| OCR Text |
Show Record is to be determined by Federal and not by state law. Attention was invited to the case of Oklahoma v. Texas, 258 U. S. 578, with the comment that the facts there disclosed a navigability 8 dreamed of or attempted upon the Colorado River. One other case was cited, towit, Harrison v. Fite, 148 Fed. 781, special reference being made to the language employed by Judge Hook at page 748, wherein he states that to be navigable a water course should be susceptible of use in commerce or possess a capacity for valuable floatage in the transportation to market of the products of the country through which it runs, and that a theoretical or potential navigability or one that is temporary, precarious and 10 unprofitable is not sufficient. Proceeding to discuss complainant's evidence Mr. Blackmar stated that neither the Colorado. Green or San Juan Rivers has a history of navigable by the United 11 - 15 States Supreme Court without such history. Reference was made to relies of cliff dwellers along these rivers and the absence of any evidence that they had been navigated by either cliff dwellers or American Indians and that from the time of the arrival of the Spaniard near the mouth of the Colorado River in 1538 down to the colonization of Utah and Arizona by the Mormons, following their arrival in Utah during the year 1847, there had been no use of 16 - 17 either of these rivers for navigation. The trips of Major Powell, Robert Bruce Stanton, Julius Cohn, Lewis R. Freeman and Clyde Eddy between the years of 1869 and 1927 were referred to as merely exploration trips, having no significance as bearing on the 18 question of navigability. Mention was made of a temporary and successful operation of the following boats on the Colorado River, towit; the Major Powell, Undine and City of road, otherwise known 19 as the Cliff Dweller. One other boat was mentioned as having - 2- 1117 |
