John Colton Sumner

"Captain Jack"

Photo is of a 2014 painting of Jack Sumner held in the private collection of his second great grandson. Painting was made from a photograph of Jack Sumner provided to the Utah Historical Society in 1948 by his son Charles G. Sumner. Photograph is of Jack around the age of 18, a few years prior to his enlistment in 32nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

The "Captain Jack" Project

WHO WAS "CAPTAIN JACK"?

The Captain Jack Project is named for John Colton Sumner, the great grandson of Governor Robert E. Lucas. Jack – or Captain Jack – as he was known throughout the American West in late 19th Century and early 20th Century, was born in Newtown, Fountain, Indiana on the then frontier of the United States in 1840. By the time he was five, his family had settled in Iowa – now the new American frontier. Jack grew up along the Cedar and Mississippi Rivers in Muscatine County, Iowa. At the age of 22, Jack answered the call of duty from his country and enlisted in E Company, 32nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment serving with the unit until the war’s end in 1865. The next spring, 1866, Jack moved with the help of his sister Elizabeth (Sumner) Byers to Denver, Colorado where his sister and brothers were living. A few months later he served as a guide for Bayard Taylor’s adventure through Colorado that became Taylor's 1867 book, "Colorado: A Summer Trip." The next year, Jack would meet and serve as a guide for a then little known professor from Illinois named John Wesley Powell.

Apparently the trip in 1867 was a success, because Powell returned the next summer with a larger group for a more detailed exploration of the park area of Colorado. In August, the Professor and his brother Walter along with Jack and his brother-in-law William N. Byers, and three others completed the first recorded ascent of Long’s Peak, now in Rocky Mountain National Park. During the summer of 1868, Jack signed on to the expedition of the Rivers and convinced three of his compatriots (Howland, Dunn, and Hawkins) to go along as well. On May 24th, 1869 Jack was the lead boatmen as the 10 men and four boats of the first Powell expedition pushed off from Green River, Wyoming and headed into the unknown. When the Powell’s left at the Virgin River, Jack and the rest of the party continued following the River to Fort Yuma where Bradley and Hawkins left the river. Jack and Andy Hall however, continued the journey and reached the mouth of the Rio Colorado as it flowed into the Bay of California. They then sailed back up the river to Fort Yuma and parted ways.

Jack would return to Iowa in 1870 and in 1873 me married Alcinda Jane Norris. They would return to the Colorado frontier and remain on the frontier until the American frontier no longer excited. Most of Jack’s life after the running the Canyon was spent on the rivers and in the hills looking for gold and other minerals. In 1890, Jack and his partner found gold in Utah’s Henry Mountains. The location is still producing gold as part of the Boride Mine. Jack would also help build Mesa County's Big Ditch and work on the construction of the Hanging Flume in Montrose County, Colorado. Jack died at Ft. Deschenes, Utah on July 5th, 1907. Jack is buried next to his mother, father, younger brother, and his youngest sister in the Sumner family plot at Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.