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 ...
s 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 ...
operated from the
river mouth
A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current reducing the carrying ...
at 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 ...
on the
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...
in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, up to the
Virgin River
The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...
on the
Lower Colorado River Valley in the
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
from 1852 until 1909, when the construction of the
Laguna Dam
The Laguna Diversion Dam is a rock-filled diversion dam on the Colorado River. It is located 13 miles northeast of Winterhaven, California, Winterhaven, CA–Yuma, Arizona, Yuma, AZ on County Route S24 (California), Imperial County route S24. Cons ...
was completed. The shallow draft
paddle steamer
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 wer ...
s were found to be the most economical way to ship goods between the Pacific Ocean ports and settlements and mines along the lower river, putting in at landings in
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
state,
Baja California Territory
Baja California Territory (Territorio de Baja California) was a Mexican territory from 1824 to 1931, that encompassed the Baja California Peninsula of present-day northwestern Mexico. It replaced the Baja California Province (1773–1824) of ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
state,
Arizona Territory,
New Mexico Territory
The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of ''Santa Fe de Nuevo México ...
, and
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
state.
[Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978]
/ref>
They remained the primary means of transportation of freight until the advent of the more economical railroads began cutting away at their business from 1878 when the first line entered Arizona Territory.
Steamboats were tried on the upper Colorado River: in Glen Canyon
Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty D ...
; on the Green River Green River may refer to:
Rivers
Canada
* Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River
*Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte
*Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...
in Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
and Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
; and on the Grand River, (renamed as the upper part of the Colorado River after 1921), above its confluence with the Green River in Utah and in Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. These attempts in the late 19th century and early 20th century met with little success.[
]
History
Early Steamboats on the Colorado River
Fort Yuma's supply difficulties
The beginnings of the use of steamboats on the Colorado River came as the result of the founding of 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 ...
during the Yuma War
The Yuma War was the name given to a series of United States military operations conducted in southern California and what is today southwestern Arizona from 1850 to 1853. The Quechan (also known as Yuma) were the primary opponent of the United ...
. Supplies had to be shipped over long distance from 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 ...
to San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
then overland through the Peninsular Ranges via Warner Pass Teofulio Summit, formerly Warner Pass, a pass that lies at an elevation of 3681 feet in the San Felipe Hills of the Peninsular Ranges of San Diego County, California. This pass was named for Teofulio Helm (1874-1967), a prominent member of the Cu ...
to Depot Vallecito then across the arid Colorado Desert
California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.
Geography and geology
The Colorado De ...
to the fort. Costs of such transport was minimally $500 per ton. Supplying the fort became so difficult, that for a time it had to be abandoned.
Attempts had been made by the Army to bring supplies the up from the Gulf of California. First in November 1850 to January 1851, by its transport schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
, ''Invincible'' under Captain Alfred H. Wilcox and then by its longboat commanded by Lieutenant George Derby
George Horatio Derby (April 3, 1823 – May 15, 1861) was an early California humorist. He attended West Point with Ulysses S. Grant. Derby used the pseudonym "John P. Squibob" and its variants "John Phoenix" and "Squibob." Derby served as a l ...
. Later Lieutenant Derby, in his expedition report, recommended that a shallow draft sternwheel steamboat would be the way to send supplies up river to the fort.
The next attempt was made by the contractors 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 ...
with his partner Benjamin M. Hartshorne who arrived at the river's mouth in February 1852, on the United States transport schooner ''Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
'' under Captain Wilcox.[Executive Documents of the Senate of the United States, No. 37, Report of the Secretary of War, showing the contracts made under the authority of the War Department during the year 1853.]
/ref> On board were 250 tons of supplies for the newly reoccupied fort and a pair of knocked down flatboats
A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...
, built by Domingo Marcucci in San Francisco.[Scott, Erving M. and Others, ''Evolution of Shipping and Ship-Building in California, Part I'', Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, January 1895, pp. 5–16; from quod.lib.umich.edu accessed December 14, 2014]
/ref> These they assembled to be poled up the Colorado. However the first barge sank with its cargo a total loss. The second was finally, after a long struggle poled up to Fort Yuma, but what little it carried was soon consumed by the garrison. Subsequently wagons again were sent from the fort to haul the balance of the supplies overland from the estuary through the marshes and woodlands of the Delta.[
Both of these attempts on the river failed in the face of extreme tides in the estuary or strong currents, shifting sand bars or low water in the river. Hauling supplies from the estuary worked but was less satisfactory than the 185 mile San Diego route over land. Firstly it was a violation of the ]Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...
for American troops to intrude into Mexican territory. Secondly, on top of already costly land shipping was the prospect of the additional expense of Mexican custom duties that would be levied on anything landed on Mexican territory.[
]
James Turnbull and the ''Uncle Sam''
In November 1852, the ''Uncle Sam'', a 65-foot long side-wheel paddle steamer
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 wer ...
, also built by Domingo Marcucci, became the first steamboat on the Colorado River.[ It was brought by the schooner ''Capacity'' from ]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 ...
to the delta by the next contractor to supply the fort, Captain James Turnbull. It was assembled and launched in the estuary, above the mouth of the Colorado River. Equipped with only a 20 horsepower engine, the ''Uncle Sam'' could only carry 35 tons of supplies, taking 15 days to make the first 120 mile trip. It made many trips up and down the river, taking four months to finish carrying the supplies for the fort, improving its time up river to 12 days. Negligence caused it to sink at its dock below Fort Yuma, and was then washed away before it could be raised, in the spring flood of 1853. Turnbull who meanwhile had returned to the Delta from San Francisco with another cargo and a more powerful engine for the ''Uncle Sam''. He returned for a new hull, while the army sent wagons to recover the cargo from the delta again. However, Turnbull in financial difficulty, disappeared from the city leaving creditors unpaid. Nevertheless, Turnbull had shown the worth of steamboats to solve Fort Yuma's supply problem.[
]
George A. Johnson & Company
In late 1852, George Alonzo Johnson with his partner Hartshorne and a new partner Captain Alfred H. Wilcox (formerly of the ''Invincible'' and ''Sierra Nevada''), formed George A. Johnson & Company and obtained the next contract to supply the fort. Johnson and his partners, all having learned a lesson from their failed attempts ascending the Colorado and with the example of the ''Uncle Sam'', brought the parts of a more powerful side-wheel steamboat, the ''General Jesup'', with them to the mouth of the Colorado from San Francisco. There it was reassembled at a landing in the upper tidewater of the river and reached Fort Yuma, January 18, 1854. This new boat, capable of carrying 50 tons of cargo, was very successful making round trips from the estuary to the fort in only four or five days. Costs were cut to $75 per ton.[
A second reason for the speed of the new steamboat beside its powerful engine was the establishment of the wood-yards along the river between the delta and Fort Yuma. The landings sprang up to supply wood for the steamboats, so the crew would not need to gather wood as they proceeded up river, as the crew of the ''Uncle Sam'' had been obliged to do. These landings were each located at about the distance a steamboat could travel up and down river each day on that section of river. Steamboats did not travel at night, due to the danger of running onto ]sandbar
In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body o ...
s or into snags on the ever changing river. The boats would be refueled at the landings while tied up overnight. The wood-yards were owned by Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United St ...
s, who hired the Cocopah from local rancherias, to cut the wood (usually cottonwood or mesquite
Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas.
They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under gr ...
), transport it to the wood-yards and load it onto the boats. Cocopah men often also served as deck hands on the boats.[
]
Colorado Delta to Fort Yuma route
The route of the steamboats began in the Colorado River Delta, where there was at first just an anchorage near Robinson's Landing Robinson's Landing was a location in Baja California, Mexico. It lay on the west bank of the Colorado River northwest of the north tip of Montague Island in the Colorado River Delta, 10 miles above the mouth of the river on the Gulf of California. ...
in 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 ...
