From Callville to the Sea

60,000 persons bound for California had hired the ferry to cross the river at Yuma.

The river, doing some fancy twisting and turning, supplied nearly the entire territory with commerce.

"I remember the boats," the old man continued after we were back in the car. "One of the old steamboats was tied to the riverbank down at the Reclamation Grounds. Some of us boys used to play on it, and we had Sunday School picnics aboard the old Mohave."

He calls himself a pioneer, and he has the pride in Yuma that a man feels when he owns a stake in the growth and development of his hometown. Born in 1891, a first generation Arizonan, he has watched the squalid community of primarily adobe buildings develop into the modern city of today. There is, too, a nostalgia in his reminiscence.

Crossing the bridge and approaching old Fort Yuma, he spoke of its being the first of two forts needing supplies in the early days.

Major Samuel Heintzelman had built Fort Yuma in 1850 to protect travelers on the California trail against Indian attack. His nearest point of supply was San Diego. Everything the post needed came by oceangoing steamers and sailing vessels to the Mexican port, Isabel. There it had to be unloaded and forwarded by pack train across the desert, or poled 122 miles up the river to the fort. The cost was high$67 a ton. Heintzelman was "damned" if he was going to stand for it, and he appealed to the War Department to make a reconnaissance of the lower river, that it might be determined navigable for small steamboats. Preliminary explorations were begun that same year, 1850, but little was accomplished.

We stopped at the top of the hill. "These bluffs seemed higher back then," Buck said. "Maybe because I was so little, and maybe because the river was so wide. You could hear it goin' by down there, even through all the racket the locusts made when it was so hot. You could even smell it. This was a good place, too, because you could see anything goin' up or downriver."

then," Buck said. "Maybe because I was so little, and maybe because the river was so wide. You could hear it goin' by down there, even through all the racket the locusts made when it was so hot. You could even smell it. This was a good place, too, because you could see anything goin' up or downriver."

Pointing almost due west, he added, "See, there's Pilot Knob over there."

Pilot Knob was as far as the first steamer had run. In 1852, a Captain Trumbull, "an energetic, smooth-talking little fellow," reassembled a boat that had been brought down from San Francisco in the hold of a schooner, named her the Uncle Sam, and put her on the river. She was little more than a steam tug, being only 65-feet long, and having a draft of less than 24 inches and a beam of 16 feet. She struggled against the siltladen waters, but the little "sidewheeler" ran the river for two years.

Her arrival at Port Isabel heralded an era of steam navigation on the river and caused some great excitement when her whistle blew at Yuma Crossing.

Lt. Thomas Sweeney noted in his journal, "The steamer, Uncle Sam, so long expected from below, arrived at the post on the third with about twenty tons commissary stores, etc. She was 15 days coming up the river from where the schooner, Capacity, (out of San Francisco) is lying, 120 miles from this post."

Despite her claim on history as the first steamboat on the Colorado, the Uncle Sam was too slow and too small. It took more than seven months to unload a ship lying in the Gulf, and pack trains of mules were still in operation across the blistering desert. When she sank as she was tied up at Pilot Knob on June 22, 1854, Captain Trumbull just left her there.

"It's the truth," said the old man as we bounced along the seldom used ditchrider's road upriver toward Laguna Dam, "this Southwest would have developed a lot slower if it hadn't been for the steamboats. Southern Pacific didn't bring in the railroad until 1877, and everbody out here needed supplies. The miners were in a fix. They had to get the ore out to Frisco and they had to have machinery and things back. Even the Mormons up in St. George (Utah) counted on the boats to bring what they needed to Callville (Nev.), then they'd meet 'em there and take the stuff on by wagon."

The next steamboat to test the Colorado was the sidewheeler General Jessup, and when her captain, George A. Johnson, took her above Yuma in 1854, he proved that Colorado River steamboating could be a profitable business. He received more cargo than the 108-foot-long steamer could handle.

Captain Johnson, a cautious man with a long memory for snags and sandbars, made himself an excellent pilot, one of the best the Colorado was ever to know. The river demanded tricky navigation, for it changed so continually that this week's channel might well be next week's sandbar. There was little, if any, navigation at night; and there was a great deal of sounding with poles by the Cocopah Indian deckhands.

