A Mainstream of Life

The Colorado River A Mainstream of Life

Eons before man's earliest arrival in the American Southwest, the Colorado River was actively cutting through thousands of feet of stone, creating labyrinthian canyons beyond number.

Nameless primitives have dwelt along its course, fished its muddy waters, gathered herbs from its banks and hunted the abundant game that came to drink.

Father Francisco Garces, in 1775-1776, walked northward from near the Colorado's mouth in the Sea of Cortez to a point opposite present-day Needles, California.

Nearly a hundred years later, in the summer of 1869, Major John Wesley Powell led an exploration party in the opposite direction from Garces, going downstream through the Grand Canyon in small wooden boats, finally leaving the Colorado where it is joined by the Virgin River.

Steamboats have plied its waters, carrying supplies and people to remote and little-known docks. There have been miners in search of treasure, explorers charting new lands, settlers with families and soldiers at outposts along her banks.

The Colorado has inspired campfire musicians, poets, painters and writers like Charles L. McNicholes, who in 1944 combined the river, the land, and the people in an enjoyable Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer type spellbinder called Crazy Weather.The Colorado River has been, as much perhaps as we will ever see, all things to all people through all time. It is a ceaseless worker whose modern day personality includes hydroelectric generating plants, vast recreational lakes, irrigation for thirsty desert lands and water for the metropolis of Los Angeles 200 miles away.

The Colorado River is all this, and still Old Red finds time and space to nurse those who were here before man. Topock Swamp is what its map name says, a Wildlife Refuge. Birds of every description rest here during their journeys up and down this major north-south flyway. And the fish ah, the fish are here in record numbers and record sizes.

For all this, and more, Colorado we thank you. You are indeed a mainstream of life.

(Preceding panel) Snow mantles these cholla and yucca in the Detrital Valley north of Kingman. The Cerbat Mountains lie in the background. David Muench (Right) Aspen trees stand tall at the base of the Hualapai Mountains southeast of Kingman. David Muench (Far right) In the distance, snow from a late winter storm caps the Hualapai Mountains. David Muench (Below) Topock Swamp, Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. Carlos Elmer

(Left) Fields of flowers near Oatman, Arizona. Dick Dietrich (Below) Volcanic crags, eroded to fine points, form the Needles and stand above the shallow waters of Topock Swamp. Ed Cooper (Opposite) A rest for canoers beside Davis Dam. Charles Niehuis

(Far left) Thumb Butte, a volcanic upthrust in the Black Mountains near Davis Dam. Josef Muench (Left) An aerial view of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Landex (Below) On the fringes of the Sonoran/Mojave deserts, prickly pear, cholla and oncelia provide a spring tableau. In the distance, the Colorado River wends its way through Black Canyon. David Muench

(Right) Sunset on Lake Havasu. Carlos Elmer

(Below left) The Buckskin Mountains span the horizon above the growing resort area below Parker Dam. Josef Muench (Below center) The Valley of the Big Sandy River near Wikieup. Carlos Elmer (Below right) A Joshua forest in the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada. David Muench

(Preceding panel) North of Parker Dam, at the mouth of the Bill Williams River, is the southern arm of the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. Josef Muench

(Right) Havasu Lake and the inlets formed by the Bill Williams River are a natural recreational playground. Josef Muench (Below) Water hazards abound on the Nautical Inn's challenging par 3 golf course at Lake Havasu City. Carlos Elmer (Opposite) A lone Joshua stands in the Detrital Valley northwest of Kingman. David Muench