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 Arizona and California papers announced the opening of steam service to the mouth of the Colorado.^^^ The Newbern was scheduled to leave San Francisco for the mouth of the river on the first of each month. Upon arrival she was to connect with the river steamers so that freight and passengers could be delivered in Yuma within twelve days from the date of sailing. Special inducements were offered to passengers, and fares were set at seventy-five dollars "first cabin," or forty-five dollars "steerage." Offices of the company were located in San Francisco and at Yuma and Ehrenberg on the river.^^^

The success of an all-steam service to Yuma was instantaneous. Freight laid down in Arizona in twelve days from San Francisco seemed miraculous. The effect was noticeable in everything, from the delivery of newspapers only two weeks old to the arrival of the latest styles "direct from the city," and Arizonans were enthusiastic in their praise of the new service. It was indeed a new era, and hundreds now availed themselves of the opportunity to visit San Francisco "just for the ride." Within two months the Miner reported that "mountains of government freight for Whipple, Date Creek, Hualpai and Verde are being received here," and in March of the following year the same paper observed that the Newbern had been offered more freight than she had been able to carry.^^*

In 1873 the headquarters of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company were moved to San Diego. Under the leadership of Isaac Polhamus, Jr., who became acting superintendent, the company flourished. On November 8 it announced the addition of a second ocean steamer, the Montana, to be put into service from San Francisco to Port Isabel. ^^^ The twelve-day schedule was retained, but the sailing frequency was now increased from once a month to every twenty days. Stops were made at Guaymas, La Paz, and Mazatlan, and passenger rates were reduced to forty dollars first class and twenty-four dollars steerage. An excellent picture revealing the scope of the river trade in 1873 i^ found in the Miner. There were: "The Steamer Gila, 236 tons capacity; Cocopah, 231 tons; Mohave, 192 tons; Colorado, 178 tons; Nina Tilden, 107 tons. Barges, No. i, 106 tons; No. 2, 125 tons; No. 3, 136 tons; No. 4, 185 tons; Black Crook, 3 1 tons; which boats make about twenty trips a year up the river, as far as Ehrenberg, going up to . . . Hardyville, about fifteen trips, bringing up an average of 100 tons of freight each trip."^^^ Thus, with two ocean-going steamers covering the eighteen hundred miles between San Francisco and Port Isabel every twenty days, and five river boats and an equal number of barges serving the settlements and mining camps along a five-hundred-mile water front, steam navigation on the Colorado River reached its climax.

Although the steamers provided the motive force for navigation, it is impossible to overlook the role played by the river barges. The barge was the one great contribution of Thomas E. Trueworthy to the Colorado trade. In 1864, when he commenced business, lumber to be used in barge construction