The Romance of the Colorado River Part 1

The Romance of the Colorado River.

by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh.

PREFACE

Early in 1871, when Major Powell* was preparing for his second descent through the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, he was besieged by men eager to accompany him; some even offered to pay well for the privilege. It was for me, therefore, a piece of great good fortune when, after an interview in Chicago with the eminent explorer, he decided to add me to his small party. I was very young at the time, but muscular and healthy, and familiar with the handling of small boats. The Major remarked that in the business before us it was not so much age and strength that were needed as "nerve," and he evidently believed I had enough of this to carry me through. Certainly in the two-years, continuous work on the river and in the adjacent country I had some opportunity to develop this desirable quality. I shall never cease to feel grateful to him for the confidence reposed in me. It gave me one of the unique experiences of my life,--an experience which, on exactly the same lines, can never be repeated within our borders. Now, these thirty years after, I review that experience with satisfaction and pleasure, recalling, with deep affection, the kind and generous companions of that wild and memorable journey. No party of men thrown together, without external contact for months at a time, could have been more harmonious; and never once did any member of that party show the white feather.

I desire to acknowledge here, also, my indebtedness to Prof. A. H.

Thompson, Major Powell's a.s.sociate in his second expedition, for many kindnesses.

* I use the t.i.tle Major for the reason that he was so widely known for so long a period by it. He was a volunteer officer during the Civil War, holding the rank of Colonel at the end. The t.i.tle Major, then, has no military significance in this connection.

When his report to Congress was published, Major Powell, perhaps for the sake of dramatic unity, concluded to omit mention of the personnel of the second expedition, awarding credit, for all that was accomplished, to the men of his first wonderful voyage of 1869. And these men surely deserved all that could be bestowed on them. They had, under the Major's clear-sighted guidance and cool judgment, performed one of the distinguished feats of history. They had faced unknown dangers. They had determined that the forbidding torrent could be mastered. But it has always seemed to me that the men of the second party, who made the same journey, who mapped and explored the river and much of the country roundabout, doing a large amount of difficult work in the scientific line, should have been accorded some recognition. The absence of this has sometimes been embarra.s.sing for the reason that when statements of members of the second party were referred to the official report, their names were found missing from the list. This inclined to produce an unfavourable impression concerning these individuals. In order to provide in my own case against any unpleasant circ.u.mstance owing to this omission, I wrote to Major Powell on the subject and received the following highly satisfactory answer:

Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., January 18, 1888.

My Dear Dellenbaugh: Replying to your note of the 14th instant, it gives me great pleasure to state that you were a member of my second party of exploration down the Colorado, during the years 1871 and 1872, that you occupied a place in my own boat and rendered valuable services to the expedition, and that it was with regret on my part that your connection with the Survey ceased. Yours cordially, J. W. Powell.

Recently, when I informed him of my intention to publish this volume, he very kindly wrote as follows:

Was.h.i.+ngton, January 6, 1902.

Dear Dellenbaugh: I am pleased to hear that you are engaged in writing a book on the Colorado Canyon. I hope that you will put on record the second trip and the gentlemen who were members of that expedition. No other trip has been made since that time, though many have tried to follow us. One party, that headed by Mr. Stanton, went through the Grand Canyon on its second attempt, but many persons have lost their lives in attempting to follow us through the whole length of the canyons. I shall be very glad to write a short introduction to your book. Yours cordially, J. W. Powell.

In complying with this request to put on record the second expedition and the gentlemen who composed it, I feel all the greater pleasure, because, at the same time, I seem to be fulfilling a duty towards my old comrades. The reader is referred to Chapter XIV., and to pages 368-9 for later data on descents. Notwithstanding these the canyons remain almost terra incognita for each new navigator. There have been some who appear to be inclined to withhold from Major Powell the full credit which is his for solving the great problem of the Southwest, and who, therefore, make much of the flimsy story of White, and even a.s.sume on faint evidence that others fathomed the mystery even before White. There is, in my opinion, no ground for such a.s.sumptions. Several trappers, like Pattie and Carson, had gained a considerable knowledge of the general course and character of the river as early as 1830, but to Major Powell and his two parties undoubtedly belongs the high honour of being the first to explore and explain the truth about it and its extraordinary canyon environment. If danger, difficulty, and disaster mean romance, then a.s.suredly the Colorado of the West is ent.i.tled to first rank, for seldom has any human being touched its borderland even, without some bitter or fatal experience. Never is the Colorado twice alike, and each new experience is different from the last. Once acknowledge this and the dangers, however, and approach it in a humble and reverent spirit, albeit firmly, and death need seldom be the penalty of a voyage on its restless waters.