, above the river mouth and below Fort Yuma. Here they picked up their cargoes from ships in the river, to avoid paying Mexican customs duties for landing their cargo. The extreme tides and its tidal bore
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
in the estuary above the river mouth made this loading operation difficult and sometimes dangerous for the vessels engaging in it. Some above that anchorage the first steamboats were assembled until the later 1860s. There, the tidal conditions were not so violent but the tide could aid in launching the craft.
From 1854, between the delta anchorage and Fort Yuma were the wood-yard steamboat landings of Port Famine above Robinson's Landing, Gridiron, above Port Famine, Ogden's Landing above Gridiron, Pedrick's above Ogden's Landing, and Fort Yuma above Pedrick's. With reliable transportation to the fort, new settlements developed in the vicinity of the fort. Colorado City and Jaeger City a mile below Fort Yuma 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 ...
. In 1858, above Colorado City, across the river from Fort Yuma, Arizona City was founded, (renamed Yuma in 1873).[
In 1865, a better location for an anchorage, and a ]port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
and shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
was established at Port Isabel, Sonora
Port Isabel was a seaport established on Port Isabel Slough in 1865 during the American Civil War in Sonora, Mexico in the mouth of the Colorado River on the Gulf of California. It was founded to support the increased river traffic caused by the ...
, below Fort Yuma and east of the river mouth on the eastern outlet of the river. In 1873, Lerdo Landing appeared on the river, above Port Famine, to connect the pioneering agricultural settlement of Colonia Lerdo to the steamboat traffic on the river. Port Isabel remained in use until 1879, when the railroad came to 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 ...
making it the head of navigation and made Port Isabel and the woodlot landings below Yuma obsolete.[
]
Extending The Steamboat Route above Fort Yuma
From 1853, ranches were developed nearby up river to supply the fort with beef and barley. That same year gold was found up river. By 1854, copper mines were developed along the river above Fort Yuma. The ore provided George A. Johnson & Co. with their first commercial cargo to take to the estuary anchorage. Old Mexican mines where reopened in the interior of the Gadsden Purchase that increased the traffic bringing in machinery and shipping out ore. By 1855, the volume of cargo necessitated putting another boat on the river. By December 1855, Johnson had John G. North build and bring in sections a new steamboat from San Francisco to the Delta estuary. There North assembled and launched the long, 80 hp, wood hulled ''Colorado''. It was capable of carrying 70 tons of cargo while drawing only 2 feet of water and was the first stern-wheeler on the river.[
Once the backlog of cargo was relieved by the ''Colorado'', Johnson looked for ways to keep his boats from being idle. He knew that ]Brigham Young
Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his ...
wanted to establish a route to the Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
settlements in Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
from the sea up the Colorado River and that merchant interests had been interested in establishing trade with the Mormons by the river route since 1852 when the ''Uncle Sam'' came to the river. Additionally there was the claim that the river was navigable by steamboat as far as the Virgin River by the fur trapper Antoine Leroux
Joaquin Antoine Leroux, aka Watkins Leroux (1801–1861), was a celebrated 19th century mountain man and trail guide based in New Mexico. Leroux was a member of the convention that organized New Mexico Territory.
Biography
In 1846, Leroux serv ...
who had successfully rafted down the Colorado from the Virgin River in 1837. In 1856, George A. Johnson was instrumental in getting the support for Congressional funding a military expedition up the river. With those funds Johnson expected to provide the transportation for the expedition but was angry and disappointed when the commander of the expedition Lt. 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 ...
rejected his offer of one of his steamboats claiming its cost was too high. Ives, a topographic engineer, used the money to build his own steamboat, the small, iron hulled, sternwheeler ''Explorer'' in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, test it, disassemble and ship it to the Colorado estuary. There at Robinson's Landing Robinson's Landing was a location in Baja California, Mexico. It lay on the west bank of the Colorado River northwest of the north tip of Montague Island in the Colorado River Delta, 10 miles above the mouth of the river on the Gulf of California. ...
, Ives spent a month assembling his steamboat, launching it on December 30, 1857. Johnson had lent Ives one of his men David C. Robinson as a pilot for the expedition, which set off for Fort Yuma the next day.
Meanwhile, Johnson had decided to conduct his own expedition up river at his own expense with the ''General Jesup''. The War Department concerned about deteriorating relations with the Mormons in Utah wanted to investigate the possibility of bringing troops into Utah by steamboat up the Colorado River. Fort Yuma's commander provided rations, a mountain howitzer and a detachment of 15 soldiers. With the soldiers and 15 armed civilians Johnson had also set off from the fort on December 31. The large crew aided in gathering wood for fuel along the way, and twenty one days later, Johnson's party had reached the first rapids in Pyramid Canyon, over above Fort Yuma and above the modern site of Davis Dam
Davis Dam is a dam on the Colorado River about downstream from Hoover Dam. It stretches across the border between Arizona and Nevada. Originally called Bullhead Dam, Davis Dam was renamed after Arthur Powell Davis, who was the director of the ...
. Running low on food he turned back after viewing the river ahead continuing another and believed he had proved the river could be navigated as far as the Virgin River which he believed to be only away.[
Ives was disappointed to find Johnson had gone ahead of him when his boat reached Fort Yuma and he followed after him. However the unusually designed ''Explorer'' was not suited to navigating the sandbar filled Colorado in its low water phase and was continually running aground, much to the delight of the Yuma who came down to the river to watch them run aground on the next sandbar and mock the crew and their boat. Robinson eventually came to use their appearance as a warning of shoals ahead and made better progress, but they made slow progress ascending the river gathering wood along the way. On January 30, Ives and Robinson met Johnson returning and he shared information about the conditions on the river above them. Robinson piloted the ''Explorer'' above the point reached by Johnson into the ]Black Canyon of the Colorado
The Black Canyon of the Colorado is the canyon on the Colorado River where Hoover Dam was built. The canyon is located on the Colorado River at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. The western wall of the gorge is in the El Dorado Mountai ...
, where they struck a rock that damaged the boat, above where Johnson reached. Ives named that rock '' Explorer's Rock''.[ ][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.]
/ref>
While the ''Explorer'' was being repaired by his engineer, Ives, Robinson and the boat's mate, took their skiff over the next two days farther up the river exploring up through the Black Canyon and beyond to the vicinity of Fortification Rock. Next day, they went farther to Las Vegas Wash
Las Vegas Wash is a 12-mile-long channel (an Arroyo (creek), "arroyo" or "wash") which feeds most of the Las Vegas Valley's excess water into Lake Mead. The wash is sometimes called an ''urban river'', and it exists in its present capacity because ...
, which Ives thought might be the Virgin River, but had doubts because it seemed too small.[ The difficulties of the rapids above Fortification Rock convinced Ives that the river at Fortification Rock was the practical head of navigation above the mouth of the river:
:"I now determined not to try to ascend the Colorado any further. The water above the Black canon had been shoal, and the current swift. Rapids had occurred in such quick succession as to make navigation almost impossible, and there would be no object in proceeding beyond the Great Bend. The difficulties encountered in the canon were of a character to prevent a steamboat from attempting to traverse it at low water, and we had seen drift-wood lodged in clefts fifty feet above the river, betokening a condition of things during the summer freshet that would render navigation more hazardous at that season than now. It appeared, therefore, that the foot of the Black canon should be considered the practical head of navigation, and I concluded to have a reconnaissance made to connect that point with the ]Mormon road
Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of ...
