Unpowered barges, rowboats, and skiffs were used on the Green, Colorado, and San Juan rivers (folder 1) from the 1860s on, but the first powered craft built to navigate the Green and Colorado Rivers between Green River and Moab, Utah, was the MAJOR POWELL, a round-bottom, steam-powered launch built in Illinois and shipped to Green River, Utah, by rail. Being underpowered, it was unsuccessful and was abandoned by 1894. Next was the UNDINE (folder 2), built by a Denver businessman, which in 1901 became was the first to actually make the upriver run from the confluence of the Green and Colorado to Moab, Utah. It was lost near there in an accident in the spring of 1902. The first truly successful craft was the WILMONT (folder 3) built by Edwin Wolverton in 1903. It served on the river hauling passengers and freight until its hull was damaged by ice in winter of 1908, after which the machinery was salvaged and the boat abandoned. Wolverton built and used several other similar craft until he left the area in 1912. Other craft on the river around the same time included Milton Oppenheimer's PADDY ROSS and a series of barges (folder 4). The most grandiloquent boat by far was the ill-fated CITY OF MOAB (folder 5), built at a cost of some $15,000 in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1905. Fifty- five feet long, powered by two 30 horsepower gasoline engines, she was much too large for the shallow Green River, and after one attempt to reach the confluence with the Colorado, was tied up on the riverbank and left for the winter. Stripped of all her fancy cabins and converted to a steam powered stern-wheeler, the boat was renamed the CLIFF DWELLER (folder 6) in 1906, and another attempt made at a ferry service between Green River and Moab. This too was unsuccessful, and she was finally sold to a Salt Lake City businessman who renamed her the VISTA and used her as a tourist craft on the Great Salt Lake for many years. The only people to really be successful at hauling freight and passengers on the Colorado were the Baldwin brothers, owners of the Moab Garage Company (folder 7), who built and used a number of powered barges and scows in the 1920s.
The riverboats collection, P0063, contains black and white photographs of early river craft used on the Green and Colorado Rivers between the towns of Green River, Utah, and Moab, Utah. Also included are some photographs of freight boats used during the brief mining boom on the San Juan River, ferry boats, miscellaneous rowboats, and other riverboat-related images. This collection was received some years ago in the Special Collections department, but no records were kept of its provenance. In addition, when it was first processed the images were put in folders with no real relation to their chronology. Accordingly, in 2002, the collection was re-processed, and the images were rearranged in chronological order, and renumbered. Included in this box will be a copy of an article in the CANYON LEGACY, vol. 1 n. 5, "A Foolhardy Undertaking: Utah's Pioneer Steamboaters," which recounts the history of most of these craft. Descriptions or captions found on the image will be noted in quotes.
The photographs in the first seven folders grouped by the particular boat or company that operated the boats, while those in the last folder are miscellaneous. Collection is arranged chronolgically.
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s
Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Processed by Roy Webb in 2002.
This collection forms part of the Utah River Running Archive, which is part of the S.J. Quinney Outdoor Recreation Archive