Charles H. Spencer Hulk
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The ''Charles H. Spencer'' was a
stern-wheel A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
that was briefly used on the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
to transport
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
for
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
refining operations at Lee's Ferry,
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. In 1910, Charles H. Spencer was a prospector who arrived at Lee's Ferry in search of gold hidden in
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
of the
Chinle Formation The Chinle Formation is an Upper Triassic continental geological formation of fluvial, lacustrine, and palustrine to eolian deposits spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. In Ne ...
. His company, American Placer Corporation, processed the shale by creating a mud and then removing the gold deposits by mercury amalgamation, which required a steady source of power. Finding a coal seam up river, Spencer commissioned a
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
company, Robertson–Schultz Co., to build the stern-wheel paddle steamer, ''Charles H. Spencer'', for the American Placer Corporation. James Robertson and Herman Rosenfelt built the ship. It was 92.5 feet long, 25 feet abeam and had a draft of 18 to 20 inches.Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
A 110 horse-power marine boiler powered a 12-foot stern paddle. The various parts were manufactured in San Francisco, shipped by rail to Marysvale, Utah, and conveyed by ox-cart to the mouth of Warm Creek, where the boat was assembled. The boat averaged 5–6 tons of coal on each trip. But by the end of the summer the operation was curtailed. The boat was docked and then abandoned in 1914. During a flood in 1921, the boat sank in shallow water. Later the superstructure was stripped of its lumber. Its boiler remains in the river marking the site of its sinking and a historical marker is located above it on the bank, about 1/4 mile east of the end of Lees ferry road.The Historical Marker Database, Charles H. Spencer “Paddlewheel” Steamboat
from hmdb.org, accessed October 11, 2018.


References


External links


Steamboat 'Charles H. Spencer' on the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry.
from Northern Arizona University. Cline Library. archive.library.nau.edu. History of Coconino County, Arizona Colorado River Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Coconino County, Arizona Steamboats of the Colorado River Ships built in San Francisco 1912 ships {{coord, 36, 51.945, N, 111, 34.825, W, display=title