- Local call number
- nm293g000s000b001f0003i001
- Media type
- Text
- Creator
- Sharp, Robert P.
- Title
- Cal. Tech - Carnegie Institute Grand Canyon Expedition, 1937, Sharp Diary #2.
- Original creation date
- 1937
- Repository
- Northern Arizona University. Cline Library.
- Use
- Digital surrogates are the property of the repository. Reproduction requires permission.
- Collection name
- Carnegie-Cal Tech Expedition
- Content Summary
- A field notebook (Diary #2) in which Sharp recorded his notes and observations regarding aspects of the geology of the Grand Canyon during the Carnegie Institute - California Institute of Technology Colorado River expedition of 1937.
- Biography/History
- The seeds for the 1937 Carnegie-Cal Tech trip were initially planted by vertebrate paleontologist John Campbell Merriam, Director of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, who recognized a need for a systematic study of the geology of the Grand Canyon. He had selected several different geologists to examine different aspects of the Canyon: to Edwin McKee, the Park Naturalist of Grand Canyon, went Paleozoic rocks; Norman Ethan Allen Hinds, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley (where Merriam was once a faculty member), was assigned the older pre-Paleozoic; finally, to Ian Campbell and John Maxson of the California Institute of Technology went the responsibility of the igneous and metamorphic rocks that compose the inner gorges of the Grand Canyon.
The trip launched on October 11, 1937 at Lee's Ferry, taking out at Pierces [Pearce] Ferry on November 25, covering a distance of some 280 river miles. Sharp recorded his findings in detail in both written and photographic format. The photographs in the three albums are referenced in his three field notebooks, which are housed in the Carnegie-Cal Tech Manuscript collection.
The Carnegie-Cal Tech trip is perhaps best known as the trip which was passed by Haldane (Buzz) Holmstrom on his remarkable solo voyage through the Grand Canyon. Also of note is that the Carnegie-Cal Tech group was the last to see two of the largest and most intimidating rapids on the Colorado: Separation and Lava Cliff. By the next year, both had been drowned out by the rising waters of Lake Mead.
The three boatmen were Frank B. Dodge, rowing the Fairchild, Owen R. Clark in the Collier, and Merril Spencer at the oars of the Eliel.
- Other Contributors
- Sharp, Robert P. (Robert Phillip)
- Subjects
-
Geology--Grand Canyon (Ariz.)
-
Wooden boats--Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico)
- Places
-
Grand Canyon (Ariz.)
-
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico)
- People
-
Sharp, Robert P. (Robert Phillip)
-
Campbell, Ian, 1899-1978
-
Maxson, John H.
-
Stark, J. T. (John Thomas), 1888-
-
McKee, Edwin Dinwiddie, 1906-
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