Across the Colorado and into Arizona

John Hunt and Henry Tanner explored the southern route. Instead of crossing the river at Lee's Ferry, they traveled to the south and crossed at Pearce's Ferry. As we learned previously, this crossing had been pioneered by Jacob Hamblin in 1862, but a regular ferry was not established until December, 1876 by Harrison Pearce, father of James Pearce who was later a pioneer in Taylor, Arizona. The site of the ferry now lies under the waters of Lake Mead.

South of St. George, Utah, the pioneer company was increased with the addition of the John Bushman company. John, accompanied by his second wife, Mary Peterson, and his daughter Lois, had previous agreed to travel with the pioneers to Arizona. The Bushman party also included Edwin Lycurgus Westover, his wife Joanna, Joanna's father, and her two small children.

In the words of John Bushman:

This road was very bad, dugways for miles, very hilly and water scarce. This is a new road from St. George to the Pearce Ferry on the Big Colorado River. Some places were almost impassable and rocky. On Monday, March 19th, we reached the Ferry and found Father Pearce very glad to see us.

Quoting George Shepherd Tanner's account of the river crossing:

Two days were used in getting the wagons and animals across the river. The wagons were ferried across without mishap but the livestock presented a difficult problem. The animals refused to swim the broad river and there was no other way to get them across. Henry was a skilled horseman and used to handling stock and it was his job to get the animals across. After scores of attempts which met with failure, the company was about to despair. He related that on the second day after many failures, a old Indian came into the camp and asked for food. While he was being fed, he noticed the men trying to get the animals to swim the river. One of the women noticed the the Indian showed a great deal of interest in the ferry operation. It came to her that this Indian had had experience in crossing the river with animals and she mentioned the fact to one of the men. By the use of sign language, he was asked if he knew how to gt the animals across. He said that he did and was asked to help. But he wanted to be paid. After some bargaining, he settled for a small sack of flour which he tied on the saddle of his horse. He then went down to the river and motioned for the men to drive all the animals into the edge of he water. At the right moment when all the animals were up to their bellies in the water, the Indian, who by this time had taken off what few clothes he had and was covered only with an Indian blanket, seized the top corners of the blanket in his hands and began flapping the blanket and letting out war whoops. The animals, now more frightened of the Indian than the river, quickly took to the water and headed for the other side. The last animal to take to the water was an old, lazy mule. As he was getting out his depth, the Indian threw his blanket to one of the men, seized the tail of the old mule and let him pull him across the river. When the mule saw the Indian on his tail he was so frightened that it is reported he made a new record in crossing the river. The Indian's long loose hair was streaming behind him in the water. He would put his head into the water for an instant, fill his mouth with water and blow it at the frightened animal and then let out another whoop. The animals could possibly be excused for being frightened. They even experienced some difficulty in getting the animals rounded up after they were across.

Next, into the wilds of Arizona.

Source unless otherwise indicated:
Tanner, George S. Henry Martin Tanner, Joseph City, Arizona Pioneer. 1964.