About a week later, on January 30, 1858, General Jesup met the chagrined crew of the Explorer heading north. So far, Joseph Ives’ trip had been embarrassing. Explorer had made poor progress, since it was underpowered, overloaded and had a propensity for getting hung up on sandbars. Amid much fanfare, it had pulled away from Fort Yuma only to run hard aground in full view of well-wishers. The Indians along the river had found much amusement in Explorer’s sandbar troubles. The captain, David C. Robinson, claimed to be able to recognize problems ahead by the crowds of Indians along the bank, gathered wherever they anticipated yet another grounding. The meeting of the two boats was friendly enough, and the crews swapped tobacco and information before Explorer continued upriver.

Explorer worked slowly north until March 6. At the entrance to Black Canyon, nearly 500 miles above the mouth of the Colorado, it struck a rock. The collision threw crew members to the deck and knocked the boiler off its foundation. Ives decided that this spot, 40 miles above the point reached by Johnson, and which he named Explorer Rock, was the practical head of navigation. While the boat was being repaired, Ives and Robinson explored farther upriver in a small skiff. They concluded that at periods of higher water a steamboat might reach the Virgin River.

Tired of the confining quarters on Explorer, Ives and most members of his expedition decided to disembark at Beale’s Crossing rather than go home in the steamboat. Robinson took Explorer back to Fort Yuma and sent a pack train back to pick up the rest of the party. Mormon spies spotted the pack train and, mistaking it for an invading army, took to the hills looking for defensive positions. For a time, Ives feared a Mohave uprising incited by Mormon alarmists, but it didn’t materialize. Ives and his party explored the territory east of the Grand Canyon and then headed back to Fort Yuma. In writing his official report, Ives neglected to mention Johnson and the General Jesup expedition, but did stress the importance of opening the Colorado to further river travel. Now that Explorer’s job was complete, the steamboat was offered at auction and purchased for a mere $1,000 by none other than George Johnson. He put the boat to work hauling firewood on the Gila River.

Beale’s camel caravan opened a major wagon route across the territory, but it proved to be vulnerable to attack by Indians. Nine emigrants were killed by Indians at Beale’s Crossing in August 1858. When the secretary of war learned of the attack, he ordered the establishment of a military post at the crossing. The first party scouting for a suitable site skirmished with Mohave Indians, making a defensive base even more imperative. Johnson’s fleet was hired to transport supplies and men to the Fort Mohave site at a rate of $200 a day for General Jesup and $300 a day for Colorado. He personally expressed the opinion that the Mohaves were not warlike, but the fees he received persuaded him to be quiet. The Indians left the builders alone, and Fort Mohave was completed in the summer of 1859.

By the end of 1859, George Johnson had found increased demand for his river fleet’s services. Gold and silver discoveries were being made all along the Colorado River. Starting with Jacob Snively’s placer gold find in arroyos bordering the Gila River, just above its confluence with the Colorado, pockets of rich ore called out to miners, and these gold-hungry fellows booked passage on one of Johnson’s boats. It was not until 1862, following strikes in Eldorado Canyon and Laguna de la Paz, however, that the great rush to the Colorado River began in earnest. Johnny Moss, Paulino Weaver and Joseph Walker, beaver trappers turned miners, played key roles in opening mines all along the river. In April 1861, Moss and his party discovered rich silver lodes on the west side of the river, about 65 miles above Fort Mohave. After staking his claims at what would be called Eldorado Canyon, Moss made a fortune by selling the claims to San Fran-cisco buyers. Soon more than 700 claims had been staked, and the rush was on. Before long, news came of placer gold strikes farther south. In January 1862, Weaver discovered gold on the east side of Colorado at La Paz, about 130 miles above Fort Yuma. Within a year, there were nearly 2,000 miners at those diggings. When Arizona became a separate territory in 1863, La Paz was its largest town.

Despite the large increase in business, George Johnson still ran two steamboats, no more. He was paying more attention to his large cattle ranch near San Diego. Consequently, by the fall of 1863, more than 1,200 tons of freight had stacked up, awaiting transport upriver, at the south end of the river — most of it at Arizona City (later called Yuma, Ariz.), near the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers and opposite Fort Yuma. The situation was ripe for a competitor, and in stepped ‘Steamboat Sam’ Adams.

With backers in San Francisco, Adams hired Thomas Trueworthy to pilot a new line of paddle-wheelers on the Colorado. The men transported a 93-foot stern-wheeler, Esmeralda, and the barge Victoria, both originally built for trade on the Sacramento River, to the mouth of the Colorado instead. Smaller than Johnson’s boats, Esmeralda was more powerful and could tow a barge with a payload of 100 tons. Even with a barge in tow, Trueworthy’s first trip to Fort Yuma in early May 1864, took only three days and eight hours. Johnson, sensing the end of his monopoly on river trade, came up with a new 135-foot steamer, Mohave, the most powerful boat on the river. Mohave set a record time of 10 days and two hours for the 365-mile run to Eldorado Canyon.

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