{"product_id":"disaster-at-the-colorado-1","title":"Disaster At The Colorado","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross north-central New Mexico and Arizona, along the line of Route  66, now Interstate 40, there first ran a little-known wagon trail called  Beale's Wagon Road, after Edward F. Beale, who surveyed it for the War  Department in 1857. This survey became famous for employing camels. Not  so well known is the fate of the first emigrants who the next year  attempted to follow its tracks. The government considered the 1857  exploration a success and the road it opened a promising alternative  route to California but expected such things as military posts and  developed water supplies to be needed before it was ready for regular  travel. Army representatives in New Mexico were more enthusiastic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1858 there was a need for an alternative. Emigrants avoided the  main California Trail because of a U.S. Army expedition to subdue  Mormons in Utah. The Southern Route ran through Apache territory, was  difficult for the army to guard, and was long. When a party of Missouri  and Iowa emigrants known as the Rose-Baley wagon train arrived in  Albuquerque, they were encouraged to be the first to try the new Beale  road. Their journey became a rolling disaster. Beale's trail was more  difficult to follow than expected; water sources and feed for livestock  harder to find. Indians along the way had been described as peaceful,  but the Hualapais persistently harassed the emigrants and shot their  stock, and when the wagon train finally reached the Colorado River, a  large party of Mojaves attacked them. Several of the emigrants were  killed, and the remainder began a difficult retreat to Albuquerque.  Their flight, with wounded companions and reduced supplies, became ever  more arduous. Along the way they met other emigrant parties and  convinced them to join the increasingly disorderly and distressed return  journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCharles Baley tells this dramatic story and discusses its aftermath,  for the emigrants, for Beale's Wagon Road, and for the Mojaves, against  whom some of the emigrants pressed legal claims with the federal  government.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Charles Baley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54218541695268,"sku":"9780874214383","price":37.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.co.uk\/products\/disaster-at-the-colorado-1","provider":"IndiePubs UK","version":"1.0","type":"link"}