Lower Colorado River Valley Lower Colorado River Valley The Lower Colorado River Valley ("LCRV") is the river region of the lower Colorado River of the southwestern United States in North America that rises in the Rocky Mountains and has its outlet at the Colorado River Delta in the northern Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, between the states of Baja California and Sonora. This north–south stretch of the Colorado River forms the border between the U.S. states of California/Arizona and Nevada/Arizona, and between the Mexican states of Baja California/Sonora. It is commonly defined as the region from below Hoover Dam and Lake Mead to
Steamboats of the Colorado River Colorado route, and was the model for all the steamboats on the river thereafter. From 1859, prospectors dispersed up the Colorado River valley in the next few years, finding gold deposits along the river as far as the Black Canyon. In 1860, gold was found across the Colorado River from Potholes in Arizona, in placers at La Laguna. The strikes that followed in the next four years would make George A. Johnson and his two partners wealthy. By March 1861, the secession crisis had led to the closing of the Butterfield Overland Mail. February 19, 1861, the Bascom Affair led