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Show Record barge of that company for about seven months without missing any shifts, commencing that work in December, 1925, and continuing up until summer around June, 1926. That was my first experience on the Colorado River, and during that period we hauled in a drilling rig and material to rebuild the rig that burned down and camp 5262 houses for No. 2 Well and we hauled similar equipment for No. 2 Well that we had hauled for No. 1 Well. We also hauled to the dock of the Snowden- McSweeney Company across the river from No. 1 Well. We tried to average our loads so that we would take down about eighteen or twenty tons to the load. We have hauled as high as twenty- two tons at one load. We have taken down full barge loads of coal that would weigh eighteen or twenty tons on a single 5263 trip. Virgil Baldwin was in charge of the boat during the period I was working there and the ordinarily piloted the boat going down-stream and I usually piloted it coming upstream. We had a gasoline hoist and a crane for use in unloading our cargo, especially our heavy freight. On our upstream trips we hauled bent tools such as stems and bits that needed repairing, and on two or three different 5264 occasions we hauled crude oil. I believe we have brought up sixteen barrels of oil on a single trip and these barrels would each weigh about four hundred or four hundred and fifty pounds. While drilling operations were in progress these were times when a con-siderable amount of freight had to be brought back up the river, such as bent tools and various things. During some of those seven months that I worked on the big barge we had high water. The rise of water commences in March and lasts until June and we figure that the high- 5265 est water is between May 20 and the 10th of June. In high water we had scarcely any trouble in operating the barge either up or down-stream. When the water is at high stage we keep in what we call the dead water pretty close to the bank, where it was shallowest. During high water the sand bars were all covered and we had plenty of depth. In going upstream there was not much difficulty with sand 793 |