, and to let this finish the exploration of the navigable portion of the Colorado."[
Ives' party returned easily in 6–7 hours, believing that a steamboat of shallower draft than ''Explorer'', in higher water, could reach the area of Fortification Rock.][ ][ Following its return to Fort Yuma, Johnson bought the ''Explorer'', took out its engine and used it as a barge to carry wood between the wood-yards on the Colorado River below Fort Yuma until it was swept away down river and lost in the Delta in 1864.
]
Mohave War and the first gold rush on the Colorado
Despite the successful exploration up the river, the lands along the upper river did not begin to be settled until after the 1858–1859 Mohave War
The Mohave War was an armed conflict between the Mohave people and the United States from 1858 to 1859. With the California Gold Rush of 1849, thousands of American settlers headed west through Mohave country and into California. The influx of m ...
and the establishment of Fort Mohave
Fort Mohave was originally named Camp Colorado when it was established on April 19, 1859 by Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman during the Mohave War. It was located on the east bank of the Colorado River, at Beale's Crossing, near the head of t ...
. The ''General Jesup'' and the newer stern-wheeler ''Colorado'' where engaged to carry troops and supplies up river for the Mohave Expeditions at $500 per day, and thereafter contracted to support the army posts of Camp Gaston and Camp Mohave, later Fort Mohave
Fort Mohave was originally named Camp Colorado when it was established on April 19, 1859 by Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman during the Mohave War. It was located on the east bank of the Colorado River, at Beale's Crossing, near the head of t ...
. Support of Fort Mohave became the first economic incentive for the steamboats up river. This was soon followed by the support of settlements created by the rush to various gold and silver mining locations near the river in the next decades.
With the discovery of the ''Gila Placers'' by Jacob Snively
Jacob Snively (1809–1871) was a surveying, surveyor, civil engineer, Officer (armed forces), officer of the Texian Army and the Army of the Republic of Texas, California Gold Rush#Forty-niners, California 49er, miner, and Arizona :wikt:pioneer, ...
came the first Arizona gold rush in 1858–1859, which created the ephemeral Gila City
Gila City is a ghost town in Yuma County in the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was settled in 1858 in what was then the New Mexico Territory.
History
Gila City was founded on the south bank of the Gila River, 19 miles east of the confluence of ...
just east of Fort Yuma on the Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
. It also inspired the creation of the first opposition steamboat company to Johnson's company, the Gila Mining and Transportation Company. In March 1859, it sent a disassembled 125-foot-long by 25-foot beam stern-wheel steamboat, and a cargo including a steam engine, to supply the Gila mine with water to Robinson's Landing, in the schooner ''Arno''. However the whole cargo and the rival boat was lost there before it was ever unloaded. The tidal bore tore loose ''Arno's'' anchors, driving the ship on a sandbar holing it, sinking it in a half hour with the ship and cargo a total loss. Without the steam engine providing water for washing out the gold at the mine, a mile from the Gila River, American miners could not work it profitably and the town soon was mostly abandoned. Only Sonora miners familiar with dry wash techniques stayed and made it pay.[
Also early in 1859, placer gold was found above Fort Yuma at the Pot Holes on the west bank of the Colorado River in California. These diggings had been previously worked by Spanish miners from ]Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer
Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer was founded on January 7, 1781, by Spanish Padre Francisco Garcés, to protect the Anza Trail where it forded the Colorado River, between the Mexican provinces of Alta California and New Navarre.
The ...
in 1781. In August 1859 Johnson retired the ''General Jesup'' and replaced it with the 140-foot ''Cocopah'', assembled and launched at Gridiron, in Sonora and captained by David C. Robinson. Its shallow 19-inch draft and stern-wheel was better suited to transit the upper Colorado route, and was the model for all the steamboats on the river thereafter.
From 1859, prospectors dispersed up the Colorado River valley in the next few years, finding gold deposits along the river as far as the Black Canyon. In 1860, gold was found across the Colorado River from Potholes in Arizona, in placers at La Laguna
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
. The strikes that followed in the next four years would make George A. Johnson and his two partners wealthy.[
]
Civil War, Colorado River Mining Boom and Opposition Lines
Civil War and the Colorado River
By March 1861, the secession crisis had led to the closing 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 ...
. February 19, 1861, the Bascom Affair led to the first of the wars with the Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
, cutting Arizona off from the rest of New Mexico Territory to the east and reduced mining activity in southern Arizona to next to nothing. Federal troops were withdrawn from Fort Mohave, to secure Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
for the Union. Others at Fort Buchanan were withdrawn to the Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
to confront the Confederate advance toward Santa Fe. What little commerce came into Arizona came from Sonora or from the river port at Arizona City. When Federal troops were withdrawn and desperate for protection from the Apache, the southern half of New Mexico Territory declared for the Confederacy late in 1861.
In response to the establishment of Confederate Arizona
Arizona Territory, Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as Confederate Arizona, was an Constitution of the Confederate States, organized incorporated territory of the Confederate States that existed from August 1, 1861 to May 26, 1865, wh ...
, California Volunteers California State Volunteer Units 1861 – 1866
The following are California State Volunteer Units that were active between 1861 – 1866 serving in the Union Army, most west of the Rocky Mountains in place of Federal troops:
California Brigade
...
of the Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
took control of the Yuma ferries, built up the garrison and provisions at Fort Yuma and strengthened its fortifications, all with supplies brought from San Francisco with the aid of Johnson's steamboats. The California Column
The California Column was a force of Union volunteers sent to Arizona and New Mexico during the American Civil War. The command marched over from California through Arizona and New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and as far east as El Paso, ...
launched its campaign to cut off the Confederate Army of the New Mexico Campaign and retake Confederate Arizona in 1862, and based its subsequent occupation of New Mexico Territory on its depot in Arizona City, again provisioned by Johnson's steamboats. When Fort Mohave was reoccupied by California Volunteers in 1864 it was supplied as before by Johnson's steamboats. These Federal contracts were the base of Johnson's revenue but it was soon greatly supplemented by a mining boom.
Colorado River Mining Boom
=El Dorado Canyon Rush
=
Prospecting and mining in the El Dorado Canyon, in what was then western New Mexico Territory
The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of ''Santa Fe de Nuevo México ...
(present day Nevada), had been going on from at least 1857 if not earlier.[Angel, Myron, History of Nevada, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Thompson and West, Oakland, Cal., 1881, p. 476, "In 1852 the Mormons obtained the contract for carrying the mail over the route which Congress had that year established from Salt Lake to San Bernardino. A station was established at Las Vegas, and Brigham Young located a settlement at that point, partly for protection to the route, and partly for smelting lead from the Potosi mines nearby. The Mormons occupied this place till the time of the Mountain Meadow massacre in 1857, after which they sold out to parties from El Dorado Canon, and returned to Utah."] But in April 1861, as the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
began, word got out that silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
and some 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 ...
lodes had been discovered by John Moss and others in El Dorado Canyon. The canyon was on the west side of the river above Fort Mohave near what was then considered the high water limit of navigation. George A. Johnson came up river and made a deal to supply the mines with his steamboats at $100 a ton, a lower price than the $240 a ton charged for overland freight across the Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...
from Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
That fall news of the strikes brought a flood of miners to the canyon. Several camps were founded in the canyon. San Juan, or Upper Camp were at the top of the canyon, near modern Nelson, Nevada
Nelson is a census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The community is in the Pacific Standard Time zone. The location of Nelson is in El Dorado Canyon, Eldorado Mountains. The town is in the southeast region of the Eldo ...
. Midway down the canyon near the Techatticup Mine Techatticup Mine, is a former gold mine, now a tourist attraction. It is located at an elevation of , midway in Eldorado Canyon, in Clark County, Nevada.
