Jaeger City, or Jaegerville, was a former settlement in what is now

Imperial County, California Imperial County is a County (United States), county on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 179,702, making it the least populous county in Southern Californi ...

, at

Jaeger's Ferry Jaeger's Ferry was a major river ferry at the Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River in the 1850s until 1862, 1 mile below Fort Yuma. Early History of the site Long a crossing point on the river, from the time of Juan Bautista de Anza it was used b ...

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 ...

a mile downstream from

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 of ...

. It was named for L. J. F. Jaeger who ran the ferry there from 1851.

History

Jaeger City, then in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

, was the first and largest settlement near the fort until 1862. It began as a

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived ...

for defense of the ferry and its operators against the

Quechan The Quechan (or Yuma) (Quechan: ''Kwatsáan'' 'those who descended') are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the Mexican border. Despite the ...

, and a collection of tents. It was a station of the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line from 1857 to 1860. At its height it consisted of the Fort Yuma Station of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

and its local office, a hotel, two blacksmiths, two stores and other dwellings. Colorado City begun in 1853 lay across the river and Arizona City lay a mile above it across from Fort Yuma. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
Jaeger City was destroyed, along with Colorado City across the river, in the

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

. Jaeger City was never rebuilt. Jaeger's Ferry was rebuilt and Colorado City also, on higher ground as part of Arizona City, later renamed

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

, in 1873, and the ferry relocated there across from the fort.Thomas Edwin Farish, History of Arizona, Volume I. The Filmer Brothers Electrotype Company, San Francisco, 1915. pp. 252-253

The site today

The site is located southeast of

Winterhaven, California Winterhaven (formerly, Karmack) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California, Imperial County, California. Winterhaven is east of Pilot Knob (Imperial County, California), Pilot Knob, The population was 394 at the 2010 census ...

. All trace of the settlement has been washed away by the flooding of the river since 1862.

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in California Former settlements in Imperial County, California

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit ...

San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line American frontier Stagecoach stops in the United States 1851 establishments in California