Big Bear, CA
I quiet mountain community full of back country adventure.
François Xavier Aubry
François Xavier Aubry (also spelled Aubrey or Aubray; December 3, 1824 – August 18, 1854) was a French-Canadian merchant, freighter, wagon-train captain, and explorer of the American Southwest. He is best known for setting extraordinary speed records on the Santa Fe Trail—earning nicknames such as “Telegraph” Aubry and “Skimmer of the Plains”—and for pioneering explorations along the 35th parallel that later influenced wagon roads and the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. He had only an indirect connection to Colorado River steamships: he crossed the river in 1853 near the future site of a major steamboat landing that was later named in his honor.
Early Life and Entry into the Santa Fe Trade
Aubry was born on a farm in Saint-Justin (near Maskinongé), Quebec, to Joseph Aubry and Magdeleine (Lupien) Aubry; he was one of thirteen children. He left school around age 12 and, at about 18 (c. 1843), moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as a store clerk for French-Canadian merchants. Observing the profits available in the Santa Fe trade, he saved money, obtained credit, bought wagons and draft animals, and joined a traders’ caravan leaving Independence, Missouri, on May 9, 1846. After selling goods profitably in Santa Fe, he repaid his loans and soon shifted to full-time freighting, making Independence his base.
He recognized that speed maximized profits and began making two (and later three) round trips per year instead of the customary one. In December 1847 he rode from Santa Fe to Independence in 14 days despite winter weather, Indian harassment, and other hazards—beating the previous record by about 10½ days. Newspapers celebrated the feat and called him “Telegraph” Aubry. In 1848 he set an even more remarkable mark: leaving Santa Fe on September 12 with prepositioned fresh horses, he covered the roughly 800-mile (1,300 km) distance in 5 days and 16 hours (arriving the evening of September 17), winning substantial wagers and the lasting nickname “Skimmer of the Plains.” He later settled more permanently in Santa Fe.
Aubry also explored commercial alternatives. In 1849–1850 he tested routes into Chihuahua, Mexico, via El Paso and Texas (including purchases in Victoria, Texas), but Indian threats, weather, distances, and market conditions limited success. Around 1850–1851 he discovered a useful shortcut (the Aubry Cutoff or Aubry Route) that shortened a section of the Cimarron branch of the Santa Fe Trail by roughly 50 miles while improving access to water.
California Ventures and Colorado River Crossing
In 1852 Aubry drove a large flock (reports cite about 3,500 sheep) plus mules and wagons down the Rio Grande and Gila River route to California, reaching San Francisco via Tucson and Los Angeles. After selling his stock, he returned eastward in 1853 by a more direct path. His small party (roughly 10 Americans, 6 Mexicans, and a cook) crossed Tejon Pass (July 10) and reached the Colorado River on July 23, crossing roughly 20 miles north of the mouth of the Bill Williams River (using rafts made of logs). They then pushed eastward through the central mountains of what is now Arizona.
Beginning in early August the party faced harassment from Native groups Aubry called “Garroteros” (likely Yuman or Mohave). On August 14 a chief approached under a pretense of friendship; the subsequent attack wounded nearly everyone in Aubry’s group, but the travelers repelled it with revolvers, killing about 25 attackers. Skirmishes continued until the party reached Zuni Pueblo on September 6. Aubry reported the journey to New Mexico Territorial Governor David Meriwether, declaring that a railroad could run “almost mathematically direct from Zuñi to Colorado [the river], and from thence to the Tejon pass in California.” He also conferred with Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple, who was preparing a Pacific Railroad Survey of the 35th-parallel corridor. Aubry noted gold near the Colorado (reportedly used by Indians for bullets), though its local origin was unclear.
In late 1853–1854 he organized a second, much larger sheep drive (reports of tens of thousands) to California with other Santa Fe investors, reaching Los Angeles in January 1854 and then San Francisco. His return party of about 60 men left the San Jose area in early July and arrived in Albuquerque on August 18 without major incident.