History
The Techatticup Mine was the largest and most productive mine in the Colorado Mining ...
were Alturas
Alturas (Spanish language, Spanish for "Heights"; Achumawi language, Achumawi: ''Kasalektawi'') is a city and the county seat of Modoc County, California. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, the city had a population of ...
and Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
. At the mouth of the canyon was the landing Colorado City. Later during the American Civil War, in 1862, Lucky Jim Camp was formed along Eldorado Canyon above January Wash, south of the Techatticup Mine. Lucky Jim Camp was the home of miners sympathetic to the Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
cause. A mile up the canyon was a camp with Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
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Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
sympathies called Buster Falls.[James Graves Scrugham, Nevada: A Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land, Vol. 1, American Historical Society, Chicago, 1935]
For the first two years only high grade ore worth over $200 a ton could be mined profitably in the Canyon, because it had to be shipped out to San Francisco for milling. Johnson's steamboats could only reach the Eldorado Canyon landing between May and October and carry enough cargo to make it pay. At high water, in May and June, the steamboat took several days to ascend against the strong current the from Fort Mohave, but could return in as little as 4 hours under full steam. From November to April ore had to be freighted overland at great expense to ships at San Pedro or wait at the landing for the high water of May and the steamboat.
By June 1862, the Colorado Mining District had been organized by El Dorado Canyon miners, covering the area west of the river through the mountains and for a distance along its length to the north and south of the canyon. In late 1863, a stamp mill begun by Col. James Russell Vineyard
James Russell Vineyard (January 16, 1801August 30, 1863) was an American Democratic politician and pioneer. He served in the California State Senate and Assembly, and earlier was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, the legislature of the ...
of Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
was completed in the canyon, at what became El Dorado City, to process the ore of its mines and cut out the cost of shipping the ore, cutting costs in half. Johnson losing his downstream ore trade and making fewer trips up to the Canyon responded by raising his freight rates.[
]
=Colorado River Gold Rush
=
In January 1862, Pauline Weaver
Pauline Weaver (1797 – June 21, 1867), born Powell Weaver, was an American mountain man, trapper, military scout, prospector, and explorer who was active in the early Southwestern United States. A number of geographic features in Arizona are n ...
discovered gold in an arroyo while trapping along the Arizona side of the Colorado River above Fort Yuma. After he brought a crew of Sonorans from Gila City to dry wash the site with good results, the rush to what became the La Paz Mining District began, with new strikes being found within to the east and south of the original strike near what came to be the town of La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
. La Paz was located next to the Laguna de La Paz on a branch of the Colorado in the Spring of 1862. Following the high water later that year the river changed course to the west isolating the Laguna de La Paz landing from steamboat traffic. A new landing developed southwest of La Paz at Olivia, later Olive City in early 1863 and miners there formed the Weaver Mining District extending south of the town along the river and separate from the La Paz District. During 1862, miners from Sonora also found gold in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains northwest of Fort Yuma.
Prospecting parties spread out looking for more strikes. From Eldorado Canyon they established the Pyramid Mining District east of the river in the Black Mountains. John Moss and others in the vicinity of Fort Mohave established the San Francisco Mining District northeast of the fort in the Black Mountains. The Sacramento Mining District
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
from Fort Mohave were established by soldiers in September 1863, to the east beyond the Black Mountains in the southern end of the Cerbat Mountains
The Cerbat Mountains ( yuf-x-wal, Ha'emede:) is a mountain range in Mohave County in northwest Arizona immediately north of Kingman. The Cerbat Mountains and the White Hills (Arizona) adjacent north, are the dividing ranges between the Detri ...
. A party led by John Moss founded the Waubau Yuma Mining District in the Hualapai Mountains
The Hualapai Mountains are a mountain range located in Mohave County, east of Kingman, Arizona. Rising up to 8,417 feet at its highest peak, the higher elevations of the Hualapai Mountains support Madrean Sky Island habitats, and are host to ...
east of Fort Mohave. West of the fort in the Providence Mountains
The Providence Mountains are found in the eastern Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, U.S. The range reaches an elevation of at Edgar Peak and is home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State R ...
of California, silver was found and the Rock Springs Mining District was established in April 1863 and the Macedonia Mining District in September 1864. Soldiers from Fort Mohave established the Irataba Mining District in early 1863 when they found copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
west of the river in the Dead Mountains of California. First the landing at Mohave City
Mohave City (also spelled as Mojave City) is a ghost town in Mohave County in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Settled in the 1860s, in what was then the Arizona Territory, it was founded as a river landing and trading center fo ...
was founded near Fort Mohave. Then Irataba City, followed in January 1864 but it was supplanted when the ferry and landing of Hardyville was established in March 1864, to serve these mines, supported by Johnson's steamboat company.
North of La Paz a copper strike east of the river led to organization of the Williams Fork Mining District with its landing at Aubrey City. Copper was also found west of Aubrey City and the river in California, in the Freeman Mining District, and southeast of Aubrey City in the Harcuvar Mining District named for the Harcuvar Mountains
The Harcuvar Mountains (Yavapai: Ahakuwa) are a narrow mountain range in western-central Arizona, United States. The range lies just east of the north-south Colorado River, and south of the east-west, west-flowing Bill Williams River, from Alamo ...
east of the river and northeast of La Paz. New placers were found in the fall of 1862, south of La Paz on the California side of the river in the Picacho Mining District with Picacho Landing serving it up river from Fort Yuma. Across the river in Arizona gold was found in the Castle Dome Mountains
The Castle Dome Mountains (Tolkepaya Yavapai: Wi:hopuʼ) are a mountain range in Yuma County, Arizona, within the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Castle Dome Peak, the high point of the range, is a prominent butte and distinctive landmark. The p ...
to the north of it silver-lead ore was found which created the Castle Dome Mining District in spring of 1863. Castle Dome Landing was established to serve this district. In 1864, silver and gold were found in the Eureka Mining District north of Fort Yuma across the river from the Picacho District in the Chocolate Mountains
The Chocolate Mountains of California are located in Imperial and Riverside counties in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. The mountains stretch more than 60 miles (100 km) in a northwest to southeast direction, and are located ea ...
. It was served by the Williamsport landing up river from Fort Yuma.[
In the fall of 1863 another landing developed at Mineral City, 1 mile downstream from Olive City where the recently created freight wagon road across the desert from ]San Bernardino
San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...
, the Bradshaw Trail
Today's Bradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route in the western Colorado Desert of Southern California. It is a remnant of the much longer Bradshaw Road, also known as the Road to La Paz, or Gold Road, established in 1862 by William D. ...
, crossed the river at Bradshaw's Ferry.[ Fort Whipple was established and gold mines, mining camps and the towns of Prescott and ]Wickenburg
Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa and Yavapai counties, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 7,474, up from 6,363 in 2010.
History
The Wickenburg area, along with much of the Southwest, became part of ...
were opened to the east in central Arizona at the mining districts of Agua Frio, Big Bug, Bradshaw, Hassyampa, Turkey Creek, Walnut Grove, Weaver, Wikenburg and Yavapai. These were also all primarily supplied by the La Paz - Wikenburg Road
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
and Hardyville - Prescott Road from those landings on the Colorado River. However, by late 1863 these supplies were piling up on ships at anchor in the Delta or on the dock in Arizona City, not getting through in sufficient volume to prevent shortages and cause prices up river and in the interior to skyrocket. Ore from the mines to be shipped out to be processed was piling up on the shores of the landings along the river.[
]
Rise of Opposition Lines 1863
The Colorado River Gold Rush had made George A. Johnson and his partners rich. Johnson and Wilcox married into Californio ranchero families. Johnson acquired Rancho Peñasquitos
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
*Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...
