Callville, established on the Colorado by Anson Call in December, 1864,
for a while was the southernmost outpost of Mormon settlement. Call
himself was a pioneer of most vigorous sort. November 24,1851, he was one
of the founders of Fillmore, Millard County, 150 miles south of Salt
Lake, a settlement for a while the capital of the Territory of Utah,
created during the administration of President Millard Fillmore in 1850.
In the following year he built Call's Fort in Box Elder County, in the
extreme northern part of Utah.
In a compilation made by Andrew Jenson is found definite statement that
the settlement made by Anson Call on the Colorado was "as agent for the
Trustee in Trust (the President) of the Church in December, 1864,
according to a plan which was conceived of at that time to bring the
Church immigration from Europe to Utah via Panama, the Gulf of California
and up the river to this landing." In conjunction with this, a number of
leading merchants of Salt Lake City combined to build a warehouse on the
Colorado, with a view to bringing goods in by the river route. This
company also constituted Anson Call its agent. November 1, Call was
directed to take a suitable company, locate a road to the Colorado,
explore the river, find a suitable place for a warehouse, build it and
form a settlement at or near the landing. All these things he
accomplished. At St. George he employed Jacob Hamblin and son, Angus M.
Cannon and Dr. Jas. M. Whitmore.
The journal of travel tells of leaving the mouth of the Muddy, continuing
down the Virgin twelve miles, thence up what was named Echo Wash, twelve
miles, and thence twenty miles, generally southwestward, to the Colorado,
a mile below the narrows, above the mouth of Black Canyon, where, on
December 2, was found a black rocky point, considered a suitable spot for
the erection of a warehouse, above high-water mark. This later was named
Callville.
With the exception of a small bottom around the warehouse site, the
country was considered most barren and uninviting. Two and a half miles
down the river was the mouth of Las Vegas Wash, up which Call and party
traveled to old Fort Vegas, where a half-dozen men were found
established. In the company's journeyings, El Dorado Canyon was found
occupied by miners and there were some adventurers on Cottonwood Island,
a tract of bottom land nearby. The expedition was ferried across the
Colorado to Hardy's Landing, 337 miles above Yuma. Hardy had a rather
extensive establishment, with a store, warehouse, hotel, blacksmith shop,
carpenter shop and several dwelling houses. Possibly notable was the
launching at that time of the barge "Arizona," fifty feet long and ten
feet wide, sharp at both ends and flat-bottomed.
By river there was a visit to Fort Mohave. This, garrisoned by forty
soldiers of the California Column, was of log and willow houses, the
latter wattled and daubed with mud. There was reference by Call to the
Colorado River mosquito, described as "very large."
Returning to Call's Landing, there were measured off forty lots, each 100
feet square, and a start was made by leaving Thomas Davids and Lyman
Hamblin, on December 18, to dig the foundation of the warehouse.
This expedition made a preliminary survey of the Muddy and declared
settlement upon the stream entirely feasible.
Wm. H. Hardy of Hardyville, or Hardy's Landing, was not at home when
Anson Call visited in December, but returned soon thereafter and, January
2, 1865, started northward with his new barge, propelled by poles and
oars and a sail. A distance of 150 miles by river was made in twelve
days. Though later some jealousy was expressed over the activities at
Callville, Hardy proffered all possible assistance and expressed belief
that from July to November steamers could ply from the mouth of the
Colorado to Call's Landing. The warehouse was built, but appears to
have been little used. Capt. Geo. A. Johnston had submitted the Church
authorities formal proposals to ship direct from New York to the mouth of
the river, in barques of about 600 tons burden, preferably arriving at
the river mouth in the fall. The cost of freight from New York to the
river mouth was set at $16 a ton, and the cost to El Dorado Canyon at
$65, but, figuring currency at 50 cents, the freight was estimated to
cost $7.16 per 100 pounds in currency.
In March, 1865, Capt. Thos. E. Trueworthy, told of opposition at Hardy's
Landing to the establishment of Callville. He had started for Call's
Landing with 100 tons of freight, including 35,000 feet of lumber, to
find that Call had returned to Utah. Trueworthy left his boat and cargo
below Callville and went on to Salt Lake. He stated the trip from the
mouth to Call's Landing would take a boat a month, there being difficulty
in passing rapids and in finding wood for fuel.
Historian B.H. Roberts states:
"There was shipment of some goods from that point, though at first there
were some disappointments and dissatisfaction among the Salt Lake
merchants who patronized the route. Two steamboats, the Esmeralda and
Nina Tilden made the trip somewhat regularly from the mouth of the
Colorado to Call's Landing, connecting with steamships plying between the
mouth of the Colorado and San Francisco. The owners of the river boats
carried a standing advertisement in the Salt Lake Telegraph, thus seeking
trade, up to December 1, 1866. Doubtless the certainty of the early
completion of the transcontinental railroad from the Missouri River to
the Pacific Ocean stopped the development of this southwest route for
immigration and freight, via Utah's southern settlements and the Colorado
River."
The port of Callville had only a short life. In June, 1869, the Deseret
News printed an article that Callville then had been abandoned. This was
in connection with the escape of three horsethieves from St. George.
These men wrenched four large doors from the Callville warehouse for the
construction of a raft, upon which they committed themselves to the river
at flood time, leaving horses and impedimenta behind. Whether they
escaped has not been chronicled.
As late as 1892, the walls of the old storehouse still were standing, the
only remaining evidences of a scheme of broad ambition designed to
furnish a new supply route for a region comprising at least one-fourth of
the national expanse.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG AND PARTY AT THE MOUTH OF THE
VIRGIN, MARCH 17, 1870. Others in the party are: Amelia Young, Geo. A.
Smith, Bathsheba W. Smith, John Taylor, Erastus Snow, Minerva Snow, Jos.
W., Lorenzo D. and Brigham Young, Jr., B.S. and Albert C. Young, A.S.
Gibbons, Jno. W. Young, Nathaniel V. Jones, John Squires, Joseph Asay,
Van Ettu, Levi Stewart. Photo by C.R. Savage]
[Illustration: BAPTISM OF SEVERAL HUNDRED SHIVWITS INDIANS BY DAVID H.
CANNON AT ST. GEORGE]