Exploring Desert Stone, John N. Macomb's 1859 Expedition to the Canyonlands of the Colorado

By Steven K. Madsen

Reviewed by J. Sherman Feher
On 3/6/2010

Utah State University Press, 2010 Hardcover:
288 pages
ISBN-10: 0-87421-707-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-87421-707-0 Price: $34.95

For most people, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, John Fremont, Zebulon Pike and John Wesley Powell were the more noted 19th Century explorers of the Western Territories of the United States. However, there were many explorers who are virtually unknown to the general public. John N. Macomb was one such person. Madsen does a masterful job of bringing a wide variety of materials together to provide more information and historical context to Macomb's expedition from Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory to the Canyonlands of southeastern Utah Territory. Madsen paints descriptive biographies of the primary people involved with Macomb's expedition. Madsen introduces the biographies as follows: "Just as Newberry made short jaunts to study the area, I make tangential journeys to depict more fully the activities and personal lives of Macomb and his companions. We find an ambitious scientist and physician possessing great vision and intelligence and a tendency to see the beauty and potential in nature. We will also learn of the visual sensitivity of the expedition's homesick topographer, who depicted wilderness scenes in pencil drawing and romantic word pictures. And we will discover both a loving family man and a task-oriented commander, with little imagination or landscape appreciation, who despised the desert Southwest." (Pg. 6)

I was intrigued to learn that this expedition was a result of the so-called Utah War. "In 1859, the U.S. War Department charged Captain John N. Macomb, Jr., with finding a practicable route for military supplies from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the southern settlements of Utah Territory--in the event of future conflicts with its inhabitants. In addition, it directed him to locate the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers, fill a great gap in the geographical knowledge of the American West, survey the region transected by the Old Spanish Trail, and conduct a scientific study of the Four Corners region, particularly the canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau." (Pg. xvi)

Madsen did a nice job of documenting and footnoting this book. This book has 90 illustrations, photographs, and maps as well as a portfolio of lithographs from the original report. Many of the illustrations are of Dimmock's sketches and Madsen provided many modern-day photographs of expedition scenery. A full size facsimile map of Macomb's expedition is also provided with this book.

Various diaries provide great insights into the expedition's journey. However, one question that apparently the diaries were unable to answer: when Macomb's efforts were blocked by Perpendicular Falls to reach the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, why didn't he try other ways to reach the confluence?

One improvement would be to move the photograph on page 97 of Perpendicular Falls to page 73 so that it would be in sequence with the other expedition illustrations and photographs. Also having several modern-day maps near the corresponding text would help the reader better understand where Macomb traveled and show how a modern traveler could possibly retrace parts of the journey today.

Part II, which is slightly more that half of the book, contains selected documents of the expedition including: 1) The Camps of the San Juan Exploring Expedition, 2) Diary of Charles H. Dimmock, 3) Topographical Memoir of Charles H. Dimmock, 4) Abridged Diary of John S. Newberry, 5) 1859 Letters of John N. Macomb, Jr., to his Wife, 6) Letters of John S. Newberry to Spencer F. Baird, and 7) Letters of Frederick W. von Egloffstein to John N. Macomb, Jr.

This book should be the standard reference for Macomb's expedition for all people interested in western U.S. history.


Copyright 2010