Death
That same day, August 18, 1854, Aubry entered a store/cantina operated by the Mercure brothers in Albuquerque (some accounts place the confrontation in Santa Fe). He encountered Richard Hanson Weightman, a former territorial delegate, newspaper editor, and political figure who had published material critical of Aubry or his preferred railroad route. An argument escalated; Weightman threw liquor in Aubry’s face, Aubry drew a pistol that misfired, and Weightman stabbed him fatally with a Bowie knife. Weightman was tried for murder but acquitted on grounds of self-defense. Aubry was 29. He was buried in Santa Fe’s Rosario Cemetery. His diary, found in his saddlebags, was published and helped sustain interest in the 35th-parallel route later followed in large part by the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.
Role in Relation to Colorado River Steamships
Aubry played no operational or commercial role in Colorado River steamboating. Commercial steam navigation on the lower Colorado began in the early 1850s (the Uncle Sam in 1852; more successful vessels such as the General Jesup shortly thereafter) and expanded significantly in the 1860s with companies such as George A. Johnson & Company and later the Colorado Steam Navigation Company, serving military posts, mining districts, and settlements.
His contribution was geographic and commemorative. He was among the early Anglo-American explorers to cross the Colorado near the Bill Williams River confluence and to publicize a practical east–west corridor north of the Gila. The site of his approximate crossing later became the location of Aubrey Landing (also called Aubrey City or Aubrey), a steamboat landing and short-lived settlement established by the mid-1860s at the confluence of the Colorado and Bill Williams rivers. Named for the explorer, it served nearby copper and other mines of the Bill Williams Mining District, handling freight and passengers for the steamboat lines. The post office operated 1866–1886; the settlement declined with mining fluctuations and the rise of railroads and was eventually inundated by Lake Havasu after Parker Dam. Other Arizona places (Aubrey Peak, Aubrey Valley, cliffs, and a street in Prescott) and Kansas sites (including Fort Aubrey near the cutoff) also commemorate him. A Missouri River steamboat was likewise named in his honor during his lifetime.
Aubry’s brief career exemplified the entrepreneurial energy, risk-taking, and route-finding of the mid-19th-century frontier. Though he died young, his speed records, cutoff, and 35th-parallel explorations left lasting geographic and historical marks on the Southwest.
Searchlight – Colorado River Steamships
The Searchlight was the last sternwheel steamboat built for the lower Colorado River. It operated primarily from 1903 into the 1910s, serving the final phase of commercial steam navigation that had begun in 1852.
Construction and Specifications
The Searchlight was built in 1902 at Needles, California, by F. L. Hawley for the Colorado River Transportation Company. It was launched in December 1902; its engines were installed afterward, and it entered service on the river by March 1903.
Key recorded dimensions include:
- Length: 91 feet
- Beam: 18 feet
- Tonnage: 98 tons
- Type: Stern-wheel paddle steamer (sternwheeler)
Draft details specific to the Searchlight are not precisely recorded in available summaries, but Colorado River sternwheelers were characteristically shallow-draft vessels (often drawing well under 2 feet light and only modestly more when loaded). This was essential for the river’s shifting sandbars, variable seasonal flows, and sediment-laden channels.
It later passed through ownership by the Colorado Steam Navigation Company and the U.S. Reclamation Service. Sources describe it as “lost” in October 1916; it is widely regarded as the last paddle-wheeled commercial boat to operate on the lower river.
Design Principles
Colorado River steamboats, including the Searchlight, were purpose-built for one of North America’s most difficult navigable rivers. Core design principles included:
- Sternwheel propulsion: A large paddlewheel at the stern provided better maneuverability in narrow, winding channels and over sandbars than sidewheels. It also reduced vulnerability to debris and allowed the boat to “walk” over obstacles more effectively in heavy, silty water.
- Shallow draft and relatively light construction: Flat or lightly built wooden hulls minimized draft so vessels could operate in low water and cross bars that would ground deeper-draft craft. Cargo capacity was balanced against the need to remain afloat in only a foot or two of water when lightly loaded.
- Practical freight focus: These boats prioritized utility over luxury. They carried mining equipment, supplies, ore, passengers, and towed barges. Interiors and superstructures were functional rather than ornate (in contrast to some larger Mississippi packets).
