Much of romance is attached to Lee's residence on the Colorado. The
writer has heard many tales how Lee worked rich gold deposits nearby, how
he explored the river and its canyons and how, for a time, he was in
seclusion among the Hava-Supai Indians in the remote Cataract Canyon,
to which, there was assumption, he had brought the fruit seeds from which
sprang the Indian orchards. This would appear to be mainly assumption,
for Lee made his living by casual ferrying, and had to be on hand when
the casual traveler called for his services. Many of the old tales are
plausible, and have had acceptance in previous writings of the Author,
but it now appears that Lee's residence on the Canyon was only as above
stated. J. Lorenzo Hubbell states that Lee was at Moen Copie for a while
before going to take charge of the ferry.
In the summer of 1877, Ephriam K. Hanks was advised by President Brigham
Young to buy the ferry, but this plan fell through on the death of the
President. The ferry, later, was bought from Emma Lee by Warren M.
Johnson, as Church agent, he paying 100 cows, which were contributed by
the people of southern Utah and northern Arizona settlements, they
receiving tithing credits therefor.
About ten years ago, Lee's Ferry was visited by Miss Sharlot M. Hall,
Arizona Territorial Historian. She wrote entertainingly of her trip, by
wagon, northwest into the Arizona Strip, much of her diary published in
1912 in the Arizona Magazine. The Lee log cabin showed that some of its
logs originally had been used in some sort of raft or rude ferryboat.
There also was found in the yard a boat, said to have been one of those
of the Powell expedition. This may have been the "Nellie Powell."
Of the Lee occupancy, Miss Hall tells a little story that gives insight
into the trials of the women of the frontier:
"When Lee's wife stayed here alone, as she did much of the time, the
Navajo Indians often crossed here and they were not always friendly. A
party of them came one night and built their campfire in the yard and
Mrs. Lee understood enough of their talk to know she was in danger. Brave
woman as she was, she knew she must overawe them, and she took her little
children and went out and spread a bed near the fire in the midst of the
hostile camp and stayed there till morning. When the Navajos rode away
they called her a brave woman and said she should be safe in the future."
The first real ferryboat was that built by John L. Blythe, on October 15,
1873, a barge 20x40 feet, one that would hold two wagons, loads and
teams. It was in this boat that the Jas. S. Brown party crossed in 1875,
and a much larger migration to the Little Colorado in the spring of
1876.
In 1877, there was consideration of the use of the Paria road, as a means
for hauling freight into Arizona, at least as far as Prescott, which was
estimated by R.J. Hinton as 448 miles distant from the terminus, at that
time, of the Utah Southern Railroad. Via St. George and Grand Wash, the
haul was set at 391 miles, though the Paria route seemed to be preferred.
It should be remembered that at that time the nearest railroad was west
of Yuma, a desert journey from Prescott of about 350 miles.