As the machine of Manifest Destiny churned west in the late 1800's, John Wesley Powell dedicated his life to understanding the region’s complexities, fueling his passionate warnings to the U.S. Congress that the stories of a verdant Eden had little basis in fact. Were these lands to be settled with European-style sedentary agriculture, he urged that one would need to proceed with extreme caution as there “was not sufficient water to irrigate all this arid land.”

In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks to historian and author John F. Ross about Powell’s prophetic work and perilous adventures as an explorer and ardent scientist—what he knew to be true about America’s drought prone region, why nobody listened, and what can still be learned today.

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