- Adaptation to local conditions: Builders accounted for strong currents, extreme temperature swings, wood or other available fuel, and the need for frequent repairs in remote locations. The Searchlight, constructed on-site at Needles rather than shipped in sections from San Francisco (common for earlier boats), reflected the mature local capability for riverboat construction by the early 1900s.
These features made the vessels effective for the lower Colorado from the Gulf of California/delta region upstream past Yuma toward Needles and mining landings, even as the river’s character changed with seasonal floods and droughts.
Role in Expanding Trade
By the late 1890s and early 1900s, the lower Colorado’s steamboat trade had shifted heavily toward supporting mining booms after railroads had already captured much of the long-haul freight. Gold discoveries in the Searchlight District (Nevada, about 14 miles west of the river, south of Eldorado Canyon) in 1897, along with related activity at Quartette Landing and other camps, created renewed demand for river transport of machinery, supplies, food, and outbound ore.
The Searchlight was built specifically to compete in this traffic. It quickly cut into the Colorado Steam Navigation Company’s (CSNC) business to Quartette Landing and Searchlight, Nevada. Operating alongside rivals such as the Cochan (CSNC’s last major sternwheeler, rebuilt from the Gila and placed in service in 1900 for the same mining trade) and the St. Vallier, it helped sustain the final commercial pulse of river steam navigation.
Steamers of this era moved the materials that allowed remote desert mining camps to operate and expand. They linked river landings to overland trails and, later, short rail spurs (such as the Barnwell and Searchlight Railway). In doing so, they supported economic development in parts of present-day Nevada, Arizona, and California where roads remained difficult and expensive.
Competition from expanding rail networks (Southern Pacific earlier, then lines reaching Parker and other points) steadily eroded profitability. By the end of 1905 the remaining steamers, including the Searchlight, were largely withdrawn downriver to the Yuma area. Smaller gasoline boats and eventually trucks took over residual local work.
End of Service and Legacy
The 1909 completion of Laguna Dam (about 14 miles above Yuma) for irrigation effectively closed the lower river to through navigation. Remaining steamers, including the Searchlight, were used for limited reclamation, bank repair, canal-related work, and occasional local freight or ferry duties. The Searchlight is recorded as the last of the commercial paddlewheel fleet, finishing service around 1916.
Its historical significance lies in marking the close of an era. From the Uncle Sam in 1852 through the peak decades of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company and into the early 20th century, sternwheelers opened and sustained trade, military supply, settlement, and mining along a river that was otherwise extremely difficult to navigate. The Searchlight—the final new sternwheeler built for the lower Colorado—embodied the practical design adaptations that made that commerce possible and helped support the last major mining boom the river boats would serve.
Primary modern references for these details include Richard E. Lingenfelter’s Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 and contemporary summaries drawn from period records and photographic collections (including images of the Searchlight at locations such as Chimney Peak, Needles, and Yuma).
Retta – Colorado River Steamship
The Retta was a small stern-wheel paddle steam launch that operated on the lower Colorado River in the early 20th century. It belonged to the final generation of commercial steam vessels on the river, during a period of declining steamboat traffic due to railroad expansion, yet still serving mining, local freight, and limited passenger needs. Steam navigation on the Colorado began in 1852 with the Uncle Sam to supply Fort Yuma and peaked under the Colorado Steam Navigation Company (CSNC, formerly George A. Johnson & Company). By 1900–1909, operations focused on residual mining traffic (e.g., Searchlight and related districts) until Laguna Dam blocked upstream navigation.
The Retta was one of the smaller craft in this late phase, operated primarily by the short-lived Mexican-Colorado Navigation Company.
Construction and Design Principles
Built in 1900 at Yuma, Arizona (by Captain Frank Friant according to detailed accounts), the Retta was an open-decked paddle-wheel steam launch approximately 36 feet long with a 6-foot beam. It featured a scalloped canopy. Exact draft, tonnage, and engine details are sparsely recorded, but it was designed as a light, maneuverable vessel rather than a heavy freighter.
