by rowing the boats with their oars, as theydid in calm water. At other times they carried the boats and alltheir equipment around dangerous rapids. Major Powell wrote everyday in a book about what they did and saw. This is how he describedthe difficulties of one day:
VOICE THREE:
“We carried the boats around rapids two times this morning…During the afternoon we ran a narrow part of the river, more thanhalf a mile in length, narrow and rapid. We float on water that isflowing down a gliding plane. At the bottom of the narrow part ofthe river, the river turns sharply to the right, and the water rollsup against a rock that seems to be in the middle of the stream. Wepull with all our power to the right, but it seems impossible toavoid being carried against the cliff, and we are carried up high onthe waves – not against the rocks, for the water strikes us and weare pushed back and pass on with safety…”
VOICE ONE:
More than three months after starting, Major Powell and his groupreached the end of the Grand Canyon. Three men had left the groupearlier and were never seen again. Two of the men in the groupcontinued down the river to the sea, becoming the first people knownto have traveled the entire length of the Colorado River.
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Today, the Grand Canyon is in a national park. About five-millionpeople visit it each year. They stop at its edge and look in wonderat a place that can create great emotions in those seeing it. Otherswalk down the many paths into the canyon.
Some ride rubber boats down the Colorado River through the GrandCanyon. River guides are experts at taking the boats through themost violent rapids. This activity, called white-water rafting, isvery popular.
VOICE ONE:
Generally, the trip takes about two weeks in boats that carrythree or four people. Bigger boats with motors that carry abouttwenty people can make the trip in several days. As people floatdown the river, they see the many wonderful and strange shapescreated by the forces of nature. They may see animals, such asbighorn sheep, and coyotes. They experience the excitement oftraveling through white-water rapids, and sleeping under the stars.
The sound of the river is always present, sometimes loud,sometimes soft. After several days traveling on and sleeping nearthe river as it flows through the Grand Canyon, many visitors saythey feel their cares and worries leave them. Their concerns arereplaced by a feeling of wonder about the canyon and the powers ofnature.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by PaulThompson. This is Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America.