During the Utah War of 1857 to 1858, Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives (1828-1868) commanded an expedition to explore the Colorado River.  He took the steamboat EXPLORER up the Colorado in a race of sorts with a competing expedition led by Captain George A. Johnson. [an early steamboat pioneer and entrepreneur on the lower Colorado]. The appropriation under which Ives was working had originally been made for Johnson but was stitched to Ives by the War Department.  

Captain Johnson was determined to rob Ives of the glory of being the first to take a steamboat to the head of navigation and he did it with the much larger steamboat  THE GENERAL JESUP. Ives’ expedition was burdened by an overly large crew sent by the Army.  He was plagued by low waters that created numerous hazards and barely passed through Black Canyon (where Boulder Dam now stands) to Vegas Wash.  From there, Ives went overland, working his way around the south side of the Grand Canyon and down Diamond Creek to the river, becoming the first known American to reach the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Ives wrote his Report upon the Colorado River of the West, which included various engravings and maps.  His “word paintings,” as artist Frederick Dellenbaugh called them, save the report from being just another government document.  “No description can convey an idea of the varied and majestic grandeur of this peerless waterway.  Wherever the river makes a turn, the entire panorama changes, and one startling novelty after another appears and disappears with bewildering rapidity.”