Posted By:	Monty Ives
	Email:
	Subject:	Re: Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives
	Post Date:	October 31, 1998 at 10:05:20
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ives/messages/205.html
	Forum:	Ives Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ives/

In the winter of 1857-58, an Army lieutenant named Joseph Christmas Ives brought a 54-foot iron-hulled stern-wheeler up the river, steaming north from the Sea of Cortes to the foot of Black Canyon, not far from where Las Vegas presently sprawls. Upon his return, Ives filed a report saying that the lower Colorado River was suitable for year-round navigation and "would be found an economical avenue for the transportation of supplies to various military posts in New Mexico and Utah." The surrounding country, in contrast, struck him as worthless: "The region explored after leaving the navigable portion of the Colorado ... is not of much value. Most of it is uninhabitable, and a great deal of it is impassable ... Ours was the first and will doubtless be the last party of whites to visit this profitless locality," Ives wrote.