, went into politics and was elected to the California legislature for San Diego in 1862. Wilcox became a banker in San Diego and lived at Rancho Melijo
Rancho Melijo, or Milijo, named after a local Kumeyaay village. It was later called Rancho La Punta for the location of the Arguello family ranch house, on a point of hills overlooking the south end of San Diego Bay, north of the Otay River and e ...
. Hartshorne who was president of the company operating the business from San Francisco, invested his new wealth in the California Steam Navigation Company The California Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1854 to consolidate competing steamship companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It was successful in this effort and established a profitable near-m ...
, and became its president in 1865. Management of the steamboat fleet at the river was delegated to Issac Polhamus Issac may refer to:
Given name
* Issac Amaldas, Indian boxer
* Issac Bailey, American writer
* Issac Blakeney (born 1992), American football wide receiver
* Issac Booth (born 1971), American football player
* Issac Ryan Brown (born 2005), Ameri ...
its senior captain. However the Colorado River business based on government contracts for the military was now being overwhelmed by the trade from the mines and settlements dependent on the river. Worse, the Johnson Company had failed to increase its carrying capacity on the river. Despite rebuilding the worn ''Colorado I'' into the larger ''Colorado II'' in 1862, Johnson still only had two steamboats on the river as they had from 1859.[
The ''Cocopah'' made round trips up river from Arizona City to the La Paz landings during the high water mouths of May and June at its full capacity of sixty tons of freight in four days, amounting to four hundred tons a month. However, as the river level subsequently declined the trips became slower and could carry less cargo. By December ''Cocopah'' could only manage eighty tons a month, barely able to make only two trips with forty tons in that time. Trips farther up river to the vicinity of Fort Mohave took at least twice as long. The same difficulty plagued the ''Colorado'' carrying cargo between the estuary and Arizona City. By the fall of 1863 there was a backlog of twelve hundred tons of freight at Arizona City or in ships anchored in the estuary waiting to be brought up river. Between ten and fifty tons of ore waiting to be brought down to the estuary at each of the landings up river above Arizona City. Some of this cargo had been waiting for couple of months and most would have to wait until May and the rise of the Colorado. A letter to the editor of the Arizona Miner, April 26, 1864 blames the backlog on the newly arrived merchants who, unaware of the necessity of getting their goods to the river during the July, August, September, and October, high water period, when large volumes of cargo can be quickly delivered, had "...delayed until the river had gone down and were then crowded in more rapidly than the steamers could possibly carry up in any reasonable time."
From the beginning Johnson & Company rates were considered excessive compared to those on other Western rivers. Additionally merchants at La Paz up river objected to the $75 per ton charged by Johnson & Company, while Williamsport down river paid only $25 per ton. Now in the summer and fall of 1863 as merchants upriver rapidly ran out of goods and prices rose astronomically. Steamboat captains and their officers took advantage of the situation by purchasing needed goods on their own account then carried them up river to sell for a quick profit at the now inflated prices, leaving behind identical shipments consigned to the merchants. However even these shipments ended in November when an extreme fall in the river left the ''Cocopah'' stranded on a sandbar above La Paz.][
Merchants and miners held a protest meeting at La Paz on December 1, 1863. It condemned Johnson & Company as a monopoly, that was trying to drive the miners out in order to gain control of the mines. The meeting voted to send a representative to San Francisco with a petition calling for the establishment of an opposition steamboat line on the Colorado River. In San Francisco, their representative Samuel "Steamboat" Adams convinced the Chamber of Commerce to endorse a rival line. Merchants of the city raised $25,000 by subscription, and Adams persuaded Captain Thomas Trueworthy, to send the steamboat ''Esmerelda'' under Captain Charles C. Overman and the ''Victoria'', a four-masted schooner converted from a barge, to the Colorado River to establish the Union Line there. The ''Victoria'' was to be a store ship at the mouth of the river, but she was soon broken up by the tidal bore soon after it reached the mouth of the Colorado in March.
After Overman arrived at the river mouth he built the ''Black Crook'', first tow barge to be used on the Colorado River. Of a type commonly used on the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River and its tributaries, the barge was 128 x 28 feet capable of carrying 100 tons of freight. These barges were towed on a 100 foot cable secured to a short mast atop the steamboat amid-ship to avoid fouling with the stern-wheel. Each barge had a helmsman that steered the barge in the wake of the boat towing it. In early May, Trueworthy took the ''Esmerelda'' up river for the first time with the ''Black Crook'' in tow making it to Fort Yuma in three days, eight hours.][
With Johnson & Company raising freight rates to and from his mines in El Dorado Canyon and the Freeman District in late 1863, and with the belief that there were freighting profits to be made competing with it, Alphonso F. Tilden, of the Philadelphia Silver and Copper Mining Company, put a second Opposition steamboat on the river, the ''Nina Tilden''. Built in San Francisco by Martin Vice and launched in July 1864, it was able to do 16 knots while it carried 120 tons and would tow a 100 ton barge. A veteran captain of the Sacramento and Fraser Rivers, George B. Gorman, steamed the ''Nina Tilden'' down the coast to the Colorado River. In September, Gorman also began to compete with the Johnson & Company and the Union Line, towing the barge ''White Fawn'', knocked down and shipped in a schooner to the estuary where it was reassembled.][
]
Competition, Consolidation and Monopoly
Competition 1864–1866
Once Johnson realized the seriousness of the situation he ordered a new steamboat, ''Mohave'' that would be ready in May 1864. In the meanwhile he got control of as much of the cargo being held up in the estuary as he could by means of using his boats shipping it a short way up river from the estuary to the landing at Gridiron, whereby he obtained a lien on the cargo so his competitors could not take it. This left his competitors with less idled freight to carry and needing agents from San Francisco to ship new freight through them, instead of to Johnson & Company. Johnson also bought out most of the wood at the woodyard landings along the river so his opposition would be slowed by the necessity to have to gather up their own firewood or establish their own system of wood-yards. The Johnson Company also cut shipping charges to La Paz landing to $40 a ton, in an attempt to pacify the merchants there.
Additionally, "Steamboat" Adams accused Johnson & Company of sending men to attack ''Esmeralda'' by damaging her machinery, setting fires, cutting her moorings and attempting to wreck her with floating logs. Her owner Trueworthy, complained Johnson's pressure on insurance brokers in San Francisco prevented him from getting insurance on his boat and cargo.[
Soon after the ''Esmeralda'' and its barge began running on the river, the Mohave was launched in May giving Johnson 3 boats to carry goods, just as the flood waters came making rapid and heavily laden trips possible. By September, the ''Nina Tilden'', was also carrying goods up river, making 5 boats and 2 barges that soon ended the backlog of freight, producing its opposite condition, boats sitting idle by the fall of 1864. Cushioned by their government contracts Johnson & Company was not as vulnerable, but Tilden and Trueworthy needed more commercial revenue to make a go of it.
The only new business to be had by the opposition was to service the settlements of Utah Territory, up river at a landing called Callville cutting costs of transportation by $100 a ton, one third of the cost of the overland route from Los Angeles called the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road. Trueworthy proposed to do this at all times of the year, and tried to take the ''Esmerelda'' there in early 1865, towing a barge loaded with merchandise and timber, but turned back at the Roaring Rapids in Black Canyon, when word came that his buyers had left Callville. Johnson associate William Harrison Hardy had succeeded in getting there first, leaving January 2, poling and sailing (when the wind was favorable) a 50 by 8 foot flat boat "Arizona" from Hardyville to Callville in 12 days.][
Trueworthy had to tie up his boat at Eldorado Canyon and ride to ]Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
to sell his cargo.