"How I envied that Indian with the 10-foot pole," grinned the passenger in the bouncing jeep. "I was just a little kid and I thought how good it would be to stand on the bow of one of those boats with one of those long poles. Never thought about the heat and mosquitoes or anything - just how I'd look standin' on the bow."

The General Jessup was the first steamboat to go above Yuma. In August of 1854, she struck a rock below Picacho and sank. But she was raised, and later that year, she made it as far up the Colorado as Black Canyon - the site of Hoover Dam, today.

Captain Johnson, together with Benjamin Hartshorne and a Captain Wilcox, founded George A. Johnson and Co., and in 1869 the Colorado Steam Navigation Co. was formed. Until they sold out to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1878, their fleet of 19 steamboats plied the waters of the Colorado River from Port Isabel on the Gulf, to Yuma, and on to Callville, 380 miles from their home port.

You can't go to Callville anymore. The adobe community which was a mining town, a port, and home for some 1500 people, long ago was abandoned and now lies beneath several hundred feet of the waters of Lake Mead.

In 1855, Johnson announced a schedule of regular sailings for upriver points. He was seldom able to meet the schedule, but men with ore to ship to San Francisco didn't mind waiting a day or two if the General Jessup happened to be late.

When the Mormon colony in southern Utah approached him about finding a way to get his steamer up the river to meet their wagons, Johnson was willing to try. He picked his way through El Dorado Canyon and up the remaining 26 miles to Callville.

The General Jessup was an open-deck boat, as were most of the Colorado River steamers.

"It was a godsend to their passen-gers," remarked Buck. "It gave 'em some relief from the heat. It was stiflin'; it lay on the river like a blanket. And the air was so heavy it seemed like it resisted you when you breathed."

The upper deck sported a galley, dining room, and a few cubbyholes that passed as staterooms.

The little General Jessup had more than she could manage. On August 30, 1855, the Sacramento Daily Union urged more activity on the river: “There are four vessels down the river with stores and materials for building a new steamer. . . . The steamer running at present has been making fiveand six-day trips, but can only bring thirty to forty tons. Four vessels are lying at the mouth of the river, to be discharged by teaspoons every five or six days.” We stopped the jeep and looked out on Laguna Dam and the reservoir behind it.

“I came up here with my Dad on the day they brought the old Searchlight down over the dam and took her on to rest in Yuma. We had a picnic over there, then fished all afternoon, and visited with the other folks who'd come to see it.

“My Dad and some of his old cronies had been fishin' hard that day and had a pretty good mess of catfish and perch that they put in wet sacks and hung in a big old mesquite to keep cool while they went swimmin' and passed around the home brew. When they went back, the fish was gone. They looked a long time and thought the kids had taken it for a joke. They finally decided the 'coons had made off with it. Didn't bother 'em none, though; the home brew saw to that.” The wind came up as the jeep rattled along Highway 95, heading upriver to Ehrenberg. It moved the sand into little hummocks under mesquite and along the edges of sand washes.

“I went down South once, and I don't think those big riverboats on the Mississippi had anything over what we had out here. They started buildin' 'em bigger as business grew. In the early days, this was pretty wild country almost unknown and I guess those little boats helped civilize it.”

The Colorado River was a lifeline. Across the decks of the 19 steamers of the Colorado Steam Navigation Co. fleet were imported the mills, machinery, explosives and mining tools, the military supplies and equipment for the troops at forts Yuma and Mohave, 300 miles upriver. They carried the dry goods, furniture, and food for the fast growing populace. Exports, chiefly, were the raw ores from the rich gold, silver, and copper deposits along the river and wood, hides, and pelts.

From 1851, 100 to 200 troops were constantly on duty at the forts, and from every landing, good roads took off for a score of distant camps and settle-ments.

Colorado Steam bought a steamer in California that was being built for the Sacramento River trade and had it shipped down in sections to Port Isabel, where it was reassembled and finished. A sternwheeler with graceful lines, she was easily the finest boat yet seen on the river, measuring 120-feet long and having double engines. Appropri-ately, she was named Colorado and served the company for many years.

Traffic on the river grew. Colorado Steam, to protect its monopoly, put more and better boats afloat. Traveling in comfort, if not downright luxury, you could run from Ehrenberg to Yuma for less than $10, which included your fare, stateroom, and meals.

When the Philadelphia Mining Co. put two steamers on the water, Colorado Steam made their business so unprofitable they quickly sold out.

