Where was the river?

by Bob Arthur

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We went looking for the Burnam's Ferry crossing, but did we actually find it? In 1824 when the area was surveyed, the field notes stated that the northernmost point was located on the Colorado River. From that point, 2210 varas to the southwest was a post located in the prairie. That post point still exists per current day appraisal district maps. A vara (barr, per the surveyor) at the time was about 33" in length. At that point, it appears that the river has moved east roughly 700 feet. An employee at the Fayette County appraisal District told of a situation of one piece of property that was originally 100 acres but which is now only 28 acres because of the changes over the years.

All of this is to say that we may have located where the crossing would be on today's river. We had a GPS machine. We had a real life aerospace engineer and a real life Ph.D. researcher operating the machine. We did determine that the trip was 10 miles long with put in and take out on private property. But not another point was recorded, or they were recorded but not saved, or they were recorded and saved but not able to be retrieved. Or something.

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At any rate, we think we know where the crossing might be on today's river. Per one of the histories, the road from the crossing ran East to the current location of Fayetteville and then went on to the community of San Felipe. Per Gideon Lincecum in "Adventures of a Frontier Naturalist", he could see the Jesse Burnam house off in the distance "on the edge of the river bottom".

Doesn't it make sense that Burnam's house would have been near any road leading to the crossing from the west side of the river? But where was Burnam's house, where was the crossing and where was the river? Future research and trips will be to try to determine where his house was in 1835, where the road from the west side was and where the river actually was at the time. Local rumor says that a cannon was lost in the river at the crossing. Is it still there?

The water level was good which made for a fairly quick trip, with stops to locate various landmarks and dutifully record them on the GPS unit. We had some excitement at the put-in when one of the members of the party decided, against advice, to drive down to the edge of the river. With some difficulty (and much help), he was able to extricate his vehicle.

The primitive campsite was extremely nice. There was absolutely no "foreign" noise and no light wash at all and the night temperatures were cool enough to be inside of a good sleeping bag

One of the members of the party reported that a coyote came right up into the site very early in the morning. We don’t' think that that report was induced by over indulgence of any kind, but we really don't know.

To top the trip off, the trip coordinator's son, daughter in law and baby grandson invaded the campsite late in the afternoon, bringing firewood and a cold watermelon.

We'll do it again after some further research into local landmarks…….and we'll try to get those GPS points.

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