Arizona citizen., 1875-04-17
LETTER FROM COL. HODGE.
His Impressions After a Very De tailed Examination of Much of the Territory.
TUCSON, April F, 1875.

..4 ~ TUCSON, Aprli T., 1875.
 EDITORS CITIZEN: During the past week, I made trip of observation 10 the "Cafla- da del Oro,'' in company with Capt. Mer- edith of Tucson, and Messrs. Mccoy and Miller of San Bernardino, California, the last two named gentlemen being in the search of favorable location for a stock ranch. found on this trip much to in- terest me, the same as I have found else- where in my wanderings in southern Ari- zona. For more than two months, have made Tucson my base of observation, during which time I have visited and examined almost every portion of the country around from fifty to over 100 miles. To say that I am pleased and most happily disappointed in examining the capacities and probabilities of southern Arizona would convey but a faint idea of all would say in its praise, had I ample time to write up and fully express all that l feel. With sufficient agricultural land to support large population, with extensive and uneXcelled grazing lands equal if not superior to any other section of the Unit ed States, and with mountains and hills literally filled with veins of the precious metals aud baser ores, there is hardly limit to the future wealth and prosperity of the Territory. To accomplish success, however, there is much to be done. It is fact that most of your citizens are poor, made so to great extent by the long and bloody war With the Apaches, who have decimated inhabitants during long and bloody years of carnage and murder; des- troyed by wholesale the horses, mules, cattle and growing crops ot those who were endeavoring to build up homes and accumulate competency by honest labor and toll. There are but few of all your people, therefore, with means to develope the great natural resources of your Terri tory. feel assured however that a bright CT day is soon to be dawn here, that cap italists will soon learn that instead of Arizona being a desert, sandy waste, destitute of vegetation as heretore false ly represented, she has all the elements of agricultural and grazing wealth. That instead of her mineral deposits being mere surface indications and almost worthless to capitalists, Arizona is in fact,
 
 producing States and Territories, the brightest gem of them all. l have work ed honestly and faithfully in studying and pretending the great capacities of the Territory, and have given my opin- ions in full on the subject from personal examination to the press of the East, and California, and hope and believe that my labors will bear good fruit in due sea son. With capital 10 assist, with railroad communication both east and west, which will ere long be extended to you, the Ter rtory would soon be on Che high road to prosperity. For the early accom- plish- ment of this, every energy of your citizens should be directed, and every honorable means employed. But there is much, very much that can be done, more than is now done by MOST OF YOUR OWN PEOPLE to develope your resources. I ask the ques- ton in all kindness, how many of your farmers, miners, prospectors and men about town, perform even one week of earnest, honest labor continuously? How many make it their business to work and develope their farms or mines themselves? How many loiter about town One-half or more Of their time, when by hard and continued work SUCH AS MUST BE DONE 10 make the country prosperous, ranches could be improved and scores and hun dreds of valuable mines be opened which would then command large prices? I leave the questions to be answered by each in his own mind. My object is not to cast reflections on any one but to awaken every man, old and young, to the i'm portance and necessity of work to devel- ope the country. I have visited scores, if not hundreds of mining claims with fortunes almost in sight, but of them all, not half dozen are as yet developed suf- ficiently to induce capitalists to invest. l now belong to Arizona. and like all good want to see her prosper, ard this is the reason why urge upon her citizens the duty 10 work and labor. May the seed fall on good ground and soon bring forth fruit. r...
 my trip to the "Ca1ada del Oro." From the point of the Santa Catarina mountain, twelve miles northeast of Tucson for distance of twenty-five miles along the base of the mountain to the northeast and for miles out upon the rolling mesa land and beautiful valleys, there is a great abundance of the black, white and curly gramma, and bunch grasses suffi- cient to feed and fatten hundreds of thou- i sands of horses, cattle, sheep and goats, and excellent water in three living 1 streams, and a number of fine springs. | One fact of great importance, noted, | that in all that section of country, l saw |