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“Jenny” and Jason
In 1875 Yuma, Arizona Territory, was a growing little town on the Colorado River. It was a “port” of sorts, receiving goods from many places throughout the country, and the world via the Gulf of California. The Gulf of California, also called El Mar de Cortez or the Sea of Cortez by the Mexicans, lies to the south, and west, of Yuma but is accessible from Yuma by boat. Large sailing ships and “steamers” would stand off the treacherous sandbar laden mouth of the Colorado River, and unload their wares onto smaller steam powered boats which could navigate the river without difficulty. Those boats, in other places and times called “painters,” probably deriving from the ropes on their bows, would take goods from the larger ships to Yuma and come back laden with copper, go
