Because of long, deep canyons, Lees Ferry was the best crossing point along 500 miles (800 km) of the Colorado River.
In 1873, Mormon Church members opened a wagon road from Kanab, Utah, and built a ferryboat here. John D. Lee was the first ferryman and namesake of the site.
Pioneers, sent to settle the Little Colorado River in northern Arizona, used the ferry service. Lees Ferry grew to include a post office and a trading post. Because of the conflict between the settlers and the Navajo Indians, a fort was built but never attacked. In 1911, Charles H. Spencer unsuccessfully attempted to mine gold from the clay hills behind the Lees Ferry Fort.
On large photo at the left bottom of marker:
1) For 55 years, a veriety of boats transported settlers, missionaries, miners, traders, Indians, and tourists across the river at Lees Ferry. Boats capsized and people drowned, but the service continued until 1928.
2) Walk the short trail to Lees Ferry Fort, past Spencer's mining machinery and buildings. Look down on the sunken steamboat and try to imagine crossing this river on a ferry.
On top right photo:
Built in 1912, this paddlewheel steamboat, the Charles H. Spencer, hauled coal to Lees Ferry from Warm Creek, 28 miles (45 km) upstream. The coal fueled Spencer's gold mining machinery. Abandoned in 1914, it sank in the shallow water nearby.
On bottom right photo:
This boiler powered the steam engines for gold mining at Lees Ferry. Charles H. Spencer's machinery could not extract the fine, powdery gold dust from the Chinle clay.
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