  Arizona's Pioneer Northwest History of the Southern Nevada Point Assuredly within the purview of this work is the settlement of what now is the southern point of Nevada, a part of the original area of New Mexico and, hence, included within the Territory of Arizona when created in 1863. This embraced the district south of latitude 37, westward to the California line, west and north of the Colorado River. The main stream of the district is the Virgin, with a drainage area of 11,000 square miles, Muddy River and Santa Clara Creek being its main tributaries. It is a torrential stream, subject to sudden floods and carrying much silt. A section of its valley in the northwestern corner of the present Arizona, near Littlefield, is to be dammed in the near future for the benefit of small farms that have been cultivated for many years and for carrying out irrigation plans of much larger scope. Especial interest attaches to this district through the fact that its area once was embraced within the now almost forgotten Arizona County of Pah-ute or was part of the present Arizona county of Mohave. In the Bancroft Library at Berkeley, much information concerning the Nevada point was found in a series of pioneer maps. Of very early designation were old Las Vegas Springs and Beaver Dams, the latter now known as Littlefield. South of the 37th parallel, on a map of 1873, are found Cane Springs, Grapevine Springs and West Point, with Las Vegas (Sp., The Meadows) and Cottonwood as stations on the Mormon road, which divided to the westward at the last-named point. The main road to Callville appears to have been down the Virgin for a short distance from St. Thomas, and then to have led over the hills to the westward. From Callville, a road connected with the main highway at Las Vegas. A map of California, made by W.M. Eddy in 1853, has some interesting variations of the northwestern New Mexico nomenclature. The Muddy is set down as El Rio Atascoso (Sp., "Boggy") and Vegas Wash as Ojo del Gaetan (galleta grass?). Nearby was Agua Escorbada, where scurvy grass probably was found. There also was Hernandez Spring. There was an outline of the Potosi mining district. North of Las Vegas on a California map of 1864, was placed the "Old Mormon Fort." Reference by the reader is asked to the description of the Old Spanish Trail, which was followed partially by the line of the later Mormon road. On a late map of the section that was lost by Arizona to Nevada, today are noted only the settlements of Bunkerville, Moapa, Logan, St. Joseph, Mesquite, Overton and St. Thomas. There is a ferry at Rioville, at the mouth of the Virgin, and another is at Grand Wash. The name of Las Vegas is borne by a railroad station on the Salt Lake and Los Angeles line, a few miles from the Springs. There are the mining camps of Pahrump, Manse, Keystone, El Dorado and Newberry. The westernmost part of the triangle, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, is occupied by the great Amargosa desert, which descends abruptly on the California side into the sink of Death Valley to below sea level. There has been no development of large value in this strip. Its interest to Arizona is merely historical. Today, few Arizonans know that Pah-ute County once existed as an Arizona subdivision, or that Nevada took a part of Arizona, or that later, Nevada was given full sixty miles expansion eastward of her boundary line, at the expense of both Arizona and Utah. The natural boundary line in that section between Nevada and Arizona would have been the Virgin River. [Illustration: Map] The information contained in this chapter has been gathered from diverse sources, but largely from the records of the Church Historian at Salt Lake, wherein, practically, is the only history of the Mormon settlements of the southwestern section of what was and is known as "Utah's Dixie." The southern Nevada point had some value in a mineral way. As early as 1857, Mormons worked the Potosi silver mines, eighteen miles southwest of Las Vegas. Little data is at hand concerning their value. In Bancroft is found this sober chronicle: "Believing the mines to be lead, Brigham Young sent miners to work them, in anticipation of war with the United States, but the product was found too hard for bullets and the mines were abandoned." The Congressional Act of May, 1866, giving Nevada all that part of Arizona lying between the Colorado River and California, from about longitude 114, took from Arizona 31,850 square miles. This followed the extension of Nevada eastward for one degree of longitude. Annexed was appropriation of $17,000 for surveys. Missionaries of the Desert In the record of the Whipple expedition of 1853-4, is found evidence of Mormon influence already material in the Southwest. Whipple thought highly of the agricultural possibilities of the valley of the Colorado River, above the mouth of Bill Williams' Fork and wrote, "The Mormons made a great mistake in not occupying the valley of the Colorado." This Whipple expedition made a painful journey from the Colorado across the Mohave desert and, on March 13, 1854, struck what even