A Day At Lees Ferry (Day 25)

Lees Ferry

September 26, 1884 - Lees Ferry
Day 25 of 44 - Week 4 (Day 6)
Lees Ferry = 0 Miles: Total Trip Miles = 439
Total Trip Average Miles per Day = 17.6:   Average Miles per Day - Week 4 = 11.3

September 24 - 26

September 26 - 27

Note:  A video has been added on (Day 24) of the 5 miles road trip to Lees Ferry.

Original Journal Entry (posted above)

Friday 26

Arose Early to cross the river.  but the arose so we could not cross - made a dug way to land at went up on the Back Bone to examine it went boat riding in the afternoon.  Paid $1.00 per span for feed.

Final Journal Entry (Charles P Anderson Journal - p 6)

Friday Sept. 26.  Arose early to cross the river but the wind arose so we could not - made a dugway out of river - went up on the Back Bone - returned and went boat riding in afternoon.  Paid $1.00 per span for feed again.

Note: I did the same thing.  I crossed the river and went up on the Back Bone (Day 26)   I went boat riding in the afternoon (Day 24).

Anna Anderson (Charles wife) in her life sketch said:  "We (Mrs. De La Mare and herself) were very tired from driving and at the same time holding on to the little children so they would not tumble out.  The road was rough, such big rocks and boulders in the way that going was extremely difficult.  Here made camp and rested for a day and night, very thankful that all was well."

The Andersons spent the day at Lee's Ferry.  Charles went up Lee's Backbone to examine it and went boat riding in the afternoon.  This blog will explore what was there then and what is there today.  Little did Charles know that boating would be the main activity at Lee's Ferry in years to come.  You would be able to cross the river in a kayak as the flow would be controlled by a dam above it.  This video will give you an idea of what the area was like on the day they spent there.  The surroundings certainly have not changed much.  Today we will explore the surrounding on this side of the ferry.  Hopefully this video will give you the feeling of being there. 

John D. Lee for whom Lees Ferry is named

Walking Tours

Lees Ferry Walking Tour

In January, 1874, three young Navajo men were killed in a confrontation with Anglo settlers, near what is now Bryce Canyon National Park.  Tensions ran high between Navajos and white settlers, and Mormon settlers coming through Lees Ferry trickled to a halt.  In June that same year Brigham Young ordered a fort be built at Lees Ferry.  This fort was complete by mid-July.  Tensions soon eased and colonization resumed without incident.  The fort was never attacked, and became a trading post instead.  In March 1876, new ferryman Warren Johnson moved over into the fort where he lived for the next three and a half years. ("Lees Ferry Historic District - A Walking Guide" National Park Service)

Lees Ferry Fort

This building (below) was constructed in 1911 as the headquarters for Charles H. Spencer's gold mining company.  It was the first of eight stone building Spencer put up along the road to the ferry, giving the place the feel of a small village.  When Spencer failed to recover gold, he moved on in 1912 and the office stood empty.  Cowboys, miners, and travelers occasionally camped in the building.  Lees Ferry Post Office was opened in this building in 1922.  Almost no mail was sent or delivered and the post office closed seven months later. ("Lees Ferry Historic District - A Walking Guide" National Park Service)

Lees Ferry Post Office

 Lees Ferry is the launching point for most river trips within the Grand Canyon.  It is approximately one mile upstream from the Grand Canyon National Park boundary.

boat launch ramp

Scattered around the parking lot are these big white flowers
Caution this plant may be poisonous

Charles H Spencer

Ferrying was not the only means of business at this river crossing.  The American Placer Company headed by Charles H. Spencer, set down roots in 1910.  He expected to obtain gold from chinle shale.

the Spencer mining operation in 1911

evidence of the Spencer mining operation today

Investors in Spencer's company built a 92-foot steamboat to improve coal transport and gold production, but it burned most of the coal it transported in the process.  By 1912 the company was shut down.

92-foot paddlewheel steamboat built for the Spencer company

evidence of the paddlewheel steamboat

The Dominguez-Escalante Experience at the Ferry

On our trip we again run into Dominguez and Escalante.  They were mentioned in Day 22 when they arrived on October 25, 1876 at the San Bartolome Campsite.  The following day they approached the Colorado at Marble Canyon, a spot they described as "a corner all hemmed in by very lofty bluffs and big hogbacks of red earth which..... present a pleasingly jumbled scene".  Crossing the mouth of the Paria River, they then made their camp amid the more difficult terrain of what's now Lees Ferry, roughly a hundred yards downstream from the present-day boat launch site.    Two members of the party managed to swim across the Colorado.  They returned having been too exhausted to climb the cliffs on the far side.  Next they built a raft, but three times failed to pole it all the way across.  After eleven days convinced of the impossibility of coaxing their horses (some of which they were in any case by now having to eat) through quicksand and onto makeshift rafts, they gave up.

They headed north instead, managing to climb out of Paria canyon a few miles along, and eventually forded the Colorado on horseback on November 7 at what became known as the Crossing of the Fathers in Glen Canyon. (The Rough Guide to the Grand Canyon by Greg Ward)  It is also called Ute Ford and is about 35 miles north of Lees Ferry.  More can be found  here. The crossing is now under nearly four hundred feet of water in Padre Bay in Lake Powell.

Lonely Dell Ranch Walking Tour

For more information on Lonely Dell Ranch click here or here

Lonely Dell Ranch Historic District

Historic District Map.  Click here for explanation of sites.  The main ranch buildings are about 700 feet up the dirt road from
the parking near these signs.  The tour is about a 1 mile round trip 

orchard

cabin

"picture window" cabin

pioneer cemeter

One of many stories that can be told at Lees ferry is of Warren Johnson was the ferryman at Lees Ferry for 21 years.  In 1891 death struck the Warren Johnson Family.  Within less than two months four of their children age 5 to 15 died.  Everything possible was done to save them, but nothing helped.  The four children were buried side by side in a small cemetery near a bend in the Paria River.  Belatedly, the cause of death was determined to be diphtheria unwittingly borne to Lees ferry when the Johnson took a family into their home while they waited for the river to drop for safe crossing.  The visitors had buried a child by the side of the trail just days before, dead of an unnamed illness.  Warren John felt forsaken.  He revealed his anguish in a letter to church elders: "What have we done that they Lord has left us?"  Church Prophet Wilford  Woodruff replied that he had done no wrong and urged Johnson to remain steadfast. (Arizona Highways (p16-21)

 Johnson preserved as ferryman at the "Mormon Crossing" for another four years.  Right around the time of his release from the ferry he was involved in a wagon accident that paralyzed him from the wait down.  He spent the rest of his life in a wheel chair ("Welcome Home")

More on Warren Johnson and the trial of his faith can be found in this talk by Elder Faust.

Johnson family headstone

Warren M Johnson

Tomorrow they would cross the Colorado River and Lees Backbone.  It is difficult to imagine Lee's Backbone as a road, but thousands of vehicles passed over it.  The route to Lee's Ferry from the Utah settlements was bad enough, with its long waterless stretches, its deep sand that clung to the wagon wheels and forced the draft animals to strain in the desert heat, its impassable washes. during rainy weather. And the ferry crossing was no picnic, with the swift current, makeshift equipment, and Marble Canyon yawning below.  But it was the Backbone that struck most vividly in the memories of many who followed this route.  The next blog will share accounts from some who made this journey

The beginning of Lee's Backbone just after crossing the Colorado River

anything is possible after crossing the river and the backbone

Reconstructing the View near Jacob's Pool (Day 22)

September 23, 1884 - (near) Jacob's Pools to Soap Creek

Day 22 of 44 - Week 4 (Day 3)
(near) Jacob's Pool to Jacob's Pool to Prairie (nooned) to Soap Creek = 15 Miles: Total Miles = 423
Total Trip Average Miles per Day =  19.2 : Average Miles per Day - Week 4 =  17.3 Miles

September 23 - 24

September 21 - 23

Original Journal Entry (posted above)

23 Hitched up drove 3 miles to Jacob's Pools very sandy - filled our barrals and drove out on the prairie - nooned very sandy - drove to Soap Creek - arrived after dark.  Teams nearly "give out." road very sandy came 12 miles from J. Pools.  Turned the horses up the canyon no feed.

Final Journal Entry (Charles P Anderson Journal - p6)

Sep 23.  Drove 3 miles to Jacobs Pools - very sandy, filled our barrels and drove out on the prairie - nooned - very sandy, drove to Soap Creek, arrived after dark.  Teams very tired - road very sandy.  Came 12 miles from Jacobs Pools - turned horses up the canyon - no feed.

Note on Jacob's Pool:  I've seen it written both as Jacob's Pool and Jacob's Pools.  Also mention is made of Rachel's Pool.  I believe it was first named Jacob's Pools after Jacob Hamblin.  Later John D. Lee purchased the property.  He may have called it Rachel's Pool or Pools after his wife Rachel.  

Note on the route taken:  This blog will follow the route taken today following Highway 89A and the dirt road off it between mileposts 557 and 558.  It is not possible to know where they camped the day, before, or where they nooned on the prairie going toward Soap Creek on this day.  

Yesterday the Anderson family camped three miles from Jacob's Pool in a very sandy area.  Today they would noon east of Jacob's Pool on the prairie at another very sandy place.  Perhaps those areas appeared like those located near the signs below.  Both of these very sandy places would not be far from where the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition halted on October 25, 1776, or where the abandoned stone house next to an old corral is located.  Of course the monuments or stone house were not there in 1884.

Dominguez-Escalante San Bartolome Campsite

The road that leads to Jacob's Pools is three-tenths of a mile past milepost 557, which is approximately a half mile east of the San Bartholomew Historic Marker and the Dominguez-Esalante commemorative sign. In several places on the trail to Arizona the Anderson family followed the Dominguez-Escalante route of over 100 years earlier.  I have been on the road just east of the monument in my car and can say that I didn't go all the way to the stone house in (described below) my car because it was very sandy.

The same year (p130) Congress endorsed the Declatation of Independence, a party of twenty explorers set off from Santa Fe, the capital of the Spanish province of New Mexico.  Led by two Franciscan friars, Dominguez and Escalante. They hoped to establish a route to the Spanish mission at Monterey, California.  By October, they were in southern Utah.  Casting lots, the expedition had made the difficult decision to return home, and attempt to blaze a more direct trail back to Santa Fe.  The two roadside plaques (below) commemorate where the San Bartolome Campsite halted October 25, 1776.  From here they followed much  the same route as the Anderson family would travel the next two days to Lees Ferry.    The experience of the two groups at the ferry were much different as  will be discussed in the posting on Lees Ferry. For more information on the Doninguez-Escalante Expedition click here and here

Dominguez-Escalante Expedition 1776-1976

San Bartolome plaque

Today Jacob's Pool is part of
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. The road to
stone house located between mp 557 and 558

Stone house on the way to Jacob's Pools (today)

Approximately three-tenths of a miles past milepost 557 is an unlocked gate and then a dirt road on the north side of the highway leading approximately two miles north to an abandoned stone bunkhouse and several wooden corrals.  The walls of the stone house are in fairly good condition however, most of the steel roof has blown off along with the doors and windows.  Most of the corral gates and several sections of fence have fallen down and are now lying in crumbled heaps on the ground.(Wayne Tomasi)

This ranch structure is believed to have been built near the turn of the 20th century by B F. Saunders who at the time was running cattle all over House Rock Valley for the Grand Canyon Cattle Company.

Arriving at the stone house (pictures by John and Shirley Bloomfield)

Front of  the house

 Front door of the house

Inside of the house

Looking west from inside at the corral

Shinumo Alter named by Frederick Dellenbaugh because it looked like an alter.  View from the front door of the house

 "Drove 3 miles to Jacob's Pools"

In 1872, John D. Lee begin "to set up headquarters for a cattle ranch at Jacob's Pool.  He had already filed claims on the spring at House Rock and Soap Creek as he had been advised to do.  But the Pools was much larger than any of these others, and located in a sheltered cove surrounded by miles of fine grazing land.  Jacob Hamblin's exploring group several years earlier had discovered this spring, which they named "Jacob's Pools."  To the Lee family it was now "Doyle's Retreat" or simply the Pools." ("Emma Lee," by Juanita Brooks).  

This area was also called Rachel's Pools after Rachel Lee who lived there.  People who are confused over the names Jacob's Pools and Rachel's Pools simply called the entire area The Pools.  The topo map has the location marked at the site of the Saunders' ranch house, which is about a mile southwest of where Rachel's house and the pools are actually located.  (Wayne Tomasi)

The Andersons may have seen some of the remains of Lee's first"home"at the pools(below)

John D. Lee, William (Billy), Rachel, and Amorah stand before the willow shanty that they later replaced with a stone house (Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City)
(John D Lee's Cabin at Jacob's Pools (p184)  and  ("Emma Lee," by Juanita Brooks - Plate III)   

"We commenced building a Shelter to shield us from the burning Elements of the Sun.  Rachel Andora and Amorah and I pining and setting the Posts ready to receive the willows, while James and the little Boys were cutting and hauling the willows, and my Daughter Amorah weaving the willows in to form the sides." (John D. Lee Diary - Monday May 27, 1872).

Before they had it finished, they were visited by Professor Beaman, who had been the photographer for the first Powell company on the river.  He wrote an article and published pictures of the half-finished "shanty" as though it were a permanent home, when actually it was intended for a milk cellar.  Lined with Navajo blankets, it was only fifteen by twenty feet.  Later that year, Lee would start a stone house near the springs which was much larger, with cellars, two parlors, two bedrooms, and a kitchen.  But, of course, Beaman's picture became the accepted one of Lee's "home" at the Pools. ("Emma Lee," by Juanita Brooks)

How to reach Jacob's Pools (Rachel's Pools) 

For now I'll call it Rachel's Pools because it probably had her name at least while she was there.  From the parking area at the ranch house, follow a distinct road leading northeast.  The road is drivable for half a mile or so but since it crosses into the Paria Wilderness Area about 200 feet from the ranch house, you might want to leave your vehicle at the ranch and walk.  Shortly after crossing into the Wilderness Area, the road takes a steep dip and descends sharply into a drainage where a 2-inch rusty metal pipe is exposed where it crosses the creek bed.  The road narrows and skirts along a man-made shelf above the creek on the east side.  Sometimes there is a flow of water in the creek.  The crude road ends at Rachel's Pools where there are several stone walls and remnants of Rachel Lee's rock house, however, there is little left of the original structure.  The primary water source for this area is at the end of a bowl-shaped boogie that is overgrown with willows.  The shallow pools at the base of the swamp may be Rachel's Pools.(Grand Canyon Hiker's Archive)  Another description of the route is available  here.

What is left of Rachel Lee's rock house.


The two photos  below show the general area where the rock house is located.

Recreating the View

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe are photographers.  This video shows how they connected a contemporary picture with the historic image.  I was interested in this also because of the California condor which I discovered had just about become extinct at one time.   I blogged about that in my last post.

Of more interest to me is how Klett and Wolfe  take new photographs that show the same space photographed earlier.  Below is a photograph made in 2010 in the area near Jacob's Pool.
Byron Wolfe is in the photograph. 

This same photograph was taken by William H Bell one hundred thirty-eight years earlier..  This photograph was taken just a few months before the picture of this area was taken by E. O. Beaman of John D. Lee's cabin at Jacob's Pools. I planned to take a photograph in this same place by the time I did this posting, but that didn't happen.  I even purchased a hat that looks much the same.  Hopefully that will happen soon.

The photograph below also by Klett and Wolfe in 2010, is entitled Searching for Jacob's Pool at the base of the Vermillion Cliffs.  I plan to be search for the same place in the near future.

photograph of left insert of the above picture

taken by William Bell, 1872

 photograph of right insert of the above picture

taken by William Bell, 1872 (stereo card)

Enlargement of right half of stereo card

 

The Anderson family "Drove to Soap Creek - arrived after dark."

Soap Creek (Cliff Dwellers, Arizona)

Soap Creek got it's name when Jacob Hamblin reconnoitered northern Arizona between 1858 and the early 1870s on behalf of fellow church members who hoped to settle in the area.  While he scouted for trails, river crossings and water sources, Hamblin caught a badger in what is now called Badger Canyon.  He boiled the critter in the next canyon downstream.  The intensely alkaline water combined with the fat from the badger, produced soapsuds, which gave the canyon its name

Cliff Dwellers was started when Blanche and Bill Russell established a small trading post here in 1920.  They camped next to Soap Creek where they constructed the unique rock house for which the community received its name.  The cowboys who drove cattle on the AZ strip called the Russell homestead 'Cliff Dwellers' because of its proximity to the Vermillion Cliffs.

Cliff Dweller's Lodge and Restaurant

Cliff Dwellers Lodge upon the hill

Early Cliff Dwellers Lodge Area

chick rock or Pigeon Rock

A unique rock house nearby

This video is from the opposite direction coming into Soap Creek, but it will give some idea of the area.  The video ends just East of the  Cliff Dwellers Lodge near Soap Creek.  This is where I hiked (see video below) down the trail from the outhouse (1:32) at the right of the screen. The lodge is a great place to spend the night.  I always stop at the trading post at Cliff Dweller's Lodge for an ice cream sandwich.  Here is a little more history of Cliff Dwellers.

The canyon (below) in this video is probably where the Andersons turned their 
horses in the evening and again the next morning.  Charles Anderson said
 he went up the canyon the next day (Day 23) for the horses.  I followed his 
footsteps when I hiked up this canyon.  It looks like there was water for the
horses.

 Cliff Dweller's Lodge  is the perfect place to spend the night.

The mileage worked out for Day 22.  They traveled 15 miles.  The map has 12 miles from Jacob's Pool to Cliff Dwellers (Soap Creek).  They actually camped three miles West of Jacob's Pool so that would equal the 15 miles.  They would have been just North of Highway 89A shown on the map, but 15 miles works just about right on the map and in the journal as well so I'll take it.

Tomorrow they would go to Badger Creek.  You already know how this canyon received the name Badger Creek (see Soap Creek above)

Zane Grey
Theodore Roosevelt at Jacob's Pool
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