CRUISING DOWN THE RIVER

CRUSING DOWN THE RIVER

BY ROBERT L. HIRT PHOTOGRAPHS BY BERT WATTS It has been many years since the Colorado River served man as a means of transporting himself and his freight from the area surrounding Yuma to upstream communities. But it was a recent rediscovery of this role the river played in pioneering the Old West which is turning the Colorado into one of the most unusual highways in the country.

It can never be the sort of thoroughfare that the motorist, driving his sleek high-powered automobile would seek out. Today it is reopening a new route for the type of driver who enjoys the lesser horse-power of the outboard motor and small but speedy boat.

When the Laguna Dam was constructed in 1909 it closed the river for traffic and the old stern-wheel river steamers, Cochran, Gila and others took their place in the pages of the Old West's history along with the covered wagon and the stage coach.

Later on the chain of mighty upstream dams was thrown across the river, making this once turbulent and rampaging waterway almost useless for transportation.

Outside of the few fishermen and other sportsmen who put their small boats into its shallow waters between Blythe and the Imperial Dam to the south and between Blythe and Parker Dam to the north, few boats were seen.

Up until three years ago the romantic history of the Lower Colorado appeared doomed to slip into oblivion since its waters were being diverted to irrigate parched farm lands.

The majority of the people who used the water knew little about the river from which it came.

Then something happened which was to create new interest in the Lower Colorado.

It all began one hot summer day in 1954. A group of members of the Palo Verde Chamber of Commerce in Blythe got together to discuss various projects which the Chamber might sponsor that would benefit the community as a whole.

Jack Savage, then president of the group, pointed out that the Chamber had previously concentrated its attention on agriculture, roads, water development and other similar projects.

But he felt that one of the area's most important resources, the river itself, had been sadly neglected. It took little discussion for these men to reach an agreement that it was high time something was done about developing the recreational potential of the river.

The men searched for an idea which would bring widespread publicity to the vast area along the river beginning at Blythe and extending southward. They wanted an idea which would create a desire among hundreds of people to come to this area for recreation and relaxation.

One thing they knew for sure. The river offered recreational facilities unmatched by very few areas of equal size. The next step was to formulate a plan to bring this fact to the public's attention.

They dug back into the history of the river and ran across accounts of the old river steamers that once sailed from city to city before the dams were built.

They knew it would be impossible to bring back the steamboats, but they were well aware that it was still possible to run speedy outboard motor boats up the down the river. Sportsmen were doing it every day.

The group spent the following week working out ideas along the boating lines. At the next meeting an idea was advanced to hold a mass cruise of outboard motor boats between two points along the river.

Supporters of the idea argued that such a cruise not only would attract boating enthusiasts from everywhere -possibly, in time, from across the nation-it also would give people a chance to view majestic scenery, visible onlyfrom the river, and provide a rebirth for the rich histor-ical background of the area.

This was the beginning of the annual Colorado River Cruise. Bill Buckalew of Blythe was named chairman of the first year's event, held in the fall of 1954. He and his committee explored every angle of the project. They contacted members of the Chamber of Commerce at Yuma and won their support as co-sponsors of the project.

It was immediately decided the cruise should be more than just a boat ride, yet not a race. Committees of the two Chambers of Commerce mapped out a round-trip course of 120 miles between Dunlap's Landing at the little town of Palo Verde, south of Blythe, to Fisher's Landing at Martinez Lake, Arizona.

Pioneers in the Blythe area helped in preparing the first trip. Oldtimers like Tony Seely made numerous trips down the river staking out historical sites. In all, 33 landmarks on both the Arizona and California banks of the river were spotted and marked with numbers for the benefit of the boaters.

Meanwhile, other plans were pushed ahead and hundreds of details were checked. Some of the more important ones included a check with the Bureau of Recla-mation's Office of River Control to determine on what dates there would be sufficient flow of water for a fleet of even small outboards to navigate without difficulty; identifying markers and pennants for the boats were ordered; boats were classified according to their speed and grouped so they would reach both the half-way and finish point at approximately the same time.

Meanwhile the Yuma Chamber of Commerce arranged a barbecue at Fisher's Landing for the boaters and set up refueling facilities, landing space and other conveniences at Martinez Lake.

That first mid-October cruise was limited to boats owned by residents of the Palo Verde Valley and Yuma areas. In spite of this limitation, the first event was considered a success since it drew 78 speedy outboards, about twice as many as the sponsoring bodies anticipated.

Although it was purely a local event that first year, the cruise was well covered by newsmen from throughout Arizona and Southern California as well as by several national sporting magazines.

The last boat had hardly returned to Dunlap's Landing after the first cruise before plans were underway for the second one.

It was again held in mid-October under the direction of Jack Dance of the Palo Verde Chamber of Commerce. The route was extended about 30 miles from a new boat landing that had been completed in the shadows of the Blythe-Eherenberg bridge. News of the first trip attracted many boating fans from the Los Angeles area. The 1955 trip included 130 boats, the largest collection of outboards ever to move down the river in one group at one time. The 1955 trip also attracted the attention of a Los Angeles television station which sent a camera crew out to Blythe to film the event for one of its programs.

Last October the third cruise was staged over the Blythe to Martinez Lake routes. Its success has convinced the cruise backers that this is an event which will soon draw nationwide attention.

It was turned into a two-day event under the direction of Zack Carnes. The boat fans were overnight guests of Col. W. W. Abbey and his men at the U.S. Army's Yuma Test Station.

Nearly 100 more boats than in 1955 made the trip. Registrations at starting time numbered 225. According to the Test's Station's mess hall, where the boaters were fed, more than 700 persons passed through the "chow line."

This cavalcade drew the first cruisers to travel the Colorado River in many years. At least a half-dozen of them, from Santa Barbara, Ventura and Newport Beaches, took time out from their ocean-going travels to join the smaller boats on the third annual cruise down the river.

Skillful pilots who knew where treacherous sandbars lurked, hidden just below the surface of the water, guided the cruisers and their smaller brothers over the course, now about 150 miles a round trip, without mishap.

Among the passengers in the boats on the downstream journey were a group of Travellarians from Los Angeles who flew to Blythe for the event. This is an organization of women employed in the travel industry. One of the requirements for membership is that they meet the public during their routine duties.

They, like the boat owners who came from miles away for the third cruise, knew little or nothing about the Colorado River and its attractions before midOctober.

But now they do. They returned home to tell their customers, their friends and neighbors, about the friendly people who live along the river; about the spectacular scenery and about the nearly forgotten ghost towns and other historical landmarks that have been rediscovered, thanks to a boating event which is now well on its way to becoming a tradition.

The Colorado River Cruise will be held this year on Oct. 12-13. It is expected the flotilla will be larger than ever. Information on this Cruise can be had by writing to the Chamber of Commerce at Blythe, Calif., or Yuma.