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Show Record I saw the river dry twice but in different occasions, once above Bluff and once in the canyon below Bluff. Those are the only two times I have ever seen the river absolutely dry. I 642 cannot fix the date of the first time. I could not say whether 643 it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago; same as to the second time. When I first arrived there the banks of the river were pretty well confined, fringed by trees and willows, and there was a definite, readily discernable channel. The condition of the river bed between Bluff and Chinle Creek has very naterially changed since I first arrived there. You would never recognize 644 it. I have attempted to control the direction of the river to protect the bottoms and repair the damage that was occasioned by the floods that destroyed the original channel as I found it when 645 I first arrived there. I cannot even approximately fix the year when the flood came that destroyed the channel and caused the river to become wider. The channel was really destroyed by floods at different times. I would say it was about two years after my arrival there when the first injury was done. The river cut through our farm at Montezuma. I was not familiar with the condition at 646 Bluff at that time. The next flood that I remember that did any damage was when I was living at Rincon; that was 2 or 3 years after the one that injured us at Montezuma When I arrived at Rincon my father already had a ferry 647 boat operating. It was used to convey the Indians and their loads back and forth and was constructed to carry freight and passengers across the river. The Indians would drive right on the ferry with their loads and ponies, 15 or 20 of them. The boat would carry that many easily. It was built large enough to carry two wagons. We 648 operated it 18 months as near as I remember. The oil rigs came from Durango and some from Dolores, the nearest railroad point. There we loaded them on wagons. They originated in Cincinnati, Ohio, I believe. They were mostly Star rigs. They were not loaded on cars at any point in the vicinity of 649 the San Juan River. |
