Discoveries on the Colorado, VII

Plioto furnished by Miss Ida Wetherill, Cayenta Trading Post, Arizona

A TRAPPER'S "CATCH" OF FURS

At the Oljato trading post. The method of drying skins is here shown.

Discoveries on the Colorado

BY JOSEPH F. ANDERSON, OF THE UTAH ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDI-

TION, 1913

VII —Episodes and Characters in American Exploration of the

Southwest

American exploration of the Southwest began long before it

became a part of the United States. In fact, actual occupancy by

Americans, through a gradual commercial invasion, was in prog-

ress for many years before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Trappers, adventurers and traders early broke paths into a wilder-

ness which had been but slightly developed through three cen-

turies of Spanish and Mexican rule. During these centuries the

few settlements were confined to California and to the country

south of the Colorado River, in New Mexico and Texas. The

American trappers and traders were the true pioneers. Pushing

the frontier line ever further forward, they were followed by the

villages, towns and cultivated lands of their own countrymen.

The names of the heroes who did great deeds in winning the

Southwest would make a long list. A narration of the thrilling

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 653

experiences and daring achievements connected with the explora-

tion of that vast wilderness would fill many volumes. Only a few

episodes typical of many others may here be considered.

Of the many heroes of southwestern exploration, a few stand

out in bold relief, and their names have become household words

in the West. Among these are the almost forgotten Patties, Zeb-

ulon Pike, General W. H. Ashley, Jedediah Smith, Kit (Chris-

topher) Carson, Buffalo Bill (Wm. F. Cody), John C. Fremont,

"Uncle Dick" Wooton, Jim Bridger, Stephen W. Kearney, in

general command of the "Mormon Battalion," Jacob Hamblin,

John Wesley Powell and R. B. Stanton. The trail-breakers

who made good and who will be remembered for their

efforts in redeeming the wilderness, were uniformly strong char-

"SHIPS OF THE DESERT"

Breaking a trail over the rocks.

acters who met the rigid requirements of the western wilds.

Only the fittest could survive. Big-heartedness, honesty, bravery,

calm and ready judgment, skilful leadership and hospitality

were

marked explorers and scouts of the best type.

characteristics which

—

Zebulon Pike. Pike was one of the first to penetrate the

Southwest as far as New Mexico. The story of his explorations

is well known. As early as 1806 this dauntless pathfinder had

in the mountains,

crossed the plains and, after a terrible winter

Santa Fe and was taken prisoner by the Spaniards.

approached

and four

Charged with trespassing on Spanish territory, Pike

companions were taken to Chihuahua, Mexico, for trial. The evi-

brought out the fact that Pike had been exploring the Red

dence

Spain's domain. Still

River unaware that he had crossed into

however, General Salcedo decided to deport the tres-

suspicious,

through Texas, over a long.

passers not bv way of Santa Fe, but

654 IMPROVEMENT ERA

circuitous route, in the hope of preventing Pike from spying out

their country.

The publication of Pike's Journal, filled with shrewd observa-

tions on the land, so jealously guarded by Spain, attracted wide-

spread attention. He describes irrigation systems along the Rio

Grande as being so extensive as to drain that river dry during the

irrigation season. Cattle and horse raising were paramount in-

dustries, and were conducted on a large scale.He gives an inter-

esting account of a typical wild horse round-up. The Spanish

rangers, mounted on fleet horses, would proceed into the country

Photo by Harper, Utah Arch. Exped.

THE UTAH EXPEDITION

Here shown making its own trail along the steep canyon of the San Juan, at the mouth

of Starvation Gulch, southern Utah. The tuibid river roars several hundred feet below

this trail out of the reach of the thirsty expedition.

where wild horses were numerous and would round up a band of

a few hundred and run them into an inclosure built with wings

projecting from the entrance far out to either side. Care was

taken not to drive too large a herd, for then the pen would be

filled with dead bodies, over which the rest of the herd would run

and escape.

Pike's Journal attracted attention to the trading possibilities

with the hitherto almost unknown Spanish provinces of the South-

west. Thus the long journey of Pike marks the beginning of a

flourishing trade over the Old Santa Fe trail, which lasted until

the coming of the railroads many years later. In fact, Pike's jour-

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 655

ney marks the beginning of American acquisition of the South-

west, which was first an industrial and then a military acquisition

of a neglected and depressed country. Pike made other famous

explorations north and west, but they have no direct connection

with the development of the Southwest.

