Mohave, the second stern-wheel steamboat of that name running on the Colorado River for the Colorado Steam Navigation Company (C.S.N.C) between 1875 and 1876. It was the first and only double smokestack steamboat to run on the river.
Mohave, the second stern-wheel steamboat of that name running on the Colorado River for the Colorado Steam Navigation Company (C.S.N.C) between 1875 and 1876. It was the first and only double smokestack steamboat to run on the river.
The Mohave II was built to replace the worn out Mohave I that had been towing barges from 1865 until 1875 when the worn out boat was hauled out of the river and dismantled at Port Isabel. She was replaced in 1876 by the largest steamboat ever on the Colorado River, the double stacked, stern-wheeler Mohave II. [2] : 53, 174 n.44 The company chose the same builder that made the Gila, San Francisco, shipbuilder Patrick Henry Tiernan. He built her in San Francisco and had her taken apart, and shipped to the shipyard of Port Isabel, Sonora, at the mouth of the Colorado River. There she was reassembled and launched in May 1876. [3] : 150 The Mohave II weighed 188 tons, was 149.5 feet in length, 31.5 feet abeam, and in addition to being longer and broader, half a foot shallower than the Gila, drawing only a foot of water which permitted her to venture farther into the sloughs and shallows than any other boat. In 1881, she reached Rioville, Nevada, highest point of steam navigation on the lower Colorado, under her captain Joseph H. Godfrey, nephew of Issac Polhamus. In outer appearance she looked like one of the palatial river boats of the Mississippi River, but within had few of the luxurious accommodations of those vessels and was instead a working boat, towing barges up and down river. Nevertheless, she was a favorite excursion boat over the years of her service. [2] : 53, 78, 174 note 44
In the face of competition from rival steamboat companies, the owners of C.S.N.C, Issac Polhamus and Jack Mellon had the engine of the old Gila taken out in put in a new boat the 135 foot long Cochan that began work on the river carrying freight for the Searchlight mines in January 1900. At the same time the old Mohave II was stripped of its machinery and was run into Jaeger's Slough and left to decay. [2] : 91, 176 note 30
Many steamboats operated on the Columbia River and its tributaries, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, from about 1850 to 1981. Major tributaries of the Columbia that formed steamboat routes included the Willamette and Snake rivers. Navigation was impractical between the Snake River and the Canada–US border, due to several rapids, but steamboats also operated along the Wenatchee Reach of the Columbia, in northern Washington, and on the Arrow Lakes of southern British Columbia.
Steamboats on the Yukon River played a role in the development of Alaska and Yukon. Access to the interior of Alaska and Yukon was hindered by large mountains and distance, but the wide Yukon River provided a feasible route. The first steamers on the lower Yukon River were work boats for the Collins Overland Telegraph in 1866 or 1867, with a small steamer called Wilder. The mouth of the Yukon River is far to the west at St. Michael and a journey from Seattle or San Francisco covered some 4,000 miles (6,400 km).
Port Isabel was a seaport established on Port Isabel Slough in 1865 during the American Civil War in Sonora, Mexico in the mouth of the Colorado River on the Gulf of California. It was founded to support the increased river traffic caused by the gold rush that began in 1862 on the Colorado River and the Yuma Quartermaster Depot newly established in 1864 to support the Army posts in the Arizona Military District. The slough was discovered in 1865 by the Captain W. H. Pierson of the schooner Isabel, that first used the slough to transfer its cargo to steamboats safe from the tidal bore of the Colorado River. Shortly afterward Port Isabel was established 3 miles up the slough and replaced Robinson's Landing as the place where cargo was unloaded in the river from seagoing craft on to flat bottomed steamboats of the Colorado River and carried up to Fort Yuma and points further north on the river.
George Alonzo Johnson (1824–1903) 49er, entrepreneur, and California politician.
El Dorado Canyon is a canyon in southern Clark County, Nevada famed for its rich silver and gold mines. The canyon was named in 1857 by steamboat entrepreneur Captain George Alonzo Johnson when gold and silver was discovered here. It drains into the Colorado River at the former site of Nelson's Landing.
Steamboats on the Colorado River operated from the river mouth at the Colorado River Delta on the Gulf of California in Mexico, up to the Virgin River on the Lower Colorado River Valley in the Southwestern United States from 1852 until 1909, when the construction of the Laguna Dam was completed. The shallow draft paddle steamers were found to be the most economical way to ship goods between the Pacific Ocean ports and settlements and mines along the lower river, putting in at landings in Sonora state, Baja California Territory, California state, Arizona Territory, New Mexico Territory, and Nevada state. They remained the primary means of transportation of freight until the advent of the more economical railroads began cutting away at their business from 1878 when the first line entered Arizona Territory.
Colorado, was a stern-wheel paddle-steamer, the third steamboat on the Colorado River, and first stern-wheel steamboat put on that river, in December 1855.
General Jesup was a side-wheel paddle-steamer, named for General Thomas Jesup then Quartermaster General of the United States Army, and was the second steamboat launched on the Colorado River, in 1854.
Cocopah II, was a stern-wheel paddle-steamer, the tenth steamboat on the Colorado River, first put on the river in 1867.
Colorado, second of its name on the Colorado River, was a stern-wheel paddle-steamer, rebuilt from the original Colorado was the fifth steamboat on the Colorado River. It was first put on the river in December 1862.
John Gunder North was a Norwegian born ship builder in San Francisco. During his career, he built 273 hulls of all kinds with 53 bay and river steamers, including the famed paddle steamers Chrysopolis, Yosemite and Capital.
Esmerelda, was a stern-wheel paddle-steamer, built for the Sacramento River trade, in 1864 it became the first of the opposition steamboats on the Colorado River. It was also the first steamboat to tow large cargo barges on that river, in May 1864 and to reach Callville, Nevada in 1866.
Mohave was the first stern-wheel steamboat of that name running on the Colorado River between 1864 and 1875.
Nina Tilden, one of the two opposition stern-wheel steamboats that ran on the Colorado River from 1864 to 1868. Purchased by George A. Johnson Company it ran on the Colorado River from 1868 until 1874.
Gila, a stern-wheel steamboat of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company running on the Colorado River between 1873 and 1899.
George A. Johnson & Company was a partnership between three men who pioneered navigation on the Colorado River. Benjamin M. Hartshorne, George Alonzo Johnson and Alfred H. Wilcox. The George A. Johnson & Company was formed in the fall of 1852, and was reorganized as the Colorado Steam Navigation Company in 1869.
Cochan, (Quechan) last of the stern-wheel steamboats built for the Colorado Steam Navigation Company (CSNC). It ran on the Colorado River between 1900 and 1909.
Polhamus Landing, or Welton & Grounds Landing, was a steamboat landing in Mohave County, Arizona, United States during 1881 and 1882.
Port Isabel Slough was a deep slough in the Colorado River Delta near the mouth of the Colorado River during the 19th century, within the state of Sonora, Mexico.