salt was used in processing the ore at El Dorado. After the mines closed in 1887 it was reported that no boat ever passed above that point. By 1890, the Gila and Mohave No. 2 alone remained of the once prosperous "Arizona Fleet." One or the other made a trip once a month from Yuma to the upriver landings if freight demanded,^^^ but a reliable report states that the "commerce of the river above El Dorado Canyon is practically nothing."^^^ In 1 899 the Gila., last survivor of the fleet, was remodeled at Yuma and cut down to 1 59 feet in length. She was renamed the Cochan. This same year the St. Vallier was built at Needles and placed on the river.^^^ In 1903 it was reported that these two boats were handling a total of less than ^yg. hundred tons of trade a year below Yuma, and very little above.^^^ During the first quarter of the twentieth century the Searchlight^ owned and operated by Charles M. Smith, the Katie Lloyd, owned and operated by Captain David Lloyd, and the Retta., Electra, and Silas J. Leivis^'^^ were constructed. They carried on a negligible trade with the mining camps of Lower California and were engaged in the reclamation service on the delta for a number of years. It is diflicult to understand the reason for the sudden interest on the part of the United States Government in the extension of navigation on the Colorado after the river trade had begun its decline. However, no less than a halfdozen surveys were conducted on the river between 1869 and 1903 to determine the advisability of spending money to clear the channel and improve its navigability. With but two exceptions these reports all agreed that the river was unworthy of improvement. The first of these, July 5, 1884, provided twenty-five thousand dollars for the improvement of the channel between Mohave and El Dorado Canyon, and the second, July 13, 1892, provided ten thousand dollars for the construction of a levee along the Gila River.1^2
Thus the story of steam navigation on the Colorado River drew to a close. In a sense, it is merely the last chapter of a much older story dating back to within fifty years of the discovery of the New World by Columbus. For two and one-half centuries the Spanish explored and mapped much of the river and laid plans for converting it into a highway for the support of the missions of Baja California. The search for beaver in the first half of the eighteenth century led to a re-exploration of the entire area by the American trapper, but it was the discovery of gold in California and the rush of emigrants westward which led to the development of steam navigation. The immediate incentive was the need of supplying the military post at Yuma, placed there for the protection of the emigrants. The years from 1850 to 1 864 represent a period of experimentation, during which the ocean route from San Francisco to the mouth of the river was opened and steam vessels were introduced on the Colorado. A period of expansion and rivalry followed. Mines were developed and attempts were made to extend steam service to the Mormon empire of Utah. The peak period of the river trade from
