In 1889, railroad company president Frank M. Brown, Engineer Robert Brewster Stanton, and several workers embarked upon a railroad survey down the Colorado River to the Gulf of California in Mexico.  This was the first major exploration of Grand Canyon since Major John Wesley Powell’s expeditions in 1869 and 1871-72.

The expedition’s six boats soon proved to be fatally inadequate.  Abandoning the remaining boats and caching their equipment, they trudged out of Marble Canyon.  Returning with much improved boats, they successfully floated and portaged through the Grand Canyon. Eventually abandoning the idea of accurately surveying a complete route, they made a detailed reconnaissance supplemented with hundreds of photographs, several of which are used in the presentation.

The rough terrain and raging river limited the amount of measuring done with a chain, and the seminar includes discussion of the triangulation and stadia surveying methods used.