then was known as the Mormon Road. The next day Whipple met a party of Mormons en route to Salt Lake. He told them of the murder of one of his Mexican herders by the Paiutes, but the travelers expressed no fear. They said they were at peace with the Indians, a statement over which Whipple expressed surprise. About the earliest American occupation of the southern Nevada point available in the records upon which this office has worked, appears to have been the detail by Brigham Young in 1854 of a party of thirty young men "to go to Las Vegas, build a fort there to protect immigrants and the United States mail from the Indians, and to teach the latter how to raise corn, wheat, potatoes, squash and melons." The missionary party arrived at Las Vegas June 14, 1855. Four days later was started construction of an adobe fort on the California, road, on an eminence overlooking the valley. This fort, 150 feet square, had walls, upon a stone foundation, fourteen feet high, with bastions on the southeast and northwest corners. Gates were not procured until the following year. Houses were built against the inside of the wall and lots were drawn to decide just where each of the brethren should erect his dwelling. There was a garden plot, just below, on the creek, and small farms were provided nearby. Inside the fort was a schoolhouse, in which meetings also were held, this indicating that families soon followed the pioneer missionaries. It is told that "the gospel was preached and that many Indians were converted and baptized." One of these missionaries was Benjamin Cluff, who in later years became a prominent member of the Gila Valley settlements in Arizona. In his biography is found notation that the Las Vegas missionaries worked in lead mines, assumed to have been those in the Potosi section. Some of this lead undoubtedly went back to Utah but, happily, was not used at the time of the 1858 invasion. Another notable member was Wm. C. A. Smoot who died in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1920, and who was one of the original Pioneers who reached Salt Lake July 24, 1847. Having been the last of the first pioneer company to enter the valley, it was quite in keeping that he was the last of the company to leave the valley for the celestial shores. Here there might be notation that of the venerated Salt Lake Pioneers, Of the Pioneers of especial distinction, the following-named were later visitors to Arizona: Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Geo. A. Smith, Erastus Snow, Amasa M. Lyman and Lorenzo D. Young. Missionaries John Steele and Wm. A. Follett were former Battalion members. Rufus C. Allen, who was Private No. 1 of the First Company of the Mormon Diplomatic Dealings with the Redskins With the exception of the missionaries and the travelers between Utah and San Bernardino, the white man had little place in the southern point of Nevada in the early days. At hand, however, is a tale of the adventures of Ira Hatch, who was sent into the lonely, barren desert in the hope that something of missionary value might be done with the Indians. These Indians, Paiutes, were described as "always ready to attack the weak and defenseless traveler, including any opportunity to prey upon the animals of the watchful and strong." Nevertheless missionaries from southern Utah attempted Christianization. Whatever their degree of success, and though often in serious danger, they made the redskins understand that, personally, they were friendly. This missionary effort, it was hoped, would serve to make safer the through road. Elder Hatch, in January, 1858, was sent alone into the Muddy Valley, 100 miles from the nearest settlement, Santa Clara. He was among the savages for two weeks, camped in a broken-down wagon left by one of the Crismons. His main trouble was in saving food from the Indians, who descended upon him like locusts and manifested their friendliness by stealing everything they could carry away. Hatch held the fort, however, translating and serving as guide for travelers, and occasionally having to threaten with his pistol redskins who menaced him with their bows and arrows. After a fortnight, Jacob Hamblin sent him a companion, Thales Haskell, another noted pioneer, and together the two spent the balance of the winter in the lonely outpost. There was an interesting diversion in the passage of Col. Thos. L. Kane, the statesman who had done so much for the Mormon people at the time of exodus from Nauvoo and who later served so effectively as a mediator between Deseret and the national government. Kane, with a party, was on his way from California to Salt Lake. He had an idea of creating a haven of refuge for beleagured travelers in a cave about sixty miles northeast of Overton. In this cave he had placed bottles of medicine, which he wished the Indians to understand was good only for white men. This refuge he called the "Travelers' Home." It had been known as "Dr. Osborn's Cave." A number of the Indians were gathered and a treaty was concluded. At this meeting there developed the unusual condition that Hatch had spent so much time with the