—

William H. Ashley. General W. H. Ashley was a fur

trader who had many a perilous experience in helping to redeem

the wilderness. He was the first white man whom we know to

have attempted the navigation of Green River toward its conflu-

ence with the Colorado.

Ashley fitted up a trapping expedition in 1825 to go down

Green River in boats. It was known to be a dangerous river, and

at that time was thought to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. Ex-

pecting to find plenty of beavers and game, they took but few pro-

visions along. At first they fared well, but they were distressed

when the canyons began to narrow and, to their surprise and hor-

ror, the animals ceased to appear. Starvation began to stare them

in the face as they made their

perilous way between the pre-

cipitous walls of the canyon.

For six days they were with-

out food and there was no es-

cape from the river over the

sheer cliffs. So demoralized

did they finally become, it is

said, that some of the men ac-

tually proposed to cast lots as

to which should be killed to

make food for the others.

Such an unethical proposition

so horrified Ashley that he

CLIFF DWELLERS' STONE STORE-

begged them hold out a

to HOUSE

while longer. Great was their In such houses have been found large

joy the next day when they quantities of corn, beans, squash seed and

emerged from the canyon into other seeds and grains. The stone door is

seen leanine against the outside wall.

an open place where they

came upon the camp of Provo (or Provost), an experienced trap-

per, who guided them to Salt Lake. This was twenty-two years

before the coming of the pioneers to the valley.

In 1834, Ashley established a trading post on the shore of

Utah Lake, and explored southward to Sevier Lake, which body

of water temporarily bore his name.

Many of the Indian tribes looked askance at the operations of

the fur traders and nearly every trapper had more or less disas-

trous conflicts with them. Ashley was no exception. In one of

these encounters, he lost all of his horses, most of his men, and

some of his boats.

656 IMPROVEMENT ERA

The Patties.— Sylvester Pattie and his son James, were

two fine types of path-

finders who operated

=outh of the Colorado

,^iver, over the Santa

Fe trail, between the

Pacific Coast and the

Missouri River. Pat-

tie was, so far as is

known, the first Amer-

ican to see the Grand

Canyon of the Col-

orado. The Patties

trapped up and down

the Gila and Colorado

Rivers as early as

1824. In 1826 they

made the trip from

the mouth of the Col-

orado to the Yellow-

stone, overland by way

of the Coloraao and

Grand Rivers, mak-

ing a traverse of the

Rocky Mountain re-

gion which has prob-

ably not been sur-

passed.

Pattie's account of

his travels contains

Photo by Ryncarson, Utah Arch. Exped. some interesting ob-

A REMARKABLE VIEW IN ARMSTRONG servations. In speak-

CANYON, SOUTHERN UTAH ing of the great num-

In the foreground is seen a "water pocket." Ex- ber of grizzly bears

plorers and travelers in this region have always de-

pended upon these tanks of rain-water, hidden in the seen on the Santa Fe

rocks, for their chief water supply. Failure to find

trail he says that he

them would result in disaster.

counted two hundred

and twenty of them during one day. Along the Colorado, below

the Gila, he and his companions caught as many as sixty beavers

in -a single night.

It was while on this Gila-Colorado expedition that they en-

countered so many hostile Indians with whom they often had to

fight. Several tribes were said to wear no clothing at all. They

had never seen white men, and at the sound of a gun they would

fallprostrate or run.

As they neared the mouth of the Colorado, not knowing

where they were going, they met the rush of the ocean tide which

almost capsized their boats, with their rich cargoes of furs. It

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 657

was then that their real predicament dawned upon them. Pattie

thus describes their feelings :

"The fierce billows shut us in from below, the river current from

above, and murderous savages on either hand on the shore. had We

a rich cargo of furs, a little independence for each one of us, could we

have disposed of them among the Spanish people whom we expected

to have found here. There were no such settlements. Every side on

which we looked offered an array of danger, famine, or death. In this

predicament, what were our furs to us?"

