Part 12 (1/2)
Andrew S. Gibbons (who had come in 1864), sought To-ish-obe on the upper Muddy, to interpret and make peace, if possible. In June at St. Joseph was a conference between Erastus Snow and a group of the leading Indians, representing the Santa Clara, Muddy, Colorado and other bands, in all seven chiefs and 64 of their men. The conference was an agreeable one and it was felt that some good had been done.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A STREET IN FREDONIA]
[Ill.u.s.tration: WALPI-ONE OF THE HOPI (MOQUI) VILLAGES]
[Ill.u.s.tration: WARREN M. JOHNSON'S HOUSE AT PARIA FERRY]
[Ill.u.s.tration: CROSSING THE COLORADO AT THE PARIA FERRY]
There was more trouble with the Indians in February, 1868, when the tribesmen on the upper Muddy, where a new settlement had been formed, came to the camp in anger, with blackened faces, armed with bows and arrows, to demand pay for grain lands that had been occupied by the whites. Gibbons acted as peacemaker, but told, ”the fact that the brethren were all well armed appeared to pacify the Indians more than any arguments.” The farmers formed in battle line, with Helaman Pratt as captain, Gibbons in front, interpreting.
The Indians of the region, mainly Paiutes, were a never-ending source of irritation and of potential danger to the settlers. They had grown fields of a few acres along the Muddy and hence resented the coming of the settlers who might include the aboriginal farms within their holdings.
In accordance with the traditional policy of the Church, however, conciliation was used wherever possible, though the settlers sometimes, when goaded to the last extremity, had to exhibit firearms and make a show of force.
In 1868, Joseph W. Young wrote, ”These Indians were considered about the worst specimens of the race. They lived almost in a state of nudity and were among the worst thieves on the continent. But through the kind, though determined, course pursued towards them by our brethren who have been among them, they are greatly changed for the better, and I believe I may safely say that they are the best workers of all the tribes. They are, nevertheless, Indians, and much wisdom is required to get along with them pleasantly. Brother Andrew Gibbons is worthy of honorable mention, because of the good influence that he maintains over these rude men.”
In November, 1870, the Indians were reported ”very hostile and saucy.”
The Chemehuevis and Mohaves were at war. A band of the former, about 100 or more, came into the Muddy Valley. In December a band of Wallapai came for a friendly visit.
Utilization of the Colorado River
The Colorado River drains nearly all the lands of present Mormon settlement, mainly lying betwixt the Rockies and the Sierras. The Colorado, within the United States is reckoned as only inferior to the Mississippi-Missouri and Columbia, with an annual flow sufficient to supply for irrigation needs about 20,000,000 acre feet of water. It has a drainage area of 244,000 square miles and a length of 1700 miles. It is of torrential character, very big indeed in the late spring and early summer and very low most of the remainder of the year. In years, not far distant, there will be storage dams at many points, to hold back the springtime floods from the melting of the snows of the Rockies, and from the river's flow will be generated electric power for the turning of the wheels of the Southwest. All this is in plans made by the League of the Southwest, a body now headed by Governor Campbell of Arizona. But these things are of the future, and it is the past we especially are considering.
Several attempts were made during and prior to the Civil War to make of the Colorado a highway through which Utah, southern Nevada and northern Arizona might have better transportation. The scheme was not a wild one by any means, though handicapped by the difficulties of both the maximum and minimum flows.
Inspector General J.F. Rusling had recommended that military supplies for the forces in Utah be brought in by way of the Colorado River.
Fort Yuma was visited late in 1854 by Lieut. N. Michler, of the Topographical Engineers, who wrote:
”The belief is entertained and strongly advocated that the Colorado will be the means of supplying the Mormon territory, instead of the great extent of land transportation now used for that purpose.
”Its headquarters approach the large settlements of Utah and may one day become the means of bearing away the products of those pioneers of the far West. With this idea prominent in the minds of speculators, a city on paper, bearing the name of 'Colorado City,' had already been surveyed, the streets and blocks marked out and many of them sold. It is situated on the east bank, opposite Fort Yuma.”
From 1858 to about 1882, even after the Santa Fe railroad had reached Needles, there was much traffic on the Colorado. Supplies went by river to the mines, which sent downstream occasional s.h.i.+pments of ore. Military supplies went by water to Fort Mohave or to Ehrenberg, the latter point a depot for Whipple Barracks and other posts. Salt came down stream from the Virgin River mines, for use mainly in the amalgamation processes of the small stamp mills of the period.
Steamboats on the Shallow Stream
Traffic on the river had been established as early as December, 1852.
Capt. Geo. A. Johnston, an early steamboat pilot, ferried the Beale party, in January, 1858, near where Fort Mohave later was established.
Johnston made several trips far up the river with the Jesup and with a newer steamer, the Colorado. He is understood to have gone even farther than Lieut. J. C. Ives, of the Topographical Corps, in the little steamer Explorer. This stern-wheeler made the trip in January, 1858, and was pa.s.sed by Johnston on his way downstream. The river was at low stage and the Explorer b.u.t.ted into snags and muddy banks continually. Finally there was disaster when Black Canyon was reached, when the boat ran upon a sunken rock. Ives rowed as far up as Vegas Wash.
In 1866, the Arizona Legislature, at Prescott, by resolution thanked ”Admiral” Robert Rogers, commander of the steamer Esmeralda, and Capt.
William Gilmore, for the successful accomplishment of the navigation of the Colorado River to Callville, ”effected by the indomitable energy of the enterprising Pacific and Colorado Navigation Co.,” a concern managed by Thos. E. Trueworthy, an experienced steamboat man from the Sacramento River of California. Both Arizona and Nevada Legislatures pet.i.tioned Congress to improve the stream.
Captain Johnston later formed the Colorado Steam Navigation Company and, more or less, controlled the river traffic for years. There were other noted Captains, including C.V. Meeden, Isaac Polhamus, A.D. Johnson, William Poole, S. Thorn, J.H. G.o.dfrey and J.A. Mellen.
Captain Mellen told that sometimes schooner barges were used in the lower canyons, where the wind was either upstream or downstream. When it was downstream, the upward-bound craft moored until the breeze changed to astern.
The deck hands were Cocopah or Yuma Indians, amphibious, always ready to plunge overboard to help in lightening their craft over any of the numerous sand bars. Mellen told of lying 52 days in one bar and of often being held up for a week. There was no possible mapping of the river channel, for the bars changed from week to week. Even in the earliest times, steamboats were never molested by the Indians. They seemed in awe of the puffing, snorting craft that threw showers of sparks from the smokestacks. Not infrequently, a steamer had to tie up for a few days at a point where fuel conveniently could be cut from the cottonwood or mesquite thickets.