Colorado River steamboats followed specific design principles dictated by the river’s extreme challenges: shallow depths (often under 2 feet in low water), shifting sandbars, strong currents, snags, abrasive silt, and seasonal floods. Key principles included:
- Shallow draft — Priority for flotation over sandbars and in low water; larger sternwheelers often drew 12–22 inches loaded.
- Stern-wheel (paddle) propulsion — Preferred over sidewheels for better maneuverability in narrow or braided channels, ability to “dig” through bars with the wheel, and reduced risk of damage in confined waters.
- Lightweight wooden construction — Flat or lightly framed hulls optimized for cargo capacity relative to draft, with reinforcement against grounding; many larger boats were built in sections in San Francisco, shipped, and reassembled at the river (e.g., Port Isabel or Yuma).
- Practical, utilitarian layout — Focus on freight/tow capacity and reliability over speed or luxury; fuel from local mesquite/cottonwood woodyards.
- Adaptability for towing — Larger vessels often towed barges to multiply capacity.
The Retta, as a compact steam launch, embodied a scaled-down version of these principles: extreme lightness and shallow operation for local upriver work in variable conditions, suited to light freight rather than bulk cargo or long tows. It was originally built for pleasure excursions before commercial use.
Ownership, Operations, and Role in Expanding Trade
The Mexican-Colorado Navigation Company (formed ~1901 in Los Angeles by Alphonso B. Smith with Chicago investors W. S. Twogood and E. E. Busby) acquired the Retta (sources note purchase around July or December 1901) as part of its fleet, which also included the larger sternwheeler St. Vallier (acquired late 1901) and the screw steamer San Jorge. The company aimed to revive river traffic for mining, ranching, and irrigation support, operating from Yuma and competing with the CSNC on routes to Needles and intermediate points, plus limited Gulf of California service.
The Retta handled light freight on upriver runs to landings such as Ehrenberg and Picacho. By fall 1901 it carried items including railroad rails and saw “brisk business.” In early 1905 it was sold to F. C. Robie and William Hutt of Needles, who overhauled it for freighting between Mellen (near Topock) and the Bill Williams Fork mining settlements.
Its role in expanding (or sustaining) trade was modest and localized compared to the big CSNC sternwheelers (Gila, Mohave II, Cochan, etc.) that had earlier enabled major mining booms, military supply, and settlement by linking Pacific ports to interior Arizona, Nevada, and Mexican territories via the river mouth. In the post-railroad era, the Retta and similar small craft filled gaps for short-haul mining supplies, ore, and materials where rail did not yet fully penetrate, supporting residual economic activity along the lower river and its tributaries until dams and further rail closed the era. Overall Colorado River steamboating had already shifted from primary artery of regional development (1850s–1870s) to supplementary service.
Fate
In February 1905 the Retta struck a submerged log (or rock in some accounts) and sank. Its commercial career lasted only about five years.
Legacy
The Retta represents the tail end of Colorado River steam navigation—a practical, small-scale vessel adapted to the river’s demanding conditions during the industry’s decline. Larger boats had transformed Southwest logistics; vessels like the Retta extended limited utility for mining trade a few years longer. Primary sources for this history include Richard E. Lingenfelter’s Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 (University of Arizona Press, 1978), the standard reference documenting the fleet, companies, and operations.
Major Powell – Colorado River Steamship
The Major Powell was a small experimental twin-screw steam launch built and launched in 1891 at Green River, Utah, on the Green River. It was named for Major John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War veteran and explorer who led the first scientific boat expeditions down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869 and 1871–72.
It was owned and operated by the Green Grand & Colorado River Navigation Company (headed by B. S. Ross). The company’s goal was to establish excursion steamers carrying tourists from the Denver & Rio Grande railroad at Green River, Utah, down the Green River to its confluence with the Colorado (then often still called the Grand) and a short distance into Cataract Canyon, with plans for a hotel near the head of the cataracts.
Build and Design Principles
The vessel measured about 35 feet in length, 8 feet in beam (some accounts note 8–10 feet), with a draft of roughly 26 inches and a capacity of about 3 tons. It featured an open deck covered by a canvas canopy. Propulsion came from two 6-horsepower coal-fired steam engines, each driving one of a pair of twin screws (propellers).
