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Show 218 PARLEY ROCERSON BUIT For Complainant ( R. Vol. 3 - pp. 541- 555.) He resides at Dove Creek. He is 69 years of age and is a farmer and stock raiser, he has been familiar with the San Juan River for thirty years. He lived in the San Juan country at Bluff, Utah, up until six years ago, when he moved into Colorado. He came into the San Juan country from Iron County, Utah, in 1879 with Eumen Jones and party. R. 541- 542. They commenced preparing land for crops and cultivated farms. In 1894 the flood waters of the San Juan River washed most of the farm lands away. They had scent hundreds of dollars to get the Cottonwoods away for cultivation. He attempted to save lands by building riprap dykes along the river and filling in behind riprap with rocks. The riprapping was complete when the high waters come. R. 543- 544. He forded the river a number of times at Clay Hill, about fifty or sixty miles west of Bluff, and at Mexican Hat. Sometimes the water was so high that it would pretty near swim the horses, other times it would only come about to the horse's knees. Most of the crossings were made in the fall and winter and in cold weather the river could almost be waded. He has been overland between Bluff and the Colorado River several times. He went down to Hole- in- the- Rock to help emigrants get into Bluff, Utah. R. 544- 546. Hole- in- the- Rock is about seven miles above the mouth of the San Juan River on the Colorado River. Boats were built at the notch to ferry people across the Colorado River at that point. The lumber for building |