Welcome to Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains I'm Larry Hedrick where we bring
the past into the present for our future viewers today we have another great story by Hank Sheffer
well folks who would have ever thought that Arizona has a nautical history we have deserts we
have saguaro cactus we have rabbits we have it we have rattlesnakes and we have a nautical history
Everybody on this planet at one time or another has heard that Arizona has more boats
per capita than any state in the union well now I've always had a problem wrapping my head around
that but apparently it's true to a point it just depends on how you look at what a boat is but I
do have to say that Arizona does have it does have lakes it has canals it has rivers actually
truth be known Arizona has created most of its own lakes we've done it ourselves and just for
starters on the salt and the Verde rivers alone we have the Theodore Roosevelt dam
we have the horse mesa dam we have Mormon flat dam with canyon lake we have Stuart mountain
dam we have the Horseshoe dam and we have the Bartlett dam and we have the granite reef dam
all of which have wonderful lakes all of which have a wonderful following of people with boats
all in all Arizona has over 200 lakes and reservoirs that you can enjoy most of the year
and all you have to do is have a boat of course that depends on what you refer to
as a boat now in Arizona all watercraft must be registered
but in Arizona that means it includes jet skis, canoes, paddle boats,
kayaks, sailboats, catamarans, pontoon boats, row boats and even that homemade bath boat
that you and your brother-in-law made in the backyard that all counts everything's registered
so it can it can really look like there are an awful lot of boats for capital
California as it stands right now is the leader in boat ownership if anybody should ask
So take it for what it's worth the bottom line is no matter how you look at it is we have a bunch
of water vessels in Arizona that's a true story people just love spending time on the water we do
not though i reiterate we do not actually have any ocean front property thank you very much George
Strait we do have the next best thing however and it all started with the SS Geronimo local
businessman George Moody recognized the business potential as the beautiful lakes rapidly filled up
and the first one of course that we're talking about here is canyon lake originally it was
Mormon flat lake but it became canyon lake to that end with the help of Ben and Jess Cramer,
Mr Moody built a launch and it would transport about 50 passengers and crew
uh and they could cruise up and down the lake and people got to see the wildlife
and they could just be out on the water it was 35 feet long 10 feet wide wasn't all that big a
vessel but people loved it the SS Geronimo was launched on October 3 of 1925 a long time ago
now just a little tidbit of information when the boat was launched they had to build a little race
rail system to get the boat to the water from the road and part of that launch site is still
up there that you can see i don't know how much of it's left i haven't been there for years but
it used to be right up there before you got to the first water
bridge the lake's name was changed from Mormon flat lake to Canyon lake and Mr moody was
responsible for doing that too changing the name for whatever reason he did that
it took no time at all before this boat became one of the destination points in the valley of the sun
canyon lake soon sported speed boat racing in the 1920s and 30s and hydro planed go fast by the
1960s however after seeing all that what happened was the fishing boats and tugboats and tour boats
took over all the popular waterways so that the speed boats no longer existed out there or weren't
supposed to we'll put it that way of the more colorful stories dealing with boats out there
uh that was operating on the clear blue waters was a tugboat by the name of Mary Lee
it started out like this in 1970 the Salt River Project the hydro expansion job 6329
if you all want to go look that up found itself in need of a powerful craft
to move a barge up and down the waterway while they were working on the horse mesa dam
Mr G C Wheeler was the president of the contractor's cargo company
of South Gate California found the tug boat Mary Lee and that's what
he was going to use to tug this this barge up and down the water she was 34 feet from stem to stern
and 13 feet across the beam she's 14 feet tall and she carried 800 gallons of fuel to fuel the two
671 GMC diesels 671 horsepower per and uh it had the two mount the two motors and each one of them
rotated in a different direction underneath of the ship now for those of you who don't know
and I didn't propellers in a twin-engine boat are set to turn in opposite directions
and the reason they do that is because if they turn in the same direction let's say they're
they're all turning clockwise to the starboard that's over here the right
what will happen is the rear end of the boat the stern of the boat wants to pull to the
right which means the front of the boat will pull to the port which is left that's over here
so you'd be constantly over steering in the wrong direction trying to make the boat go
someplace that you wanted to go but the motors didn't want you to go there
so they make the entrance go in opposite directions and now that and a buck and
a quarter will get you a cup of coffee pretty much anywhere then you know that
well they found that this this tug boat could be delivered in good working order for
19,500 I don't know what that equals in today's money well yeah I do it's about 140 grand
but if you were working in 1970 you already know that you know what the dollar was worth she served
for only two years working on the dam and then she was mothballed and sold for scrap in 1982.
The tugboat Mary Lee was a pretty dramatic sight to see when she was working but even so
she was not the largest boat to work on Canyon Lake she was the largest working vessel
but she was she wasn't the largest vessel to ever work out there now the Geronimo the one that was
constructed in 1925 carried 50 passengers she was 35 feet long with a 10-foot beam she was about the
same size as the Mary Lee but she was the one that lit the fuse for the future tourism on the lakes
these boat excursions became so popular that a special bus tour service became available
to take people up to the lake to go down to the dock and get on the boat now these buses
were big fords and they would carry however many people I don't know how many people they took now
after that all took place people were flocking to get up there but the boat just wasn't big enough
now the next ship that was to take over because she was much bigger was the Dolly Steamboat
and she derived her name from the original owners dolly and Paul Kennedy she was much bigger
the tour started in 1983 and people just loved being up there on the ship
in October of 1987 however roger and Margie Grimm purchased the Dolly Jeff and Cindy de la Suer
came on board shortly thereafter now Cindy's still up there she's in charge of all the office
uh and whatnot things that go on there with tickets and uh she also handles all
of the uh publicity for the steamboat and Jeff is at the helm as the Dolly's
main Captain and he's out there piloting the boat up and down the canyon waterway and
he tells stories about the superstition mountains and the legends and the lore
the Dolly steamboat was significantly larger and she could carry 150 passengers on her decks
the boat is over 103 feet long with a 20-foot beam she started out with a four-cylinder
Chevrolet engine which was replaced by two 225 horsepower John Deere diesel engines
actually this makes a big difference as far as what goes on on the water because it's easier to
to maneuver the boat around on the water in and out of some of the alcoves that they go to
and besides just being on the water and hearing the gentle slapping of the water against the hull
well you see the sheer cliffs that are up on both sides of the ship as you go down between them
more often than not and you can see the big Horned sheep occasionally and the eagles other birds of
prey out there and waterfowl and this is generally accompanied by the sound of the Captain telling
you the legends and lore of the superstitions in this particular case folks there is no mystery
enjoying the Arizona's beautiful lakes and waterways is the true treasure of the superstition
thank you for watching this episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains