Arizona weekly citizen., 1882-09-17
THE SANTA oATALINAs AS A SUMMER RE


 General E. W. Rice, E. W. Guild and MT. Clark, two years ago, made a thor ough exploration of the Santa Catalina mountains which lie immediately north east of this city. Mir. Guild at that time was connected with the Signal Ser vice Bureau, and was detailed by the Department at Washington to take the attitudes of the different peaks of the range.
 The highest peak is a little over ten thousand feet above sea level. They ascended the mountains from the north ern slope, by what was then known as the Welden trail. They travelled down the Rillito stream from where it starts, a cool and splendid spring in the granite rocks over eight thousand feet above the sea, and explored its descent some three or four miles to an altitude of a little less than five thousand feet. NIT. Clark, who is an excellent civil engineer, made a fine and correct map of the different branches of the RIllito.
 They describe the scenery as grand and sublime. An extent sf country about three miles by twelve, Is covered with dense growth of splendid timber consisting of the different kinds of pine, quaking asp, box-alder, ash, oak, wild cherry and, lower down, the noun tain sides are covered with oak, juniper, scrub pine and pinon.
 The mountains abound in game, cinna- mon bear, panther, deer, wild turkey, wild pigeons and gray squirrels, and al- so with fruits and berries, such as cher ries. strawberries and raspberries.
 The water is pure and very cold Gen. Rice and party found ice and snow in a canyon on the northern slope where protected from the suns rays, on the l7th of July. The ferns grow in some canyons as high as mans head and are of all species.
 Here is an opening for some enter prising man to open a most attractive Summer resort. It can be reached by trail from the southern side in about eighteen miles from Tucson, at an ex- pense of perhaps S1,OOO in building the trail
 There are small patches of a few acres of level ground in places, where all kinds of vegetables and fruits will grow without irrigation. Comfortable log cabins can be built for guests at small expense, and parties instead of visiting California and the coast to spend the heated term, would find here greater comfort, health and ease. Par ties spending the Summer there could receive their mail at noon daily, as it is only ten miles from Fort Lowell
 The time will come, and that very shortly, when the Santa Catalinas will be the great Summer resort for all southern Arizona.
 The scenery is grand and wild beyond conception, with its towering granite peaks, bald and destitute of vegetation. Lower down are immense groves of pine timber that are grand in their quietude, clear, bubbling springs and strea ms of pure water lesping over falls of ten to forty feet in height, and on a clear day the mountains near the boundary line Of Mexico can be plainly seen in the south.
 For the geologist and botanist they present an extensive field with their fauna and flora, So entirely different from the arid plains below.
 We can safely say that here in one of the highest mountain ranges of the Ter ritory, lying, as you may say, at our very doors, abounding in rich mineral depo- sits of copper and gold, with millions of feet of splendid timber, and yet there are not twenty men in the Territory who have ever veutured to explore or visit them. In former years this Is ac- counted for because of the danger from the Apaches, but of late it is because We do not seem to care for anything that Is so conveniently near our homes.