Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-07-13
SALT MOUNTAINS.
Strange Story of Captain Mellon ot
 Yuma.

Strange Story of Captain Mellon of
 Yuma.
 Captain J. A. Mellon, one of the oldest white settlers of Fort Yuma, A. T., who lived in Yuma two years without seeing a white woman, and who commanded the first steamer, the Gila, that ever went up the Colo rado river to the mouth of the Virgin, is at the Lick, having arrived last night.
 Few pioneers in any land have had the strange experiences of Captain Mellon. "I have not" said he "since I was ten years old, been in an Ameri- can city of 5000 people on the Fourth of July. It is over twenty-five years now since 1 went to Fort Yuma, and the changes I see m San Francisco surprise me. expect to see crowd here on the 4th that will look pretty big to me.
 Have I been running on the Colo rado river all this time? Yes, and let me say that there are stretches of hundreds of miles On that river that are less known than the heart of Central Africa.
 "We go up there to get salt. There are great mountains of salt up on the Virgin which is tributary of the Colorado, each of which is larger and higher than Goat Island. The salt Is pure and white It is clearer than glass. You may take a piece of it seven or eight inches thick and read common newspaper through 1t.
 "The salt mountains cover stretch of about twenty-five miles on both side of the Virgin, seven miles up from the Colorado. A single blast of giant powder will blow out tons upon tons of 1t.
 "This salt does not dazzle your eyes, as you might expect, while rid ing along on the river steamer or clambering over them. It has layer of sandstone from two to eight feet thick over 1t. When this is torn away the salt lies in full sight, like a great snow drift. How deep it is, nobody knows. This salt is destined to be the source of great wealth. Hamilton Disston, the big saw manufacturer, ,and Baldwin of the Baldwin Locomotive Works are the only men who have secured any of these salt mountains. When the Utah Southern Railroad is | pushed on from Frisco, Utah, 1t will | tap the gigantic salt mountains, and then an enormous revenue will be re- alized for them.
 II brought down from the mines for the Academy of Sciences here some queer things from the salt mines.
 "Under the cap rock was found charred wood and charcoal, besides some mating made of cedar bark; the salt had preserved 1t. It might have lain there thousands of years. Evident ly there had been slide that covered up the camp equipage of some prehis- torie men. Strange to say, similar discovery has been made in the salt mines of Louisiana.
 "The rocks up toward the salt mountains are painted and cut into hieroglyphics which none of the Mo have, Yuma, Piute or other Indians know the meaning of.
 "There are valleys along the great but as yet unknown, Colorado, singly as much as 120 miles long and twenty wide, that will be the real orange country of the globe. They are a' rich as the valley of the Nile. Irri gation will redeem them. Water vii be brought on them as sure as des tiny.
 "Eldorado canyon is greater thar the Grand canyon of the Colorado The tops of the windows in the steam CT Gila do not project out more thar six inches, yet I may put my heaC out and look as high as I can and can see half way up the mighty wall' of the canyon. The river is $50 fee wide there, too.
 "The only way you can see to tht top is to get right out on deck ant look straight up.
 , "The walls are so high that there i perpetual shade there. Neither th' sun nor the moon can shine ill. l takes ten hours going up to go througl : the canyon, and two hours coming down.
 By the Colorado river and tn Virgin you can run clear up int : Nevada and Utah. Many people hav' 7 laughed at me for saying I was goinl : up into mountainous Nevada by boat
 but that's just what I have been doin!
 right along. Strange as it may seem
 and little known as it is the Colorad has more navigable water withou portage than any other river on tn Pacific Coast. It has 700 miles, whil the Columbia has but $50. '"The Colorado is the only req field for explorers on the Mort I American continent outside of tn e frigid north. The wonders that woul e be unearthed there will yet attrac : attention of the greatest scientists s the world."-Examiner For Nail Wounds in HoOfs.