Indians that his English was very imperfect and broken, while Colonel Kane's language was of cultured sort, unfamiliar and almost unintelligible to Hatch. So a third person (Amasa M. Lyman) had to interpret between Kane and Hatch and the latter then interpreted to the Indians, the return message going the same route back to the Colonel. Inasmuch as the treaty had been upon the basis of certain trade articles that were to have been furnished by the Utah Indian agent, and were not furnished, the contract was not completed. Ammon M. Tenney, a mere lad, spent several months in Las Vegas at that time. Hatch and Haskell returned to their homes in Utah in March, 1858. Near Approaches to Indian Warfare Continual trouble was known with the Indians, though, after a few years, was written, "many of the Indians are being taught to labor and are learning better things than to rob and murder." When the first agricultural settlers came, they were visited by To-ish-obe, principal chief of the Muddy Indians, and a party of other redskins, who transmitted information that had been sent them to the effect that President Erastus Snow had planned to poison the Muddy and kill off all the Indians. The chief was disabused of the idea. The same chief appears to have been decent enough. In February, 1866, there is record how he had declared outlaws two Indians who had stolen horses and cattle. One of these Indians, Co-quap, was taken prisoner and was killed at St. Thomas. About the same time, Indians on the Muddy, above Simonsville (a grist mill site), stole wheat from about thirty acres and left for the mountains, threatening the Muddy settlers. Within a month, 32 head of horses, mules and cattle were driven off by Indians, from St. Joseph and Simonsville. An expedition of 25 men started after the marauders, but failed to recapture the stock. 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. [Illustration: A STREET IN FREDONIA] [Illustration: WALPI-ONE OF THE HOPI (MOQUI) VILLAGES] [Illustration: WARREN M. JOHNSON'S HOUSE AT PARIA FERRY] [Illustration: 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 "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 shipments 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 passed by Johnston on his way downstream. The river was at low stage and the Explorer butted 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 petitioned 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. Godfrey 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. In June, the river is at flood, with danger always present in floating trees and driftwood, muddy torrents coming from the melting snows of the Rocky Mountains. In the autumn the river falls, until in places there are mere trickles around the muddy banks. Navigation, perforce, had to be suspended. These were the conditions under which it was proposed to make of the Colorado the great trade artery of the inter-mountain region. The Colorado now absolutely has lost all possibilities for commerce. Pioneer conditions are about the same as far southward as the Laguna dam. This structure, built to divert water for the Yuma and Imperial valleys, absolutely bars the river channel for navigation. Above it and below it now are only ferries and a few power boats. The great Imperial canal system, at a point below Yuma, for much of the year drains the river flow. Where good-sized steamers once plied from tidewater, at the head of the Gulf of California, now, for months at a time, is only a dry sand wash. To this extent the advance of civilization has obliterated a river that ranks, in geography at least, among the greatest streams of the United States. Establishing a River Port Callville, established on the Colorado by Anson Call in December, 1864, for a while was the southernmost outpost of Mormon settlement. Call himself was a pioneer of most vigorous sort. November 24,1851, he was one of the founders of Fillmore, Millard County, 150 miles south of Salt Lake, a settlement for a while the capital of the Territory of Utah, created during the administration of President Millard Fillmore in 1850. In the following year he built Call's Fort in Box Elder County, in the extreme northern part of Utah. In a compilation made by Andrew Jenson is found definite statement that the settlement made by Anson Call on the Colorado was "as agent for the Trustee in Trust (the President) of the Church in December, 1864, according to a plan which was conceived of at that time to bring the Church immigration from Europe to Utah via Panama, the Gulf of California and up the river to this landing." In conjunction with this, a number of leading merchants of Salt Lake City combined to build a warehouse on the Colorado, with a view to bringing goods in by the river route. This company also constituted Anson Call its agent. November 1, Call was directed to take a suitable company, locate a road to the Colorado, explore the river, find a suitable place for a warehouse, build it and form a settlement at or near the landing. All these things he accomplished. At St. George he employed Jacob Hamblin and son, Angus M. Cannon and