''Explorer'' was a small, custom-made stern-wheel steamboat built for Second lieutenant

Joseph Christmas Ives Joseph Christmas Ives (25 December 1829 – 12 November 1868) was an American soldier, botanist, and an explorer of the Colorado River in 1858. Biography Ives was born in New York City on Christmas Day, 1829. He graduated from Bowdoin Colleg ...

and used by him to carry the U. S. Army

Corps of Topographical Engineers The U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers was a branch of the United States Army authorized on 4 July 1838. It consisted only of officers who were handpicked from West Point and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal ...

expedition to explore 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 watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

above

Fort Yuma Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department o ...

in 1858. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978

History

After inquiring about the cost of chartering one of the Colorado River steamboats of

George Alonzo Johnson George Alonzo Johnson (1824–1903) 49er, entrepreneur, and California politician. Johnson was born on August 16, 1824, in Palatine Bridge, New York. In 1849 as a sailor he heard of the discovery of gold and left New York drawn by the Califo ...

and finding their rates too high, Lt. Ives ordered a steamboat built in 1857: :"In the latter part of June I ordered of Reaney, Neafie & Co., of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, an iron steamer, fifty feet long, to be built in sections, and the parts to be so arranged that they could be transported by railroad, as the shortness of time required that it should be sent to California, via the Isthmus of Panama. About the middle of August the boat was finished, tried upon the Delaware, and found satisfactory, subject to a few alterations only. It was then taken apart, sent to New York, and shipped on board of the California steamer which sailed on the 20th of August for Aspinwall. Mr. A. J. Carroll, of Philadelphia, who had engaged to accompany the expedition as steamboat engineer, went out in charge of the boat." Joseph C. Ives, REPORT UPON THE COLORADO RIVER OF THE WEST, EXPLORED IN 1857 AND 1858 BY LIEUTENANT JOSEPH C. IVES, CORPS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OP THE OFFICE OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS, A. A. HUMPHREYS, CAPTAIN TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, IN CHARGE. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 1861; PART I. GENERAL REPORT
After being transported by the

Panama Railroad The Panama Canal Railway ( es, Ferrocarril de Panamá) is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near P ...

across the Isthmus to the Pacific Ocean, the ''Explorer'' was shipped again by steamship from

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

up to San Francisco. From there expedition sailed with the parts of the steamboat on the deck of the schooner ''Monterey'' to the

Colorado River Delta The Colorado River Delta is the region where the Colorado River flows into the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) in eastern Mexicali Municipality in the north of the state of Baja California in northwesternmost Mexico. The ...

where it arrived November 30. There Ives oversaw its reassembly and launch on December 30, 1857, at Robinson's Landing,

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. David C. Robinson, owner of the landing and a pilot for George Alonzo Johnson, was made captain of the boat. After Ives used the ''Explorer'' to ascend the Colorado River, he sent it back to Fort Yuma with Richardson. There it was put up for auction and sold to George A. Johnson for $1000. He had its engine and paddle wheel removed and used it for a barge to carry firewood to steamboat landings. In 1864 it broke free from it moorings at Pilot Knob and was carried away 60 miles down river into the Delta where it sank in a slough, sometimes seen by passing steamers, until the river moved away from the location and it was hidden by the delta foliage and lost. Its wreck was found in 1929, by a survey party, in a dried up slough miles away from the new course of the river. A mere skeleton remained, its iron plates long ago removed to make comales for baking tortillas.

References

External links

Southwestexplorations.com: "Ives's steamboat, the ''Explorer'', commanded by Captain Robinson, steaming upriver past Chimney Peak, in 1858"
— ''from a lithograph by expedition artist Balduin Möllhausen''. Steamboats of the Colorado River Stern-wheel steamboats of California 1857 ships Ships built by Neafie and Levy {{Nevada-transport-stub