At Lees Ferry in northern Arizona, Lee's Ferry and Lonely Dell Ranch developed as a linked river crossing and farmstead in an isolated but workable patch of bottomland along Paria Canyon. John D. Lee established the homestead in 1871, began irrigation efforts, and started ferry service in 1873 at one of the few practical Colorado River crossings in the region. After his 1877 execution, the LDS Church transferred the ferry to Warren Marshall Johnson and his families. The site preserves remains of a polygamist settlement, repeated irrigation experiments, a brief coal-shipping venture tied to the steamboat Charles H. Spencer, and the crossing’s long role in regional travel until Navajo Bridge replaced the ferry in 1928.