Dr. Jas. M. Whitmore. The journal of travel tells of leaving the mouth of the Muddy, continuing down the Virgin twelve miles, thence up what was named Echo Wash, twelve miles, and thence twenty miles, generally southwestward, to the Colorado, a mile below the narrows, above the mouth of Black Canyon, where, on December 2, was found a black rocky point, considered a suitable spot for the erection of a warehouse, above high-water mark. This later was named Callville. With the exception of a small bottom around the warehouse site, the country was considered most barren and uninviting. Two and a half miles down the river was the mouth of Las Vegas Wash, up which Call and party traveled to old Fort Vegas, where a half-dozen men were found established. In the company's journeyings, El Dorado Canyon was found occupied by miners and there were some adventurers on Cottonwood Island, a tract of bottom land nearby. The expedition was ferried across the Colorado to Hardy's Landing, 337 miles above Yuma. Hardy had a rather extensive establishment, with a store, warehouse, hotel, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop and several dwelling houses. Possibly notable was the launching at that time of the barge "Arizona," fifty feet long and ten feet wide, sharp at both ends and flat-bottomed. By river there was a visit to Fort Mohave. This, garrisoned by forty soldiers of the California Column, was of log and willow houses, the latter wattled and daubed with mud. There was reference by Call to the Colorado River mosquito, described as "very large." Returning to Call's Landing, there were measured off forty lots, each 100 feet square, and a start was made by leaving Thomas Davids and Lyman Hamblin, on December 18, to dig the foundation of the warehouse. This expedition made a preliminary survey of the Muddy and declared settlement upon the stream entirely feasible. Wm. H. Hardy of Hardyville, or Hardy's Landing, was not at home when Anson Call visited in December, but returned soon thereafter and, January 2, 1865, started northward with his new barge, propelled by poles and oars and a sail. A distance of 150 miles by river was made in twelve days. Though later some jealousy was expressed over the activities at Callville, Hardy proffered all possible assistance and expressed belief that from July to November steamers could ply from the mouth of the Colorado to Call's Landing. The warehouse was built, but appears to have been little used. Capt. Geo. A. Johnston had submitted the Church authorities formal proposals to ship direct from New York to the mouth of the river, in barques of about 600 tons burden, preferably arriving at the river mouth in the fall. The cost of freight from New York to the river mouth was set at $16 a ton, and the cost to El Dorado Canyon at $65, but, figuring currency at 50 cents, the freight was estimated to cost $7.16 per 100 pounds in currency. In March, 1865, Capt. Thos. E. Trueworthy, told of opposition at Hardy's Landing to the establishment of Callville. He had started for Call's Landing with 100 tons of freight, including 35,000 feet of lumber, to find that Call had returned to Utah. Trueworthy left his boat and cargo below Callville and went on to Salt Lake. He stated the trip from the mouth to Call's Landing would take a boat a month, there being difficulty in passing rapids and in finding wood for fuel. Historian B.H. Roberts states: "There was shipment of some goods from that point, though at first there were some disappointments and dissatisfaction among the Salt Lake merchants who patronized the route. Two steamboats, the Esmeralda and Nina Tilden made the trip somewhat regularly from the mouth of the Colorado to Call's Landing, connecting with steamships plying between the mouth of the Colorado and San Francisco. The owners of the river boats carried a standing advertisement in the Salt Lake Telegraph, thus seeking trade, up to December 1, 1866. Doubtless the certainty of the early completion of the transcontinental railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean stopped the development of this southwest route for immigration and freight, via Utah's southern settlements and the Colorado River." The port of Callville had only a short life. In June, 1869, the Deseret News printed an article that Callville then had been abandoned. This was in connection with the escape of three horsethieves from St. George. These men wrenched four large doors from the Callville warehouse for the construction of a raft, upon which they committed themselves to the river at flood time, leaving horses and impedimenta behind. Whether they escaped has not been chronicled. As late as 1892, the walls of the old storehouse still were standing, the only remaining evidences of a scheme of broad ambition designed to furnish a new supply route for a region comprising at least one-fourth of the national expanse. [Illustration: PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG AND PARTY AT THE MOUTH OF THE [Illustration: BAPTISM OF SEVERAL HUNDRED SHIVWITS INDIANS BY DAVID H. |
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