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Events At Lee's Ferry or Lonely Dell 1864-1928

by A. Gary Anderson

Early Crossings

The key to Mormon colonization in Arizona was a way to cross the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon, a mile deep and two hundred miles long, separated southern Arizona from the early Utah Mormon settlements.

As far as we know, the first white men to record crossing the Colorado River in this area were Father Escalante and his group, who came into the area in 1776. They followed the age-old Ute trail to the river, crossing some thirty miles above the mouth of the Paria at what was called "The Crossing of the Fathers." Here also Jacob Hamblin made his first ford in 1858, the same trail he followed many times thereafter. Although Hamblin had been at the mouth of the Paria (later Lee's Ferry) in 1858, the first crossing of the river was made in the fall of 1860 by a portion of a party headed by Hamblin. A raft was constructed, on which a few were taken across, but after one animal drowned, it could be clearly seen that the dangers were too great. Them being no southern outlet, the party made its way up the river to the ford. The first successful crossing at the Paria was by Hamblin in March 1864 on a raft. Traveling down the stream in 1869, the Powell party stopped at Lee's Ferry and made it a supply point on later trips. It was in December 1876 that Harrison Pearce established a regular ferry below the Grand Cany. on; hence, today the place bears the name of Pearce's Ferry.

In March 1864 Erastus Snow sent Jacob Hamblin and other missionaries to the Moqui villages to find some stolen horses and to persuade two natives to return with the missionaries to learn the trades of smithing and woodwork. Theirs was the first Mormon group to cross the Colorado at Lee' s Ferry. They crossed on a raft on 22 March 1864. They arrived at the Moqui village of Offbe, amazed to see such a civilized tribe of Indians. The missionaries failed to retrieve any horses or to persuade any Indians to return with them. Their Moqui forefathers had warned the tribe never to cross the Colorado to the north and had promised them that if they would adhere to that injunction, they would be blessed.

Jacob Hamblin desired to return to these same Moqui villages in the fall of 1864. Brother Isaac Riddle accompanied him on this mission and recorded that

it was in the fall of 1864 that Jacob Hamblin and myself and six others undertook to perform a mission to (the Moquis) to preach to them the principles of the Gospel. It was on this trip that we had another evidence of God with us. We crossed the Colorado River on a raft at the point where Lee's Ferry was later constructed, and struck across the country on the Old Ute trail. But it had been a dry season and we passed first one empty water hole and then another until it looked as if there was no water in the country at all.