Of the many early expeditions down the Colorado River, only one went
past what is now Colorado National Monument—the ill-fated Brown-Stanton
expedition. After the pioneering expeditions of 1869 and 1871 down the
Green and Colorado Rivers by Major John Wesley Powell and his men, the
many ensuing river expeditions started in Utah or Wyoming; but the first
phase of the Brown-Stanton expedition started in Colorado—at Grand
Junction. In 1889 Frank M. Brown organized a company for the
construction of the proposed Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific
Railway, which was to carry coal from mines in Colorado over a
“water-level” line through the mighty canyons of the Colorado River to
the Gulf of California some 1,200 miles away, from which coal would be
shipped to various ports in California. On March 26, 1889, president
Brown, chief engineer F. C. Kendricks, and assistant engineer T. P.
Rigney drove the first stake at Grand Junction for a survey of the new
line. Then Brown left for the East to obtain financing, and the other
two men plus some hired hands took off in a boat down the Grand River.
After reaching the confluence, they towed the boat up the Green River to
the town of Green River, Utah, thus becoming the first to make this trip
upstream, albeit on foot and dragging their boats. Brown, who had
returned from the East, his newly appointed chief engineer Robert
Brewster Stanton, and 14 others in six ill-designed boats of cedar
rather than oak, left Green River, Utah, on May 25, 1889. Against the
advice of Major Powell and others, they carried no life preservers.
After many mishaps, Brown and two others were drowned near the head of
Marble Canyon, and the ill-fated expedition temporarily ground to a
halt. However, the indefatigable Stanton had new boats built of oak, and
with a reorganized party of 12 left the mouth of the Dirty Devil River
on November 25. After many additional mishaps the party finally reached
the Gulf of California on April 26, 1890. In spite of Stanton’s heroic
efforts, the railroad was never built, and the Grand Canyon was spared
the huffing and puffing of locomotives.