--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Joseph F. Anderson collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 7 published: 1914-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph F. Anderson, "Discoveries on the Colorado—VII," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 7 (May 1914): 652–661.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1707unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1707unse start_page: 652 end_page: 661 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1707unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # 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.