JOHN WESLEY POWELL MUSEUM & VISITOR CENTER

The Powell Museum was opened in 1969 by a group of volunteers wishing to commemorate the life and accomplishments of Major John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), an American explorer who famously descended the Colorado River in 1869 and named the area Glen Canyon (Lake Powell was not created until 1963). The building was originally constructed by the US Bureau of Reclamation as a testing laboratory for the construction of Glen Canyon Dam.