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<br />ACTIVITIES OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS <br />IN THE <br />COLORADO RIVER BASIN <br />Co!. C. T. Newton, District Engineer <br />U. S. Army Corps of Engineers <br /> <br />The entire Colorado River Basin is in the Los Angeles District <br />of the Corps of Engineers. The Corps' activ.e interest in this basin dates <br />from the early explorations of the Corps of Topographic Engineers in <br />their search for transportation routes to open up and consolidate the new <br />western territory. <br /> <br />The U. S. Corps of Topographic Engineers was a unique organi- <br />zation and a crack outfit to which the highest-standing members of each <br />graduating class at West Point were assigned. It was a veritable military <br />brain trust of the 1850' s whose primary purpose became the exploration, <br />surveying, and mapping of the vast new western territories. From 1813 <br />to 1838, the Topographic Engineers had been a branch of the Corps of <br />Engineers. From 1838 to 1863, they were a separate corps and added <br />many colorful pages to the story of the winning of the West. The roster <br />of officers of the Topographic Engineers contained such distinguished names <br />as Stephen H. Long, George B. McClelland, John C. Fremont, Joseph E. <br />Johnson, William Emory, George Meade, Lieutenants Whipple, Derby, <br />Ives, and Captain Marcy. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Lieutenants Derby and Ives were the forerunners of our amphibious <br />engineers, and the reports of their explorations afloat on the Colorado River <br />are among the most interesting of all the explorations of the West. Ives <br />wrote one of the most readable of all the official reports of Government <br />exploring expeditions. Derby, on the other hand, was a humorist whose <br />fame still lingers in the annals of official Government reports. <br /> <br />In September, 1850, Lieutenant Derby arrived at the mouth of the <br />Colorado River with a l20-ton transport vessel to survey the delta and chart <br />a navigation channel to permit shallow-draft vessels to supply Fort Yuma. <br /> <br />Derby knew from reading accounts of the explorations of the Spanish <br />and of the English naval lieutenant, R. W. H. Hardy, that his vessel was <br />much too cumbersome for the assigned task, but with the help of the Cocopah <br />Indians, he managed to float the clumsy transport upriver as far as the flood <br />tides would carry him. Derby spent a month surveying and sounding and <br />finally concluded that navigation from the Gulf to Fort Yuma would be possible <br />"at any season of the year by a steamboat of 18 or 20 feet beam, drawing from <br />2 1/2 to 3 feet of water." He further recommended "a small stern-wheel boat, <br />with a powerful engine and a thick bottom" to combat the strong current in an <br />often narrow and obstructed channel. <br /> <br />- 10 - <br />