I. Introduction

• •Powell as an example of the growing influence of technically trained experts in government policy in the late 19^th century
• •And how the advice of experts was often misused, or, how science can lead and mislead

II. Powell's career

• •Youth



• •Civil War



• •Postwar career



• •Smithsonian Institution and western exploration
• •Expedition to map Green and Colorado Rivers (July 1869)



• •Western surveys (1870-1875)



• •Report on the Arid Regions of the West (1879)
• •The "great American desert" or "rain follows the plow"?
• •Public and Congressional reactions



• •Later career
• •Director of U.S. Geological Survey (1880-1894)
• •Director of Bureau of Ethnology of Smithsonian (1879-1902)

III. Conclusion

• •Why was Powell's advice ignored?
• •The boom and bust of the 1880s
• •The 1902 Reclamation Act
• •Employing experts no magic solution for environmental and political problems