Black Cañon, Colorado River, from Camp 8, looking above - d89a19aa59ff28a49998b6b7a6f9153b (page 1)

; On item: War Department, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. Geographical Explorations and Surveys. West of the 100th Meridian. Expedition of 1871. Under Command of Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engrs.; Plate number: No. 3; Descriptive legend of view no. 3: A view of Black Cañon at about its middle point, being Camp No. 8 of the Colorado portion of the expedition of 1871. The vessel in the foreground is one of a little fleet of four boats in which the party left Camp Mohave, Arizona, on September 15th of that year. In 31 days they traveled 260 miles, passing through Painted Cañon, Black Cañon, Bowlder Cañon, Virgin Cañon, and Iceberg Cañon, and ascending the Grand Cañon for a distance of 57 miles to the mouth of Diamond Creek. Here the bed of the Colorado River is accessible by a trail from the south, and their purpose being accomplished and with provisions exhausted, this party abandoned their boats here, and were met by a supply train which had been ordered to this rendezvous by an overland route. This is the farthest point to which the Grand Cañon has ever been penetrated from below, the only other recorded ascent being that of a company of white men from Las Vegas Springs, Nevada, whose names are inscribed on the walls of the stream about ten miles above its mouth. The impossibility of easy navigation on this river was fully demonstrated by the perils and fatigues encountered on this journey, and by the necessity of frequent portages of a most difficult character, which, in this ascent were numerous and laborious, rendering the trip especially arduous and hazardous.