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o - 00 - c The River The southwestern United States is a pic- turesque land of high mountains, deep canyons, and scorching deserts. Of Joshua trees and giant cacti, bighorn sheep and wild burros, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters. The Colorado River is its lifeline. The river rises in the snowcapped mountains of northcentral Colorado and zigzags southwest for more lhan 1 ,400 miles bcf()fc reaching Mexico's Gulf of California. It drains 242,000 square miles in tlie United States, or (me-twelfth of the coun- try's continental land area, and 2,000 square miles in Mexico. Pat1s of seven large Westclll States drain into this im- mense system. The mighty Colorado once slashed through all in its path, gouging the rock of the mesas into gorges and chasms. One of the gorges, the Grand Canyon, is world-famous-a titanic cleft 277 miles long, 600 feet to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep. Below the canyons, the Colorado flows through wide, sloping desert plains bordered by low mountain ranges - the hottest, driest region in the United States. Temperatures run as high as 1250 Fahrenheit. The sun shines almost every day of the year and, except for devastat- ing thunderstorms now and then, there is very little rain. Bone-dry and shimmering in the heat, this is an American Sahara. The EXIJloring Spaniards Come Venturing north from Mexico into what is now southcm Arizona, Spanish con- quistadors and missionaries were the first white men to penetrate this arid land. They found the desert wastes peopled to some extent with Indians- Pimas, Maricopas. Papagos, Yumas, and Cocopahs. IJ)\\'('r Colorado Ril'er. 1932 The Spaniards also discovered traces of earlier inhabitants who had, apparently, developed cultures of a fairly high order. Imposing ruins of communal archi- tecture-multifamily dwellings sometimes three or four stories high - testified to the achievements of a bygone age. How the Indians and their predecessors wnmg a living from the desert was ex- plained by the canals and ditches tile Spainards saw carrying precious river water to fields of maize, beans, cala- bashes, squash, and melons. The alt of ir- rigation, probably introduced into the area around the beginning of the Christian era, has been underwriting human existence and promoting a succession of cultures in the lower Colorado River Basin for nearly 2,000 years. In 1539, the Spanish explorer Francisco de Ulloa sailed into the Gulf of Califor- nia. From the rolling, murky waters at the head of the gulf, he assumed there was a large stream somewhere in the im- mediate area. Although he did not see the river, he drew a map showing its sup- posed location. The following year, Hernando de Alar- con was sent to the gulf with instructions to sail up the coastline until he made contact with Francisco Vasquez de Cor- onado and his overland expedition, just then starting north from Mexico to search for the fabled seven cities of Cibola. Alarcon could not carry out his assign- ment - the geography of the area was not what those early adventurers expected- but he did discover the Colorado River. He followed the river upstream, making his way to a point just above the junction of the Colorado and Gila Rivers, a few miles north of present-day Yuma, Arizona. It was also in 1540 that Lopez de Cardenas, one of Coronado's lieutenants, led a dozen men across the Hopi Indian country in northern Arizona, and sud- denly found himself on the rim of the Grand Canyon. But he did not linger long beside the mighty chasm he had discovered. Food and other staples were in short supply and difficult to obtain. The nature of the terrain made even a rough reconnaissance of the canyon im- possible. After several unsuccessful at- tempts to descend the sheer rock walls, Cardenas and his men turned back eastward. Cardenas was not the last to be stopped by the canyon. Later explorers and mis- sionaries were consistently halted by its awesome depth. It was not until the mid-1700's that the canyon was suc- cessfully crossed. On July 29, 1776, a party of IO led by Fatlier Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Father Atanacio Dominquez left Santa Fe, New Mexico, to find a northern route to Monterey on the Pacific Coast. Crossing the Colorado River just west of what is now Parachute, Colorado, the party made its way westward across the Wasatch Mountains to Utah Lake, near Provo, Utah. There, beset by the rigors of winter, the party abandoned its original plans and decided to return to Santa Fe, They traveled south through Utah, crossed the Virgin River into northwestern Arizona and then east. Their food ran out, and they endured incredible hardships. Early in November tbey reached the Colorado and finally crossed it at Glen Canyon, at a point just northeast of what is now Lees Ferry. Tlie place they forded the river is now known as the "Crossing of the Fathers:' It is not surprising that Colorado River lore, during the two centuries following the advent of the white man, consisted more of legend than facL The belief that the river was a long, narrow strait sepa- rating California from the mainland per- sisted for many years. Then there were the rumors that the stream ran under- ground for hundreds of miles. In any case, it was agreed that to travel through the Grand Canyon by boat would be to court certain death. 9