The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great CanyonsDellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
History
The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons
Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Description and travel; Gran
[5] This name, by the way, has no connection with the notorious
“Arizona” diamond swindle of more recent years. It bore this name in
Ives’s time and the swindle was much later—1872. The alleged diamond
field also was not in Arizona at all, but in north-western Colorado.
The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Trail. The Grand Canyon from Bright
Angel Trail.
Painting by THOMAS MORAN.
Soon after leaving this retreat he “halted at the sight of the most
profound canones which ever onward continue, and within these flows the
Rio Colorado.”
“There is seen [he continues] a very great Sierra which in the distance
looks blue, and there runs from the southeast to the north-west a pass
open to the very base, as if the sierra were cut artificially to give
entrance to the Rio Colorado into these lands. I named this singular
pass Puerto de Bucareli,[6] and though to all appearances would not
seem to be great the difficulty of reaching thereunto, I considered
this to be impossible in consequence of the difficult canones which
intervened. From this position said pass bore east northeast.”
[6] After the viceroy.
The padre is standing in admiration before the long line of the Kaibab
seen as a great sierra from this position on the south-east, and as the
land on the south rises toward the rim it probably appeared to him as
if the sierra were really a continuation of the San Francisco Mountains
on his right, and was cut in twain by the great gorge of the river.
From his standpoint he looked up Marble Canyon, and all the directions
he mentions are exactly correct. They saw smokes on the north, which
his guides said were made by the Payuches (Pai Utes) living on the
other side. The Kaivavitz band of Pai Utes in summer occupy their lands
on the summit of the Kaibab, hunting deer and camping in the lovely
open glades surrounded by splendid forest. This same day his guides
pointed out some tracks of Yabipai Tejua, who go this way to see and
trade with their friends, “those who live, as already said, on the
other side of the Rio Colorado.” It was one of the intertribal
highways. Just where it crossed the canyon is hard to say. There were
several old trails, and one came down from the north, reaching the
river a few miles below the Little Colorado, but where it came out on
the south side I do not know. There was once another trail which came
from the north down the canyon of Kanab Creek and found a way across to
the Coconinos or Havasupai; at least Jacob Hamblin[7] told me he was so
informed by the Pai Utes. The “Hance” trail, I believe, was built on
the line of an old native one, and probably this was the one the
Yabipais were heading for.
[7] Jacob Hamblin, whom I knew very well, was the “Leather-stocking”
of Utah—a man who knew the Amerinds of Utah and northern Arizona
better than any one who ever lived.
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