In an effort to escape, they worked their way up the river un-

tilthey came to an impassable rise. Here they abandoned their

boats and buried their furs in deep pits. A bare chance of saving

A MOUNTAIN-WORN TRAVELING OUTFIT

This picture was taken in the Painted Desert, Arizona. The burro is an indis-

pensable beast of burden, in that region. It is a small, durable species of donkey .in-

ported by the early Spanish explorers.

their lives lav in reaching- the California coast where, from vague

reports from the Indians, they expected to find Spanish settle-

ments. After many adventures thev finally arrived, a worn-ont

band, at the old Spanish mission of St. Catherine.

Their troubles were by no means ended. True to custom, in

dealing with Americans, the Spanish officials disarmed

them and

suffering.

thrust them into dungeons without relieving their

After enduring many cruelties at the hands of the suspicious

where

Spaniards, Pattie and his men were marched to San Diego

This was the last the elder

each was confined to a separate room.

and companions, for he fell ill in his unsani-

Pattie saw of his son

tary dungeon, and died in his cell alone. No amount

of entreaty

to allow him a farewell visit from his

would induce his captors

son. When smallpox began to rage in the settlement, James U.

Photo by Brooks, Utah Arch. Exped.

FORDING THE SAN JUAN RIVER

The expedition is seen fording this river near the old cable crossing, southern

Utah. The treacherous quicksands are seen in the foreground, with evidence of a

strong struggle by the burros that had previously gone over.

Pattie, the son, gained freedom for himself and men by vac-

cinating the neophites. Unable to recover his property, Pattie

went to Mexico City in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain redress

for his losses. On his way to Vera Cruz, the intrepid adventurer

was attacked by highwaymen and robbed of all his money. Heart

sick,he made his way through many adventures back to his home

in Cincinnati. In his extraordinary travels he had trapped for-

tunes in furs, but returned home penniless. The work of the

Patties in exploring wilderness paths remains the common her-

itage of the country.

Jedediah Smith.

skin" whose

—

Jedediah Smith was a "knight in buck-

as a trapper and pathfinder was a continual ro-

life

mance. Because he was a truly upright and religious man, and

always carried the Bible with him wherever he traveled, he was

called the Religious Jedediah. He was probably the first Ameri-

can to cross the "Great American Desert" from Great Salt Lake

southwestward to the Pacific. Brave, strong and skilful, he was

altogether a most admirable character.

Smith's most notable feat was his bold trip from Great Salt

Lake across the southwestern wilderness to San Diego, California.

—

This he did in 1826 over twenty years before the coming of the

pioneers to Salt Lake Valley. Starting with fifteen men from Salt

Lake, he passed by Utah Lake, then called Ashley Lake. This

lake had previously been discovered by Etienne Provost. Some

claim that from this point Smith took the same route followed by

Escalante, fifty years earlier, but the latest authorities place his

Photo by Rynearson, Utah Arch. Exped.

THE AUGUSTA, OR SIPUPU, BRIDGE

of

This is the largest of the White Canyon bridges, southern Utah. It has a span

two hundred sixty-one feet. The men seen standing at the top are, from

left to right,

A. C. Jensen and the author.

route along the Sevier River, passing the sites of Ephraim, Manti,

Richfield,Monroe, Junction and Panguitch. Crossing the divide,

he followed the Virgen River by the present site of St. George,

and crossed and recrossed the Colorado River. Thence his

course led him over the vast unknown deserts of the Southwest—

across Death Valley, Imperial Valley and the

Mojave Desert

to San Diego, on the Pacific.

corn,

Along the Colorado, Smith found Indians cultivating

same crops as were

beans, squash, melons, and even cotton— the

Dwellers. He had a sort of paternal

formerly grown by the Cliff

got along very

and kindly way of treating the Indians, and usually

was fraught with great hardship

well with them. The journey

especially across the barren wastes of California

and suffering,

In California Smith received much the

same treatment at the

hands of the Spaniards as the Patties had suffered. He was finally

leave the country by the

given his freedom on-condition that he

he pretended to do, bu turned north-

same route he came. This

westward over the

ward through San Joaquin valley and thence

Mountains), and across^the va£

Sierras (named by Smith, Joseph to

It was an undertaking

stretchof desert to Great Salt Lake.

daunt the stoutest heart. Often they traveled oneortwog

^absent

march without water. Their food gave out, and game was

encountered could give

The wretched Digger Indians whom they on snakes and

themselves living

but Ihtle hefp, fo? they were

HZar

expedition to Cahfornia the

jedediah Smith made a second he found

as before. This time

next year, 1827, over the same route

:

Photo by Frasier, Utah Arch. Expcd.