Design priorities reflected the harsh realities of the upper Green and Colorado Rivers in the canyon country:
- Shallow draft to handle low water, sandbars, and rocky channels.
- Twin-screw propulsion for better maneuverability in narrow, winding canyons and against variable currents, rather than traditional paddlewheels (more common on the lower Colorado).
- Compact size and light construction suitable for assembly after rail shipment and operation in remote, undeveloped terrain.
- Open-deck simplicity for excursion passengers rather than heavy freight capacity.
- Protective adaptations after early problems: iron guards were added to the screws after rocks damaged the propellers on the first trial run in fast, shallow water. The boiler was later converted from coal to wood (local cottonwood) because coal was scarce and heavy to transport in the canyons.
These choices made it a practical prototype for testing commercial steam navigation in an environment far more challenging than the lower Colorado River (where larger sternwheelers had operated for decades hauling freight and passengers between the Gulf of California and points upstream toward present-day Lake Mead). The Major Powell was underpowered for strong upstream currents and required constant attention to fuel and channel conditions.
Operational History
Launched in August 1891, the boat’s first trial was unsuccessful due to propeller damage. After the iron guards were fitted, its first successful voyage began around April 15, 1892, under the command of local rancher Arthur Wheeler (with a small crew). It descended the Green River through Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons to the confluence and a short distance down the Colorado to the first cataract at the head of Cataract Canyon. Returning upstream proved difficult: the underpowered engines struggled against the current, coal ran low, and the boat was tied up at Wheeler’s ranch (about 22 miles below Green River). The crew walked overland to announce the success in town on July 3, 1892.
A second voyage followed after the conversion to wood fuel. The round-trip river time between the ranch and the first cataract was only about four days, but the full expedition took roughly a month because of the labor of cutting and loading cottonwood. Later accounts also describe additional trial or excursion efforts into 1893.
Despite these limited successes, the boat was dismantled in 1894 for its machinery (reportedly used in a wrecking plant at Green River). The hull was left behind and washed away in a subsequent flood.
Role in Expanding Trade Along the Colorado River
The Major Powell played only a minor and ultimately unsuccessful role in commercial development. Its purpose was primarily tourism and excursion traffic rather than freight or bulk trade. The company hoped to open a scenic passenger route linked to the railroad, but the combination of underpowered engines, fuel logistics, shifting channels, sandbars, and the formidable cataracts prevented sustained commercial service.
On the broader Colorado River system, steam navigation had already been established decades earlier on the lower river (from the mouth near the Gulf of California upstream past Yuma and toward the Mohave region). There, larger shallow-draft sternwheelers carried significant freight (supplies, mining equipment, goods) and passengers, supporting settlement, mining, and military posts until railroads largely displaced them. The upper Green and Colorado canyons remained far more difficult; the Major Powell was among the earliest (and essentially experimental) attempts to apply steam power there. It demonstrated that limited powered travel was possible under favorable conditions but did not lead to a viable trade route or fleet of excursion steamers. Subsequent upper-river boats in the early 20th century (such as the Undine, Cliff Dweller, and others) similarly struggled and left no lasting commercial impact before railroads, roads, and later dams transformed the region.
In short, the Major Powell stands as a short-lived technological and promotional experiment—an ambitious but underpowered effort to commercialize the scenic upper canyons that John Wesley Powell had first explored by rowboat a generation earlier. It highlighted both the possibilities and the severe practical limits of steam navigation on those waters.
Wolf Hole – Mohave County Ghost Town
Wolf Hole, Arizona is a ghost town in the remote Arizona Strip region of Mohave County, northwestern Arizona. It sits on the Uinkaret Plateau (near Wolf Hole Mountain) at approximately 36°45′46″N 113°32′58″W, at an elevation of about 5,043 feet (1,537 m). The site lies roughly 25–33 miles south of St. George, Utah, in a sparsely populated area of plateaus, canyons, and limited water sources north of the Grand Canyon.
