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Show WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 18 NATHAN L. NELSON uTAH HISTORICAL QuARTERLy Of the Cañonita group’s arrival at the Paria Second Powell Expedition, crossing in 1872, Dellenbaugh wrote, “We Western Operations. discovered that some one had come in here since our last visit, and built a house.”61 In the early months of 1872, John D. Lee had commenced a ferry at the Paria Crossing and had established a home (“Lonely Dell”). When Powell’s men arrived, Lee was busy farming to provide for himself and one of his families.62 Firing signal shots and getting no reply, Dellenbaugh walked up the Paria with his Winchester on his shoulder. “Why I had the gun I don’t know,” Dellenbaugh later ruminated, “not for Lee of course.” One of Lee’s wives, Rachel Woolsey Lee, spotted Dellenbaugh and the rifle. As he approached the cabin, she slipped inside. Farther on, Dellenbaugh found Lee plowing a field. “Lee stopped the horses and resting his hands on the plough handles turned his head to look at the new comer,” Dellenbaugh recalled. “As soon as Lee understood who I was he was very pleasant and always was while we were there.”63 Hillers was with Dellenbaugh and recorded, “After stating our case, [Lee] told us to make his home our home until our men came down, which we accepted. Gave him some flour.”64 Dellenbaugh reported 61 Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, The Romance of the Colorado River: The Story of Its Discovery in 1540, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1903), 316. 62 Mormon Chronicle, 2:175, 180–84, 195; Dellenbaugh, Canyon Voyage, 211. 63 Frederick S. Dellenbaugh to Mr. Kelly, in “F. S. Dellenbaugh of the Colorado: Some Letters Pertaining to the Powell Voyages and the History of the Colorado River,” ed. C. Gregory Crampton, Utah Historical Quarterly 37 (Spring 1969): 235; Dellenbaugh, Canyon Voyage, 210. 64 “Photographed All the Best Scenery,” 129. 18 |
