Eighth in a Series: Steamboats on the Colorado

CAVALCADE Eighth in a Series of Historical Paintings by Bill Ahrendt STEAMBOATS ON THE COLORADO

In 1861 silver was discovered in Eldorado Canyon at the southern tip of present-day Nevada, an event followed shortly after by gold strikes near La Paz in what would soon be Arizona Territory. Thousands of miners, merchants, and settlers poured into the country bordering the Colorado River, bringing into existence hundreds of mines and dozens of bustling camps.

In turn, this Great Colorado River Rush helped spur the spread of Anglo-American civilization in the Southwest from west to east. Prime movers in all this activity were the steamboats, transporting cargo and passengers from ocean vessels-some of them arriving in the 1850s at Robinson's Landing, near the Colorado's mouth-to river ports well to the north. From these key points, overland travel routes swung eastward to mines and military posts, and later to ranches, farms, and growing communities.

First of the steamboat operators on the Colorado was James Turnbull, who launched the Uncle Sam in 1852. Soon George Johnson & Co. began operating several vessels. The Johnson fleet burgeoned when it suddenly found itself trying to satisfy the enormous demands for shipping that followed the metal strikes. The key river port of Arizona City (which would not be renamed Yuma until 1873) grew literally by leaps and bounds to become the largest town on the river and the third largest in the territory.

Meanwhile, other steamboat companies got under way, and between 1852 and 1877, when the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived at Yuma, 15 different steamers plied the waters of the Colorado. And despite the evolution of other transportation, steamboats continued operating on the river until 1916-a total of 24 in all.

waters of the Colorado. And despite the evolution of other transportation, steamboats continued operating on the river until 1916-a total of 24 in all.

Before dams tamed the mighty Colorado, it might run swift and deep at one time, calm and shallow at another. In places the river could fan out to a third of a mile in width, with sandbars constantly shifting the main channel. Sometimes there was no channel, just shallow water flowing mere inches above the bars.

With such an unpredictable watercourse, it was no wonder that the captains who commanded the steamers became legends in their own time. Among them were Isaac Polhamus, Jr., Jack Mellon, Charles Overman, and Steve Thorn, all of whom possessed the rare aptitude to outsmart the Colorado.

To master the sandbars, Jack Mellon devised a special technique. Bringing his boat around, stern to the bar, he would "crawfish" through the sand, cutting a channel with his stern wheel. In this way, the boat could be taken through sections of river where there was as little as two inches of water running above the sand.

The paddle wheel steamers of the Colorado, unlike the elegant and often palatial ships of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, were simple and rough, designed for hard work. They did their job well and contributed in a vital way to a picturesque era. In memory, the romance of those riverboat days lives on as a colorful chapter in Southwestern history.