The Little Colorado River

Wikipedia

For the past few posts I have been giving the background for the Mormon pioneering of the Little Colorado River settlements. It is time to say something about the river.

For a good portion of my life I drank and bathed in the water from the Little Colorado River. It is a river in name only. In most parts of the country it would not even merit a name as a stream, although during parts of the year it is a raging flood. I could easily wade across and at some times even jump across the River.

There are a few things I distinctly remember about the water. The first is the taste. When I was young, in St. Johns, the water came out of the tap barely filtered. If you filled an ice cube tray with water from the tap (there wasn't anywhere else to get it) the cubes would come out half white and half red from the silt in the water. The water had a distinctive sandy gritty taste. All I have to do is think about it and I can still taste it in my imagination.

If you took a bath in the bathtub, you might want to fill the tub before you got in. In filling the tub you could always find two or three small leaches swimming around in the water. It was also a good idea to look at the glass before taking a drink.

The Little Colorado starts as a sparkling (they always use that word) mountain stream, high in the White Mountains of Arizona near Mount Baldy. As the river runs north out of the mountains it enters a small canyon and then runs into a large reservoir, Lyman Lake. The Lyman was the principal water supply for St. Johns and anywhere north. There was another small reservoir, called appropriately, the Little Reservoir, right off the hill from where I lived. But it was on private land and technically, even though it was "owned" by my uncle, we were trespassing when we played in the water floating rafts and swimming in the mud.

The Lyman was big enough for boats and water skiing. But during the current long drought it almost went dry several times. At the moment it is quite full as of 2009, but that could change by next year. There used to be a buffalo herd around the Lake, but it was removed quite a few years ago. Lyman Lake is a State Park and there is an entrance fee. There is also a nice campground and good fishing. But the State Park is scheduled to be closed because of budget cuts.

There are several Indian ruins along the River. Two of them have been open to the public for a charge. Raven House was promoted for a while and then closed to the public. There are two other ruins, Rattlesnake Ruins and Casa Malpais. Bother of which charge admission.

There are a number of springs and caves along the Little Colorado. The biggest spring is in the place called Salado or Salado Spring. It is a very deep artisan spring with clear water. The caves are mostly sink holes and as far as I could determine, very short. I always hoped that I would find a large cave, but it never happened.

After going north from St. Johns the River winds across the Plateau passing Hunt, Holbrook, Joseph City, Winslow and then going north to the Grand Falls. This is feature is either a little trickle of water or a roaring waterfall higher than Niagara. Eventually, after crossing most of the Navajo Indian Reservation, the River passes by Cameron and then into a deep canyon where it joins the Colorado.

The pioneers used the water for everything from drinking to washing. In a lot of the settlements it was the only water available. Next we will go back to the history of the settlements.