I have endeavoured to present the history of the river, and immediate environment, so far as I have been able to learn it, but within the limits of a single volume of this size much must necessarily be omitted.

Reference to the admirable works of Powell, Gilbert, and b.u.t.ton will give the reader full information concerning the geology and topography; Garces, by Elliott Coues, gives the story of the friars; and the excellent memoir of Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, will give a complete understanding of the travels and exploits of the real pioneers of the Rocky Mountain country. I differ with this author, however, as to the wise and commendable nature of the early trappers'

dealings with the natives, and this will be explained in the pages on that subject. He also says in his preface that "no feature of western geography was ever discovered by government explorers after 1840." While this is correct in the main, it gives an erroneous impression so far as the canyons of the Colorado are concerned. These canyons were "discovered," as mentioned above, by some of the trappers, but their interior character was not known, except in the vaguest way, so that the discovery was much like discovering a range of mountains on the horizon and not entering beyond the foothills.

For the t.i.tles of works of reference, of the narratives of trappers, etc., I refer to the works of H. H. Bancroft; to Warren's Memoirs, vol.

i. Pacific Railroad reports; and to the first volume of Lieut. Geo.

M. Wheeler's report on Explorations West of the 100th Meridian. The trappers and prospectors who had some experience on the Green and the Colorado have left either no records or very incomplete ones. It seems tolerably certain, however, that no experience of importance has escaped notice. So far as attempts at descent are concerned, they invariably met with speedy disaster and were given up.

In writing the Spanish and other foreign proper names I have in no case translated, because such translations result in needless confusion. To translate "Rio del Tizon" as Firebrand River is making another name of it. Few would recognise the Colorado River under the t.i.tle of Red River, as used, for example, in Pattie's narrative. While Colorado means red, it is quite another matter as a NAME. Nor do I approve of hyphenating native words, as is so frequently done. It is no easier to understand Mis-sis-sip-pi than Mississippi. My thanks are due to Mr. Thomas Moran, the distinguished painter, for the admirable sketch from nature he has so kindly permitted a reproduction of for a frontispiece. Mr. Moran has been identified as a painter of the Grand Canyon ever since 1873, when he went there with one of Powell's parties and made sketches from the end of the Kaibab Plateau which afterwards resulted in the splendid picture of the Grand Canyon now owned by the Government.

I am indebted to Prof. A. H. Thompson for the use of his river diary as a check upon my own, and also for many photographs now difficult to obtain; and to Dr. G. K. Gilbert, Mr. E. E. Howell, Dr. T. Mitch.e.l.l Prudden, and Mr. Delancy Gill for the use of special photographs. Other debts in this line I acknowledge in each instance and hence will not repeat here. I had hoped to have an opportunity of again reading over the diary which "Jack" Sumner kept on the first Powell expedition, and which I have not seen since the time of the second expedition, but the serious illness of Major Powell prevented my requesting the use of it.

F. S. Dellenbaugh. New York, October, 1902.

NOTE.--Since the last edition of this work was published, the inquiries of Mr. Robert Brewster Stanton have brought to light among some forgotten papers of Major Powell's at the Bureau of Ethnology in Was.h.i.+ngton the diary of Jack Sumner and also that of Major Powell himself. Both begin at the mouth of the Uinta River.

Major Powell, because of his one-armed condition, had the only life-preserver. The preserver was rubber of the inflating type and is in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, presented by Mr. Stanton who obtained it from one of the survivors in 1907.

NOTE ON THE AUTHOR'S ITINERARY

IN THE BASIN OF THE COLORADO RIVER AND ADJACENT TERRITORY (Except where otherwise stated journeys were on horseback.)

1871--By boat from the Union Pacific Railway crossing of Green River, down the Green and Colorado to the mouth of the Paria, Lee's Ferry.

