Navajo

[deltabighat]

This months issue of Bay and Delta Yachtsman has a picture and a little blurb about the old paddlewheeler Navajo that was used to help plug a levee break years ago. It sat on dry land until about 1970 or so when somebody set it on fire and the whole thing burned down. Does anyone know exactly where up on Mandeville that thing was and is there anything left of it.

DBH

 

[Flutterby]

I don't know exactly where it was located, but if you find out where the levee break was located, that would give you a good idea of where it was when it burned down. I remember Hal mentioning that the Mandeville landowners cleaned up the remains because it was a liability.

 

[yzer]

According to Schell's Cruising the California Delta four old steamboats were used to block the 1938 breach on Mandeville Island. Those were J.D. Peters, Navaho, Onisbo and Reform. As the breach was filled the boats were moved to various locations on Mandeville where they later served as bunkhouses (for farm labor). All four boats eventually burned down. The Navaho was the last to go, it burned to the ground in 1973. The area has been plowed for crops ever since.

I'll see if I can find the location of the 1938 breach. From a photo that appears in Carol A. Jenson's Images of America: The California Delta the last resting place of the Navaho is not far from a levee. There are a couple of places on Mandeville Island that could have looked like this 30 or more years ago.