Consolidation 1866–1867
In the summer of 1865, ''Esmerelda'' of the Union Line, was consolidated with the other rival boat Tilden's ''Nina Tilden'', into the Pacific and Colorado Steam Navigation Company, also headed by Thomas E. Trueworthy, with backing from San Francisco financiers. Trueworthy tried again to reach Callville during the high water in the summer of 1866. ''Esmeralda'' with a barge and ninety tons of freight, under Trueworthy's former first mate Captain Robert T. Rogers. The ''Esmeralda'' reached the landing at Callville on October 8, 1866, after three months. She was slowed by lack of firewood and (at what became known as the Ringbolt Rapids
Ringbolt Rapids are a series of rapids in the upper Black Canyon of the Colorado, 12 miles above the Roaring Rapids (Colorado River), Roaring Rapids in the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada.
History
The Ringbolt Rapids were one of two of ...
), with insufficient power to ascend the rapids, a ring bolt had had to be set in the canyon wall and the boat pulled through with a line run to her capstan. Despite her triumph at reaching the new "head of navigation" at Callvile, ''Esmerelda'' upon her return to Arizona City, was seized by the Sheriff of Yuma County, for debts owned by Thomas E. Trueworthy's company. She passed through the hands of Arizona Navigation Company, another company the creditors tried to form hoping to salvage the opposition steamboat business. This failing, ''Esmerelda'' and ''Nina Tilden'' were sold in the fall of 1867, to George A. Johnson & Company. ''Esmerelda'' was dismantled in 1868. The ''Nina Tilden'' continued in use on the river, until she was retired to Port Isabel in 1873.[
]
Colorado Steam Navigation Company 1867—1877
After the rival boats were sidelined Johnson & Company had no further competition. Port Isabel Slough
Port Isabel Slough was a deep slough in the Colorado River Delta near the mouth of the Colorado River during the 19th century, within the state of Sonora, Mexico.
History
Until the Great Flood of 1862, what became Port Isabel Slough was a shallo ...
was found by Captain W. H. Pierson W. may refer to:
* SoHo (Australian TV channel) (previously W.), an Australian pay television channel
* ''W.'' (film), a 2008 American biographical drama film based on the life of George W. Bush
* "W.", the fifth track from Codeine's 1992 EP ''Bar ...
of the schooner ''Isabel'' in 1865. This slough was an anchorage, sheltered from the tidal bore, permitting safe transfer of cargoes and a few miles farther up was another slough ideal for a shipyard. Here Port Isabel Port Isabel may refer to:
Places
*Port Isabel, Texas, USA; a city in Cameron County
*Port Isabel, Sonora, Mexico; a former port (1864-1879) at the mouth of the Colorado River
* Port Isabel Independent School District, Cameron County, Texas, USA
*Po ...
was established by 1867. The competition had caused rates to fall and service improved due to the addition more boats and the use of barges. Lower costs helped development of the territory, that in turn stimulated further trade and greater profits to the steamboat company in the following years. Given the firm grip Johnson & Company had on federal contracts on the river only the Utah trade could support a new competitor. All chance of that ended as the Central Pacific and Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
railroads met in Utah in 1869, ending the profitability of overland trade from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City or by water from San Francisco via the Colorado.[
In 1869, the George A. Johnson & Company was reorganized with an infusion of more capital and with additional partners, as the ]Colorado Steam Navigation Company
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
. With this new capital they started their own steamship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
line with the side-wheel steamship, '' SS Newbern'' under Captain A. N. McDonough. From July 2, 1871, ''Newbern'' ran the voyage monthly to Port Isabel in twelve days, cutting in half the time taken by sailing ships speeding up freight and passenger service. ''Newbern'' was so successful that they added the former Pacific Mail
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
side-wheel steamship '' SS Montana'', under Capt. Captain William Metzger, in 1874. With the pair of ships, the voyage was made every 20 days. However later that year, ''Montana'' ran aground and had to be towed back to San Francisco for 3 months of repairs. Back in service, she caught fire near Guaymas
Guaymas () is a city in Guaymas Municipality, in the southwest part of the state of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico. The city is south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and from the U.S. border. The municipality is located on the Gulf of Cali ...
, on December 14, 1876, and was a total loss. She was replaced in January 1877 with ''SS Montana''s sister ship the '' SS Idaho'' under Captain George M. Douglass. The companies steamships brought in more earnings than those of all their steamboats on the river.[
]
Railroads and the decline of the Steamboats
The fate of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company would be determined by the Southern Pacific Company
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founded in San Francisco, in 1865 by a group of businessmen led by Timothy Phelps with the aim of building a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego. The company was purchased in September 1868 by the Big Four: Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford, that had created the Central Pacific Railroad and that merged it into the Southern Pacific Company in 1870.
The Southern Pacific Company began building track southward through the San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...
and reached Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
on November 8, 1874. It then began the construction of the Tehachapi Loop
The Tehachapi Loop is a long spiral, or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad Mojave Subdivision through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaqui ...
over the Tehachapi Pass
Tehachapi Pass (Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapis and the south end of the Sierra Nev ...
and across the Mohave Desert into Southern California. By September 5, 1876 their first train from San Francisco had reached Los Angeles. In May 1877, the Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles reached the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona. On May 21, 1877, Johnson and his partners sold their company to the Western Development Company, a holding company for the partners who owned the Southern Pacific railroad. The California Steam Navigation Company was held by the holding company as a subsidiary under its own name. The most profitable part of the business, and the steamship ''Newbern'' was retained by the partners Hartshorne and Wilcox who formed the California and Mexican Steamship Line running from San Francisco to Mexican cities on the west coast. John Bermingham another former partner of the CSNC, was its president.
Western Development Company 1877—1886
With the sale of the company Yuma became the home port of the river steamers. Ships no longer called at Port Isabel, and in 1878 it was abandoned, the shipyard moved up to Yuma. From 1879, steamboat trade up river was cut as most of the freight once shipped from Yuma to Ehrenburg and Hardyville for shipment to the interior of Arizona Territory, was offloaded instead at places like Gila Bend
Gila Bend (; O'odham: Hila Wi:n), founded in 1872, is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The town is named for an approximately 90-degree bend in the Gila River, which is near the community's current location. As of the 2020 cen ...
and Maricopaville and shipped north to settlements and mines in Central and Northern Arizona, and at a lower cost. Ehrenburg, once the gateway to the interior of Arizona, was reduced to a minor settlement with only a wood-yard for the passing steamboats. The silver mines and mills in Eldorado Canyon were booming, and to serve it better, ring bolts were installed in Boulder Canyon in 1879 to allow steamboats to pass beyond Callville up to the mouth of the Virgin River at Rioville. They picked up salt from mines near Rioville to be delivered to the reduction furnaces downriver for the next eight years. For a short time, the mining company also used a shallow draft sloop, the Sou'Wester
A Sou'wester is a traditional form of collapsible oilskin rain hat that is longer in the back than the front to protect the neck fully. A gutter front brim is sometimes featured.
See also
* Mariner's cap
* Oilcloth
Oilcloth, also known as e ...
