Welcome to the Beehive Archive — your weekly bite-sized look at some of the most pivotal — and peculiar — events in Utah history. With all of the history and none of the dust, the Beehive Archive is a fun way to catch up on Utah’s past. Beehive Archive is a production of Utah Humanities, provided to local papers as a weekly feature article focusing on Utah history topics drawn from our award-winning radio series, which can be heard each week on Utah Public Radio.

There are only three roads in Utah that bridge the Colorado River, and only a handful of crossings. The ghost town of Dewey is one of those places and early settlers of the region made good use of this crossing.

Getting across the Colorado River is hard! Just downstream from where the Dolores River enters the Colorado is one of the rare spots suitable for crossing. Thanks to the formidable, steep cliffs of canyon country, this spot — now known as Dewey — is one of the few places in southern Utah where a bridge spans the river.

In the 1880s, Samuel King first set up a ferry crossing at Dewey. The ferry was a crucial transportation link, allowing cargo, passengers, and livestock to move to and from the remote communities across eastern Grand County. A settlement sprang up around the ferry, providing services for travelers. Farmers, prospectors, and families made the small riverside settlement into a home.

Grand County commissioned a new ferry in 1903, and paid Richard Westwood to operate the boat for many years. Westwood served as the County’s first elected Sheriff, his children attended school in Dewey, and his wife Martha ran a boarding house and served hot meals to travelers crossing on the ferry. While it was a small, remote community, Dewey’s residents were busy.

“I got 25 cents a meal for the steady boarders and 35 cents for the transients,” remembered Martha Westwood. “The mail from Cisco to Castleton and other outlying districts came with the stage, arriving there at eleven o’clock. I had to have dinner for the stage driver and all those who came in with the stage by 11:30 so that while they ate, I [handled] all the mail that came through.” Maintenance on the ferry was expensive and sometimes left the boat out of commission. The vessel became obsolete overnight with the 1916 construction of the Dewey Bridge. Residents moved away, and many resettled in nearby communities.

The bones of the original Dewey Bridge still stand. It was restored in the early 2000s, only to tragically go up in flames in an accidental 2008 fire. Traces of the town remain, including old foundations and an icehouse carved into the sandstone cliffs.

Today, the Bureau of Land Management maintains a campground and boat ramp at Dewey, and a newer bridge allows cars to cross the river.

Beehive Archive is a production of Utah Humanities and its partners. This episode of the Beehive Archive was contributed by the Moab Museum. Sources consulted in the creation of the Beehive Archive and past episodes may be found at www.utahhumanities.org/stories. 

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