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Show Record The Mancos and above the Animus. I wouldn't say what was its depth, but I could have gone over at those places without getting my knees wet. When I refer to " below Bluff' I mean at Mexican Hat and at the mouth of Comb Wash and at the Barton cabin. I have been an Indian trader and kept a store in New Mexico and Arizona and have never merchants bring in merchandise by 1605 boat on the San Juan River, their supplies coming overland from Mancos, Colorado, Monticello, Blanding and Salt Lake City, Utah. 1604 Wool raised in the San Juan country is shipped out overland. I have never been on the Colorado in a boat except to take my stock across the river. Following my occupation of guide I have picked up my parties at Grand Canyon, Tuba, Mancos, Gallup, Flagstaff, and sometimes at Bluff. My last party I took from Blanding. I covered the country between the mouth of the San Juan and White 1606 Canyon. I have taken parties down into the canyon itself. You can get down into the canyon the Colorado at a point near the Crossing of the Fathers above the mouth of Rainbow Bridge Canyon; and that is the only place above there you can get down with stock, at the mouth of Bridge Canyon. I would take my pack trains down to the river, where I could get a boat and swim the stock across. 1607 I have made such crossings at Lee's Ferry, at the mouth of Red 1608 Canyon and Hite, which is also known as Dandy Crossing. Many different people have operated the boat at Hite. I have spent very, very little time there and was only there when my business required me to cross, and I then went on my way. I have observed that the San Juan River shifts a great deal. I have crossed it 1609 when the water would be four feet deep on one side, and coming back three or four days later the deep channel would be on the other side, and it would be impossible to cross on account of quicksand. This was at Clay Hill Crossing, on the trail from the Blue Mountains to Tuba and Flagstaff, and a little more than forty 1610 miles below the mouth of Chinle Creek. At Johns Camp the river bed has raised ten feet in the last few years because of the deposit |