Lost, A Desert River and its Native Fishes - Sierra Club

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—The river bottom is several miles wide and covered with willow, cottonwood, and mesquite, with usual underwood and grass... The highest water is in June and July and the banks generally overflowed... The whole distance from the junction [Gila River confluence] to the mouth is about 150 miles... The junction is an important point-a military post there can be supplied by the river, either by anchoring a store ship in the mouth and running a small stern-wheel steamer, not drawing more than 2² to 3 feet of water; or, in June and July, when a boat drawing 6 to 8 feet can ascend without difficulty [Lingenfelter, 1978].“ Lieutenant Joseph Ives œ 1858 Lieutenant Joseph Ives of the U.S. Office of Explorations and Surveys led the first scientific expedition up the Colorado River. His mission was to test whether it was navigable by steamboat. A Philadelphia shipbuilding company was contracted to build a shallow-draft boat that could navigate the shallow Colorado River. The boat was built and dismantled, then transported by the schooner Monterey to the river‘s mouth where it was reassembled and christened the Explorer (Fig. 1). In December 1857, the adventure up the Colorado River began. Because of normal low flows during winter and a prolonged drought, progress was slowed by sandbars, snags, and frequent stops for fuel. Lieutenant Ives reported: MUELLER AND MARSH 3 —On one or both sides there is usually a fringe of willow and cottonwood, or a thicket of high reeds. The channel is circuitous, but thus far there have been no very sharp bends. In few places has the depth of water been less than twelve feet. Slues branch in every direction, and many of them might mislead a person unacquainted with the localities. The current has been moderate, averaging about two-and-a-half knots an hour. At this place, which is 40 miles above Robinson‘s Landing, [mouth of the Colorado River] the tide raises the river two or three feet. The water is perfectly fresh, of a dark red color, and opaque from the quantity of mud held in suspension...The width of this portion of the river varies from oneeighth to half a mile. The course is exceedingly tortuous. The depth in the channel is from eight to twenty feet, but bars are frequently encountered where there are not more than two feet of water...The period of highest water is in the early part of July, when this velocity is increased to five or six miles. The average height is then ten feet greater...“ It took 11 days to reach Fort Yuma where Lieutenant Ives organized the expedition (Ives, 1861). The expeditionary team included a Prussian sketch illustrator, Balduin Möllhausen, who provided the first known illustrations of the Colorado River (Ives, 1861; Huseman, 1995). Fig. 1. Henrich Balduin Möllhausen. Steamboat Explorer (Chimney Peak) water color and gouache on paper, 1858, 1988.1.1. Courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
4 INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY REPORT--2002-0010 Although the 45-foot Explorer was built specifically to navigate the shallow river waters, it frequently became grounded. The first grounding occurred near Fort Yuma where it took nearly a day before the crew freed the boat. Ives wrote: —The delay would have been less annoying if it had occurred a little higher up. We were in plain sight of the fort, and knew that this sudden check to our progress was affording an evening of great entertainment to those in and out of the garrison.“ —The shifting of the channel, the banks, the islands, the bars is so continual and so rapid that a detailed description, derived from the experiences of one trip, would be found incorrect, not only during the subsequent year, but perhaps in the course of a week, or even a day ...“ The expedition was nearly stopped at the Chemehuevie Valley (now Upper Lake Havasu) because the river was so shallow. The braided channel was nearly a mile wide. The crew dragged and pushed their boat and eventually reached deeper water. This gave Möllhausen time to sketch the upper end of the present-day site of Lake Havasu (Fig. 2). Further upstream at Cottonwood Valley [now inundated by Lake Mohave], they encountered several Fig. 2. Henrich Balduin Möllhausen. Distant view of the Mohave range of Needles, water color and gouache on paper, 1858, 1988.1.25. Courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Indians seining fish. Möllhausen sketched the event (Fig. 3) and Lieutenant Ives noted in his journal: —...their net was made of coarse mesh pieced together from fine, but very strong, threads of inner bark fiber. The net was about four feet high and about thirty feet long. Long stakes every four feet held the net upright in the water and secured it Fig. 3. Henrich Balduin Möllhausen. Cottonwood Valley, water color and gouache on paper, 1858, 1988.1.33. Courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
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Lost, A Desert River and its Native Fishes - Sierra Club

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