“When they built the boatyard in Yuma, they built some pretty big boats. Captain (Isaac) Polhamus told my Dad that they built that boatyard in 1862. The steam company was afraid of the Rebs and they wanted protection from the fort.” The Civil War had indeed caused the boatyard at Port Isabel to be closed and another to be opened at Yuma. The Colorado No. 2 slid off the ways there during the same year.

Her owners, it seems, were apprehensive-sive that a Confederate raider might sneak up the Colorado and capture both shipyards and the new steamer. Just what the Johnny Rebs would do with a river steamer so far from the Deep South was not made clear, but such was the state of war nerves at the time. At any rate, the Colorado No. 2 was built under the guns of Fort Yuma.

Colorado No. 2 was the river's second sternwheeler. She operated well in narrow channels, through shallow water or cutting through sandbars. The San Diego Herald described her as “the swiftest boat ever put on the river.” “People get the idea that this desert was a dull place to live.” We turned off Highway 95 and headed west, again, toward the river and a turnoff to Ehren-berg. We had passed a sign back on the highway, giving directions to the Hi Jolly Monument near Quartzsite. “It must have been somethin' to see those camels out here. But they didn't need 'em after the railroads came.” In 1853, the government ordered a survey through northern Arizona to begin plans for building a transcontinental railway. Two shiploads of camels were bought and placed in the hands of Lt. E. F. Beale. When they arrived on the banks of the Colorado, Beale gave this colorful account of his meeting with the little General Jessup: “I brought the camels with me, and as they stood on the bank, surrounded by hundreds of wild unclad savages, and mixed with those dragoons of my own escort, thesteamer slowly revolving her wheels preparatory to a start, it was a curious and interesting picture.

It was hot when we walked out on the bridge beyond Ehrenberg. Weather along the Colorado ranges from ideal to extreme, and once in a while, it goes beyond extreme. River pilots saw it all. On December 25, 1879, Captain Polhamus wrote in his log: “It blew a northwest gale and very cold. Froze all day in the shade. Night of December 24th, coldest night ever seen on the Colorado River below Ehrenberg. Morning of the 25th; river full of floating ice which ran until 12 o'clock noon. Indians 90 years of age say they never saw anything like it before or never heard of such weather.” The population of Arizona was 40,000 at that time, and practically all supplies came up the river. From Ehrenberg, they were hauled overland as far as Prescott and other interior towns.

Navigation in the upper waters had ceased after completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in May, 1869. The trip was long, the river treacherous, and freight rates were high. The fate of river navigation was sealed when Colorado Steam stopped advertising for freight and passengers.

Colorado Steam had nine boats left in its fleet. One by one, it began selling them off. In 1878, they sold what was left to the Southern Pacific Railroad at a sacrifice. The railroad company continued to run the boats for years, picking up what local business they could.

The end was in sight for boats such as the Cochan and the other steamboats plying the waters of the Colorado. It came with everlasting finality when the Laguna Dam was built.

On the way back to Yuma, down Highway 78 out of Blythe, Buck reminded me of the strange, stub-nosed iron-hulled contraption that had been dug from beneath drifting sands southwest of Yuma not too many years ago. The government had decided to make a second river survey in 1858, and had put the little Explorer on the water.

Everything happened to her that shouldn't happen to a steamboat. She located several mudbanks simply by becoming hung up on them; she hit a rock and bashed in her nose; she became lost. The Explorer accomplished nothing other than to shatter the composure of her master. Finally, a flash flood roared down the river, picked her up where she lay moored below Yuma Crossing, and deposited her out on the desert. Drifting desert sands eventually covered her.

There she lay, entombed and forgotten for more than half a century when a party of surveyors, working southwest of Yuma on one of the river's longabandoned courses, found a rusty iron plate protruding from a dune. A little digging revealed the shattered hull of the little Explorer.

"Those were exciting days out here, before the railroad came and sorta tamed things down. The boats got bigger, more people came, the Indians settled down. A lot of famous mines were developed. Everybody had a claim or some kind of interest in a mine somewhere."

The late sun painted clouds far to the west. The glow stained his face a lighter hue, and blackened its seams of age and weather into lines which might have been put there by an artist's hurried charcoal.

"But I never have forgotten that Indian with the ten-foot pole."

