@ lglr @ EH gH. e ê3 (-ï @ Õ FE rç-r P @ GÃ e9. t-Ð ô3 eõ- æ @ 5è IA @ @ N9 I A @ @- Steamlboaûs @m the Oonopedo Rflvep 62 flgfl6 Rishand E" Lingenllelûer THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS TUCSON, ARIZONA About the Author . For permission to use the illustrations contained in this volume we wish to credit the Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Richard E. Lingenfelter, a historian by avocation, has been a pro- Records, p. 26; the Arizona Historical Society Library, pp. 25, 28, 39, fessor in residence of geophysics and space physics and astronomy 87, 89, 92-94; The Bancroft Library, pp. 32, 54, 57, 59, 70,79, I78; at the University of Califorrria, Los Angeles, since 1969. He has Barbara Baldwin Ekker, p. 119; the Church Archives Historical Depart- written and edited several books on western American history, in- ment, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 48; Mrs. cluding First Through the Grand Canyon, The Neusþaþers of Ne- Edwin Wilcox, pp. 107, 116; the Engineering Societies Library, p.77; aada, 1858-1958: A History and, Bibliograþlry, Tlu Songs of the Gold H. E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, pp. 15, 45, 46,75, Rush, Tlw Songs of the Amerban West, and n 1974The Hardrock Min- 83, 90, 170, 186; Historical Collection, Title Insurance & Trust Co., ers, A History of the Mining Labor Moaement in the Amerban West, San Diego, California, pp. 55, 56, 63, 140; the Map Library, University 1863-1893. of California, Los Angeles, p. 61; the Nevada Historical Society, Reno, pp. 50, 85; the New York Public Library, pp. 724-26; Otis Marston, pp. 104, l2L; Sharlot Hall Historical Society, pp. 30, 52, 67; Southern Pacific Railroad Company, pp.72,147; Southwest Museum, pp.38, 42, 134; Special Collections Library, the University of Arizona, p. 160; THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS Special Collections Library, University of California, Los Angeles, pp. xvi, 3, 4, 6-8, 13, 14, 18, 20,22,27, 43,58, 65, l0L-2,111, 137, 141, Copyright O 1978 143-44, 146, 148, 150-55, 180; Stimson Photo Collection, Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, p. I20; Tex McClatchy, p. The Arizona Board of Regents 133; the Title Insurance Company, Los Angeles, p. 123; the University All Rights Reserved of California Library, Berkeley, p. 98; the U. S. Geological Survey, p. Manufactured in the U.S.A. I32; the U.S. Military Academy, p. 17; the U.S. National Archives and Records Services, pp. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 69, 96, 114, 128, 130, 157-58; and Wilbur Rusho, p. 131. Lingenfelter, Richard E Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Steam-navigation-Colorado River-History. Cover: Lithogrøph the steamboat Explorer, courtesy the 2. Colorado River-navigation-History. ' 3. River of by of steamers-Colorado River-History. I. Title. Special Collections Librøry, the Uniuersity of Cølif ornin, Los Angeles. vM623.L56 386'.3'097913 7UL624l ISBN 0-8165-0650-7 Title Page: Lithogrøph of the steamer lnnding at Fort Yuma, by cour- ISBN 0-8165-0567-5 pbk. tesy of the ArizonøHistoricøl Society Librøry. For Kendale t962 - 1978 Gomtemffis List of Illustrations tx Appendixes Preface xul A. Steamboats 161 Opening the River 1 B. Operators 164 The Arizona Fleet 31 C. Table of Distances r67 Through Progress of the Railroads 73 Notes to the Chapters L7I Steamboats in the Canyons 105 Bibliography 181 Closing the River 135 Index r87 [iltrustpatfloms River Steamers Ad for the "Palatial" Riverboat Mohaue (II) 79 The Gila Beneath the Santa Fe's Cantilever Bridge Steamboat Exþlorer in Cane Break Canyon xvi 83 The Rival Steamboat St. Vatlier 92 Johnson's First Steamer, the Side-Wheeler Genáral Jesuþ 13 The Cochan Rebuilt From the Gila 93 The Exþlorer Steaming Past Chimney Peak 18 The Searchlight, Another Rival Steamboat 96 The Exþlorer Dwarfed by Mohave Canyon 22 Tied Up at Yuma, the Si. Vallier, Cochan, and the Gila, Cocoþah, and Barge No. 3 Lined Up at 30 Yuma Silas J. Lewis r02 The Colorado (ll) Opposite Chimney Peak 42 Lute H. Johnson on the Little Major powell 104 The Mohaue (I) Built in 1864 46 Canyon Steamer Undine 111 The Cocoþai¿ (lI) Built in 1867 52 The Cliff Dweller at Green River Bridge, Utah 116 The Colorado (II) in the Dry Dock at Port Isabel 54 Steamer Comet With Construction Crew r27 The Gila, the Most Durable Boat on the Colorado 55 The Charles H. Sþencer Under Construction in Largest Colorado Steamboat, the Mohaue (II) b6 Glen Canyon 130 Ads for the Steamers Newbern and Montana 57, Sg The Charles H. Spencer With Crew 131 Barge No.Z Alongside the Mohaue (I) 63 The Charles H. Sþencer Left to Rot r32 The Gila at Castle Dome Landing 6T Silhouette of the Cochan at Twilight 134 The Gila