Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/25

Rh could be collected in San Francisco to warrant sailing. Occasionally sailing dates were postponed several times with the hope of eventually obtaining freight and passengers, only to be cancelled when neither was forthcoming. In June 1865, Captain Trueworthy and the Philadelphia Mining Company merged to form the Pacific and Colorado Steam Navigation Company. They raised a capital stock of $200,000, accumulated from the sale of four thousand shares at fifty dollars each, and owned the three boats: the Esmeralda, Nina Tilden, and the schooner Victoria.

By 1865 the Colorado had worn out, and, in order to meet the challenge of his rivals, Johnson launched the ninth steamer to operate on the river. Like her predecessor she was named the Colorado, and in order to distinguish between them the later one will be referred to as the Colorado No. 2. She was laid out in San Francisco and put together at the Yuma yard."^^ She had but one deck, a square stern, and a capacity of 178.59 tons.^*^ The following year, at Sacramento, the Johnson Company was incorporated as the Colorado Steam Navigation Company with a capital stock of $500,000. Aided financially by his new company and materially by his fleet of three steamers, and having the advantage of twelve years of experience, Johnson returned to the Colorado determined to meet the challenge of his rivals.

Since five river steamers represented a carrying capacity more than adequate for local needs, boat owners and merchants in both San Francisco and Salt Lake City again took steps to open trade negotiations. In January 1864, an agent from Salt Lake appeared at El Dorado Canyon to investigate the possibility of obtaining supplies for Utah, but as none were there he was obliged to go to Los Angeles.^^ In October 1864, the Mormon Church and a number of Salt Lake merchants decided on a definite course of action. They appointed Anson Call as agent to locate a road from the Utah settlements by way of the Muddy River to the highest point of navigation on the Colorado, where he was to construct a warehouse preparatory to receiving freight from California. Call left St. George, Utah, on November 24, 1864, with a party of five, and, going by way of the Muddy, reached the Colorado on December 2. A suitable landing site was selected a few miles above Las Vegas Wash, on a black, rocky point well above high water mark.^^ The party explored the river south to Hardyville, 150 miles below, and, upon their return, staked out a warehouse and some forty lots for the proposed settlement which was to be named Callville. Call then returned to St. George, leaving two men to excavate for the foundations.

To serve as way stations for the river traffic, and as a source of supply for cotton and other semitropical products, the Church established St. Thomas and St. Joseph on the Muddy some distance north of Callville, in 1861.

Joining a company of settlers on their way to the Cotton Mission in Arizona, Call returned to the Colorado three weeks later, bringing a surveyor and several stone masons. The party constructed a kiln, burned lime