Bookshelf

by Mary Lu Moore Inquiries about any of these titles should be directed to the book publisher not ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. Book prices listed do not include postage. Whether you run the Colorado River by boat or vicariously armchair-style, you will find a lot of information in the river-map guides issued by Bill Belknap at Westwater Books, P. O. Box 365, Boulder City, NV 89005. Each guide is produced in two editions: waterproof, $8.95 and softcover, $5.95 (plus $1.25 mailing). Authored mainly by Buzz Belknap, they are full of photographs, history, geology, topography, and more, with an index map and locations of events that happened along the River. Recently reprinted titles include: Canyonlands River Guide: Westwater, Lake Powell, Canyonlands National Park (1978); Grand Canyon River Guide: Powell Centennial (1978); Desolation River Guide: Green River Wilderness (1978); and Dinosaur River Guide: Flaming Gorge, Dinosaur National Monument (1975).

RAGING RIVER - LONELY TRAIL; TALES TOLD BY THE CAMPFIRE'S GLOW.

By Vaughn Short. Illustrated by Joanna Colemen. Two Horses Press, 1950 W. Ruthrauff Road, Tucson, AZ 85705. 1978. 156 p. $7.95, hardcover; $4.95, softcover (plus 50 mailing).

In prose and verse the author relates adventures of back country characters and courageous river runners. He originally devised and told these tales around campfires, on mountain trails, and along white water. They are good fun, folksy and personal - many about Arizona. This is a good item to take along for reading aloud out-of-doors or for evoking images of rapids and scents of campfires at home.

A GLEN CANYON PORTFOLIO. By

Philip Hyde. Northland Press, P. O. Box N, Flagstaff, AZ 86002. 1979, oversize portfolio. $35.00.

"This portfolio hints at what was, to trigger memory in those who knew and to celebrate the life and beauty that was for those who didn't know." In 20 superb black and white essays taken mostly between 1961 and 1964, the photographer has translated into print his personal recollections of photographic forays along the Colorado River and its canyons before Glen Canyon Dam changed that region forever. Bruce Berger's companion piece is an articulate, humorous diary of his twoweek, 120-mile trip down the Colorado River in southeastern Utah in October, 1962. His 1975 postscript deplores the loss of flora, fauna, prehistoric architecture, and geologic wonders in exchange for Lake Powell. For additional information about Glen Canyon and vicinity there are suggested readings.

GRAND CANYON WILDFLOWERS.

By Arthur M. Phillips III; Photography by John Richardson. Grand Canyon Natural History Assn., P. O. Box 399, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023. 1979. 145 р. $6.50, softcover.

This beautiful, sturdy take-along is well indexed, with a glossary of essential terms and a very pertinent bibliography. There are meticulous descriptions and locations of flora by geographical distribution and seasons of occurrence. Arrangement is by color a real boon for us botanical unsophisticates then within categories used in most botanical manuals. The very instructive introduction is to climatology and botany of the North and South rims and the inner Canyon. The many photographs are of superior quality. This book is a must for all who traverse the Canyon by foot or water.

THE GRAND CANYON: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL.

Robert C. Euler and Frank Tikalsky, Eds. Foreword by Bruce Babbitt. Western Montana College Foundation, Dillon, MT 59725. 1980. 88 p. $7.25, softcover (plus 55 mail-ing).

A number of experts devoted to the Grand Canyon have written essays on their special area of expertise. Following Governor Babbitt's general remarks are chapters on Canyon geology, flora and fauna, ecology, history, archaeology, river running and exploration, and hiking trails. Also considered is the serious threat of the impact of man, including his dams, which changes the nature of the Canyon and the Colorado River and adds human pollution. At the end of each topic is a short bibliography. Interspersed throughout the text are 27 fine color photographs. Of varying length and depth, these essays help one acquire new perspectives and aesthetic enrichment from the Grand Canyon experience.

THE BRIGHT EDGE; A GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL PARKS OF THE COLORADO PLATEAU.

By Stephen Trimble. Museum of Northern Arizona Press, Rte. 4, Box 720, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. 1979. 74 p. $4.95, softcover.

