Routes to the Little Colorado

Wheeler's Geographic Survey Stereoscopic Views (1871-1874) Mouth of Paria River

For many years we have had a reproduction of a painting showing a group of Indians and Missionaries with Jacob Hamblin next to the Echo Cliffs. The official name of the painting is Chief Tuba and Jacob Hamblin, by John Jarvis, gousch, 1982. Interestingly, (to me anyway) the picture is painted right next to the Tanner Wash. By the way, a copy of Jacob Hamblin complete autobiography is here:
"Jacob Hamblin, a narrative of his personal experience, as a frontiersman, missionary to the Indians and explorer : disclosing interpositions of Providence, severe privations, perilous situations and remarkable escapes"

In the early 1870s Jacob Hamblin made several trips to the Hopi Villages and succeeded in surveying the different routes to the Little Colorado River area. Although the Little Colorado River is mostly a dry riverbed with a seasonal flow, it is the only semi-dependable water source in the entire area. Although from a modern perspective, it is practically impossible to understand why the Mormons would settle in such a desolate area, you can only begin to understand these settlements in the historic context of the time.

The Mormons had been literally driven across the continent by persecution. Our promised land consisted of a vast unexplored wilderness. Brigham Young's vision of the settlement of this wilderness did not include congregating in one large settlement. From the very beginning, Brigham Young sent out colonists to establish outposts in the major river valleys and along all of the major trade routes. This colonization extended from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south. There are hundreds of cities, towns and villages that were first settled by the Mormons. Some very large cities, like Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Mesa and many others, have resulted from this early settlement. The harsness and isolation of the early living conditions created a social and cultural structure that gave a legacy to all of the descendants of those early pioneers. Those same societal and cultural structures are still a dominent force in their descendants.

Now back to the story. During the years of 1871 to 1873, Hamblin and the other missionaries located a settlement on the Paria River (now abandoned), started a ranch in House Rock Valley (now a tourist stop and staging area for Colorado River cruises) and laid out a practical route from Lee's Ferry to the Little Colorado.

The earliest crossing of the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry by wagons was in 1873 by a exploration party headed by Lorenzo W. Roundy. The party traveled southward to Navajo Springs, then to Bitter Springs and on to Moen Copie (now spelled Moencopi or Moenkopi) just south of present day Tuba City.

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism (Ludlow, Daniel H. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillan, 1992.) notes that:

A party of scouts under Lorenzo Roundy examined the San Francisco Mountains and the Little Colorado River drainages for town sites. Brigham Young called 200 colonizing and Indian missionaries who, without adequate preparation, hurried south in the winter and spring of 1873. This mission foundered in the desert country north of the Little Colorado, and the missionaries retreated to Utah. Only John D. Lee and a few others held on at Lees Ferry and Moenkopi.

McClintock reports that Roundy "passed by a Moqui village and thence on to the overland mail route. The Little Colorado was described as "not quite the size of the Virgin River, water a little brackish, but better than that of the Virgin." In May of the same year, Hamblin piloted, as far as Moen Copie, the first ten wagons of the Horton D. Haight expedition that failed in an attempt to found a settlement on the Little Colorado." It is reported that the expedition reached the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado, but went no further.

Some of these 1873 missionaries stayed at Moen Copie (Moenkopi) until 1874 when trouble with the Indians convinced them to return to Utah.

At about this time, as stated by the Utah State University Libraries, a "Geographical Survey was led by Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler and traveled throughout the mountains, plains, and deserts in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho and New Mexico. The purpose of these expeditions was to create maps and gain information that would be useful for future military operations, for the establishment of roads, and for potential railways. In addition, the survey was to catalog natural resources and record the location and population of the Indian tribes."