The weekly Arizona miner., 1878-01-18
COLORADO AND ARIZONA.
Proposed New Mail Route fron Denver to
 Prescott

General Charles Adams, special agent oi
 the postofice, has set on foot movement
 which, if if go through, will be greatly to
 the benefit of Colorado, General Adams has recently, as has been mentioned in this
 paper, returned from trip through Arizons
 and New Mexico, whither he went on official
 business His observations while in those
 Territories led him to the belief that pos
 tai route could be established direct from Col
 orado to Arizora which would be of mutual
 benefit 10 the State and Territory. As the
 case now stands, the people in Arizona have
 great difficulty ana delay in obtaining their
 mails. There are two or three routes which
 are now in use, the principal ones being
 that from Santa Fe across to Tucson, and
 that from San Francisco down the Southern
 Pacific Railroad, and across the desert to
 Prescott.
 Beth of these routes have many disadvan- tagcs, prominent among which is the great distance required to be traversed. Mail go- ing to Prescott and the vicinity from the East is taken over the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific to San Francisco, then down the Southern Pacific for over six hundred miles. Then it is required to transfer the mail and send it three hundred miles across the country to Prescott. The trip is 8 deso- late one, the country being entirely com posed of arid lands. There are no stations of any consequence whatever. The route from Santa Fe to Tucson passes through Sill yer City, and this is about the only station of any importance on the line. There is daily mail which comes through Denver from the East, is taken to Fl Moro on the cars, and then sent to Santa Fe by wagon. From Santa Fe it goes daily to Tucson. The distance thus traversed is nine hundred miles. Both these routes, it may easily be seen are circuitous in the extreme. Both are also more or less dangerous on account of Indians. Only two months ago, when Gen. Adams was in the country, three mail agents were murdered by the Apaches, and even the Generals life was at one time in peril.
 The route proposed by Mir. Adams could be utilized as substitute for both of those now in existence. But the principal advan- tage is in doing away with the line through California. The proposed route would have its eastern terminus at Garland, at the end of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad From there tte coach would proceed to Conejos, thence to Pagosa Springs, thence to Tierra Amailla, thence to Fort Wingate and thence down the Little Colorado to Prescott. The distance from Garland is only four hundred and fifty miles-the dis tance from Denver is not quite seven hun dred miles, two hundred miles less than the distance from San Francisco to Prescott The trip could be made in four days, where as six days are now consumed in going from San Francisco alone. The distance from Prescott to Tucson is two hundred miles. There would be but little difficulty in ex- tending the line to that point. Gen. Adams project seems most feasible one, and the course he recommends altogether advisable There are thriving settlements all along the proposed line, and the Indians in this sec ton are peaceably inclined towards the whites.
 The only probable obstacle is that which California is likely to throw in the way. The Californans know very well the wealth that lies in the bowels of the Arizona earth, and will bend every effort to keep it turn ed in that direction. The new route that General Adams proposes would bring the bulk of it through and to Colorado. It would be necessary to put or four horse coach, and this would bring the greater portion of the travel from and to Arizona through Colorado. Our Congressmen should look into the matter.- Denver paper.