Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives graduated from West Point in 1852 and the following year he was assigned to the storied Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, an elite group of West Point Grads whose mission was to survey the vast reaches of the American West. In 1857, with a possible war with the Mormons in Utah looming, the Army appropriated $75,000 to finance a survey to find out how much of the Colorado River was navigable in order to transport troops and equipment into Utah. A 54-foot
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