The increase in competitive paddle-wheelers meant the owners had to look farther afield for business. Bids for a lucrative trade with Utah Territory settlers beckoned. In fall 1864, both Johnson and Adams contacted Mormon businessmen from Salt Lake City who were disgusted with the high cost of overland freighting. In December 1864, Brigham Young authorized Anson Call to negotiate with the riverboat companies for cheaper rates. A warehouse was built at Callville, about 75 miles above what Joseph Ives had named Explorer Rock. Johnson was unsure about the profitability of such a venture, so he rejected Call’s first offer. Steamboat Sam Adams, however, was determined to give it a try. Captain Trueworthy, skipper of Adams’ Esmeralda, was game, but the insurers were not. They informed Trueworthy that a policy increase of 70 percent could be expected if he tried such a foolhardy task. Adams canceled the policy. Esmeralda headed north. When she reached Hardyville, just above Fort Mohave, the crewmen were told that the river was navigable for only seven miles more. ‘Just watch me,’ Trueworthy replied. Bull Head Rock, supposedly the end of the line, proved to be no problem. Explorer Rock, which had ended the expedition of Joseph Ives, was easily avoided. Once past that point, Esmeralda passed through high canyon walls. The most difficult spot was expected to be Roaring Rapids, but they safely traversed it in seven minutes.

Then disaster hit. The boat was fine, but the rumor mill nearly sank them. Adams and Trueworthy met a group of Mormons traveling downriver who told them that word had been sent to Anson Call that Esmeralda had sunk, and he had returned to Salt Lake City. Steamboat Sam Adams and his captain were stunned. Why go on to Callville with the lumber and manufactured goods they carried if there was no one there to receive it? They turned the boat around and tied it up at Eldorado Canyon. Then they traveled overland to Salt Lake City to declare their success and to blame their troubles on George Johnson. Their complaints against Johnson included attempted sabotage of the boiler, logs floated downriver to scuttle the boat, and, of course, the false rumor that they had sunk.

Johnson gave the run a try in the 140-foot-long stern-wheeler Cocopah, but he was stopped by low water at Hardyville in March 1865. That same year, seagoing vessels started anchoring at Port Isabel, a few miles east of the mouth of the Colorado, for safe transfer of their freight to barges. Adams, determined to prove his point, took Esmeralda and a barge, carrying a combined 100 tons of cargo, all the way to Callville in October 1866. Steamboat Sam triumphantly stood on the dock of the Mormon settlement more than 600 miles above the Gulf of California while Esmeralda blew its whistle long and loud. The triumph rang hollow because Adams was deeply in debt, and the sheriff seized his boat when it returned to Fort Yuma.

The competition had forced Johnson to lower his rates, much to the delight of his shippers. He faced no further threat to his monopoly for more than a decade. Steamers left Yuma every few days for upriver landings, booked up with passengers and towing a barge of freight. The fare was $15 to the growing town of Ehrenberg and $35 to Fort Mohave. Ehrenberg, 125 miles above Yuma, was the second largest town on the river, and the shipping point for central Arizona. Passengers bound for Ehrenberg included Army troops and sometimes their families.

One such family consisted of William H. Corbusier, Army surgeon, his wife, Fanny, and their young son. First assigned to Fort McDermit, Nev., Corbusier received a transfer to Prescott, Arizona Territory, in November 1872. The trip consisted of a wagon ride to Winnemucca, then a train trip to San Francisco, and on around the tip of Baja California by way of the steamer Newbern. From the mouth of the Colorado, Fanny describes the journey:

A stern-wheel steamboat took us up the Colorado River, and we had a very comfortable stateroom. We towed a flatboat or barge, which held the recruits. At night, we tied up and the men went ashore to cook their meals and sleep on the banks of the river. There were many sandbars in the river, and as we approached one of them, we listened to the man at the bow of the boat call out the depth of the water. We were three days reaching Yuma and had to wait there for about 2 weeks for the ‘Cocopah’ and Captain Polhemus to take us up to Ehrenberg….From Yuma to Ehrenberg the navigation was easier.

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In spite of the heat and general discomfort, passengers continued to ride the paddle-wheelers up the Colorado. Johnson expanded his fleet to four steamers and incorporated, forming the Colorado Steam Navigation Company with two partners in December 1869. By the mid-1870s, his company did over a quarter million dollars worth of business, carrying 7,000 tons of freight and about 1,000 passengers annually. But in 1877, the railroad reached the river. In 1878, George Johnson sold out to the Southern Pacific Railroad. For a time, the paddle-wheelers continued to act as feeders to the east-west routes of the railroad. The construction of Laguna Dam in 1908, which closed the Colorado River 14 miles above Fort Yuma, meant that the colorful era of steamboats on the Colorado had ended.

This article was written by Kay Muther and originally appeared in the August 2004 issue of Wild West. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today!

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