Taking a job at Illinois Wesleyan University, a Methodist college in Bloomington, Powell lectured on botany, cellular histology, physiology, zoology, geology, and mineralogy. A year later, he became professor of geology at the Illinois State Normal University in Normal.

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In 1866, while secretary of the Illinois Natural History Society, Powell approached the state legislature for money to house and care for the society’s collections. His skills as an orator and his aptitude as a negotiator gained for the Society $2,500 earmarked for the salary of a commissioner and curator and for buying needed books and equipment. In appreciation for his efforts, the Society named Powell curator.

Turning his oratorical skills onto the Society itself, Powell requested $500 to fund the exploration of the mountain-park country of Colorado. The journey, he told the Society, would provide its museum with fabulous natural specimens that would add significantly to its collections. The Society voted unanimously to underwrite Powell’s trip with half of the money that the legislature had allocated for books and equipment.

With this backing, Powell traveled to Washington, D.C., where he asked the assistance of his friend and old commanding officer, General Grant, then temporarily acting as secretary of war. Grant signed an order allowing Powell’s expedition to purchase rations at cost. Heading next to the Smithsonian Institution, Powell convinced its secretary, Dr. Joseph Henry, to provide all the scientific instruments needed for the undertaking in exchange for topographic measurements of the western mountain region.

Emboldened by his powers of persuasion, Powell visited several railroad companies, suggesting that they trade good publicity for free transportation for the men in his party. By the time he got back to Normal, Wes had passes worth $1,700, together with the understanding that his equipment and specimens would be shipped free of charge. He also had convinced the Illinois Industrial University (later the University of Illinois) and the Chicago Academy of Sciences to contribute money for scientific instruments in return for specimens collected along the way.

Accompanied by a band of amateur scientists, Powell finally set out in June 1867 to explore the mountains of Colorado. His Army career may have cost him an arm, but it also taught him how to handle men. Despite standing only five and a half feet tall, he possessed a presence that enabled him to lead men over the forbidding terrain. Emma, who again accompanied her husband, kept notes of the expedition, helped collect and catalog specimens, and became an expert on alpine plants.

Mrs. Powell and the rest of the party of flatlanders soon became familiar with the hazards of mountain climbing. In July 1867, she shared the party’s triumph when she became the first woman to climb Pikes Peak. The views that rewarded the group’s perseverance in reaching the 14,110-foot summit were more wonderful than had been imagined, with peak after glowing peak piercing the bluest of skies as far as the eye could see.

After this adventure, a grander scheme began to take shape in Powell’s mind; he would conquer the mile-deep Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. He was undeterred by the Native American belief that the gods had purposely made the river impassable and that harm would befall anyone who tried to enter the canyon.

Once again Powell traveled to Washington, D.C., to secure financial assistance. Although unable to acquire as much money or as many supplies as he had for his first expedition, he did persuade the railroad and express companies once again to issue passes and to transport the equipment and supplies free of charge.

Powell’s companions on the trip would be his brother, Walter; J. C. Sumner, an experienced traveler and hunter in the wilds of the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains; O. G. Howland, a printer, editor, and hunter; his brother, Seneca Howland; Billy Hawkins, an ex-Union soldier who traveled west after the war and who served as the expedition’s cook; William Dunn, a hunter, trapper, and mule-packer in Colorado; an Englishman by the name of Frank Goodman, who had come west seeking adventure and who was a skilled boat handler; Andrew Hall, a husky, cheerful 19-year-old, already experienced in hunting, trapping, and fighting Indians; and G. Y. Bradley, a Union lieutenant during the Civil War and until recently an orderly sergeant in the regular army.

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