, to bring salt downriver in the low water season. In the Trigo Mountains
The Trigo Mountains are a north-south trending mountain range in La Paz County, Arizona, bordering the Colorado River on the east in the Lower Colorado River Valley. The range lies north of the Colorado River as it turns east, north of Martin ...
to the south, the new Silver Mining District and the towns of Clip and Nortons Landing opened up in the early 1880s, but they had their own mills so they and the Picacho District mines provided little business to the steamboats.[
Hardyville still profitably served the nearby mining districts near the upper reaches of the river, still remote from the railroad. However, in 1881, Polhamus with two merchants from Mineral Park established Polhamus Landing above Hardyville, to break Hardy's monopoly of the trade to the mines in the Cerbat Mountains. Hardyville diminished to a mill site and its post office was discontinued in favor of the one in ]Mohave City
Mohave City (also spelled as Mojave City) is a ghost town in Mohave County in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Settled in the 1860s, in what was then the Arizona Territory, it was founded as a river landing and trading center fo ...
on February 19, 1883.[John and Lillian Theobald, ''Arizona Territory Post Offices & Postmasters'', The Arizona Historical Foundation, Phoenix, 1961.] But a greater rival was coming to supplant the steamboats.
In January 1880, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF), which had recently entered New Mexico Territory from the north, acquired control of the western division of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad
The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was a U.S. railroad that owned or operated two disjointed segments, one connecting St. Louis, Missouri with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico with Needles in Southern Californi ...
that then began a line westward from the AT&SF line at Isleta, New Mexico
Isleta Village Proper is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 491 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Geography
Isleta Village Proper is ...
to meet the Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
at what became Needles, California. Construction began that year, and reached Kingman, Arizona, just south of the Cerbat range, in 1882. The SP began building a branch from Mojave, California
Mojave (formerly Mohave) is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Kern County, California, United States. Mojave is located east of Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield, and north of Los Angeles, at an elevation of . The town is ...
that same year, east to Needles, where the two met in May, 1883. For 3 months building crews struggled build a wooden bridge across the Colorado River, driving wooden pilings into the river bed only to see them washed out by the river. Pilings were only driven into the mid river section with the help of a pile driver mounted on Barge No. 3, towed and held in position by the ''Mohave II''. It was completed on August 9, 1883. As a result, by September 10, 1886 traffic and profits on the upper river had declined to the point Western Development Company sold Colorado Steam Navigation Company to its two remaining captains Isaac Polhamus and Jack Mellon.[
]
Polhamus, Mellon and Their Rivals, 1886–1904
For the next six years Polhamus and Mellon struggled to save their steamboat business. The partners reliable income now came from carrying supplies to Parker and Fort Mohave Indian agencies and coal for stamp mills at Eldorado Canyon and Hardyville. The decline in silver prices through the 1880s and early 1890s that culminated in the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was a United States federal law
enacted on July 14, 1890.Charles Ramsdell Lingley, ''Since the Civil War'', first edition: New York, The Century Co., 1920, ix–635 p., . Re-issued: Plain Label Books, unknown date, ...
in 1893, closed many silver mines along the Colorado River including those at Eldorado Canyon in 1887, and in the Silver Mining District and the towns of Clip and Nortons Landing in 1888. The Hardyville mill became idle and the town was abandoned and became a ghost town. Occasionally the steamboats carried supplies or machinery for ranches and mines at other places along the river, or ran excursion
An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes.
Public transportatio ...
boats from Yuma or Needles. They helped the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad rebuild their bridge across the Colorado below Needles at Eastbridge washed out or undermined by spring floods in 1884, 1886 and 1888 before they moved it, diverting their line down river to a crossing on a solid rock bottom at the station and later settlement of Mellen named, (though misspelled), for Captain Jack Mellon. There in 1889, they helped the railroad put in a cantilever bridge that was finished in 1890 and remained in use for decades. They also attempted to start regular steamboat tours by railroad passengers up to the mouth of the Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...
and down to the Gulf of California but without success.[
The salvation of the company came with the revival and discovery of gold mining districts along the Colorado in the 1890s. In January, 1891, gold was found on the north slope of the ]New York Mountains
The New York Mountains are a small mountain range found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA. The range's northeastern area lies in southeastern Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north ...
, in California, about north of Goffs station, on the Santa Fé Railway. A mining camp, Vanderbilt was established nearby Vanderbilt Spring. The discovery of additional gold-rich veins in the fall of 1892 set off a rush to the area. A few months later gold was found at what became the placer mining camp of Murphyville, on the Arizona side of the river just below Eldorado Canyon. Also in 1892, another gold boom occurred east of Eldorado Canyon at White Hills in the White Hills, in Arizona Territory. Gold mines were revived in the Picacho District and Cargo Muchacho District
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including transp ...
northwest of Yuma. Over the next ten years, more gold was found along the river, the largest strikes were at the Searchlight District mines, discovered in May 1897, west of the river, south of Eldorado Canyon, and the Goldroad District and Vivian District mines near what later became Oatman, east of Fort Mohave from 1903. All of these three later districts and at Picacho had railroad lines from the mines to their riverside stamp mills, that were built, fueled and supplied with the aid of the steamboats. Both the ''Gila'' and ''Mohave II'' were kept busy and a new barge, the ''Enterprise'', had to be built to keep up with the trade.[
However the boom also attracted competition once again. The Stacy Brothers operated out of Yuma with new gasoline powered boats from 1891 to 1895 when Colorado Steam Navigation bought them out acquiring the ''Aztec''. This gas boat they tried to use on the upper river in the low water season but it was no better than their steamboats and carried less cargo. Some other gas boats were put on the upper river by rivals but with no success. The first real rival was the steamboat ''St. Valier'' built by the Santa Ana Mining Company at Needles in 1899, but tied up in litigation it did not operate on the river until 1900. In the face of this competition, Polhamus and Mellon had the engine of the old ''Gila'' taken out in put in a new boat, the 135 foot long ''Cochan''. ''Cochan'' began work on the river carrying freight for the Searchlight mines in January 1900. At the same time the old ''Mohave II'' was run into Jaeger's Slough and left to decay.][
''St. Valier'' was purchased by the Mexican-Colorado Navigation Company in December 1901 from the Santa Ana Mining Company's creditors, adding cabins on her upper deck allowing them to compete for passenger business. Under the command of a former barge captain of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company, they made regular trips between Yuma and Needles competing with the rival steamboat ''Cochan''. Another serious rival appeared in 1902 when the Colorado River Transportation Company built the 91 foot long ''Searchlight'' another stern-wheel steamboat, the last built on the lower Colorado. It was launched at Needles in December 1902, its engines were installed and it was on the river by March 1903. It soon cut into the trade of Colorado Steam Navigation Company to Quartette Landing and ]Searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
.[
Additionally, between, 1901 and 1905 the ]San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad
The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities (Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California), via Las Ve ...
was built across southern Nevada, through Las Vegas, to Daggett, California
Daggett is an unincorporated community located in San Bernardino County, California in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40 ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow. The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92 ...
where it connected to the AT&SF, and the complete Salt Lake–Los Angeles line was opened on May 1, 1905. In the face of these developments, in 1904, Issac Polhamus, sold out his share of the business to Mellon and two other partners.
Last Years Of Steam Navigation On The Lower Colorado, 1905–1916
By 1905 the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad ended the need for steamboats at Quartette Landing and Eldorado Canyon in Nevada, the landings and the mills there were abandoned. The town of Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
was founded near the head of the canyon nearest the road to the railroad, the post office of Eldorado was closed on August 31, 1907 and moved to Nelson.[Don Ashbaugh, Nevada's Turbulent Yesterday, a Study in Ghost Towns, Western Lore Press, 1963.] In 1906, Santa Fé railroad built the Barnwell and Searchlight Railway to the west to tie Searchlight to its subsidiary California Eastern Railway at Barnwell, California
Barnwell, originally a rail camp named Summit, then Manvel, was a former railhead serving local mining camps, now a ghost town, in San Bernardino County, California. It lies at an elevation 4806 feet in the New York Mountains.
History Manvel
A m ...
