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Show 67 down the river very largely in the winter time placer mining from Chinle Creek , down to within 20 miles of the mouth of the San Juan . They have thus gone down there to placer mine in the winter between the years 1892 and 1919 , , but the bars are not as rich as they used to be and with present mining methods the miners ( can't cant ) make a living . . Those who had boats would go down from Bluff to their claims along the river , taking their supplies with them in their boats . I remember two diferent outfits going down that way in 1904 and another outfit in 1906 when I was at Bluff and happened to see them pass . I was only on the river two months in 1892 and next went back there ten years later in 1902 , and most of the mining down the river was done between the years 1892 and 1902 , during which period I was there for only two months . ( R . 2518-21 , , Vol 13 ) . . Richard Elmer Caldwell testified : I am a civil engineer and was on the trip described by the witness Franklin Thomas , being then State Engineer of Utah . I now reside in Los Angeles . Our boats were 20 feet long with a ( 5-foot 5foot ) beam and drew a foot of ( water vater ) . I made a notation as to these boats . I took no soundings and ( don't dont ) recall any one else doing so on the trip . We occasionally were caught on sand bars but thought nothing of it . At points where we got on a sand bar we were always able to float after we pushed the boat into deeper water , and it may have been that our getting stuck was occasioned by our not getting into the deeper portion of the river at that point . ( R . 2522-8 , Vol 13 ) . . . . Frank ( Barnes Banies ) testified : In 1908 , ( I 1 ) went to Bluff , Utah , and was in the San Juan country until 1918 . ( I 1 ) have been down to ( Spencer's Spencers ) camp . I have seen row boats cross the San Juan River and have seen ( two -hvo hvo ) boats going down the river but none coming upstream . I was operating those two boats . In July or the first of August I took a boat trip from a point about 4 miles below Bluff to the mouth of Comb Wash and on that trip had to pull the boat over sand bars ( "a a ) time or two . " ( R . 2530-2 , Vol . 13 . ) In 1910 I went to Lees Ferry where I was employed by Charles H . . ( Spencer's Spencers ) company . I saw an ( 18-foot 18foot ) launch he had there and operated it on an upstream trip about ( mid- mid ) summer . We made a lot of trips to try out the launch and |