Alfred Henry Wilcox

Alfred Henry Wilcox (1823-1883), sea captain, later Colorado River pioneer and steamboat and steamship entrepreneur, partner in the George A. Johnson & Company and of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company, banker and director of the California & Mexican Steam Ship Line.

Wilcox was born in Chatham, now East Hampton, Connecticut in 1823. Becoming a sea captain in connection with the hydrographic service of the government.

In 1848, when he first came to California around Cape Horn, his ship brought California's first lighthouse. In 1849, taking command of the 120-ton topsail schooner Invincible, Wilcox carried U. S. Army engineers to San Diego with the aim to divert the San Diego River from its outlet in San Diego Bay into False Bay, (now Mission Bay). Upon his return to San Francisco he was ordered to carry relief supplies for starving 49ers on the wagon trails to California, up river to Sacramento.

On November 1, 1850, the Invincible was sent from San Francisco on a mission to deliver 10,000 rations to the garrison of the remote post of Fort Yuma on the Colorado River. Captain Wilcox was in command of the 12–man crew, and Lt. George H. Derby was in command of the mission to see if the rations could be delivered by the schooner up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California. Up to this time Fort Yuma had been supplied over land from San Diego, across the coastal mountains and the Colorado Desert. This route was proving difficult and expensive, leading to a ration shortage at the fort.

The schooner arrived in San Diego to pick up the rations, then proceeded to the mouth of the Colorado River, stopping only at Cabo San Lucas and Guaymas. The Invincible arrived at the river mouth on December 25. Captain Wilcox then ascended the river but with difficulty. Invincible drawing 8 feet of water was grounded at every ebb tide which was extreme in the Colorado River Delta. On January 3, 1850, some 30 miles up river Captain Wilcox was forced to drop anchor, his way blocked by shoals too shallow to pass. Local Cocopah people there that day agreed to carry a message to Fort Yuma of the arrival of the ship.

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