Numerous side trips on foot. Lee's Ferry to House Rock Valley, and across north end of the Kaibab Plateau to the village of Kanab.

1872--Kanab to House Rock Valley and Paria Plateau. To Kanab. To southern part of Kaibab Plateau. To Kanab via s.h.i.+numo Canyon and Kanab Canyon. To Pipe Spring. To the Uinkaret Mountains and the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Toroweap Valley. To Berry Spring near St. George, along the edge of the Hurricane Ledge. To the Uinkaret Mountains via Diamond b.u.t.te. To the bottom of the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Toroweap. To Berry Spring via Diamond b.u.t.te and along the foot of the Hurricane Ledge. To St. George. To the Virgen Mountains and summit of Mt. Bangs. To Kanab via St. George. To the Aquarius Plateau via Potato Valley. To and across the Henry Mountains. To the Colorado at the mouth of Fremont River. By boat to the mouth of the Paria. To Kanab and return across the Kaibab. By boat down the Colorado to the mouth of the Kanab.

To Kanab via the Kanab Canyon. To the Uinkaret Mountains. To Kanab via Pipe Spring.

1873--To Salt Lake City, via Long Valley and the Sevier River.

1875--To terminus of Utah Southern Railway, about at Spanish Forks, by rail. To Kanab via Sevier River and Upper Kanab. To the Kaibab Plateau, De Motte Park, and the rim of the Grand Canyon. To the bottom of the Grand Canyon via s.h.i.+numo and Kanab Canyons. To Kanab via Kanab Canyon.

To the Uinkaret Mountains via Pipe Spring and the Wild Band Pockets. To the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Toroweap.

1876--To St. George across the Uinkaret Plateau. To Las Vegas, Nevada, via Beaver Dam, Virgen River, the Muddy, and the desert. To St.

George, by the desert and the old "St. Joe" road across the Beaver Dam Mountains. To the rim of the Grand Canyon, via Hidden Spring, the Copper Mine, and Mt. Dellenbaugh. To a red paint cave on the side of the canyon, about twenty-five hundred feet down. To St. George via same route. To Ivanpah, California, via the old desert road, the Muddy, Las Vegas, and Good Spring. To St. George via same route. To Kanab via Short Creek and Pipe Spring. To the Uinkaret Mountains via Pipe Spring and Antelope Valley. Across to the Shewits Plateau and to Ambush Waterpocket south of Mt. Dellenbaugh.* To the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the east side of the Shewits Plateau. To St. George via Mt. Dellenbaugh and Hidden Spring. To Kanab via Berry Spring and Pipe Spring. To Salt Lake City via Upper Kanab and the Sevier Valley.

This waterpocket, which is a very large one, has, so far as I am aware, never had an English name and I do not know the Amerind one. I have called it "Ambush" because it was the place where three of Powell's men were shot by the Shewits in 1869. See also pp. 229-30.

1884-5--By rail to Ft. Wingate, New Mexico. By rail to Flagstaff. To Flagstaff via circuit of, and summit of, San Francisco Mountain and the Turkey Tanks. By rail to the Needles, California. By rail to Manuelito, New Mexico. To Ft. Defiance. By buckboard to Keam's Canyon. To the East Mesa of the Moki. To Keam's Canyon. By buckboard via Pueblo, Colorado, to Ft. Defiance. To the San Juan River at the "Four Corners," via Lukachukai Pa.s.s and the summit of the Carisso Mountains. To Ft. Defiance via the crest of the Tunicha Plateau. By buckboard to Keam's and to the East Mesa of the Moki. To Mishongnuvi and back. By waggon to Keam's.

To Oraibe via Tewa. To Keam's via s.h.i.+mopavi and Tewa. To Holbrook by buckboard.

1899--By rail west across Green River Valley. By rail down Price River, east across Gunnison Valley, up Grand River, and over the Continental Divide.

1903--By rail to Salt Lake. By rail to Modena. By horse up the Virgen River to the narrows of Mukoontuweap. Thence via Rockville and Short Creek to Pipe Springs and Kanab. Thence to De Motte Park, Bright Angel Spring, and Greenland Point at the Grand Canyon on the Kaibab Plateau.

Thence to Kanab, Panquitch, and Marysvale. Thence by rail to Salt Lake.

