A Walk Through History

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Geo: 36.806, -111.639

"In the early 1870's the leaders of the Mormon church in Utah wanted to colonize Arizona, but the Grand Canyon was in the way. Here at the mouth of the Paria River was the only place they could build a road to the river, cross on a ferry and continue south," explains W. L. Rusho and P.T.Reilly, historians of Lees Crossing and the Colorado river.
This area echos amongst the footsteps of early explorers, Indian traders, miners and most recently, tourists.
Every boat that floats the Grand Canyon puts in here. Every one. This is the only place for hundreds of miles where the canyon walls receed and one can access the Colorado.
We walked the River Trail this evening, reading this fastinating history and enjoying the evening light on the vermillion colored cliffs.
We're staying right under the cliff walls at the Marble Canyon Lodge--a perfect location on the Vermillion Cliffs scenic highway.

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Photos

The Colorado river in evening glow
The river calms at Lee's Ferry to reflect the reds and golds of the cliffs rising straight off the canyon floor.

A window on history
Bob reads the Lees Ferry Area Walking Guide, which tells us that at one time this place had the feel of a small village. Now part of the upper reaches of Grand Canyon National Park, the area was a'bustle with a very different kind of activity in the late 1800's. Miners, explorers, settlers, cattle, oxen, opportunists and entreprenuers.

Boiler, circa 1910, for gold mining in sand
Theoretically, says Rusho, water forced into the sand by steam produced by this boiler, would force sand and gold up through a casing.
Oops, didn't work--kept plugging up with some nasty stuff that remained unnamed, and the mine was abandoned.
The stuff? It was later identified as "rhenium, now a very valuable super-conductor, but worthless at the time."

The boiler in action
Charles Spencer, sure of riches to come, puts wheels on this thing and drags it by oxen 140 miles from Flagstaff.
The intent being to force air and water down a pipe into the gravel, thereby shooting the gold up into his lap.
Dang.
A mere couple of feet into the shale he hits imprenetrable rock. Oops. So he moves it across the river on the ferry and trys again.

A lonely outpost in the 1800's, Lees Ferry
John Doyle Lee, excommunicated polygamist of the Mormon church, was sent by Mormon president Brigham Young to build a ferry across the Colorado River at what is now known as Lees Ferry, the only spot for 500 miles where wagons and oxen could get down the canyon to the water. This was key to opening Arizona to settlement. You had to get across that river and there just wasn't any other way down to it.

Lees Ferry, where the boats put in/take out
If you haven't been to this country and seen that that river is in just a deep--very deep--crack in the ground, it's hard to believe that for 500 miles, this was the ONLY place you could cross.
I told Bob--500 miles??!? No way. WE just crossed at Page. What the...?
Oh.
That was a bridge.
Oh dear. Imagine this country without bridges and you start to wrap your head around it.
See that slanted, sort of flat-surfaced escarpment across the river? That's Lees Backbone, the route the pioneers had to take up the other side of the canyon. And it's not flat. It's rugged and nasty. They said it was the worst part of the trip as they had to double team the oxen for the grueling 350' climb.

Our lodging, the Marble Canyon Lodge
Like a hunting camp--adaquate, but sparse with lots of energy and anticipation around it.
Our room had a bed, bath, sink and bar of soap.
No coffee maker, no fu-fu shampoos, no remote. Nothing to detract your mind from the expanse out your door. One so vast your eyes pop back and forth between your ears like yo-yos trying to see it all.