''Colorado'', was a stern-wheel paddle-steamer, the third steamboat 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 ...

, and first stern-wheel steamboat put on that river, in December 1855. The ''Colorado'' was a 120 foot long, stern-wheel steamboat, built for the George A. Johnson & Company in San Francisco by John G. North a well known builder of steamboats in California.Scott, Erving M. and Others, ''Evolution of Shipping and Ship-Building in California, Part II'', Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, February 1895
p. 123 It was equipped with an 80-horsepower steam engine capable of carrying up to 70 tons of cargo while drawing only 2 feet of water. North subsequently disassembled and shipped in sections by sea to the estuary of the Colorado River. There North unloaded, reassembled and launched in it in December, 1855 under the command of Captain Isaac Polhamus. More powerful than Johnson's first steamboat, the side-wheeler ''General Jesup'', it made faster runs between the estuary and

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

with larger cargoes against strong currents in the river. As a stern-wheeler it was narrower, with a lesser draft, so was better equipped to avoid or pass over

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 and through the narrower

slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

s that sometimes occurred on the ever-changing course of the old

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 d ...

. Besides running cargoes between Fort Yuma from the estuary, it was used with the ''General Jesup'' to carry supplies and soldiers up river during the 1858-59

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 for 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 steamboats were engaged to carry the troops and supplies up river for at $500 per day. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
At the end of its service life the first ''Colorado's'' hull was dismantled in April, 1862. Its engine and boiler was removed and used to equip the new, larger stern-wheeler ''Colorado'' that was built and launched under the guns of Fort Yuma, in Arizona City, for fear of an attack by

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 ...

raiders.

References

Merchant ships of the United States Steamboats of the Colorado River Stern-wheel steamboats of California Ships built in San Francisco 1855 ships {{California-transport-stub