1907--By rail to Grand Canyon, Arizona. By horse to Ba.s.s Camp, to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, opposite s.h.i.+numo Creek, to Habasu Canyon, to Grand Canyon Station, and to Grand View. By rail to the Needles.

THE ROMANCE OF THE COLORADO RIVER

CHAPTER I.

The Secret of the Gulf--Ulloa, 1539, One of the Captains of Cortes, Almost Solves it, but Turns Back without Discovering--Alarcon, 1540, Conquers.

In every country the great, rivers have presented attractive pathways for interior exploration--gateways for settlement. Eventually they have grown to be highroads where the rich cargoes of development, profiting by favouring tides, floated to the outer world. Man, during all his wanderings in the struggle for subsistence, has universally found them his friends and allies. They have yielded to him as a conquering stranger; they have at last become for him foster-parents. Their verdant banks have sheltered and protected him; their skies have smiled upon his crops. With grateful memories, therefore, is clothed for us the sound of such river names as Thames, Danube, Hudson, Mississippi. Through the centuries their kindly waters have borne down ancestral argosies of profit without number, establis.h.i.+ng thus the wealth and happiness of the people. Well have rivers been termed the "Arteries of Commerce"; well, also, may they be considered the binding links of civilisation.

Then, by contrast, it is all the more remarkable to meet with one great river which is none of these helpful things, but which, on the contrary, is a veritable dragon, loud in its dangerous lair, defiant, fierce, opposing utility everywhere, refusing absolutely to be bridled by Commerce, perpetuating a wilderness, prohibiting mankind's encroachments, and in its immediate tide presenting a formidable host of snarling waters whose angry roar, reverberating wildly league after league between giant rock-walls carved through the bowels of the earth, heralds the impossibility of human conquest and smothers hope. From the tiny rivulets of its snowy birth to the ferocious tidal bore where it dies in the sea, it wages a ceaseless battle as sublime as it is terrible and unique. Such is the great Colorado River of the West, rising amidst the fountains of the beautiful Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, where also are brought forth the gentler Columbia and the mighty, far-reaching Missouri. Whirling down ten thousand feet in some two thousand miles, it meets the hot level of the Red Sea, once the Sea of Cortes, now the Gulf of California, in tumult and turmoil. In this long run it is cliff bound nine-tenths of the way, and the whole country drained by it and its tributaries has been wrought by the waters and winds of ages into mult.i.tudinous plateaus and canyons. The canyons of its tributaries often rival in grandeur those of the main stream itself, and the tributaries receive other canyons equally magnificent, so that we see here a stupendous system of gorges and tributary gorges, which, even now bewildering, were to the early pioneer practically prohibitory.

Water is the master sculptor in this weird, wonderful land, yet one could there die easily of thirst. Notwithstanding the gigantic work accomplished, water, except on the river, is scarce. Often for months the soil of the valleys and plains never feels rain; even dew is unknown. In this arid region much of the vegetation is set with thorns, and some of the animals are made to match the vegetation. A knowledge of this forbidding area, now robbed of some of its old terrors by the facilities in transportation, has been finally gained only by a long series of persistent efforts, attended by dangers, privations, reverses, discouragements, and disasters innumerable. The Amerind,* the red man, roamed its wild valleys. Some tribes built stone houses whose ruins are now found overlooking its waters, even in the depths of the Grand Canyon itself, or in the cliffs along the more accessible tributaries, cultivating in the bottoms their crops. Lands were also tilled along the extreme lower reaches, where the great rock-walls fall back and alluvial soils border the stream. Here and there the Amerind also crossed it, when occasion required, on the great intertribal highways which are found in all districts, but it was neither one thing nor another to him.

*This name is a subst.i.tute for the misnomer "Indian." Its use avoids confusion.

So the river rolled on through its solemn canyons in primeval freedom, unvexed by the tampering and meddling of man. The Spaniards, after the picturesque conquest of the luckless Aztecs, were eagerly searching for new fields of profitable battle, and then they dreamed of finding among the mysteries of the alluring northland, stretching so far away into the Unknown, a repet.i.tion of towns as populous, as wealthy in pure gold, as those of the valley of Mexico whose despoiled treasures had fired the cupidity of Europe and had crammed the strong boxes of the Spanish king.