Part Two Summary and Analysis

There was a mindset of the policy makers in the years immediately following the Civil War concerning how a centralized government full of institutions would be used to run the now unified country. Many of these new government organizations would play a part in the expansion of the United States westward. Washington D.C. was fast becoming one of the greatest scientific centers of the world through the formations of National Park Service, the Weather Bureau, and the establishment of the Smithsonian Institute. Significant scientific theories regarding geology and watersheds are arising at the same time, encouraging the new government to begin systematically mapping and exploring the country of the West.

Powell divided the mountain West into three sections that he called Provinces. They were the Park Province, Plateau Province, and the Great Basin Province. His primary interest was...