Today it consists mainly of foundations, a derelict (often described as adobe) house, and remnants of fencing or corrals. Access is via graded dirt roads (generally suitable for 2WD vehicles in good weather), and the surrounding landscape includes areas near the Mount Trumbull Wilderness.
Naming and Early Exploration
The name “Wolf Hole” stems from a mistranslation by Major John Wesley Powell during his Colorado River and Arizona Strip explorations in the late 1860s–1870s. Powell and his party applied the name to a local spring and water hole; the Paiute (Pah-Ute) term was reportedly something like Shinabitz-spitz or a reference to “Coyote Spring.” Explorers conflated the animal name, and “Wolf Hole” stuck on maps and in records.
The spring was a critical water source in an arid landscape, supporting Indigenous use and later Euro-American ranching. Powell’s broader mapping and ethnographic work helped open the region to further exploration and settlement.
Ranching History and Settlement
The Arizona Strip’s harsh conditions—limited water, droughts, isolation, and rugged terrain—delayed permanent settlement. Early livestock activity intensified in the late 19th century amid the broader Western cattle boom. By the 1890s, prominent cattleman Preston Nutter expanded operations across the Arizona Strip (and into Utah and Colorado). Around 1897 he acquired rights around Wolf Hole (including purchase of a spring claim for a modest sum) as part of consolidating water sources and range rights on the Shivwits Plateau and nearby areas such as Grand Wash and Mount Trumbull. Nutter became one of the dominant figures controlling springs and grazing lands in the western Strip.
Smaller ranchers and homesteaders also operated in the vicinity, practicing open-range cattle and some sheep raising, with limited farming where water allowed. Droughts (including severe ones in the early 1890s and later periods) repeatedly stressed operations. The 1916 Stock-Raising Homestead Act and related land policies encouraged further small-scale claims, but the environment limited long-term success.
The Community and Post Office Era (1918–1927)
Wolf Hole formalized as a small ranching and farming outpost in 1918 with the opening of a U.S. post office (sources note establishment around July 3, 1918; some variation exists for exact start/end years, commonly cited as 1918–1927). Dexter Parker served as postmaster and operated the facility from his ranch, which also functioned in part as a general store, gas station, and stop for travelers. The post office linked isolated ranchers and homesteaders to the outside world (often via routes to St. George, Utah), handling mail, supplies, and sometimes dairy products from local operations.
The settlement remained minimal—likely fewer than a dozen households clustered near the spring and rudimentary ranch buildings. It never developed into a substantial town with commercial or mining focus (unlike many Mohave County boom towns driven by minerals). Daily life centered on livestock, water management, and coping with isolation, extreme weather, and scarce resources.
Decline and Abandonment
The post office closed in 1927, marking the effective end of the formal community. Factors included the region’s inherent challenges (chronic water scarcity, drought, limited economic viability for small operators), consolidation of ranching under larger outfits, and broader shifts in Western land use and transportation. Residents dispersed to more accessible areas. By the mid-20th century the site was largely abandoned, with structures deteriorating into the sparse remains visible today.
Cultural Notes and Legacy
American author and environmentalist Edward Abbey (1927–1989), known for Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang, sometimes claimed Wolf Hole as a residence or used it as a mailing address/byline. This was largely symbolic or aspirational, reflecting his affinity for remote Southwest wilderness; he did not maintain permanent residence there (accounts describe it as “camouflage” enhancing his desert hermit persona). Visitors seeking him in the 1970s found little or nothing at the site.
Wolf Hole exemplifies the ephemeral nature of many Arizona Strip outposts: water-dependent ranching communities that briefly served isolated settlers before fading. It contrasts with Mohave County’s earlier mining boom towns and stands as a quiet remnant of frontier adaptation to one of Arizona’s most remote landscapes. Nearby features include Wolf Hole Mountain and ongoing land management activities (e.g., Bureau of Land Management projects related to fuels reduction and habitat in the broader Wolfhole area).
Sources for this report draw primarily from historical summaries, ghost town documentation, USGS geographic data, ranching histories of the Arizona Strip (including Nutter’s operations), and contemporary accounts of the site and its cultural associations. Primary records on such remote places are limited, and some details (exact post office dates, precise population) vary slightly across sources.