GRAND RI\ ER IN EARLY MORNING, NEAR MOAB, UTAH

the Indians hostile. The Mojaves fell upon the party, killing" ten

of Smith's men, and capturing all the property, maps and papers.

Smith and several other men escaped and made their way with

much peril and suffering to the Spanish settlement of San Gabriel,

on the coast. Here the imprisonments and indignities at the

hands of the Spaniards were repeated with increased animosity.

Presently he was released with the injunction that he leave Mex-

ican territory. He went northward into the Oregon country,

where he secured an enormous catch of furs. One day, when he

was absent from camp, his men were attacked by Indians, who

killed fifteen of the men, and captured the furs and other prop-

erty. Smith, with three men, escaped to Vancouver, where Mc-

Laughlin, an English trapper, received him kindly and sent out

men to recover the stolen furs from the Indians. In this they

were successful, and McLaughlin, with genuine fairness, paid

—

Smith $20,000 for the furs a striking contrast between it and

Smith's treatment by the Spaniards.

By his remarkable double-circuit of the great, unexplored

Southwest, Tedediah Smith, the "knight in buckskin," made an in-

valuable contribution toward its redemption.

THE "MORMON" BATTALION MILITARY CONQUEST

Men who, in the war with Mexico, played an important part

in the conquest of the Southwest, were such well known characters

as Sam Houston, Kearney, Doniphan, and Fremont, assisted by

the incomparable scout, Kit Carson.

Kearney and Doniphan were in command of the Army of the

West, of which the "Mormon" Battalion formed a part. This

was the army that won New Mexico, embracing Arizona, Utah

and the greater part of the Southwest, excepting Texas, for the

United States. A contemporary newspaper, commenting on this

expedition, says

:

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 661

"There is a novelty in this anabasis or invasion of Colonels Kear-

ney and Doniphan. For the first time since the creation, the starred

and striped banner of a free people is being borne over almost one

thousand miles of trackless waste, and the principles of republicanism

and civil liberty are about to be proclaimed to a nation fast sinking

in slavery's arms, and fast closing her eyes upon the last expiring

lights of religion, science and liberty."

That it was a bloodless conquest was due largely to the good

judgment and humane measures of the commanders in taking pos-

session of the country. Although the Army of the West was op-

posed by a Mexican army several times larger than Kearney's

forces, no blood was shed, and many New Mexicans left the

Mexican standard. The following extracts from a speech made by

Kearney to the conquered citizens of Santa Fe illustrate the atti-

tude of the invading army :

"New Mexicans: We have come amongst you to take possession

of New Mexico. * *

• We have come with peaceable 'intentions

and kind feelings toward you all. We come as friends to better yonr

condition and make you a part of the Republic of the United States.

We mean not to murder you or to take your property. Your families

shall be free from molestation and your women secure from violence.

• • •                              —
      

*Not a pepper, not an onion nothing will be taken from

you without pay."

Doniphan was equally humane and just. This was the same

Colonel Doniphan who had shown the "Mormon" people many

kindnesses during the Missouri persecutions. Colonel Doniphan

once saved the lives of the Prophet and his fellow-prisoners

when

brigade from the army of General

he threatened to withdraw his

the

Lucas should the latter carry out a proposed execution of

Both Kearney and Doniphan had many of the marks

brethren

the West was

of true greatness, and it was well that the Army of

under such wise and just leaders.

After the conquest of New Mexico was complete, the

Mor-

mon" Battalion and two other companies were marched to San

Missouri to

Diego, California, thus completing a march from the

the longest marches made by any army.

the Pacific—one of

Under Sam Houston, Texas won independence from

Mex-

with him as its president Voluntary

ico, and became a republic

1 his was

annexation to the United States was secured in 1845

an important step in the conquest of the Southwest. When Aaron

of Houston's much-lauded victory in

Burr, then an old man, heard

the decisive battle of San Jacinto, he

exclaimed

.thirty years too soon.

"There' You see? I was right! I was only now.

ago patriotism

What was treason in me thirty years is

lives and for-

Many obscure and forgotten heroes gave their

tunes to the winning of the Southwest.

To them also is due the

laying the foundation of

honor of redeeming the wilderness and

the prosperous commonwealths of a free people.