vacation tours pegleg or peralta? - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

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and merely anticipated them by one year.
Whatever the reason, 1928 was one of
the worst flood years in the history of
the river, washing out the cable anchorings
and both approaches to the ferry.
With the completion of the Navajo
Bridge only months away, it was decided
not to rebuild the ferry.
And thus a new ghost, remote and removed
from the eyes of man, might have
been left to haunt the West had it not
been that almost at the same time the
planned development of the Colorado
River began to take form. While Hoover
Dam and Lake Mead had little effect
upon the northeastern corner of Arizona,
the more recent construction of Glen
Canyon Dam, and the subsequent development
of Glen Canyon Recreational
Area, has breathed a new life into the
ghost.
What only a year ago was a deserted
trading post and an abandoned fort has
now awakened to its second century of
use by the people of the United States.
Tt might have retained some significance
as the point of division between the
upper and lower basin states as determined
by the Colorado River Compact,
but its real significance for the future
will be that of an historical monument.
Here, in the shadows of the beautiful
red sandstone walls of the Echo and Vermillion
Cliffs, the relics of the past are
being preserved, and facilities 1 for the
future are being built. A brand new
blacktop road from the north end of the
Navajo Bridge to the ferry site has just
been completed, and the campground has
ramadas, barbecue pits, sanitary facilities
with running water, and even an ice
machine. Launching ramps for small
boats are available, along with a store
and filling station for cars and boats.
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Br • flu *»« • i\ r For those who are only interested in a
quick glimpse of sandstone cliffs, it is
• another beautiful spot where desert,
mountains and river all come together.
For anyone with an interest in how the
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West began, it is a hub from which radiated
missionaries, traders, gold seekers,
and the early transportation enterprises
of freighters, steamboats, and projected
railroads. Today you can walk along the
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While utility, rather than beauty, influenced the selection of the second ferry
faint traces of the old road to the water's
edge and look across the river to the
road on the other side. With but a little
imagination, you, too, can be a pioneer,
site, nearly a mile upstream from the original, the utility is gone, beauty remains, if but for a moment. •
14 / Desert Magazine / July, 1968