With a Bargeload of Coal 69. The S/. Vallier Attempting to Close the Intake 148 Ii,.] x lllustrations Delta 15i and Her Barge Stranded in the Design for Dredge TheSearchtight I52 Dry Channel 153 The Detta Squeezing Through Swingspan Bridge r57 The Gila With Two Barges Loading at Yuma 160 The Adaancø Working on Laguna Dam The S/. Valli¿r Awaiting Cargo t70 The Gila Above Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge 178 TheSearchlight at Imperial Canal Intake 180 Personalities Last Survivor of the Fleet, the Searchlight 186 Yuma Indians 3 8 George A. Johnson Other Boats David C. Robinson 15 17 Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives Barge No. 3 With the Gila and Cocoþah 30 Mohave Chiefs Cairook and Iretaba 27 Barge No. 4 Being Towed Through Red Rock Gate 45 Isaac Polhamus, Jr. 28 58 The Ill-fated Montana 32 Johnny Moss With Piute Chief Tercherrum Barge No. 2 With the Mohaue (I) 63 William Harrison HardY 39 The Aztec Passing Through Railroad Swing Bridge 87 Thomas E. TrueworthY 43 The Aztec Packed With Excursionists 89 Anson Call 48 90 Unidentif,ed Boat Used as a Ferry at Needles 65 John Alexander Mellon Ad for the "steamets" Iola andHercules 98 Isaac Polhamus, Jr' 75 Plan of the Adaanc¿ Gold Dredge 101 Rcibert B. Stanton 124 The Si/¿s J. Lewis \ryith the St. Vallier andCochan 102 The Ungainly City of Moab 714 119 Moab Garage's "Big Boat" Places and Events The Hoskaninni Being Built at Camp Stone 725 Ferry in 1852 6 The Hoskaninni at Work 126 Fort Yuma and Jaeger's Mouth of the Colorado t4 Tex McClatchy's Canyon King 133 Robinson's Landing at the 20 Ives's Dredge, the Alþha 1.37 A Mohave Rancheria Cable Ferry at Fort Yuma 25 Suction Dredge Beta 743 Steamboat Landing and Mohave 26 The Beta and Alpha Cutting New Intakes r44 Fort Illustrations n Ehrenberg, Main Upriver Port 38 Final Closing of the Break in 1907 r54 The Ruins of Callville 50 Land Scarred by the Man-Made Floods 155 Imaginary Port of Piute City 70 Completion of Laguna Dam in 1909 158 Locomotive Crossing the Colorado at Yuma 72 Stamp Mill at Eldorado Canyon 77 Maps Boom Camp of Searchlight, Nevada 85 Whipple's Map of Colorado River Crossings, 1849 4 Passengers Aboard a Steamboat 94 Hardy's Erroneous Map of the Colorado Estuary 7 Riverport of Green River, Utah I07 Steamboat Landings on the Colorado River, 1850s 10 Steamer Landing at Green River, Wyoming r20 Steamboat Landings on the Colorado River, 1860s Gold Miners in Glen Canyon r23 and 1870s 34 Spencer's Contraption for Extracting Gold From Shale r28 Chart of the Mouth of the Colorado, 1873-1875 61 Imperial Town Lot Auction 140 Steamboat Landings on the Colorado River, 1880s-1900s 80 Fresno Scrapers Digging Connecting Canals 14r Steamboat Landings on the Upper Colorado and Mexicali, Flooded in 1905 746 Green Rivers,1890s-1910s 108 Flooding of Railroad Tracks in Salton Sink I47 Colorado River During the Flooding of Imperial Valley, Carloads of Rock Used in Damming the Intake 150 1905-1907 138 Ppeffleo@ For nearly fifty years after the 1849 gold rush, paddle-wheel of the pioneers of the Colorado River business left that river to steamboats provided the cheapest and most efficient form of head the monopoly on the Sacramento, and a gang of Columbia transportation in the West. During this time the Columbia, the River ship's carpenters built what was to become the last sur- Sacramento-San Joaquin and the Colorado rivers became the viving steamboat on the Colorado. main thoroughfares for opening the interior to settlement and Thus the course of steam navigation on the rivers was development. Within a few years of one another each of these related to and occasionally intertwined with the overall develop- rivers was supporting a thriving steamboat business. Their sub- ment of transportation in the West, while at the same time each sequent courses ran roughly parallel. From a brisk period of was in its own way unique and separate. The history of western innovation, competition and expansion, they passed through a steamboating has been sketched by Oscar Winther inThe Trans- stifling, but profitable, time of monopol\zation to a final period of þortation Frontier and Harry Drago in The Steamboaters. The slow decline and obsolescence with the coming of the railroads history of Columbia River steamboating has been thoroughly and the gasoline engine, Despite the relative isolation of the great treated by Randall V. Mills in Stern-W.lteelers Uþ Columbia: A rivers, especially the Colorado which was more than two thou- Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country and the Sac- sand miles by water from the Sacramento, there was interchange ramento-San Joaquin by Jerry MacMullen n Paddle-Wheel Days of men and boats between the rivers as well.