Marble Hill press., 1921-10-06

An Iuterrstin. feature Of the discussion ~ the
joint resolution was the bringing out oi the hts
tory Of the Colorado river and the early American
Southwest In concise and accurate form. This
was set forth In report furnished by George
OTIS smith director Of the geological survey on
the history of the naming ~ the Colorado Grand
and Green rivers and of the state of Colorado
This report explains how the Colombo came TO
bear no less than nine names between l5io aud
lTTG II also sets forth how the Green tiy"r came
TO be known as the "Ghost river" TO geographers
Among the facts brought ont are these;
II was the Coronado expedition of ljio+2. sent
ont by yIceroy Mendoza. that FIRST explored the
pueblo country of New Mexico and Arizona and
tie Great Plains as far northeast as central Kan
sas and discovered the Colorado river and the
Grand canyon. Alarcon discovered the Colorado
az It's mouth and gave It the name Of Rio de
Buena Guia (good culde) because that was Men
dozas device" Dlar. travelling along the river
saw the Indians carrying burning brands with
which to warm themselves he named II Rio
del Tizon (nrehrandl Carienas discovered the
Colorado at the Grand canyon, but for some rea.
son refraned from naming ". probably because
soon aftcrward Il Identified with the Rio del
Tizon. So the Coronado expedition gave the Culo
RADIO It's two frs; names.
The Coronado expedition was disappointing and
IL was not until 1881 that expedition under
Rodriguez revisited the region. This revived In.
terest In the conqucrng and settling IT New
Mexico
The contract for the conquest and settlement
WAS finally awarded in 1895 10 Juan De Onate
who was made governor. adelanado and captain
general Of the province OF New Mexico In 1898
Onate resshad the Santa Fe region with an army
and n colony iof 400 men, Of whom 100 had their
families Onate ruled New Mexico until 1905.
Nv 1905 he and his subordinatcs had rcexplored
nrHctically all the ground covered by Coronado
and opened new trails In 1904 he made a jour.
ney from san Gabriel, his headquarters near Santa
Fe 10 the head ~ the Gulf OF California. He
went by way OF Zunl. Moqui and Williams river
10 the Colorado and down the east bank Of that
river to the gulf Crossing the Colorado ChiQuitu.
or little Colorado 10 leagues soa;hwes; of AoIui.
he named Il Rio Colorado because the
water IL nearly red" lie IL noted that the name
Colorado" is here given for the first time not go
the Colorado river but to one of Its branches. the
Little Colorado. To the Colorado itself. 0nate
gave the name Rio Grande de Buena Esperanto"
(good hope).
At some indefinite time during the next hundred
years the name Colorado transferred from
the Eltte Colorado 10 the main river, AMI before
the end Of the century had been pretty well estab-
lished Father Kino the great Piman apostle
l6S3-l7Il. uses the name freely, as he does the
alternative name Rio del Norte: and he even be-.
slows upon II a new name, Rio de los Apostoes.
revolt Of the Pueblo Indians In 1880 resulted
In the entire evacuation OF New Mexico by the
Spaniards until Its reconquest by Vergas In 1892
o. when most OF the missions were reestsblIshed
also San Diego the first OF the California mis-
siops was established In 11GD: and In the next
80 years II others had been established. dotting
the coast from San Diego TO San Francisco bay.
Father SIlvestre Yeiaz de Escaiante then sta
toned nj the Zuni mission spent eight days at
Moaui In june 1T75. trying to discover whether
there was an Indian trail across the Grand canyon
He failed to extract any information from the
80 Ind1afs and Concluded that the canyon was Inn
passable In a letter on the subject written to
Father Cares August 49, 17T5. he called the river
or the canyon Rio Grande de los Cosninos The
Cosnlna (HayasupaI) Indians were settled on
Cataract creek. The next year. iT76, Garces him
self travelled from Mobave TO Mooui, and went