Lee's Ferry: From Mormon Crossing to National Park [Paperback]

P. T. Reilly (Author), Robert H. Webb (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

The Colorado River and its deeply entrenched canyons create a lengthy barrier to travel in the interior West. From the mid-19th until the mid 20th century, one of the few places between California and Nevada where wheeled vehicles could cross it was at the mouth of the Pahreah River, between Glen Canyon and the river's steep drop toward Grand Canyon.

Lee's Ferry was a primary link between Utah and Arizona. Mormons looking for new lands for colonization first developed the site. John D. Lee and parts of his family seeking an inconspicuous spot after the Mountain Meadows massacre, first took up residence at what they called Lonely Dell. As river exploration and adventure increased, the place became as improtant to those using the river as to folks crossing it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

P.T. Reilly--expert riverman, backcountry explorer, river chronicler--published articles on the history of the Colorado River, but he died in 1996 before his big work, a detailed and dramatic history of Lee's Ferry was published. Robert H. Webb, author of _Grand Canyon: A Century of Change_, finished preparing this book for publication. One of the few places where wheeled vehicles could approach the Colorado River in its long miles through deep canyons and, thus, a critical transportation and communication link, north and south and up and down the river, Lee's Ferry became a historical funnel. A fascinating miscellany of western characters passed through or stayed. Reilly gives most of them a turn in the spotlight as part of his robust story of an out-of-the-way place that came to be on the way.

Product Details

• Paperback: 542 pages
• Publisher: Utah State University Press; 1st edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087421260X
• ISBN-13: 978-0874212600
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,877,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One star for every pound of solid FACT, September 29, 2005

By 

Mike Smith (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lee's Ferry: From Mormon Crossing to National Park (Paperback)

This book is a sea monster of a book. It's enormous. It will rise up and devour anything else ever written on Lee's Ferry. Be careful where you place it on your shelf.
It's a huge, heavy brick of a book. Buy enough copies and use it as a building material. Take one with you as firestarter for a ten-year expedition. Or, read it.
Pick it up, intending on only leafing through it, and then find yourself unable to put it down, find yourself trapped in an absorbing, fascinating, well-researched, well-written Bible of information.
This book is a must for anyone interested in Lee's Ferry, Arizona--a ferry crossing on the Colorado River where sooner or later every single cowboy, outlaw, Indian, and zealot in the Old West passed by.
If you're interested in a much thinner book that you can read in a night or two, try W.L. Rusho and C. Gregory Crampton's "Desert River Crossing," or Joanna Joseph's "Lee's Ferry & Lonely Dell Ranch Historic Districts: A Walking Tour Guide."
But if you want an avalanche of fact, if you want a town-destroying tidal wave of knowledge, if you want to be bludgeoned to death with valid, pertinent, astounding history, lore, and information, then pick up a copy (if you're strong enough) of "Lee's Ferry: From Mormon Crossing to National Park," by P.T. Reilly, expert riverman and writer.
Your chiropractor will thank me.