.[
Also in 1905, the ]Arizona and California Railroad
The Arizona and California Railroad is a class III short line railroad that was a subdivision of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). The ARZC began operations on May 9, 1991, when David Parkinson of the ParkSierra RailGroup purchas ...
bridged the Colorado River at Parker, Arizona
Parker ( Mojave 'Amat Kuhwely, formerly 'Ahwe Nyava) is the county seat of La Paz County, Arizona, United States, on the Colorado River in Parker Valley. The population was 3,083 at the 2010 census.
History
Founded in 1908, the town was named ...
, cutting in half the last profitable section of the river for the Colorado Steam Navigation Company between Yuma and Needles. By the end of 1905 all the steamboats, ''Cochan'', ''St. Vallier'' and ''Searchlight'', were withdrawn down river to Yuma. Their places were taken by smaller gasoline powered boats, until they were in turn replaced by trucks.[
The remaining steamboats worked on irrigation projects on the lower part of the river and on repairing the 1904–1907 breach in the ]Alamo Canal
The Alamo Canal ( es, Canal del Álamo) was a long waterway that connected the Colorado River to the head of the Alamo River. The canal was constructed to provide irrigation to the Imperial Valley. A small portion of the canal was located in th ...
, that directed the Colorado River into the Salton Sink
The Salton Sink is the low point of an endorheic basin, a closed drainage system with no outflows to other bodies of water, in the Colorado Desert sub-region of the Sonoran Desert. The sink falls within the larger Salton Trough and separates th ...
and created the Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf o ...
before it was repaired. The last project, the construction of the Laguna Dam
The Laguna Diversion Dam is a rock-filled diversion dam on the Colorado River. It is located 13 miles northeast of Winterhaven, California, Winterhaven, CA–Yuma, Arizona, Yuma, AZ on County Route S24 (California), Imperial County route S24. Cons ...
ended steam navigation on the river, except for the ''Searchlight'' that lingered on as property of the U. S. Reclamation Service until it was sunk in 1916.[
]
Steamboats on the Upper Colorado and Green Rivers 1891–1912
Steamboats were tried in Glen Canyon
Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty D ...
, the Green River Green River may refer to:
Rivers
Canada
* Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River
*Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte
*Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...
in Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
and Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
and the Grand River, (after 1921 renamed as the upper part of the Colorado River), above its confluence with the Green River in Utah and in Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. Unlike the Lower Colorado, the railroads made possible most of this steam navigation on the Upper Colorado, bringing in the boats or their parts and their fuel to the points on the river where they were assembled and launched.[
]
References
External links
Articles
Richard Frajola: The Western Mails, Steamboat mail of the Colorado River
Maps
Geological Map No. 1. Prepared by J.S. Newberry, M.D. Geologist to the Expedition. Explorations and Surveys. War Department. Map No. 1. Rio Colorado of the West, explored by 1st Lieut. Joseph C. Ives, Topl. Engrs. under the direction of the Office of Explorations and Surveys. A.A. Humphreys, Capt. Topl. Engrs. in Charge, by order of the Hon. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War. 1858. Drawn by Frhr. F.W.v. Egloffstein. Topographer to the Expedition. Topography by Frhr. F.W.v. Egloffstein. Ruling by Samuel Sartain. Lettering by F. Courtenay.
— ''(accessed October 27, 2014)''.
Official Map Of The Territory Of Arizona, With All The Recent Explorations. Compiled by Richard Gird C.E. Commissioner. Approved By John N. Goodwin, Governor. In Accordance With An Act Of The Legislature, Approved Oct. 23d. 1864. We hereby certify that this is the Official Map of the Territory of Arizona, and approve the same. Prescott October 12th 1865. (with signed seal dated 1863). Published By A. Gensoul, Pacific Map Depot. No. 511 Montgomery St. San Francisco. Lith. Britton & Co. San Francisco.
Shows location of Port Isabel, Sonora and other landings, settlements and the mining districts along the Colorado River and the interior of the territory in 1865 (accessed December 1, 2014).
Topographical Sketch showing the Outward and Inward Route of a Party, while examining as to the practicability of a Diversion of the Colorado River for Purposes of Irrigation, Lithograph by Eric Bergland, 1875. From, Wheeler, G.M., Topographical Atlas Projected To Illustrate United States Geographical Surveys West Of The 100th Meridian Of Longitude Prosecuted In Accordance With Acts Of Congress Under The Authority Of The Honorable The Secretary Of War, And The Direction Of Brig. Genl. A.A. Humphreys, Chief Of Engineers, U.S. Army. Embracing Results Of the Different Expeditions Under The Command Of 1st Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps Of Engineers. Julius Bien, lith., G. Thompson, Washington, 1876
from davidrumsey.com accessed December 3, 2014. — ''shows the Colorado River above Ehrenburg, Arizona to Stones Ferry at the mouth of the Virgin River
The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...
; in Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
, parts of Nevada, and Arizona. Includes the roads and railroads of the time, including the detailed routes of the Bradshaw Trail
Today's Bradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route in the western Colorado Desert of Southern California. It is a remnant of the much longer Bradshaw Road, also known as the Road to La Paz, or Gold Road, established in 1862 by William D. ...
and the Mojave Road
The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched f ...
(accessed April 20, 2015)''.
Territory Of Arizona. 1879. Compiled from the official Records of the General Land Office and other sources by C. Roeser, Principal Draughtsman G.L.O. Photo lith & print by Julius Bien 16 & 18 Park Place N.Y.
Official Map Of The Territory Of Arizona, 1880 Compiled from Surveys, Reconnaissances and other Sources. By E.A. Eckhoff And P. Riecker, Civil Engineers, 1880. Drawn by Eckhoff & Riecker. The Graphic Co. Photo-Lith. 39 & 41 Park Place, N.Y. Entered ... 1879, by Emil Eckhoff and Paul Riecker, Washington, D.C.
Territory Of Arizona, 1883. Compiled from the official Records of the General Land Office and other sources under the supervision of G.P. Strum, Principal Draughtsman G.L.O. Photo lith & print by Julius Bien & Co. 139 Duane St. N.Y.
Territory Of Arizona. 1887. Compiled from the official Records of the General Land Office and other sources, under supervision of Geo. U. Mayo, Civil Engineer – Chief or Drafting Division, G.L.O. 1894. Photo lith & print by Julius Bien & Co. 139 Duane St. N.Y. Compiled And drawn by A.F. Dinsmore.
Territory Of Arizona. 1903. Compiled from the official Records of the General Land Office and other sources under the direction of Frank Bond, Chief of Drafting Division G.L.O. 1903. Compiled and Drawn by Daniel O'Hare. Andrew B. Graham, Photo-Lith. Washington, D.C.
Photos
Schooner discharging cargo into what appears to be Barge No. 1 and the "Mohave I" at Port Isabel.
from hdl.huntington.org accessed July 28, 2015 – Mohave I ran from 1864 to 1875, barges were towed by the Johnson Company boats from 1865. The schooner is very likely the "Isabel" of Captain W. H. Pierson, that discovered this slough and sailed regularly to the Colorado River between 1865 and 1871, when it was replaced by the steamships "SS Newbern" and "SS Montana".
Shops of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company at Yuma. The steamer "GILA" at the bank.
from hdl.huntington.org accessed April 25, 2016 – Note the ways, in the foreground for hauling out the steamboats for repair and rebuilding. The ''Gila'' ran on the Colorado River from 1873 to 1899 when it was rebuilt as the ''Cochan''. The wooden railroad bridge behind the shops existed from 1877 until the railroad replaced the wooden spans with a through-truss steel bridge, built in stages 1894–1899. The steamboat shipyard at Port Isabel was abandoned and moved to Yuma in 1879.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steamboats of the Colorado River
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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
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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 ...