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Show Record lived close to the river. I have lived in Blanding about ten years. 382 Before that I lived in Blanding a little over forty years. During all the fifty years I lived at Blanding and Bluff I crossed the San Juan River, principally near Bluff, hundreds of times. From a point 15 miles down the San Juan River from Bluff to the Colorado River I have crossed the San Juan River at nearly every place you could get to the river on horse back. I could not say how many 383 times. My visits to the river at those points was occasioned by looking after cattle and trading with the Indians. I had some cattle grazing on lands adjacent to the San Juan River. I had cattle about 15 miles below Bluff. I never rode extensively below that 15 miles. I know where Chinle Creek is. I have crossed the 384 San Juan River there many times. Below Chinle Creek I have seen and crossed the San Juan River a good many times. I have seen 100 different small boats on the San Juan River, owned by different individuals. A good many of them owned by myself and partners. I used the boats merely to cross the river. I have seen some small boats going up and down the San Juan River. I do not think more than two. The first boat I saw came down from Farmington, New Mexico. They made it up to Farmington and then went down the river with some supplies to a placer mine below Bluff. I 385 do not know how far. There were three people in the first boat and they were carrying food and lumber to make sluice boxes. It was approximately 35 years ago in the fall - low water season. The second boat I saw navigating the San Juan River was approximately 386 30 years ago. There were two or three men in that boat. I do not know whether they were miners, but they were going to the placers. They had come from Colorado. These men had food, provisions, tools 387 and lumber. I ran a store at Bluff and they come there for supplies I happened to be in the store when they passed by. I only recall 388 these two parties. I remember the placer mining excitement on the San Juan. There was only one such excitement which you could call a boom, and it lasted probably a year or two. There have been other |