The Colorado Plateau could have encompassed one gigantic park, as the author suggests. Instead, there are eight National Parks along the Colorado River, the attractions and interrelation-ships of which are discussed here. The author's reverence for the ever-changing Colorado is evident in his informa-tive introduction. Trimble examines the River, its surrounding land, prehistoric and historic dwellers and overwhelming scenery. There are quotations from others who have written about the River and its canyons. The publication ends on a note of concern regarding environmental preservation versus attractiveness of the area's energy potential. Detailed location maps and vivid color photographs, many by the author, acquaint one with the National Parks and Recreation Areas, including how to get to and enjoy them.

MERRILL MAHAFFEY; MONUMENTAL LANDSCAPES.

Foreword by Bruce Babbitt. Northland Press, P. O. Box N, Flagstaff, AZ 86002. 1979. 58 p. $9.95, softcover.

In his introduction Governor Babbitt terms Mahaffey the "best canyon painter since Thomas Moran." As Rudy Turk mentions in his biographical sketch, the artist-teacher knows western landscapes intimately, was nurtured by them and is at one with them. The Arizona Landscape Project launched the Colorado-Arizona painter's monumental abstract-realistic landscape phase. His knowledge of geology and stratigraphy help him portray the many moods and shimmering stillness of the Canyon. Jim Cowlin's black and white photographs have as Captions a running commentary by the artist at work. Viewers become immersed in Mahaffey's vast canvasses of the Canyon's variegated scenery, aptly caught in color by Mike Deucy.

Yours Sincerely

Comments and questions from around the state, the nation, and the world.

Dear Editor, Fair's fair... I wrote to gripe about the solar heating issue. So today I'm writing to say that the August AHM is my kind of issue. Please also pass along my kudos to those unsung heroes, the pressmen at W. A. Krueger. Having been in the publishing business for 17 years, I know something about the kind of challenge they face. They're outstanding.

Dear Editor, Incredible! I really enjoyed your description of colors which are truly "the music of the eyes." Indeed, Arizona is like living in a kaleidoscope filled with a different music each day... Congratulations! I look forward to more of such natural discoveries in future issues.

Dear Editor, Usually your magazine provides a feast for the eyes with its superb photography, and the text takes second place. Not so with "Colors - The Music of the Eyes." Never have I read, and reread, a more exquisitely expressed piece of prose that complements the beautiful pictures to perfection.

Dear Editor, "Colors-the Music of the Eyes," was extremely moving for me As an artist myself... Mr. Foster's descriptions gave me goosebumps. I will keep it near me and reread it often to draw inspiration as I paint.

Dear Editor, A fantastic piece of putting together text and a great bunch of photos. By just looking at the picture on page 31 (August, 1980), I can actually hear the music.

Dear Editor, Sometimes when a man becomes absolutely tops in his field he begins to play games on the rest of us. As "King of the Ground Glass," David Muench has an on-going shenanigan where he most often rewards the observant person with something extra special My August issue arrived and he has done it again The photo "White Mountain Polyphonics" on pages 20-21 wouldn't be anything without that little ground squirrel posed and looking his best.

Dear Editor, Since I am a musician, I am especially awed by Foster's (AHM August, 1980) appropriate analogies. In the words of Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Oh earth I cannot hold thee close enough."

Dear Editor, The verbal vision of "Colors," August, 1980, was read aloud twice by my family, adding another dimension to an Arizona masterpiece. You're terrific.

Dear Editor, The song title Everything is Beautiful could describe your August issue. I have visited Arizona many times, and each time I have been surprised at the many changing colors.Dear subscribers all, Complimentary letters for Jack Foster's article, "Colors - The Music of the Eyes," has reached the flood stage. Congratulations also go to all the photographers, printers, typesetters, layout and production people who were involved in this undertaking. But first and foremost, a soul-felt thank you goes to the living earth and that part of America known as The Great Southwest.

Dear Editor, Too bad someone didn't catch the misspelling of Berlioz on page 27 of the August issue. Otherwise it's a masterpiece Dear Grace, What's this a discordant note? Thank you for bringing it to our attention and, you may rest assured, we will try to do better next month.

35mm COLOR SLIDES

This issue: 35mm slides in 2" mounts, 1 to 15 slides, 50 each, 16 to 49 slides, 45 each, 50 or more, 3 for $1.25. Allow three weeks for delivery. Address: Slide Department, Arizona Highways, 2039 West Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85009.

(Inside Back Cover) The American Nile, like its Egyptian counterpart, is the lifeblood of an arid land.

(Back Cover) Old England comes dramatically alive at Lake Havasu City, along the banks of the Colorado River.