Isayhello2u
Full Member
i haven't been here for a while but will toss my two cents in again.
what changed the pattern of the how the lower Colorado river flooded and flowed was the arrival of the Americans.
if left alone the Colorado with its tidal bore would have shifted both its main channel and the location of its mouth with frequency and over wide distances miles apart. hence some of the early mapping confusion
a Spanish explorer renaming the river because its mouth was miles/leagues from where a previous explorer
charted it. The British Lt. Hardy esp had trouble finding the Colorado's mouth.
this shifting is a natural phenomenon that occurs in most rivers with large tidal bores.
some of the steamships were able to go as far as Callville when the water was high.
http://www.quehoposse.org/steamboatplaque.html
things Americans did in the early days to keep the Colorado in what has become the main channel
in one of the travel journals describing a steamship trip up the colorado from the mouth.
the writer describes how when encountering a sandbar the boat reversed and used its paddles to dig
the channel deeper.
when the spring floods did bring down silt and snags that damned the river and started flooding the
palo verde vally california in the early 1900s. these natural dams were set with dynomite
and exploded by the local homesteaders (I once knew someone who had this as his first paid job)
the thing that really killed the river and made it stay as we know it today of course is the dams
starting with the building of the Yuma dam which cut travel up river and down off.
cyas laters guys
what changed the pattern of the how the lower Colorado river flooded and flowed was the arrival of the Americans.
if left alone the Colorado with its tidal bore would have shifted both its main channel and the location of its mouth with frequency and over wide distances miles apart. hence some of the early mapping confusion
a Spanish explorer renaming the river because its mouth was miles/leagues from where a previous explorer
charted it. The British Lt. Hardy esp had trouble finding the Colorado's mouth.
this shifting is a natural phenomenon that occurs in most rivers with large tidal bores.
some of the steamships were able to go as far as Callville when the water was high.
http://www.quehoposse.org/steamboatplaque.html
things Americans did in the early days to keep the Colorado in what has become the main channel
in one of the travel journals describing a steamship trip up the colorado from the mouth.
the writer describes how when encountering a sandbar the boat reversed and used its paddles to dig
the channel deeper.
when the spring floods did bring down silt and snags that damned the river and started flooding the
palo verde vally california in the early 1900s. these natural dams were set with dynomite
and exploded by the local homesteaders (I once knew someone who had this as his first paid job)
the thing that really killed the river and made it stay as we know it today of course is the dams
starting with the building of the Yuma dam which cut travel up river and down off.
cyas laters guys