OCR Text |
Show Green River in Utah 8 declared to be navigable streams . . " See Laws of Utah , 1927 , page 8 , this brief , page 94 . . This law was passed some thirty years after the admission of Utah to the Union and can have no retroactive effect . . The State courts have not been called upon to pass upon the navigability of the rivers in question . . The status of the title to the river beds was fixed as of the date of admission , , January 4 , 1896 . . The Master correctly concluded ( see page 16 of his report ) that this law can have no effect upon the title of the United States . ( Ill III ) EARLY NAVIGATION The Colorado River above Lees Ferry , Arizona , and the Green River , have no history of early navigation . . The head of navigation on the Colorado River is far below Lees Ferry , Arizona ( Exceptions 3 , 7 , 8 ) Before the country was settled there were but few overland routes . Explorers , fur traders , merchants and emigrants used rivers as highways for trade and travel whenever possible . This Court has therefore ' , , given serious consideration to the methods of early transportation in determining the navigability of a river . . In The ( Montdlo Hontello ) , 20 Wall . . 430 and Bconomy Light & Power Co United States . . v . . , 256 U . . S . , 113 " the Court based its decisions largely upon early navigation . In the former case it said ( 20 Wall . . 440 ) : It is true , , without the improvements by locks , , canals , , and dams , , Fox River , through |